"Lee's Lies" Re-Examined by Judyth Vary Baker

THIS HAPPY MARINE HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS SULLEN, MOROSE, A LIAR, AND, OF COURSE, AS JOHN F. KENNEDY'S KILLER-WITHOUT-A-REASON. DON'T BELIEVE IT.

LEE'S LIES" RE-EXAMINED

AN ARTICLE, POSTED ON AN ATTACK WEBSITE AGAINST LEE OSWALD, TELLS THE UNINFORMED PERSON THAT LEE OSWALD WAS A CONSUMMATE LIAR. BUT WAS HE LYING BECAUSE HE WAS A BAD GUY, OR DID HE LIE BECAUSE HE WAS A DOUBLE AGENT, WORKING FOR THE CIA? THE ARTICLE, “LEE’S LIES” WAS WRITTEN BY A SOPHISTICATED PROFESSIONALWHO HAS BEEN A LOBBYIST. THIS WRITER KNEW A GREAT DEAL ABOUT LEE H. OSWALD, YET FAILED TO MENTION ANYWHERE IN HIS ARTICLE THAT LEE’S LIES MIGHT HAVE BEEN FOR A HIGHER CAUSE AS A DOUBLE AGENT. EXPLORE THIS ARTICLE WITH ME, AND DECIDE FOR YOURSELF IF THE ARTICLE WAS ‘FAIR.’ JVB
Reinvestigating the article
Lee's Lies
By Brian Dautch TWITTER NAME: DCProgressive
WITH CORRECTIONS AND COMMENTS BY JUDYTH VARY BAKER
• First, who is Brian Dautch? On the Internet, we learn that he has been based in Washington, D.C. He was a former member of the Council for Marketing and Opinion Research, Director of Government Affairs. He was reachable at bdautch@cmor.org. One Source says:
“Brian D. Dautch is CMOR's Director of Government Affairs. After arriving in Washington in 2001, Brian worked on the U.S. v. Microsoft settlement, then moved into the realm of advocacy, government affairs, and policy analysis with the International Reading Association. He holds a B.A. degree in politics from Ithaca College, a master's degree in political science from Marquette University (note from JVB: the biggest anti-Oswald websites are hosted by Marquette University’s server)., and a law degree from Case Western Reserve University. Brian has spent over 10 years analyzing legislation and lobbying tactics, and has put those skills to use throughout his professional career. A resident of the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC, Brian originally hails from Buffalo, NY. “
• Dautch is a strong Democrat who appears to be progressive and well-informed. Who taught him, then, to despise Lee Oswald? Was it Marquette University?
“19 Jan 2010 ... Brian Dautch is a political analyst currently residing in
Washington, DC.” Dautch is intelligent, organized, and “a political analyst.” We are now ready to look at BD’s analysis of Lee Harvey Oswald as an inveterate liar.

Marquette University-supported attack sites against Lee Oswald have an impact nimpact on students and others interested in Lee Harvey Oswald’s life who read the article “Lee’s Lies,” and conclude that Oswald was a lying creep who deserved everything that happened to him. Those of us who knew Oswald personally would have to disagree. BD’s article, below, is presented first with my added comments.. The entire text of concern is then repeated in toto at the end of this discourse.
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BEGINNING THE ANALYSIS: PART ONE

Statement #1:

“Lee Harvey Oswald was, throughout his life, a liar.”

==This calumnious statement is designed to immediatelyprejudice the reader. It is not factual. Was Lee Oswald a liar at age 1? 2? 8? 10? “a calumnious statement” means “a false and malicious statement designed to injure the reputation of someone.” ==

“He consistently deceived, manipulated, and hoodwinked, with varying degrees of success. The web of deception wove its way through not only strangers and acquaintances, but friends and loved ones as well. In the final analysis, it becomes apparent that Lee Harvey Oswald lied to nearly every person with whom he shared any meaningful encounter, and that the lies are perhaps as strong a testament as any to the path which led him to his ultimate demise.”

==DB essentially repeats his first statement, adding that “Lee’s lies” led ‘to his ultimate demise.” He is establishing a false correlation between lies (“bad person”) and demise (“bad person deserves to die”).==
“To understand that Oswald was a liar is not to necessarily say that he was a lone nut assassin.”
==When damning statements are made, a pretense of ‘balance’ is then offered to the reader, to convince the reader that the accuser is ‘fair’ and ‘honest.’===
“His frequent lies, many to government agencies like the State Department and the FBI, might have marked him as a plausible patsy.”

