God did not create the universe, says Hawking

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and thereby might have influenced his decision to assassinate President Kennedy.

The discussion below will describe the events known to the Commission which most clearly reveals the formation and nature of Oswald's character. It will attempt to summarize the events of his early life, his experience in New York City and in the Marine Corps, and his interest in Marxism. It will examine his defection to the Soviet Union in 1959, his subsequent return to the United States and his life here after June of 1962. The review of the latter period will evaluate his personal and employment relations, his attempt to kill General Walker, his political activities, and his unsuccessful attempt to go to Cuba in late September of 1963. Various possible motives will be treated in the appropriate context of the discussion outlined above.

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The Early Years

Significant in shaping the character of Lee Harvey Oswald was the death of his father, a collector of insurance premiums. This occurred 2 months before Lee was born in New Orleans on October 18, 1939.12 That death strained the financial fortunes of the remainder of the Oswald family. It had its effect on Lee's mother, Marguerite, his brother Robert, who had been born in 1934, and his half-brother John Pic, who had been born in 1932 during Marguerite's previous marriage.13 It forced Marguerite Oswald to go to work to provide for her family.14 Reminding her sons that they were orphans and that the family's financial condition was poor, she placed John Pic and Robert Oswald in an orphans' home.15 From the time Marguerite Oswald returned to work until December 26, 1942, when Lee too was sent to the orphans' home, he was cared for principally by his mother's sister, by babysitters and by his mother, when she had time for him.16

Marguerite Oswald withdrew Lee from the orphans' home and took him with her to Dallas when he was a little over 4 years old.17 About 6 months later she also withdrew John Pic and Robert Oswald.18 Apparently that action was taken in anticipation of her marriage to Edwin A. Ekdahl, which took place in May of 1945.19 In the fall of that year John Pic and Robert Oswald went to a military academy where they stayed, except for vacations, until the spring of 1948.20 Lee Oswald remained with his mother and Ekdahl,21 to whom he became quite attached. John Pic testified that he thought Lee found in Ekdahl the father that he never had.22 That situation, however, was short-lived, for the relations between Marguerite Oswald and Ekdahl were stormy and they were finally divorced, after several separations and reunions, in the summer of 1948.23

After the divorce Mrs. Oswald complained considerably about how unfairly she was treated, dwelling on the fact that she was a widow with three children. John Pic, however, did not think her position was worse than that of many other people.24 In the fall of 1948 she told John Pic and Robert Oswald that she could not afford to send them back to the military school and she asked Pic to quit school

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entirely to help support the family, which he did for 4 months in the fall of 1948.25 In order to supplement their income further she falsely swore that Pic was 17 years old so that he could join the Marine Corps Reserves.26 Pic did turn over part of his income to his mother, but he returned to high school in January of 1949, where he stayed until 3 days before he was scheduled to graduate, when he left school in order to get into the Coast Guard.27 Since his mother did not approve of his decision to continue school he accepted the responsibility for that decision himself and signed his mother's name to all his own excuses and report cards.28

Pic thought that his mother overstated her financial problems and was unduly concerned about money. Referring to the period after the divorce from Ekdahl, which was apparently caused in part by Marguerite's desire to get more money from him, Pic said: "Lee was brought up in this atmosphere of constant money problems, and I am sure it had quite an effect on him, and also Robert." 29 Marguerite Oswald worked in miscellaneous jobs after her divorce from Ekdahl.30 When she worked for a time as an insurance saleslady, she would sometimes take Lee with her, apparently leaving him alone in the car while she transacted her business.31 When she worked during the school year, Lee had to leave an empty house in the morning, return to it for lunch and then again at night, his mother having trained him to do that rather than to play with other children.32

An indication of the nature of Lee's character at this time was provided in the spring of 1950, when he was sent to New Orleans to visit the family of his mother's sister, Mrs. Lillian Murret, for 2 or 3 weeks. Despite their urgings, he refused to play with the other children his own age.33 It also appears that Lee tried to tag along with his older brothers but apparently was not able to spend as much time with them as he would have liked, because of the age gaps of 5 and 7 years, which became more significant as the children grew older.34

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New York City

Whatever problems may have been created by Lee's home life in Louisiana and Texas, he apparently adjusted well enough there to have had an average, although gradually deteriorating, school record with no behavior or truancy problems. That was not the case, however, after he and his mother moved to New York in August of 1952, shortly before Lee's 13th birthday. They moved shortly after Robert joined the Marines; they lived for a time with John Pic who was stationed there with the Coast Guard.35 Relations soon became strained, however,36 so in late September Lee and his mother moved to their own apartment in the Bronx.37 Pic and his wife would have been happy to have kept Lee, however, who was becoming quite a disciplinary problem for his mother, having struck her on at least one occasion.38

The short-lived stay with the Pics was terminated after an incident in which Lee allegedly pulled out a pocket knife during an argument

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and threatened to use it on Mrs. Pic. When Pic returned home, Mrs. Oswald tried to play down the event but Mrs. Pic took a different view and asked the Oswalds to leave. Lee refused to discuss the matter with Pic, whom he had previously idolized, and their relations were strained thereafter. 39

On September 30, 1952, Lee enrolled in P.S. 117,40 a junior high school in the Bronx, where the other children apparently teased him because of his "western" clothes and Texas accent.41 He began to stay away from school, preferring to read magazines and watch television at home by himself. 42 This continued despite the efforts of the school authorities and, to a lesser extent, of his mother to have him return to school. 43 Truancy charges were brought against him alleging that he was "beyond the control of his mother insofar as school attendance is concerned." 44 Oswald was remanded for psychiatric observation to Youth House, an ins ution in which children are kept for psychiatric observation or for detention pending court appearance or commitment to a child-caring or custodial ins ution such as a training school. 45 He was in Youth House from April 16 to May 7, 1953,46 during which time he was examined by its Chief Psychiatrist, Dr. Renatus Hartogs, and interviewed and observed by other members of the Youth House staff. 47

