Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was an American Marxist and former U.S. Marine who assassinated United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Oswald was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps and defected to the Soviet Union in October 1959. He lived in the Belarusian city of Minsk until June 1962, when he returned to the United States with his Russian wife, Marina, and eventually settled in Dallas. Five government investigations concluded that Oswald shot and killed Kennedy from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository as the
John Whitten in March 1962. In March 1963 he was promoted to chief of CIA covert operations in Mexico and Central America. In November 1963, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Whitten was assigned by Richard Helms to review the CIA's records on Lee Harvey Oswald. Whitten's preliminary finding (that Oswald acted alone) was being delivered by Helms to President Lyndon Johnson as Oswald was being shot by Jack Ruby. With a staff of 30, Whitten continued the investigation. On December 6, Whitten read an FBI report on Oswald showing that the FBI had information about Oswald's links with pro-Castro Cuban