==DB uses repetition to convince the reader that LHO is a liar. He now links “bad person=liar” to “Patsy” to lead the reader into imagining that LHO’s lies “might have marked him” as a “plausible patsy.” There is no logical connection between “liar” and being a “plausible patsy” however. The argument is simply another opportunity to repeat the “Lee =liar” theme. He more often that is repeated, the more likely the reader is likely to believe the accusation.
In addition, DB is actually doing is saying that it was LHO’s FAULT that he become a patsy, due to his lies. DB has presented no evidence for this, but he influences naïve readers to consider the following links of logical assumptions:
“LIAR = BAD MAN” :: “BAD MAN = DESERVES TO DIE” :: “IT IS OK IF HE BECAME A PATSY BECAUSE HE WAS A BAD MAN.” -- this leads the unsuspecting reader to decide that “Oswald had it coming to him” without a smidgen of evidence yet to be presented.
But the clver writer has now laid the groundwork. Next, he will present a list of “Lee’s lies,” but not before he repeats the “lesson” again, to make sure the reader has “learned” it well: ===
“And his scheming and conniving might suggest that he was the sort who could be manipulated -- hoodwinked, turned into a patsy -- by people who were much more competent schemers and liars than Lee Oswald. “
===There is no logical correlation between a ‘schemer“ and a “conniver” and the ease with which such people can be manipulated. In actuality, most schemers and connivers are NOT easily manipulated. They manipulate others. That’s what their skill set is all about.
But then, LHO could not become a ‘patsy’ that easily, could he? So DB creates the idea that LHO was a ‘stupid’ schemer and conniver: therefore, the “bad” connotation is repeated twice with these two descriptors, and then it is suggested that such a person can be “manipulated.”
DB then launches into his propaganda I have underlined places where there are problems with his argument, with additional comments below:
“Oswald, born in 1939, had begun his term of enlistment in the Marine Corps on October 26, 1956, at the tender young age of 17.(1) A trivial fact on the surface, perhaps, butmeaningful in terms of the chain of events set off by his military stint; many, including his half brother John Pic and his full brother Robert Oswald, presumed that Lee was



attempting to get out from under the "yoke of oppression" of their mother.(2) Marguerite Oswald raised Lee alone, since his father had died suddenly, and did not provide for their food and clothing as well as she could have, and was exceedingly controlling.(3) It was not the first time Oswald would significantly alter his surroundings to escape persecution, real or imagined. In fact, it was this very same driving force which led Oswald to Russia, where he met his future wife, Marina Prusakova.
===We are asked to take DB’s word for it that to “escape persecution, real or imagined” LHO was “led…to Russia…” An examination of the facts show us LHO received an honorable discharge when he went into the Marine reserves, prior to leaving for Russia on a trip that showed he must have had insider’s information to accomplish as he did. There was no overt reason to believe LHO was trying to ‘escape persecution, real or imagined” when he entered Russia. Why did DB write such a thing? He is counting on the ignorance of the reader: Swallow what I tell you! We must remember that this is a very bright individual who knows he is setting up LHO to look as bad as possible, while trying to preserve a veneer of fairness.
He states, as if fact, that Marguerite “did not provide for their food and clothing as well as she could have” , The cruel statement avoids the fact that a single female parent with three sons to raise alone, who was also proud and independent, had few resources in the 1940’s-1950’s. Women were not paid the wages men were. Marguerite was employed, one way or another, her entire life. That she was a controlling and domineering woman is true, and there is no doubt that LHO was anxious to leave home and stop being a burden to her.
What DB fails to tell us is that both of LHO’s brothers left home as soon as they could, too. All three sons entered the military. But then DB would have three boys, not one, to accuse: did each of the three boys wish to “significantly alter his surroundings to escape persecution, real or imagined.”? Leaving out potent and important details such as this skews the reader against LHO. It’s clever, and a bit dishonest. LHO’s mother, Marguerite, stated Lee’s brother Robert inspired him to become a Marine. DB failed to tell us that LHO’s motives for becoming a Marine might have been wholly normal and natural, under the circumstances.
=====================continued:part two========================
Lee and Marina
“Oswald told Marina a series of lies well before they were married. Almost immediately, he told her he was 24 years old, the same age as another suitor of Marina's, so she wouldn't think he was young and immature.(4)”