Marguerite Oswald visited her son at Youth House, where she recalled that she waited in line "with Puerto Ricans and Negroes and everything." 48 She said that her pocketbook was searched "because the children in this home were such criminals, dope fiends, and had been in criminal offenses, that anybody entering this home had to be searched in case the parents were bringing cigarettes or narcotics or anything." 49 She recalled that Lee cried and said, "Mother, I want to get out of here. There are children in here who have killed people, and smoke. I want to get out." 50 Marguerite Oswald said that she had not realized until then in what kind of place her son had been confined. 51

On the other hand, Lee told his probation officer, John Carro, that "while he liked Youth House he miss[ed] the freedom of doing what he wanted. He indicated that he did not miss his mother." 52 Mrs. Evelyn D Siegel, a social worker who interviewed both Lee and his mother while Lee was confined in Youth House, reported that Lee "confided that the worse thing about Youth House was the fact that he had to be with other boys all the time, was disturbed about disrobing in front of them, taking showers with them etc." 53

Contrary to reports that appeared after the assassination, the psychiatric examination did not indicate that Lee Oswald was a potential assassin, potentially dangerous, that "his outlook on life had strongly paranoid overtones" or that he should be ins utionalized.54 Dr. Hartogs did find Oswald to be a tense, withdrawn, and evasive boy who intensely disliked talking about himself and his feelings. He noted that Lee liked to give the impression that he did not care for other people but preferred to keep to himself, so that he was not bothered and did not have to make the effort of communicating. Os-

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wald's withdrawn tendencies and solitary habits were thought to be the result of "intense anxiety, shyness, feelings of awkwardness and insecurity." 55 He was reported to have said "I don't want a friend and I don't like to talk to people" and "I dislike everybody." 56 He was also described as having a "Vivid fantasy life, turning around the topics of omnipotence and power, through which he tries to compensate for his present shortcomings and frustrations." 57 Dr. Hartogs summarized his report by stating:

This 13 year old well built boy has superior mental resources and functions only slightly below his capacity level in spite of chronic truancy from school which brought him into Youth House. No finding of neurological impairment or psychotic mental changes could be made. Lee has to be diagnosed as "personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and passive--aggressive tendencies." Lee has to be seen as an emotionally, quite disturbed youngster who suffers under the impact of really existing emotional isolation and deprivation, lack of affection, absence of family life and rejection by a self involved and conflicted mother.58
Dr. Hartogs recommended that Oswald be placed on probation on condition that he seek help and guidance through a child guidance clinic. There, he suggested, Lee should be treated by a male psychiatrist who could subs ute for the lack of a father figure. He also recommended that Mrs. Oswald seek "psychotherapeutic guidance through contact with a family agency." The possibility of commitment was to be considered only if the probation plan was not successful. 59

Lee's withdrawal was also noted by Mrs. Siegel, who described him as a "seriously detached, withdrawn youngster." 60 She also noted that there was "a rather pleasant, appealing quality about this emotionally starved, affectionless youngster which grows as one speaks to him." 61 She thought that he had detached himself from the world around him because "no one in it ever met any of his needs for love." 62 She observed that since Lee's mother worked all day, he made his own meals and spent all his time alone because he didn't make friends with the boys in the neighborhood. She thought that he "withdrew into a completely solitary and detached existence where he did as he wanted and he didn't have to live by any rules or come into contact with people." 63 Mrs. Siegel concluded that Lee "just felt that his mother never gave a damn for him. He always felt like a burden that she simply just had to tolerate." 64 Lee confirmed some of those observations by saying that he felt almost as if there were a veil between him and other people through which they could not reach him, but that he preferred the veil to remain intact. He admitted to fantasies about being powerful and sometimes hurting and killing people, but refused to elaborate on them. He took the position that such matters were his own business. 65

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A psychological human figure-drawing test corroborated the interviewer's findings that Lee was insecure and had limited social contacts. Irving Sokolow, a Youth House psychologist reported that:

The Human Figure Drawings are empty, poor characterizations of persons approximately the same age as the subject. They reflect a considerable amount of impoverishment in the social and emotional areas. He appears to be a somewhat insecure youngster exhibiting much inclination for warm and satisfying relationships to others. There is some indication that he may relate to men more easily than to women in view of the more mature conceptualisation. He appears slightly withdrawn and in view of the lack of detail within the drawings this may assume a more significant characteristic. He exhibits some difficulty in relationship to the maternal figure suggesting more anxiety in this area than in any other.66
Lee scored an IQ of 118 on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. According to Sokolow, this indicated a "present intellectual functioning in the upper range of bright normal intelligence." 67 Sokolow said that although Lee was "presumably disinterested in school subjects he operates on a much higher than average level." 68 On the Monroe Silent Reading Test, Lee's score indicated no re ation in reading speed and comprehension; he had better than average ability in arithmetical reasoning for his age group. 69

Lee told Carro, his probation officer, that he liked to be by himself because he had too much difficulty in making friends. 70 The reports of Carro and Mrs. Siegel also indicate an ambivalent at ude toward authority on Oswald's part. Carro reported that Lee was disruptive in class after he returned to school on a regular basis in the fall of 1953. He had refused to salute the flag and was doing very little, if any, work. It appears that he did not want to do any of the things which the authorities suggested in their efforts to bring him out of the s into which he appeared to be retreating.71 He told Mrs. Siegel that he would run away if sent to a boarding school. On the other hand he also told her that he wished his mother had been more firm with him in her attempts to get him to return to school. 72

