Evidence seems to indicate that Lee Harvey Oswald tried to kill General Walker a few months before he allegedly assassinated JFK.
How are these two events related?
One of the things that perpetuates the conspiracy crap is that we know almost nothing about Oswald’s motivations. Other than generalities, he said and wrote little.
From my understanding, Oswald was simply a desperate loser who had failed at every effort in trying to make a name for himself and was taking any and every opportunity that presented itself. He was a communist who the Soviets and the Cubans turned away. He had a lousy career and marriage and was an angry sort that blamed others for his troubles.
General Walker happened to live in Dallas, so Oswald had an opportunity and he took it and failed. Kennedy was visiting Dallas and his motorcade went right by the building where he held his latest shitty job. He was given a golden opportunity, dropped right in his lap and was finally able to complete something he set out to do.
The only relation between the two were that: 1) They weren’t Marxists, so they were Oswald’s enemies, and 2) they were high profile targets that would get this miserable loser some recognition.
Walker had also made a speech about a month before calling for the US to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro. That was what triggered Oswald’s attempt.
If there’s one thing I know about history and its events, it’s that we can never know the truth.
We know the truth; we just have no solid answer as to Oswald’s motivations (though there’s plenty of circumstantial evidence to indicate what it might be).
His motivation was that he was a nutcase,
In regards to his attempt on Walker:
Three surprising details from the JFK assassination – and why they matter.
They are related by the concept that the attack on Gen. Walker was a way to show that Oswald had a propensity for violence, ergo, an attack on JFK was not unreasonable for him.
Good quote, although I think it fills in too many gaps with supposition. Keeping it in mind, though, may help make sense of the JFK assassination if the theory that Connally was the intended target and Kennedy was a target of opportunity is considered. Connally is much more readily understood as an object of hatred by Oswald (in much the same mold as Walker) than JFK.
But lacking any real data about what Oswald was thinking means it’s all just supposition.
There is an interesting article on Slate about Oswald’s motives to protect Cuba.
Why do we always feel the need to violate Occam’s razor in the Kennedy Assassination? He shot Kennedy. Twice. Oswald was a looser who wanted to be a “somebody.” So do we really think he had the President of the United States in his sites but really “just” wanted to shoot the governor? He wanted to make the biggest headline he could. That was JFK.
I think there are people out there that think Oswald was just some random guy. We didn’t know about the walker thing until after the Kennedy Assassination. Unless someone is to argue that the illuminati (or who ever really did kill Kennedy) did - it seems like a fairly large coincidence.
How many people have both attempted to assassinate someone else AND tried to renounce their US citizenship and upon failing tried to kill themselves?
Looking for particular motivations in a crazy person doesn’t lead to much. This was a crime of opportunity. He didn’t PLAN to kill Kennedy. Kennedy just happened to have the bad luck to be driving by were he worked. If Kennedy had been even one street over - I don’t think anyone believes Oswald would have been able to do what he did. Oswald brought in “curtain rods” that morning and left alone on the sixth floor got lucky. Oswald was a huge attention whore.
If he was alive today and Kim Kardashian drove by - he would have probably killed her instead.
Is it really a stretch that someone who tried to defect to the Soviet Union would kill our president? Who cares if he agreed with what policies - he had issues - some at least were with the US (or he wouldn’t have defected). JFK was in charge - he had the once in a lifetime opportunity to be recognized for something - and he took it.
OK, not so much a stretch that he would try to kill JFK, but just maybe a stretch that he alone was involved in the plan.
Is it a stretch to believe a lone nut shot Gabrielle Giffords? John Lennon? A theater full of strangers in Aurora, Colorado?
If there’s one thing history teaches, it’s that lone nuts are capable of quite a bit.
This is still GQ, so maybe you can answer this. On the History Channel Friday night, this was the most repeated line from people who believed in the conspiracy: “No way could he have pulled that off on his own.”
My question: Why not? Kennedy’s motorcade passed right below a building where he worked and had access to a sixth floor warehouse facing the street with little possibility of being interrupted. Who COULDN’T have pulled off what he did? The opportunity landed in his lap. What is this great feat that he pulled off that was so difficult for a single person in his situation to accomplish?
This recent Frontline piece did a pretty good job of illustrating the relationship between the two events and Oswald’s likely motivations. It was also for the first time (to me at least) able to provide some semblance of comprehensibility to the confusing details about Oswald’s interests in Cuba.
It’s an interesting series of interviews. The part about Walker begins at about 34 minutes into the video.
I don’t think for a minute that Oswald was the lone gunman with a plan to kill Kennedy.
My response was only to answer the OP, who asked for what the link between the two events was.
There has never been any doubt that a lone nut could kill somebody. You aren’t referencing the correct aspects of the JFK case.
Which aspects are those? Because there’s literally nothing presented that couldn’t easily be the work of a lone nut.
Bah! As if one man could buy a rifle through the mail for $15, fire three shots out of the window of the building where he worked, then employ a sophisticated escape plan (getting on a bus, then taking a cab home, then walking to a bus stop, getting stopped by police, and firing at them in a panic).