===Neither the first, nor the last young man to lie about his age, when trying to impress the ladies, Lee was two years older than Marina, so the lie was not significant. DB never mentions that Marina was an experienced young woman concerning men, especially foreign men. She was aware of the fact that defectors were in a special category. DB does not mention that LHO is now considered to have been a fake defector by many honest researchers. By failing to bring up the fact that Lee Oswald might have been a fake defector, DB gives the naïve reader – such as an enquiring student --no opportunity to consider why Oswald might have lied about personal data.==
“Knowing Marina's family would not want her to leave Russia for America, Lee told Marina and her relatives that he couldn't get back into America even if he wanted to, having permanently defected. In reality, Lee had not fully renounced his citizenship from the United States because he failed to fill out all the official paperwork necessary for complete expatriation, so returning to the U.S. would hardly be problematic for either of them, especially since they were to be married before going to America.(5) To garner her sympathy, he also claimed to Marina that his mother was dead.(6) In fact, not only was Marguerite Oswald still quite alive at the time, she outlived Oswald himself by several (sic)years. “

===1) Returning alive to the US was problematic for any American former Marine entering the USSR, then wishing to leave again, with a Russian wife and a baby, no less, at the height of the Cold War—a Cold War never mentioned by DB.
Concerning what LHO told Marina and her family about returning to America, Lee had to assert this in order to get Marina’s uncle’s permission to marry; was Marina’s big dream to marry an American and have a chance to move to the USA, the land of the free? Is this why she married Oswald only six weeks after they met?
As for paperwork to fill out, there are two approaches to the matter:

1) Would a not-yet 20-year-old Oswald know he had ‘failed to fill out’ all the necessary paperwork, unless he had been told?

2) Here’s the argument that shows DB is inserting prejudice into his article:

a) If told to finish filling out the papers, and yet LHO ‘failed’ to do so, then he had no intention of renouncing his citizenship – meaning he was a fake defector. Then the James Bond mode kicks in: you say what you have to say, to everybody, to save your life and reduce suspicion. For example, LHO returned from the USSR fluent in Russian, yet in the USSR, the Ziger family and others said LHO did not speak Russian at all. A fake defector, trained to understand Russian, but never speaking it, could hear a lot and learn a lot without anyone getting suspicious.

b) If LHO failed to fill out the forms by accident, he would not know he could return to America. In every possible way, this accusation does not count as a lie.
Re the appellation “orphan”: technically the word ‘orphan’ applies (especially in older dictionaries) to one who has lost just one parent, or who has “been deprived of parental care and has not been adopted.”

DB failed to tell the reader that Lee was placed with his aunt and uncle for over a year, and was then put into an orphanage at the age of three, with his two brothers, where he remained almost three years. LHO supposedly told Marina that his mother was dead. It counts as a lie, but this, again, was early in their relationship and ranks with the “wrong age” lie. Later, he did not hide the letters that his mother sent to him; he also wrote numerous letters to his mother and brother Robert, as well as to other family members.

“This third falsehood held special significance, because later Lee lied again to his wife about the circumstances of his dislike for his mother. Rather than explain his past to the woman who loved him, he merely brushed her off by stating that the only reason behind his anger toward his mother was that he didn't like Marguerite's treatment of Robert's wife, mentioning nothing of the difficult childhood he endured under her harsh rule.(7) In sum, Lee was forced to tell a lie to cover up an earlier lie, and the initial components of Oswald's web of deception had been established.”


==== But did LHO “brush her off” ? We have since learned that Marina hid many aspects of her own former life from Lee. Is “brushed her off” the right phrase to use when describing the unwillingness of LHO to speak of his miserable past to his wife? We don’t know if he felt he could even trust her: they knew each other only six weeks before they married, and her uncle, with whom she had been living, was the equivalent of a police officer. In addition, LHO and marina both knew that their apartment was bugged. How much, under these circumstances, was LHO willing to confide? None of these problems are mentioned by DB.==
We next have a leap in logic from DB: LHO’s unwillingness to confide his past fully to his Russian wife is called a lie to cover up “an earlier lie.”
The “earlier lie” was that his mother, Marguerite, was dead. But now Lee admitted he didn’t like his mother, and gave a reason why. Now he is being criticized by DB for finally giving reasons why he dislikes his mother. Rather than dump his past on Marina, LHO gave her an example of why he didn’t like Marguerite. That was typical of LHO, known as a master of understatement. There is no logical connection between LHO saying Marguerite was dead and then later stating that he did not like his mother, as being a lie to cover up an earlier lie. Stating that he did not like his mother is merely a parallel statement, unrelated to the fact that he said she was dead.