The reports of the New York authorities indicate that Lee's mother gave him very little affection and did not serve as any sort of subs ute for a father. Furthermore she did not appear to understand her own relationship to Lee's psychological problems. After her interview with Mrs. Oswald, Mrs. Siegel described her as a smartly dressed, gray haired woman, very self-possessed and alert and superficially affable," but essentially a "defensive, rigid, self-involved person who had real difficulty in accepting and relating to people" and who had "little understanding" of Lee's behavior and of the "protective s he has drawn around himself." 73 Dr. Hartogs reported that Mrs. Oswald did not understand that Lee's withdrawal was a form of "violent but silent protest against his neglect by her and represents his reac-

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tion to a complete absence of any real family life." 74 Carro reported that when questioned about his mother Lee said, "well I've got to live with her. I guess I love her." 75 It may also be significant that, as reported by John Pic, "Lee slept with my mother until I joined the service in 1950. This would make him approximately 10, well, almost 11 years old." 76

The factors in Lee Oswald's personality which were noted by those who had contact with him in New York indicate that he had great difficulty in adapting himself to conditions in that city. His usual reaction to the problems which he encountered there was simply withdrawal. Those factors indicated a severe inability to enter into relationships with other people. In view of his experiences when he visited his relatives in New Orleans in the spring of 1950, and his other solitary habits, Lee had apparently been experiencing similar problems before going to New York, and as will be shown below, this failure to adapt to. his environment was a dominant trait in his later life.

It would be incorrect, however, to believe that those aspects of Lee's personality which were observed in New York could have led anyone to predict the outburst of violence which finally occurred. Carro was the only one of Oswald's three principal observers who recommended that he be placed in a boy's home or similar ins ution. 77 But Carro was quite specific that his recommendation was based primarily on the adverse factors in Lee's environment--his lack of friends, the apparent unavailability of any agency assistance and the ineffectualness of his mother--and not on any particular mental disturbance, in the boy himself.78 Carro testified that:

There was nothing that would lead me to believe when I saw him at the age of 12 that them would be seeds of destruction for somebody. I couldn't in all honesty sincerely say such a thing. 79
Mrs. Siegel concluded her report with the statement that:
Despite his withdrawal, he gives the impression that he is not so difficult to reach as he appears and patient, prolonged effort in a sustained relationship with one therapist might bring results. There are indications that he has suffered serious personality damage but if he can receive help quickly this might be repaired to some extent.80
Lee Oswald never received that help. Few social agencies even in New York were equipped to provide the kind of intensive treatment that he needed, and when one of the city's clinics did find room to handle him, for some reason the record does not show, advantage was never taken of the chance afforded to Oswald. When Lee became a disciplinary problem upon his return to school in the fall of 1953, and when his mother failed to cooperate in any way with school authorities, authorities were finally forced to consider placement in a home for boys. Such a placement was postponed, however, perhaps in part at

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east because Lee's behavior suddenly improved. Before the court took any action, the Oswalds left New York 81 in January of 1954, and returned to New Orleans where Lee finished the ninth grade before he left school to work for a year. 82 Then in October of 1956, he joined the Marines. 83

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Return to New Orleans and Joining the Marine Corps

After his return to New Orleans Oswald was teased at school because of the northern accent which he had acquired.84 He concluded that school had nothing to offer him. 85 His mother exercised little control over him and thought he could decide for himself whether to go on in school.86 Neighbors and others who knew him at that time recall an introverted boy who read a great deal.87 He took walks and visited museums, and sometimes rode a rented bicycle in the park on Saturday mornings.88 Mrs. Murret believes that he talked at length with a girl on the telephone, but no one remembers that he had any dates. 89 A friend, Edward Voebel, testified that "he was more bashful about girls than anything else." 90

Several witnesses testified that Lee Oswald was not aggressive. 91 He was, however, involved in some fights. Once a group of white boys beat him up for sitting in the Negro section of a bus, which he apparently did simply out of ignorance. 92 Another time, he fought with two brothers who claimed that he had picked on the younger of them, 3 years Oswald's junior. Two days later, "some big guy, probably from a high school--he looked like a tremendous football player" accosted Oswald on the way home from school and punched him in the mouth, making his lip bleed and loosening a tooth. Voebel took Oswald back to the school to attend to his wounds, and their "mild friendship" stemmed from that incident.93 Voebel also recalled that Oswald once outlined a plan to cut the glass in the window of a store on Rampart Street and steal a pistol, but he was not sure then that Oswald meant to carry out the plan, and in fact they never did. Voebel said that Oswald "wouldn't start any fights, but if you wanted to start one with him, he was going to make sure that he ended it, or you were going to really have one, because he wasn't going to take anything from anybody." 94 In a space for the names of "close friends" on the ninth grade personal history record, Oswald first wrote "Edward Vogel," an obvious misspelling of Voebel's name, and "Arthor Abear," most likely Arthur Hebert, a classmate who has said that he did not know Oswald well. Oswald erased those names, however, and indicated that he had no close friends.95

It has been suggested that this misspelling of names, apparently on a phonetic basis, was caused by a reading-spelling disability from which Oswald appeared to suffer.96 Other evidence of the existence of such a disability is provided by the many other misspellings that appear in Oswald's writings, portions of which are quoted below.

