WI: Lee Oswald, If He Didn't Shoot Kennedy

This is a question which focuses not on the President and his administration, but the assassin.

If Oswald had not shot Kennedy, what would have become of him?
 
Ends up a popular author among the Alex Jones-ish crowd, spouting lunacy about the government, corporations, Jews, Cubans, Hollywood, and chicken.
 
Once did a TL where he went to fight with Castro. When you think about it, it would have been perfect for him. He thought he was a revolutionary, thought he was a communist, why not go fight as both in Cuba? He might die in the Revolution or get purged later on.
 
Once did a TL where he went to fight with Castro. When you think about it, it would have been perfect for him. He thought he was a revolutionary, thought he was a communist, why not go fight as both in Cuba? He might die in the Revolution or get purged later on.
...well yeah....but I think the OP implies this occurs happens AFTER the assassination and after the revolution.
 
...well yeah....but I think the OP implies this occurs happens AFTER the assassination and after the revolution.

Well thing is Oswald was seriously unbalanced. The only way to keep him from doing it, is to have him be detained after the assassination of General Edwin Walker.
 
The POD is that he simply doesn't assassinate Kennedy. He either just doesn't do it, or gets cold feet.

Oh, then the thing that he feared most of all, nothing. No one ever notices him or ever finds him to be important. Maybe during his mid life crisis he attempts to assassinate the president in office at the time.
 
This is a question which focuses not on the President and his administration, but the assassin.

If Oswald had not shot Kennedy, what would have become of him?

He was a patsy. He didn't shoot Kennedy to begin with, so he would be used as a government scapegoat and then killed by someone to keep him quiet.
 
He was a patsy. He didn't shoot Kennedy to begin with, so he would be used as a government scapegoat and then killed by someone to keep him quiet.

Please you ignoring all the evidence. Oswald's life would have continued as he was going a working man with a young family. Maybe his wife would get fed up with the isolation and learn English. Then things would change for him.
 
There's a possibility that his marriage would end eventually though that is certainly not an inevitability given the times. Oswald would presumably at least try to remain the kind of leftist gadfly he had been, though the whole fake chapter of a Castro supporting club thing was really only something he did in New Orleans. If he lasts long enough he might end up involved in one of the various radical movements that arose in the late sixties early seventies, or more realistically, he might pretend to membership. Hell, if Oswald was really the kind of narcissist that he has been alleged to be, I'd almost expect him to call himself the ideological father of the radical movements. There's always the possibility that Oswald commits some act of political violence after November 22. I suppose he could try to get to Cuba again, but it seems unlikely that he would be allowed in.
 

CalBear

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He was a patsy. He didn't shoot Kennedy to begin with, so he would be used as a government scapegoat and then killed by someone to keep him quiet.

Official Warning.

Conspiracy theories are not allowed here. You know that.

Everyone get one bite. You just used yours.

CalBear in Mod Mode.
 
Everyone get one bite. You just used yours.

Have I used mine yet? Because I really want to use it while there's a relevant thread on the topic, if that's alright. If not, that's fine too. I'll wait for your answer.

A. At any rate, if the OP is intended to make him still relevant or interesting in some historical sense I have something of interest. During his time in Dallas, Oswald was associating himself with certain radical Socialist/Communist but Anti-Castro groups (groups which believed Castro had not gone far enough and the revolution had failed).

Now depending on what you've read or who you believe, Oswald could finally be accepted in Cuba and with the support of such groups, achieve an assassination of Castro during a subsequent re-revolution. This would make him something of a hero to the new Cuban people's government, and oddly enough, an American hero as well (in spite of his politics and the outcome of his deed, an American had succeeded in killing Castro and beheading the regime. Americans would appreciate that in spite of his being a Red.)

Alternatively:

B. The CIA had a dossier on Oswald at the time and was introducing him to various contacts within the agency (for what purpose we cannot be sure and I am reluctant to speculate here. What is known is that he was being contacted by agents or contacts in the agency and he was miraculously allowed to remain living in the United States following all of his defections.) Oswlad having been previously stationed in a U-2 base in Japan during his service in the fifties, a base which was later declassified as a CIA training facility. This COULD have been a coincidence. I'm NOT using my bite yet.

Maybe the CIA was just being careful, or maybe Oswald was an agent (rogue or otherwise, again, I am reluctant to speculate) but the point is, regarding the OP, the CIA could radicalize those Communist Anti-Castro Cuban movements stateside, make Oswald an agent, and send him to decapitate the Cuban government, promising Oswald and the Anti-Castro Communists whatever government they wanted in Cuba as long as they got rid of Castro, then reneging on that deal and instating a pro-American democratic government there.

By combining option A. and option B. (a CIA backed anti-Castro coup by communists using Oswald as the trigger man) Oswald becomes an American hero and his communist affiliations get swept under the rug in the media circus for some time to come.

