Contradictions of the Backyard Photo

Had Oswald known the full contents of the backyard photo, he would not have committed political suicide by sending the picture to New York City.

We have a trail of evidence documenting Oswald's interest in Russian and socialism. While in the marines, Oswald's interest became almost fanatical. These events culminated in his ideological defection to the Soviet Union.

Oswald's defection in 1959, coincided with the worldwide split in the communist movement. In nearly every country, communist parties splintered into mutually antagonistic groups supporting opposite sides in the Sino-Soviet dispute.

The Communist Parties of the Soviet Union did not split. Instead the majority fraction advocating peaceful coexistence conducted an intensive campaign against the minority factions that retained Leninist or Maoist positions. The Soviet leadership likened the minority factions to "Trotskyite bourgeois agents" and "infantile-leftists." Their campaign was so intense, some leading Moscow publications called for a moderation. Nevertheless the tone of the campaign was set.

Oswald attended many political meetings at the radio factory in Minsk. Without doubt an ideological defector would have been interested in the Sino-Soviet dispute. In any event, after two years of frequent meetings even the uninterested would have understood that peaceful coexistence meant repudiation of the revolutionary Leninist path.

We have evidence that Oswald understood this aspect of the Sino-Soviet dispute. On three separate occasions Oswald differentiated between Marxists and Leninists. When Aline Mosby asked Oswald in 1959 if he was a communist, Oswald replied "I am a Marxist." During interviews in New Orleans, they asked Oswald the same question he said I'm a Marxist. On November 24, 1963, Captain Fritz asked Oswald, "Are you a Communist?" Oswald answered, "No, I am a Marxist but I am not a Marxist Leninist."

Oswald subscribed to The Worker and The Militant during the spring of 1963. Both papers supported peaceful coexistence. The Worker advertised English language translations of the speeches of Khrushchev on peaceful existence. Editorials in The Worker denounced the Maoists as irresponsible infantile leftists.

The Militant diversified their editorial comments with criticism of Soviet bureaucracy and ridicule of the revolutionary "ultra-leftists." Occasionally, The Militant would advertise a work by Leon Trotsky.

Any reader of The Worker or The Militant would have understood the ideological inclinations of these publications. Oswald as a thirty-month resident of the Soviet Union would have understood the depth of animosity between the Soviets and the Trotskyists.

Allegedly Oswald sent letters and the backyard photos to the Communist and the Socialist Workers Parties. These letters were friendly, polite and amiable. Obviously the author designed the letters to endear himself to the communists. The photographs on the other hand were surly, offensive, and antagonistic.

Showing someone they cannot keep their own house in order is the surest way to alienate them. This is exactly what the backyard photos did. By displaying newspapers from the descendants of the Stalinists and the Trotskyists these photographs reminded the advocates of unity of their first major division. After opening this old wound, the backyard photo poured salt into the injury. The backyard photo counterpoised two newspapers that supported peaceful coexistence with two guns that were the symbols of the revolutionary Leninist and Maoist factions.

If someone intended to produce the most inflammatory photograph then the backyard photo would have challenged their efforts. One photo taunted the advocates of unity that their fusion movement fissioned twice.