Sometime during this period, and under cir stances to be discussed more fully below, Oswald started to read Communist litera-

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ture, which he obtained from the public library.97 One of his fellow employees, Palmer McBride, stated that Oswald said he would like to kill President Eisenhower because he was exploiting the working class. 98 Oswald praised Khrushchev and suggested that he and McBride join the Communist Party "to take advantage of their social functions." 99 Oswald also became interested in the New Orleans Amateur Astronomy Association, an organization of high school students. The association's then president, William E. Wulf, testified that he remembered an occasion when Oswald

... started expounding the Communist doctrine and saying that he was highly interested in communism, that communism was the only way of life for the worker, et cetera, and then came out with a statement that he was looking for a Communist cell in town to join but he couldn't find any. He was a little dismayed at this, and he said that he couldn't find any that would show any interest in him as a Communist, and subsequently, after this conversation, my father came in and we were kind of arguing back and forth about the situation, and my father came in the room, heard what we were arguing on communism, and that this boy was loud-mouthed, boisterous, and my father asked him to leave the house and politely put him out of the house, and that is the last I have seen or spoken with Oswald. 100
Despite this apparent interest in communism, Oswald tried to join the Marines when he was 16 years old.101 This was 1 year before his actual enlistment and just a little over 2.5 years after he left New York. He wrote a note in his mother's name to school authorities in New Orleans saying that he was leaving school because he and his mother were moving to San Diego. In fact, he had quit school in an attempt to obtain his mother's assistance to join the Marines.102 While he apparently was able to induce his mother to make a false statement about his age he was nevertheless unable to convince the proper authorities that he was really 17 years old.103 There is evidence that Oswald was greatly influenced in his decision to join the Marines by the fact that his brother Robert had done so approximately 3 years before. 104 Robert Oswald had given his Marine Corps manual to his brother Lee, who studied it during the year following his unsuccessful attempt to enlist until "He knew it by heart." 105 According to Marguerite Oswald, "Lee lived for the time that he would become 17 years old to join the Marines--that whole year." 106 In John Pic's view, Oswald was motivated to join the Marines in large part by a desire "to get from out and under ... the yoke of oppression from my mother." 107

Oswald's inability or lack of desire to enter into meaningful relationships with other people continued during this period in New Orleans (1954-56). 108 It probably contributed greatly to the general dissatisfaction which he exhibited with his environment, a dissatisfaction which seemed to find expression at this particular point in his

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intense desire to join the Marines and get away from his surroundings and his mother. His study of Communist literature, which might appear to be inconsistent with his desire to join the Marines, could have been another manifestation of Oswald's rejection of his environment.109

His difficulty in relating to other people and his general dissatisfaction with the world around him continued while he was in the Marine Corps. Kerry Thornley, a marine associate, who, shortly after Oswald's defection, wrote an as yet unpublished novel based in considerable part on Oswald's life, testified that "definitely the Marine Corps was not what he had expected it to be when he joined." He said that Oswald "seemed to guard against developing real close friendships." 110 Daniel Powers, another marine who was stationed with Oswald for part of his marine career, testified that Oswald seemed "always [to be] striving for a relationship, but whenever he did ... his general personality would alienate the group against him." Other marines also testified that Oswald had few friends and kept very much to himself. 112

While there is nothing in Oswald's military records to indicate that he was mentally unstable or otherwise psychologically unfit for duty in the Marine Corps, 113 he did not adjust well to conditions which he found in that service. 114 He did not rise above the rank of private first class, even though he had passed a qualifying examination for the rank of corporal.115 His Marine career was not helped by his at ude that he was a man of great ability and intelligence and that many of his superiors in the Marine Corps were not sufficiently competent to give him orders.116 While Oswald did not seem to object to authority in the abstract, he did think that he should be the one to exercise it. John E. Donovan, one of his former officers, testified that Oswald thought "that authority, particularly the Marine Corps, ought to be able to recognize talent such as his own, without a given magic college degree, and put them in positions of prominence? 117 Oswald manifested this feeling about authority by baiting his officers. He led them into discussions of foreign affairs about which they often knew less than he did, since he had apparently devoted considerable time to a study of such matters.118 When the officers were unable to discuss foreign affairs satisfactorily with him, Oswald regarded them as unfit to exercise command over him.119 Nelson Delgado, one of Oswald's fellow Marines, testified that Oswald tried to "cut up anybody that was high ranking" in those arguments "and make himself come out top dog.". 120 Oswald probably engaged his superiors in arguments on a subject that he had studied in an attempt to attract attention to himself and to support his exaggerated idea of his own abilities.

Thornley also testified that he thought that Oswald's extreme personal sloppiness in the Marine Corps "fitted into a general personality pattern of his: to do whatever was not wanted of him, a recalcitrant trend in his personality." 121 Oswald "seemed to be a person who would go out of his way to get into trouble" 122 and then used the "special treatment" he received as an example of the way in which

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he was being picked on and "as a means of getting or attempting to get sympathy." 123 In Thornley's view, Oswald labored under a persecution complex which he strove to maintain and "felt the Marine Corps kept a pretty close watch on him because of his 'subversive' activities." Thornley added: "I think it was kind of necessary to him to believe that he was being picked on. It wasn't anything extreme. I wouldn't go as far as to call it, call him a paranoid, but a definite tendency there was in that direction, I think." 124

Powers considered Oswald to be meek and easily led,125 an "individual that you would brainwash, and quite easy ... [but] I think once he believed in something ... he stood in his beliefs." 126 Powers also testified that Oswald was reserved and seemed to be "somewhat the frail, little puppy in the litter." 127 He had the nickname "Ozzie Rabbit." 128

