Marina and Lee

by Priscilla Johnson McMillan

Lermontov, Mikhail. A Hero of Our Time. Translated from the Russian by Vladimir Nabokov in collaboration with Dmitri Nabokov. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1958.

  Linden, Carl A. Khrushchev and the Soviet Leadership, 1957–1964. Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins Press, 1966.

  Manchester, William. Portrait of a President. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1962.

  ———. The Death of a President. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

  Mankiewicz, Frank, and Kirby Jones. With Fidel: A Portrait of Castro and Cuba. New York: Ballantine Books, 1975.

  Mersereau, John, Jr. Mikhail Lermontov. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1962.

  Newman, Albert H. The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: The Reasons Why. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., distributed by Crown Publishers, 1970.

  Orton, Samuel Torrey, MD. Reading, Writing and Speech Problems in Children. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1937.

  Oswald, Robert, with Myrick and Barbara Land. Lee: A Portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald. New York: Coward-McCann, 1967.

  Payne, Robert. Portrait of a Revolutionary: Mao Tse-tung. New York: Abelard-Shuman, 1961.

  Powers, Francis Gary, with Curt Gentry. Operation Overflight. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970.

  “The Queen of Spades,” translated from the Russian by T. Keane, in The Works of Alexander Pushkin, selected and edited by Avrahm Yarmolinsky. New York: Random House, 1936.

  Seeger, Alan. Poems. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1916.

  Sorensen, Theodore C. Kennedy. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.

  Stafford, Jean. A Mother in History. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966.

  Storr, Anthony. Human Aggression. New York: Bantam Books, 1968.

  Tatu, Michel. Power in the Kremlin. Translated from the French by Helen Katel. New York: Viking Press, 1969.

  Tchaikowsky, Modest. Libretto to Pique-Dame (“The Queen of Spades”), after text by A. S. Pushkin, English version by Boris Goldovsky. New York: G. Schirmer, Inc., 1951.

  Thompson, Lloyd J., MD. Reading Disability: Developmental Dyslexia. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1969.

  The Trial of the U-2: Exclusive Authorized Account of the Court Proceedings of the Case of Francis Gary Powers, Heard Before the Military Division of the Supreme Court of the USSR, Moscow, August 17–19, 1960, with introductory comment by Harold J. Berman. Chicago: Translation World Publishers, 1960.

  Ulam, Adam B. Expansion and Coexistence: The History of Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917–67. New York: Praeger, 1968.

  ———. The Rivals: America and Russia Since World War II. New York: Viking Press, 1971.

  Wasiolek, Edward. Dostoevsky: The Major Fiction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1964.

  Published Articles

  The following three articles were of special value to the author.

  Freud, Sigmund. “Dostoyevsky and Patricide.” Complete Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 21, pp. 222–242. Translated from the German under the general editorship of James Strachey. London: The Hogarth Press, 1961.

  Jones, Ernest. “The God Complex.” Essays in Applied Psychoanalysis, edited by Ernest Jones, pp. 204–226. London: The Hogarth Press, 1951.

  Weissman, Philip, MD. “Why Booth Killed Lincoln: A Psychoanalytic Study of a Historical Tragedy.” Psychoanalysis and the Social Sciences, Vol. 5, 1958, pp. 99–115. New York: International Universities Press, 1958.

  Other Psychoanalytic Articles

  Abrahamsen, David, MD. “A Study of Lee Harvey Oswald.” Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. 43, No. 10, October 1967, pp. 861–888.

  Abrahamsen, David, MD., and Rose Palm, PhD. “A Rorschach Study of the Wives of Sex Offenders.” Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, Vol. 119, No. 2, February 1954, pp. 167–172.

  Bibring, Grete L., MD. “Some Considerations Regarding the Ego Ideal in the Psychoanalytic Process.” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Vol. 12, No. 3, July 1964, pp. 517–521.

  Blackman, Nathan, MD, et al. “The Hidden Murderer.” Archives of General Psychiatry, Vol. 8, March 1963, pp. 289–294.

  Bychowski, Gustav. “Psychopathology of Aggression and Violence.” Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. 43, No. 4, April 1967, pp. 300–309.

  DeGrazia, Sebastian. “A Note on the Psychological Position of the Chief Executive.” Psychiatry, Vol. 8, 1945, pp. 267–272.

  Deutsch, Helena, MD. “Some Clinical Guidelines of the Ego Ideal.” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Vol. 12, 1964, pp. 512–516.

  Freedman, Lawrence Zelic. “Profile of an Assassin.” Police, March-April, 1966.

  Gedo, John. “Thoughts on Art in the Age of Freud.” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, January 1970.

  Gilula, Marshall F., and David N. Daniels. “Violence and Man’s Struggle to Adapt.” Science, April 25, 1969.

  Glenn, Jules, MD. “Sensory Determinants of the Symbol Three.” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Vol. 13, April 1965, No. 2, pp. 422–434.