Lee's "Historic Diary"






Among Oswald's possessions originating in Russia was something he called his "Historic Diary," an account of the time he spent in that country. The use of the phrase "diary" is a misnomer, however, since Oswald did not write up the accounts contained in its twelve pages until long after the dates he wrote on each page.(8) The Warren Commission noticed a number of anachronisms in the document, since some entries referred to events which had not yet occurred. Also, the exceedingly melodramatic tone (and title) of the diary indicated that Oswald was attempting to spice up the events to hold the interest of future readers. For instance, the diary asserts that Oswald was offered citizenship in the Soviet Union, but he refused; similarly, it states that he was asked to address a meeting of workers in Minsk, and that he humbly declined that proposal as well.(9)”

===LHO prepared two kinds of speeches in case reporters learned he was returning, and might come asking questions.
One speech was about how he ‘liked it’ in the Soviet Union; the other was about how he ‘did not like it’ in the Soviet Union. A number of honest researchers believe LHO did not know which one his handlers would want him to use at the time he wrote them. These two different versions, of themselves, go far to persuade an unprejudiced researcher that Lee’s activities were being directed by others.
The Historic Diary actually contains many interesting observations about daily life in the USSR. And diaries do not have to be written day-by-day to qualify as a diary. Definition of a diary: a record of events, transactions, or observations kept daily or at frequent intervals. LHO reconstructed the events as he recalled them from day to day while he was on a ship crossing the Atlantic ocean, with nothing else to do. It was a good way to spend his time.

The Diary was indeed written for outsiders, but many honest researchers believe it is not for the reason that DB presents, which seems to suggest narcissism. According to information I have personally received, Lee created the Diary to provide himself a fake timeline to cover certain activities in Russia, the USSR, and elsewhere that had to be kept secret. As a fake defector, it was necessary to ‘account’ for his time as being spent only in innocuous activities. LHO needed a reconstructed timeline to refer to because the real timeline might have actually been accidentally revealed later. By recreating a set of events and memories that did exist, and filling in the gaps, his “Un-Historic Diary” was Lee’s pocket guide for future reference, to the outside world. In fact, DB was smart enough to bring up that possibility. But he didn’t. As in every other instance so far, DB didn’t breathe a word about “fake defector.’==


=====================part three===========================

Lee and Marina in Dallas

"...arriving in Dallas with Marina, Oswald had a chance to begin anew, with an utterly clean slate. His wife, unable to speak English, apparently felt no need to hold Lee's lies against him, since she was forced to rely upon him for everything. Marina could not speak English, and Lee was in no rush to help her learn.(10) Rather than deal honestly with some of the new people he met in Texas, Lee chose to continue his untruthful ways”

Having brought up only a few examples over Lee Oswald’s entire lifetime, and now nearing the end of Lee’s life, DB repeats that LHO has “lying ways” that he “chose to continue.” We will look at the various examples DB brings forth:
.”This is the point in Lee's life when he began to tell a certain type of lie: the type which was absolutely needless and unnecessary.”
Absolutely needless and unnecessary? How does DB know that? Was he there?
I was.
I wish to insert here an example of what Patricia McMillan-Johnson, author of the ‘official version’ biography, Marina and Lee, wrote about Lee’s telling his wife that he worked at the Leon Israel Coffee Company, located some blocks down, actually, from the Reily Coffee Company, on the same street—Magazine Street. DB is picking up McMillan’s charge: she says Lee told “another of his…pointless lies” when naming Leon Israel instead of Reily as his place of work.
But it wasn’t “another of his…pointless lies.” Lee and I had commenced a love affair and sometimes could be seen together coming to or from Reily’s. Lee didn’t want Marina to see us together. For awhile he even told her he worked as a photographer. When he was fired, Lee did not tell Marina. She thought Lee was working when he left every day for the next four, five or six weeks (depending on her changing testimony and letters).
Marina herself was caught in many lies to the Warren Commission --I do not blame her one bit—she a new mother, alone, and threatened with deportation --so portions of her testimony, such as claiming Lee planned to shoot Nixon when Nixon wasn’t even in town, had to be discarded even by the Commission, who kept only those parts they could plausibly use against Oswald.