Oswald read a good deal, said Powers, but "he would never be reading any of the shoot-em-up westerns or anything like that. Normally, it would be a good type of literature; and the one that I recall was 'Leaves of Grass,' by Wait Whitman." 129 According to Powers, Oswald said: "All the Marine Corps did was to teach you to kill and after you got out of the Marines you might be good gangsters." 130 Powers believed that when Oswald arrived in Japan he acquired a girlfriend, "finally attaining a male status or image in his own eyes." 131 That apparently caused Oswald to become more self-confident, aggressive and even somewhat pugnacious, although Powers "wouldn't say that this guy is a troublemaker." 132 Powers said "now he was Oswald the man rather than Oswald the rabbit." 133 Oswald once told Powers that he didn't care if he returned to the United States at all. 134

While in Japan, Oswald's new found apparent self confidence and pugnaciousness led to an incident in which he spilled a drink on one of his sergeants and abusively challenged him to fight.135 At the court-martial hearing which followed, Oswald admitted that he had been rather drunk when the incident occurred. He testified that he had felt the sergeant had a grudge against him and that he had unsuccessfully sought a transfer from the sergeant's unit. He said that he had simply wanted to discuss the question with the sergeant and the drink had been spilled accidentally. The hearing officer agreed with the latter claim but found Oswald guilty of wrongfully using provoking words and sentenced him to 28 days, canceling the suspension of a 20-day sentence that Oswald had received in an earlier court-martial for possessing an unauthorized pistol with which he had accidentally shot himself.136

At his own request, Oswald was transferred from active duty to the Marine Corps Reserve under honorable conditions in September of 1959, 3 months prior to his regularly scheduled separation date, 137 ostensibly to care for his mother who had been injured in an accident at her work.138 He was undesirably discharged from the Marine Corps Reserve, to which he had been assigned on inactive status following his transfer from active duty, after it was learned that he had

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defected to the Soviet Union.139 In an attempt to have this discharge reversed, Oswald wrote to then Secretary of the Navy Connally on January 30, 1962, stating that he would "employ all means to right this gross mistake or injustice."

Governor Connally had just resigned to run for Governor of Texas, so he advised Oswald that he had forwarded the letter to his successor.141 It is thus clear that Oswald knew that Governor Connally was never directly concerned with his discharge and he must have known that President Kennedy had had nothing to do with it. In that connection, it does not appear that Oswald ever expressed any dissatisfaction of any kind with either the President or Governor Connally.142 Marina Oswald testified that she "had never heard anything bad about Kennedy from Lee. And he never had anything against him." 143 Mrs. Oswald said that her husband did not say anything about Governor Connally after his return to the United States. She testified: "But while we were in Russia he spoke well of him. ... Lee said that when he would return to the United States he would vote for him [for Governor]." 144 Oswald must have already learned that the Governor could not help him with his discharge because he was no longer Secretary of the Navy, at the time he made that remark.

Even though Oswald apparently did not express any hostility against the President or Governor Connally, he continued to be concerned about his undesirable discharge.145 It is clear that he thought he had been unjustly treated. Probably his complaint was due to the fact that his discharge was not related to anything he had done while on active duty and also because he had not received any notice of the original discharge proceedings, since his whereabouts were not known.146 He continued his efforts to reverse the discharge by pe ioning the Navy Discharge Review Board, which finally declined to modify the discharge and so advised him in a letter dated July 1963.147

Governor Connally's connection with the discharge, although indirect, caused the Commission to consider whether he might have been Oswald's real target. In that connection, it should be noted that Marina Oswald testified on September 6, 1964, that she thought her husband "was shooting at Connally rather than President Kennedy." In support of her conclusion Mrs. Oswald noted her husband's undesirable discharge and that she could not think of any reason why Oswald would want to kill President Kennedy.148 It should be noted, however, that at the time Oswald fired the shots at the Presidential limousine the Governor occupied the seat in front of the President, and it would have been almost impossible for Oswald to have hit the Governor without hitting the President first. Oswald could have shot the Governor as the car approached the Depository or as it was making the turn onto Elm Street. Once it had started down Elm Street toward the Triple Underpass, however, the President almost completely blocked Oswald's view of the Governor prior to the time the first shot struck the President.150 Furthermore, Oswald would have had other and more favorable opportunities to strike at the Governor than on this occasion

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when, as a member of the President's party, he had more protection than usual. It would appear, therefore, that to the extent Oswald's undesirable discharge affected his motivation, it was more in terms of a general hostility against the government and its representatives rather than a grudge against any particular person.

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Interest in Marxism

As indicated above, Oswald started to read Communist literature after he and his mother left New York and moved to New Orleans.151 He told Aline Mosby, a reporter who interviewed him after he arrived in Moscow:

I'm a Marxist, ... I became interested about the age of 15. From an ideological viewpoint. An old lady handed me a pamphlet about saving the Rosenbergs. ... I looked at that paper and I still remember it for some reason, I don't know why.152
Oswald studied Marxism after he joined the Marines and his sympathies in that direction and for the Soviet Union appear to have been widely known, at least in the unit to which he was assigned after his return from the Far East. His interest in Russia led some of his associates to call him "comrade" 153 or "Oswaldskovitch." 154 He always wanted to play the red pieces in chess because, as he said in an apparently humorous context, he preferred the "Red Army." 155 He studied the Russian language,156 read a Russian language newspaper 157 and seemed interested in what was going on in the Soviet Union.158 Thornley, who thought Oswald had an "irrevocable conviction" that his Marxist beliefs were correct, testified:

I think you could sit down and argue with him for a number of years ... and I don't think you could have changed his mind on that unless you knew why he believed it in the first place. I certainly don't. I don't think with any kind of formal argument you could have shaken that conviction. And that is why I say irrevocable. It was just--never getting back to looking at things from any other way once he had become a Marxist, whenever that was.159
Thornley also testified about an incident which grew out of a combination of Oswald's known Marxist sympathies and George Orwell's book "1984," one of Oswald's favorite books which Thornley read at Oswald's suggestion. Shortly after Thornley finished reading that book the Marine unit to which both men were assigned was required to take part in a Saturday morning parade in honor of some retiring noncommissioned officers, an event which they both approached with little enthusiasm. While waiting for the parade to start they talked briefly about "1984" even though Oswald seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. After a brief period of silence Os-