  Hendrick, Ives, MD. “Narcissism and the Prepuberty Ego Ideal.” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Vol. 12, No. 3, July 1964, pp. 522–528.

  Katz, Joseph, et al. “Lee Harvey Oswald in Freudian, Adlerian, and Jungian Views.” Journal of Individual Psychology, Vol. 23, May 1967, pp. 19–52.

  Kernberg, Otto F., MD. “Barriers to Falling and Remaining in Love.” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 486–511.

  Kohut, Heinz, MD. “Beyond the Bounds of the Basic Rule: Some Recent Contributions to Applied Psychoanalysis.” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Vol. 8, July 1960, pp. 567–586.

  ———. “Forms and Transformations of Narcissism.” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Vol. 14, April 1966, pp. 243–272.

  ———. “Thoughts on Narcissism and Narcissistic Rage.” Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, Vol. 27, 1972, pp. 360–400.

  Mintz, Ira L., MD. “Unconscious Motives in the Making of War.” Medical Opinion and Review, No. 4, April 1968, pp. 88–95.

  Murray, John M., MD. “Narcissism and the Ego Ideal.” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Vol. 12, No. 3, July 1964, pp. 477–511.

  Rothenberg, Simon, MD, and Arthur B. Brenner. “The Number 13 as a Castration Fantasy.” The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 4, 1955, pp. 545–559.

  Rothstein, David A., MD. “Presidential Assassination Syndrome (I).” Archives of General Psychiatry, Vol. 11, No. 3, September 1964, pp. 245–254.

  ———. “Presidential Assassination Syndrome (II).” Archives of General Psychiatry. Vol. 15, No. 3, September 1966, pp. 260–266.

  Shneidman, Edwin S. “Orientations Toward Death: A Vital Aspect of the Study of Lives.” International Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 2, March 1966, pp. 167–188.

  Weinstein, A., and Olga G. Lyerly. “Symbolic Aspects of Presidential Assassination.” Psychiatry, Vol. 32, No. 1, February 1969, pp. 1–11.

  Weisz, Alfred E., MD, and Robert L. Taylor, MD. “The Assassination Matrix,” Stanford Today, February 1969, pp. 11–17.

  Articles On Reading Disability

  Cole, Edwin M., MD. “The Correction of Speech and Reading Difficulties.” Rhode Island Medical Journal, Vol. 28 (1945).

  ———. “Specific Reading Disability: A Problem in Integration and Adaptation.” American Journal of Ophthalmology, Vol. 34 (1951).

  DeHirsch, Katrina, MD. “Gestalt Psychology as Applied to Language Disturbances.” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Vol. 120 (1954).

  Eustis, Richard S., MD. “Specific Reading Disability.” The New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 237, No. 8, August 21, 1947.

  Orton, Samuel T., MD. “Specific Reading Disability–Strephosymbolia.” Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 90, No. 14 (1928).

  Other Published Sources

  Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, February-April, 1963.

  Dallas Times-Herald, M
arch-April, 1963.

  Daniel, Jean. “Unofficial Envoy: Talks with Kennedy and Castro.” The New Republic, December 14, 1963.

  ———. “When Castro Heard the News.” The New Republic, December 7, 1963.

  McGovern, George. “A Talk With Castro.” New York Times Magazine, March 13, 1977, pp. 20, 76–78, 80.

  The Militant. Vol. 27, Nos. 1–47, January 7, 1963–December 30, 1963. New York: The Militant Publishing Association.

  National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence Report to President Lyndon B. Johnson. Washington, DC: January 1969.

  Selected Issues from the Worker, October 28, 1962–November 24, 1963. Published in New York City.

  Unpublished Sources

  Hamilton, James W. “Some Observations on the Assassination of President Kennedy.” Presented at Midwestern Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, Chicago, Illinois, November 15–17, 1968.

  Wolin, Howard. “The Kennedys: Psychological Characteristics of Leaders that Contribute to an Increased Risk of Assassination.” Prepared for Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Washington, DC, May 1–4, 1971, but not delivered.

  Articles On Ballistics

  Lattimer, John K., MD. “Factors in the Death of President Kennedy.” Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 198, No. 4, October 24, 1966.

  ———. “Observations Based on a Review of the Autopsy Photographs, X-Rays, and Related Materials of the Late President John F. Kennedy.” Resident and Staff Physician, May 1972, pp. 34–64.

  Lattimer, John K., MD, Gary Lattimer, and Jon Lattimer. “Could Oswald Have Shot President Kennedy? Further Ballistics Studies.” Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, Second Series, Vol. 48, No. 3, April 1972, pp. 513–524.

  ———. “The Kennedy-Connally One Bullet Theory: Further Circumstantial and Experimental Evidence.” Medical Times, November 1974, pp. 33–56.