I am under no such duress as was Marina, though I have been forced by threats to live in exile.
I freely testify that Lee Oswald was working with both the CIA and the FBI in New Orleans. He had significant active contacts with Customs and with the Mafia as well. He was a courier and lab assistant in addition, and was a very busy man – nothing like the indolent creature described by the Warren Commission. LHO’s time-sheet records at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall show Lee’s strong work ethic for six long days a week, plus overtime, with only a half-hour off for lunch, sometimes taken an hour late due to his work. LHO kept those records meticulously, as if he’d been in a lab, and he was in one—a photo lab. I have records you can inspect in my book Me & Lee, available summer 2010.
Interestingly, Lee’s half brother, John Pic, ran a section of a military hospital’s pathology lab in Texas in 1963. A love of science seemed to be shared by these half-brothers. Lee is also on record as listing biology and astronomy as subjects of interest to him. But back to DB, who tells the naïve reader that Lee’s lies are “needless and unnecessary” – and the reader is expected to swallow it.

“After returning to the United States, Lee seemed to lie at least as much out of habit as of necessity, to the point where it struck people other than Marina that Lee appeared to simply enjoy lying for the opportunity to conceal.(11) “

===== Who were these people? DB does not name them. Instead, DB again repeats his accusations against LHO. Repetition, after all, convinces the naïve reader, though no evidence is offered. DB tells us that LHO is still telling lots of lies, though he has no really convincing sets of lies to paste in here. What do we have on the “lie list,” so far?

1) Lee added two years to his actual age when dating Marina

2) Lee told Marina his mother was dead, when he was actually an orphan via his father and had been placed in an orphanage by his mother at a critical developmental stage of his life. Later, he admits his mother is alive.

3) Lee did not tell Marina all the reasons he disliked his mother. Did he have to?

4) Lee wrote a diary that has disinformation in it, which the analyst believes was simply to be dramatic –though a return alive from the USSR with a Russian wife and baby at age 22 was in itself dramatic, and worthy of a written record.
====a total of three accusations of questionable worth, and a disinfo-filled diary====

“In Dallas, Oswald met a man named George Bouhe, who helped him get settled in the new town, and may even have tided him over with occasional monetary supplements.(12) Asking Lee to keep in touch, Bouhe assumed that Lee would provide him with occasional updates of his whereabouts and employment situation. Instead, Lee would only call Bouhefrom a pay phone every few days, mutter "I'm doing fine" into the phone, and hang up.”

====Note that LHO contacted Bouhe “every few days.” We do not know from where [this may be important]. The word “mutter”makes a difference. On top of this, Lee is reported calling Bouhe "every few days." That does not sound irresponsible.

Who was Bouhe?
Bruce C. Adamson tells us “Ruby's neighbor [was] George Bouhe; Bouhe took Oswald out for job interviews.” Bouhe: said Oswald "had a mind of his own, and I think it was a diseased one.” What a nice characer reference DB chose. But what about Bouhe's character?

Researcher Linda Minor tells us that Bouhe was employed as a personal accountant by Everette DeGolyer, a geologist linked to Michael Paine through “Michael’s uncle, Eric Schroeder, …a friend and investment associate of…DeGolyer and a cousin of Alexander "Sandy" Forbes, former director of United Fruit…” A. J. Weberman says he is a Russian in exile.

Bouhe is part of the Dallas gang of Magnolia Oil: they had close ties to the Power Elite, and now surrounded Lee and Marina through White Russian links. Minor’s research goes into much more detail, but let this suffice:
“Bouhe was closely tied to George DeMohrenschildt, who later became famous as the White Russian assigned to "handle" Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas. It was DeMohrenschildt who had taken the Oswalds to a party where they met Volkmar Schmidt, and then a later party at the same house where they met Michael Paine. DeMohrenschildt was also the one in charge of getting Marina a place to stay at Ruth Paine’s home, and it was Ruth Paine who found Oswald the job at the book depository office in the building owned by D.H. Byrd,”
(ref: http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=39&contentid=45&page=2)

DB never told us that Bouhe was well-connected to George DeMohrenschildt (CIA ties), that he was also well-connected to the Paines (CIA ties)– and that they were all friends. He just says “Oswald met a man named George Bouhe” –who acted as LHO’s and Marina’s babysitter (just as deMohrenschildt did, and just as the Paines
did). Lee and Marina were not getting along, and in fact, the marriage was already progressing to a separation. Marina’s mistreatment during this time by Oswald is described by DeMohrenschildt as a result of her behavior (but Oswald alone is responsible for controlling himself—he had a lot of growing up to do when it came to problems with Marina. However, he stopped mistreating her in May, 1963.).
END PART ONE