Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F.…

that Oswald acted alone. Therefore, to determine the motives for the assassination of President Kennedy, one must look to the assassin himself. Clues to Oswald’s motives can be found in his family history, his education or lack of it, his acts, his writings, and the recollections of those who had close contacts with him throughout his life. The Commission has presented with this report all of the background information bearing on motivation which it could discover. Thus, others may study Lee Oswald’s life and arrive at their own conclusions as to his possible motives. The Commission could not make any definitive determination of Oswald’s motives. It has endeavored to isolate factors which contributed to his character and which might have influenced his decision to assassinate President Kennedy. These factors were: (_a_) His deep-rooted resentment of all authority which was expressed in a hostility toward every society in which he lived; (_b_) His inability to enter into meaningful relationships with people, and a continuous pattern of rejecting his environment in favor of new surroundings; (_c_) His urge to try to find a place in history and despair at times over failures in his various undertakings; (_d_) His capacity for violence as evidenced by his attempt to kill General Walker; (_e_) His avowed commitment to Marxism and communism, as he understood the terms and developed his own interpretation of them; this was expressed by his antagonism toward the United States, by his defection to the Soviet Union, by his failure to be reconciled with life in the United States even after his disenchantment with the Soviet Union, and by his efforts, though frustrated, to go to Cuba. Each of these contributed to his capacity to risk all in cruel and irresponsible actions.