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wald remarked on the stupidity of the parade and on how angry it made him, to which Thornley replied: "Well, comes the revolution you will change all that." Thornley testified:

At which time he looked at me like a betrayed Caesar and screamed, screamed definitely, "Not you, too, Thornley." And I remember his voice cracked as he said this. He was definitely disturbed at what I had said and I didn't really think I had said that much. ... I never said anything to him again and he never said anything to me again.160
Thornley said that he had made his remark only in the context of "1984" and had not intended any criticism of Oswald's political views which is the way in which, Thornley thought, Oswald took his remarks.161

Lieutenant Donovan testified that Oswald thought that "there were many grave injustices concerning the affairs in the international situation." He recalled that Oswald had a specific interest in Latin America, particularly Cuba, and expressed opposition to the Batista regime and sympathy for Castro, an at ude which, Donovan said, was "not ... unpopular" at that time. Donovan testified that he never heard Oswald express a desire personally to take part in the elimination of injustices anywhere in the world and that he "never heard him in any way, shape or form confess that he was a Communist, or that he ever thought about being a Communist." 162 Delgado testified that Oswald was "a complete believer that our way of government was not quite right" and believed that our Government did not have "too much to offer," but was not in favor of "the Communist way of life." Delgado and Oswald talked more about Cuba than Russia, and sometimes imagined themselves as leaders in the Cuban Army or Government, who might "lead an expedition to some of these other islands and free them too." 163

Thornley also believed that Oswald's Marxist beliefs led to an extraordinary view of history under which:

He looked upon the eyes of future people as some kind of tribunal, and he wanted to be on the winning side so that 10,000 years from-now people would look in the history books and say, "Well, this man was ahead of his time." ... The eyes of the future became ... the eyes of God.... He was concerned with his image in history and I do think that is why he chose ... the particular method [of defecting] he chose and did it in the way he did. It got him in the newspapers. It did broadcast his name out.164
Thornley thought that Oswald not only wanted a place in history but also wanted to live comfortably in the present. He testified that if Oswald could not have that "degree of physical comfort that he expected or sought, I think he would then throw himself entirely on the other thing he also wanted, which was the image in history. ...

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I think he wanted both if he could have them. If he didn't, he wanted to die with the knowledge that, or with the idea that he was somebody." 165

Oswald's interest in Marxism led some people to avoid him, even though as his wife suggested, that interest may have been motivated by a desire to gain attention.166 He used his Marxist and associated activities as excuses for his difficulties in getting along in the world, which were usually caused by entirely different factors. His use of those excuses to present himself to the world as a person who was being unfairly treated is shown most clearly by his employment relations after his return from the Soviet Union. Of course, he made his real problems worse to the extent that his use of those excuses prevented him from discovering the real reasons for and attempting to overcome his difficulties. Of greater importance, Oswald's commitment to Marxism contributed to the decisions which led him to defect to the Soviet Union in 1959, and later to engage in activities on behalf of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in the summer of 1963, and to attempt to go to Cuba late in September of that year.

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Defection to the Soviet Union

After Oswald left the Marine Corps in September of 1959, ostensibly to care for his mother, he almost immediately left for the Soviet Union where he attempted to renounce his citizenship. At the age of 19, Oswald thus committed an act which was the most striking indication he had yet given of his willingness to act on his beliefs in quite extraordinary ways.

While his defection resulted in part from Oswald's commitment to Marxism, it appears that personal and psychological factors were also involved. On August 17, 1963, Oswald told Mr. William Stuckey, who had arranged a radio debate on Oswald's activities on behalf of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, that while he had begun to read Marx and Engels at the age of 15, the conclusive thing that made him decide that Marxism was the answer was his service in Japan. He said living conditions over there convinced him something was wrong with the system, and that possibly Marxism was the answer. He said it was in Japan that he made up his mind to go to Russia and see for himself how a revolutionary society operates, a Marxist society.167

On the other hand, at least one person who knew Oswald after his return thought that his defection had a more personal and psychological basis.168 The validity of the latter observation is borne out by some of the things Oswald wrote in connection with his defection indicating that his motivation was at least in part a personal one. On November 26, 1959, shortly after he arrived in the Soviet Union, and probably before Soviet authorities had given him permission to stay indefinitely, he wrote to his brother Robert that the Soviet Union

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was a country which "I have always considered ... to be my own" and that he went there "only to find freedom. ... I could never have been personally happy in the U.S." 169 He wrote in another letter that he would "never return to the United States which is a country I hate." 170 His idea that he was to find "freedom" in the Soviet Union was to be rudely shattered.

