Oswald In Helsinki

[Lance Payette]

What does the issuance of his Helsinki visa have to do with his status at the TSBD?

Nothing.

It was a more general comment about the information I'd come across while researching this topic.
I was very struck by Oswald being only 19 years old when he defected.
It seems this move was something he'd decided on a lot earlier as he had to save the money in order to make it happen and, as I understand it, he wasn't making a vast amount as a Marine. But if Oswald was anything he was frugal. It is a very 'driven' thing to aim for and achieve. Very disciplined.
He'd already started learning to read and write Russian which, again, seems to suggest a really focused and determined nature, not to mention intelligence.
I think this is in contrast to how Oswald is often perceived in his role as a bit of a nobody working at some dead-end job at the TSBD.

I think this is the key Oswald Problem and one of the keys to the assassination. He actually was quite intelligent and politically oriented, but he had no educational credentials, did have an unappealing personality and could never get anyone to take him as seriously as he felt he should be taken. When he defected, he hoped to be sent to Moscow State University and to emerge as a significant political figure - but he ended up as a factory grunt in the backwater of Minsk. His pathetic U.S. job history had to be frustrating and demeaning for someone with his intelligence and ambitions, hence his fantasy of becoming one of Castro's right-hand men. He was on a treadmill to nowhere, the TSBD being about as low as things could get.

But forget all that. I am now enamored of my very own factoid:

What is with this University of Turku stuff? I find no meaningful discussion anywhere, even on the Helsinki threads at the Ed Forum. Let's think about it: He applies to Albert Schweitzer College in March, pays his fee in June, but then on September 4th (before he's even out of the Marines) he adds the U of T to his passport application in Los Angeles. WHY? Does he know at that point that Helsinki is where he'll be going for a visa? WHY and HOW? Was it common knowledge that Helsinki was the "quick visa" office? I doubt it; there were several European cities where one could obtain a Soviet tourist visa. Why would he have particularly cared if his visa were issued in two days or a week anyway? For that matter, why did the idiot even list Cuba and Russia as among his intended travel destinations when there was no need??? I find it all quite mysterious, yet it seems to get no attention.

Chew on this, conspiracy fans! If anything will convert me to your cause, it will be a factoid of my very own! (In fact, I have now started a separate thread to give you an opportunity to really strut your stuff.)

[Richard Smith]

There are two ways that Oswald's eccentric conduct can be explained.  Most CTers would suggest that there was some unspecified guiding hand behind his conduct which was using Oswald as an intelligence asset to obtain information from Russia and Cuba and/or to be groomed as a patsy to be framed based on his political background.  Alternatively, most LNers would suggest that Oswald's eccentric behavior was exactly that of some mentally unbalanced person who would be of the type to assassinate the president.  Those are equally plausible theories to explain Oswald's conduct.  What is determinative of the matter is the evidence.  The evidence is conclusive that LHO assassinated JFK on Nov. 22, 1963.  After 60 years and counting, there is no credible evidence that lends itself to the conclusion that Oswald conspired with anyone else to commit that crime.  With that said, some folks will always take the position that there were just too many real or more often imagined anomalies to accept the simpler and most obvious explanation as supported by the evidence that Oswald was the lone assassin.  They will forever subscribe to the notion that "where there is smoke, there must be fire" and that something else (rarely specified because they allege the authorities covered it up) must have happened.  There is no dissuading those people because this is largely a faith-based belief.  Thankfully, the truth is not determined based upon everyone agreeing upon it.