Kennedy and Kruschev will both shit brix, of course, with a coup occurring right under their noses and without Kennedy's permission but with Kennedy surviving the Cold War grows even colder in the wake of Cuban stability and healthy Soviet-American communication.

I danced around the elephant in the room and responded to the OP with originality! I'm proud of myself.
 
Have I used mine yet? Because I really want to use it while there's a relevant thread on the topic, if that's alright. If not, that's fine too. I'll wait for your answer.

A. At any rate, if the OP is intended to make him still relevant or interesting in some historical sense I have something of interest. During his time in Dallas, Oswald was associating himself with certain radical Socialist/Communist but Anti-Castro groups (groups which believed Castro had not gone far enough and the revolution had failed).

Now depending on what you've read or who you believe, Oswald could finally be accepted in Cuba and with the support of such groups, achieve an assassination of Castro during a subsequent re-revolution. This would make him something of a hero to the new Cuban people's government, and oddly enough, an American hero as well (in spite of his politics and the outcome of his deed, an American had succeeded in killing Castro and beheading the regime. Americans would appreciate that in spite of his being a Red.)

Alternatively:

B. The CIA had a dossier on Oswald at the time and was introducing him to various contacts within the agency (for what purpose we cannot be sure and I am reluctant to speculate here. What is known is that he was being contacted by agents or contacts in the agency and he was miraculously allowed to remain living in the United States following all of his defections.) Oswlad having been previously stationed in a U-2 base in Japan during his service in the fifties, a base which was later declassified as a CIA training facility. This COULD have been a coincidence. I'm NOT using my bite yet.

Maybe the CIA was just being careful, or maybe Oswald was an agent (rogue or otherwise, again, I am reluctant to speculate) but the point is, regarding the OP, the CIA could radicalize those Communist Anti-Castro Cuban movements stateside, make Oswald an agent, and send him to decapitate the Cuban government, promising Oswald and the Anti-Castro Communists whatever government they wanted in Cuba as long as they got rid of Castro, then reneging on that deal and instating a pro-American democratic government there.

By combining option A. and option B. (a CIA backed anti-Castro coup by communists using Oswald as the trigger man) Oswald becomes an American hero and his communist affiliations get swept under the rug in the media circus for some time to come.

Kennedy and Kruschev will both shit brix, of course, with a coup occurring right under their noses and without Kennedy's permission but with Kennedy surviving the Cold War grows even colder in the wake of Cuban stability and healthy Soviet-American communication.

I danced around the elephant in the room and responded to the OP with originality! I'm proud of myself.

The problem with any conspiracy theory is that you have too many people involved. You are talking CIA, FBI, Secret Service, branches of armed forces, the City of Dallas Police Dept. and the Dallas County Sherrifs department. You are talking about dozens if not hundreds of people who either have to be on the inside or kept in the dark.
 
The problem with any conspiracy theory is that you have too many people involved. You are talking CIA, FBI, Secret Service, branches of armed forces, the City of Dallas Police Dept. and the Dallas County Sherrifs department. You are talking about dozens if not hundreds of people who either have to be on the inside or kept in the dark.

I'm not talking about conspiracy theories. The CIA works in complex and shrouded ways, and it has to in order to survive and function properly. We may never know the full extent of Oswald's connection to the CIA (or lack therof) all we have are documents, recorded conversations, etc. and they are all extraordinarily vague.

I was just positing that Oswald goes on to assassinate Castro after being promised support for the anti-Castro Communists to form a government in the aftermath. The CIA renegs (of course) and Castro becomes a troublemaker in democratic Cuba, and an uninterviewed hero in America.

Very alternate.
 
Oswald was a Commie. The CIA (AKA, the organization which screams "WE FIGHT THE COMMUNISTS!") is not going to go in bed with him, both because he was a Red and a Flake. And the government can't keep a secret to save its life.

Likewise, Oswald loved Cuba and Castro. He thought it was the ideal of the Communist revolution. And he hated how the US government treated it.

He could go off and shoot someone later. But it won't be backed by any organization. It will be either Oswald alone, or Oswald with some friends. And the latter would require him to have some friends (and ones who would be up for such a thing), which he'd need to get later on. And if he does, there's a good chance that something will leak and authority figures will catch wind and arrest them. Or, after such an assassination, things will unravel quickly as they find the conspirators and people talk. That, counter to what conspiracy theorists think, is how conspiracy works. No one can ever keep a secret. Organizations are not that competent, nor are humans. The better infrastructurally supported an organization is, the better it can keep a secret. But that secret can't last forever, and the bigger it is, the quicker it leaks, and the larger it leaks.

EDIT:

The person/people he could go on to shoot, or try to shoot would have to be people he had a gripe with. Kennedy, he hated because of his stance on Cuba. General Walker, he hated because he was a right wing, John Bircher, and Oswald felt he was a Fascist and shooting him was like killing Hitler before he went on to do evil.
 
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