Whatever Oswald's reasons for going to the Soviet Union might have been, however, there can be little doubt that his desire to go was quite strong. In addition to studying the Russian language while he was in the Marines, Oswald had managed to save enough money to cover the expenses of his forthcoming trip. While there is no proof that he saved $1,500, as he claimed, it would have taken considerable discipline to save whatever amount was required to finance his defection out of the salary of a low ranking enlisted man.171

The extent of Oswald's desire to go to the Soviet Union and of his initial commitment to that country can best be understood, however, in the context of his concomitant hatred of the United States, which was most clearly expressed in his November 26, 1959, letter to his brother Robert. Addressing himself to the question of why "I and my fellow workers and communist's would like to see the present capitalist government of the U.S. overthrown" Oswald stated that that government supported an economic system "which exploits all its workers" and under which "art, culture and the sprit of man are subjected to commercial enterpraising, [and] religion and education are used as a tool to surpress what would otherwise be a population questioning their government's unfair economic system and plans for war." 172

He complained in his letter about segregation, unemployment, automation, and the use of military forces to suppress other populations. Asking his brother why he supported the American Government and what ideals he put forward, Oswald wrote:

Ask me and I will tell you I fight for communism. ... I will not say your grandchildren will live under communism, look for yourself at history, look at a world map! America is a dicing country, I do not wish to be a part of it, nor do I ever again wish to be used as a tool in its military aggressions.
This should answer your question, and also give you a glimpse of my way of thinking.
So you speak of advantages. Do you think that is why I am here? For personal, material advantages? Happiness is not based on oneself, it does not consist of a small home, of taking and getting, Happiness is taking part in the struggle, where there is no borderline between one's own personal world, and the world in general. I never believed I would find more material advantages at this stage of development in the Soviet Union than I might of had in the U.S. ° ° ° °

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I have been a pro-communist for years and yet I have never met a communist, instead I kept silent and observed, and what I observed plus my Marxist learning brought me here to the Soviet Union. I have always considered this country to be my own.173
Responding to Robert's statement that he had not "renounced" him, Oswald told his brother "on what terms I want this arrangement." He advised Robert that:

In the event of war I would kill any american who put a uniform on in defense of the american government-- any american.
That in my own mind I have no attachment's of any kind in the U.S.
That I want to, and I shall, live a normal happy and peaceful life here in the Soviet Union for the rest of my life.
That my mother and you are (in spite of what the newspaper said) not objects of affection, but only examples of workers in the U.S.
Despite this commitment to the Soviet Union Oswald met disappointments there just as he had in the past. At the outset the Soviets told him that he could not remain. It seems that Oswald immediately attempted suicide--a striking indication of how much he desired to remain in the Soviet Union.175 It shows how willing he was to act dramatically and decisively when he faced an emotional crisis with few readily available alternatives at hand. He was shocked to find that the Soviet Union did not accept him with open arms. The entry in his self-styled "Historic Diary" for October 21, 1959, reports:

I am shocked!! My dreams! ... I have waited for 2 year to be accepted. My fondes dreams are shattered because of a petty official, ... I decide to end it. Soak fist in cold water to numb the pain, Than slash my leftwrist. Than plaug wrist into bathtub of hot water.... Somewhere, a violin plays, as I watch my life whirl away. I think to myself "How easy to Die" and "A Sweet Death, (to violins) ... 176
Oswald was discovered in time to thwart his attempt at suicide. 177 He was taken to a hospital in Moscow where he was kept until October 28, 1959.178

Still intent, however, on staying in the Soviet Union, Oswald went on October 31, to the American Embassy to renounce his U.S. citizenship. Mr. Richard E. Snyder, then Second Secretary and senior consular official at the Embassy, testified that Oswald was extremely sure of himself and seemed "to know what his mission was. He took charge, in a sense, of the conversation right from the beginning." He presented the following signed note:

I Lee Harvey Oswald do hereby request that my present citizenship in the United States of America, be revoked.
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I have entered the Soviet Union for the express purpose of applying for citizenship in the Soviet Union, through the means of naturalization.
My request for citizenship is now pending before the Surprem Soviet of the U.S.S.R.
I take these steps for political reasons. My request for the revoking of my American citizenship is made only after the longest and most serious considerations.
I affirm that my allegiance is to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.180 (See Commission Exhibit 913, p. 261.)
As his "principal reason" for renouncing his citizenship Oswald stated: "I am a Marxist." 181 He also alluded to hardships endured by his mother as a worker, referring to them as experiences that he did not intend to have himself,182 even though he stated that he had never held a civilian job.183 He said that his Marine service in Okinawa and elsewhere had given him "a chance to observe 'American imperialism.'" but he also displayed some sensitivity at not having reached a higher rank in the Marine Corps.184 He stated that he had volunteered to give Soviet officials any information that he had concerning Marine Corps operations,185 and intimated that he might know something of special interest.186 Oswald's "Historic Diary" describes the event in part as follows:

I leave Embassy, elated at this showdown, returning to my hotel I feel now my enorgies are not spent in vain. I'm sure Russians will except me after this sign of my faith in them.187
The Soviet authorities finally permitted Oswald to remain in their country.188 No evidence has been found that they used him for any particular propaganda or other political or informational purposes. They sent him to Minsk to work in a radio and television factory as a metal worker.189 The Soviet authorities denied Oswald permission to attend a university in Moscow,190 but they gave him a monthly allowance of 700 rubles a month (old exchange rate)191 in addition to his factory salary of approximately equal amount 192 and considerably better living quarters than those accorded to Soviet citizens of equal age and station.193 The subsidy, apparently similar to those sometimes given to foreigners allowed to remain in the Soviet Union, together with his salary, gave Oswald an income which he said approximated that of the director of the factory in which he worked.194

Even though he received more money and better living quarters than other Russians doing similar work, he envied his wife's uncle, a colonel in the MVD, because of the larger apartment in which he lived. Reminiscent of his at ude toward his superiors in the Marine Corps, Oswald apparently resented the exercise of authority over him and the better treatment afforded to Communist Party officials.195 After he returned to the United States he took the position that the Communist Party officials in the Soviet Union were opportunists who

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were betraying their positions for personal gain. He is reported to have expressed the conclusion that they had "fat stinking politicians over there just like we have over here." 196