  Lattimer, John K., MD., and Jon Lattimer. “The Kennedy-Connally Single Bullet Theory: A Feasibility Study.” International Surgery, Vol. 50, No. 6, December 1968, pp. 524–532.

  In addition to the above, Warren Commission documents declassified between 1965 and 1977 have been used. These include reports of the FBI, US Department of State, US Department of the Treasury, US Secret Service, and the Central Intelligence Agency, most of which are numbered; and internal memoranda exchanged among members and staff members of the Warren Commission, documents and correspondence exchanged between the Warren Commission and other US government agencies, photographs and other exhibits, transcripts of executive sessions of the commission. Documents in the latter categories are unnumbered and frequently difficult to identify.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Among those who have helped me, there is one to whom I owe everything, my husband, George McMillan, for his love, his confidence, his sacrifices.

  There are two other persons without whom I might not have completed this book. They are M. S. Wyeth Jr. of Harper & Row, whose fastidiousness and gentleness I treasure. And Burton Beals, the editor’s editor, a man of talent and rare grace.

  I should like to thank John Leggett, who helped bring this book into being.

  And Katherine N. Ford, for her wisdom and support.

  I wish to thank Marion M. Johnson, of the National Archives, for help impeccably rendered over the years.

  And my cousin, David C. Davenport, who gave Marina and me a haven during the unquiet weeks of September and October 1964, just after the Warren Report was issued, and who has been unflagging in his loyalty.

  Others who gave Marina and me valued help in 1964 were Declan P. Ford, Jerome Hastings, Pat S. Russell Jr., and Bette and Bill Slack.

  I should like especially to thank four persons who made themselves available over the years in interviews, telephone conversations, and letters, often in a uniquely encouraging way: Samuel B. Ballen, Michael Ralph Paine, Ruth Hyde Paine, and Richard E. Snyder.

  Others who were generous in answering my inquiries include Professor Frederick C. Barghoorn, David W. Belin, Dr. Kenneth Dinklage, Dr. James W. Hamilton, Dr. John K. Lattimer, John A. McVickar, Professor John Mersereau, Robert Oswald, the late Francis Gary Powers, Edward L. Ramsdell, Dr. David A. Rothstein, Larry Seigle, William K. Stuckey, and Mrs. Gladys A. Yoakum.

  I should like to thank Professor John H. Mansfield of the Harvard Law School for two 1965 memoranda pertaining to Marina Oswald’s deportability and to the question of her criminal liability under Texas law in 1963; Benjamin B. Sendor for a memorandum on the Texas penal code in 1963; and John B. White, formerly of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for his study of the March 31, 1963, photographs of Lee Oswald, and for his brilliant interpretation of High Noon.

  Several valued colleagues in the field of Soviet affairs have helped me with questions that range from interpretation of Khrushchev’s policies during the 1959–1963 period to the light that Lee and Marina’s use of Russian in conversation with each other casts on their relationship. These colleagues are Edward L. Keenan, the late Leonard J. Kirsch, and Angela Stent Yergin of the Russian Research Center at Harvard; Mervyn Matthews of the University of Surrey, England; Peter Reddaway of the London School of Economics; and Colette Shulman.

  Before interviewing Marina Oswald, I consulted members of the psychoanalytic community. Since none has seen the final product, I prefer to thank them anonymously. I should, however, like to give special thanks to Dr. Sidney Isenberg, of Atlanta, Georgia, and to Dr. Irving Kaufman of Newton, Massachusetts, for their perceptiveness, their kindness, and their willingness to give even more help than I asked.

  I should like to thank Brad Leithauser, Mary Jo Salter, and Carol Watson for the very special gifts they brought to this book.

  And I thank Edward Crankshaw, Robert J. Korengold, Colgate S. Prentice, and Strobe Talbott for their help and encouragement.

  It would have been difficult for me to finish this book without Dr. Ruick S. Rolland and Dr. Doris Menzer-Benaron.

  And I thank my brothers, Stuart and Coit Johnson, and my sister, Eunice Campbell, for their love.

  Finally, I thank Marina Oswald Porter for her complete cooperation, for her loyalty, and for the enormous trust that she has placed in me.

  Priscilla McMillan

  Cambridge, Massachusetts

  August 1977

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Priscilla Johnson McMillan graduated from Radcliffe College with a master’s degree in 1952 and went to work for Senator John. F. Kennedy in 1953. In late 1959, she was working as a reporter in Moscow when she interviewed Lee Harvey Oswald, who was trying to defect to the Soviet Union. When JFK was assassinated in Dallas and it was reported that Oswald had been arrested, her first thought was, “My God, I know that boy.” In 1964 she befriended Marina Oswald and spent many months at her side, conducting hundreds of hours of interviews, in order to gather the primary source material that would become the foundation for her magisterial book. She would spend another 13 years researching and writing before first publishing Marina and Lee in 1977. McMillan is also the author of The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Modern Arms Race (Viking, 2005).