Oswald apparently continued to have personal difficulties while he was in Minsk. Although Marina Oswald told the Commission that her husband had good personal relationships in the Soviet Union,197 Katherine Ford, one of the members of the Russian community in Dallas with which the Oswalds became acquainted upon their arrival in the United States, stated that Mrs. Oswald told her everybody in Russia "hated him." 198 Jeanne De Mohrenschildt, another member of that group, said that Oswald told her that he had returned because "I didn't find what I was looking for." 199 George De Mohrenschildt thought that Oswald must have become disgusted with life in the Soviet Union as the novelty of the presence of an American wore off and he began to be less the center of attention.200

The best description of Oswald's state of mind, however, is set forth in his own "Historic Diary." Under the entry for May 1, 1960, he noted that one of his acquaintances "relats many things I do not know about the U.S.S.R.. I begin to feel uneasy inside, its true!" 201 Under the entry for August-September of that year he wrote:

As my Russian improves I become increasingly conscious of just what sort of a society I live in. Mass gymnastics, complusory afterwork meeting, usually political information meeting. Complusory attendance at lectures and the sending of the entire shop collective (except me) to pick potatoes on a Sunday, at a state collective farm: A "patroict duty" to bring in the harvest. The opions of the workers (unvoiced) are that its a great pain in the neck: they don't seem to be es ialy enthusiastic about any of the "collective" duties a natural feeling. I am increasingly aware of the presence, in all thing, of Lebizen, shop party secretary, fat, fortyish, and jovial on the outside. He is a no-nonsense party regular.202
Finally, the entry of January 4-31 of 1961:

I am stating to reconsider my disire about staying the work is drab the money I get has nowhere to be spent. No night clubs or bowling allys no places of recreation acept the trade union dances I have have had enough.203
Shortly thereafter, less than 18 months after his defection, about 6 weeks before he met Marina Prusakova, Oswald opened negotiations with the U.S. Embassy in Moscow looking toward his return to the United States.204

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Return to the United States

In view of the intensity of his earlier commitment to the Soviet Union, a great change must have occurred in Oswald's thinking to

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induce him to return to the United States. The psychological effects of that change must have been highly unsettling. It should be remembered that he was not yet 20 years old when he went to the Soviet Union with such high hopes and not quite 23 when he returned bitterly disappointed. His attempt to renounce his citizenship had been an open expression of hostility against the United States and a profound rejection of his early life. The dramatic break with society in America now had to be undone. His return to the United States publicly testified to the utter failure of what had been the most important act of his life.

Marina Oswald confirmed the fact that her husband was experiencing psychological difficulties at the time of his return. She said that "immediately after coming to the United States Lee changed. I did not know him as such a man in Russia." 205 She added that while he helped her as he had done before, he became more of a recluse, that "[he] was very irritable, sometimes for a trifle" and that "Lee was very unrestrained and very explosive" during the period from November 19, 1962 to March of 1963.206

After the assassination she wrote that:

In general, our family life began to deteriorate after we arrived in America. Lee was always hot-tempered, and now this trait of character more and more prevented us from living together in harmony. Lee became very irritable, and sometimes some completely trivial thing would drive him into a rage. I myself do not have a particularly quiet disposition, but I had to change my character a great deal in order to maintain a more or less peaceful family life.207
Marina Oswald's judgment of her husband's state of mind may be substantiated by comparing material which he wrote in the Soviet Union with what he wrote while on the way back to the United States and after his return. While in the Soviet Union he wrote his longest and clearest piece of work, "The Collective." This was a fairly coherent description of life in that country, basically centered around the radio and television factory in which he worked.208 While it was apparently intended for publication in the United States, and is in many respects critical of certain aspects of life in the Soviet Union, it appears to be the work of a fairly well organized person. Oswald prefaced his manuscript with a short autobiographical sketch which reads in part as follows:

Lee Harvey Oswald was born in Oct 1939 in New Orleans La. the son of a Insuraen Salesmen whose early death left a far mean streak of indepence brought on by negleck. entering the US Marine corp at 17 this streak of independence was strengthed by exotic journeys to Japan the Philipines and the scores of odd Islands in the Pacific immianly after serving out his 3 years

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This page reproduces photographs of Lee Harvey Oswald.

COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2891: Oswald in Minsk.

COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2892: Oswald in Minsk.

COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2788: Oswald taken after his return from the Soviet Union.

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in the USMC he abonded his american life to seek a new life in the USSR. full of optimism and hope he stood in red square in the fall of 1959 vowing to see his chosen course through, after, however, two years and a lot of growing up I decided to return to the USA. ... 209
"The Collective" contrasts sharply with material which Oswald seems to have written after he left the Soviet Union,210 which appears to be more an expression of his own psychological condition than of a reasoned analysis. The latter material expresses great hostility to both communism and capitalism. He wrote, that to a person knowing both of those systems, "their can be no mediation between those systems as they exist to-day and that person. He must be opposed to their basic foundations and representatives" 211

and yet it is immature to take the sort of at ude which says "a curse on both your houses!" their are two great representative of power in the world, simply expressed, the left and right, and their offspring factions and concerns.
any practical attempt at one alternative must have as its nuclus the triditionall ideological best of both systems, and yet be utterly opposed to both systems.212
Such an alternative was to be opposed both to capitalism and communism because:

No man, having known, having lived, under the Russian Communist and American capitalist system, could possibly make a choice between them, there is no choice, one offers oppresstion the other poverty. Both offer imperilistic injustice, tinted with two brands of slavery.213
Oswald actually did attempt to formulate such an alternative 214 which he planned to "put forward" himself.215 He thought the new alternative would have its best chance to be accepted after "conflict between the two world systems leaves the world country without defense or foundation of government,"216 after which the survivors would "seek a alternative opposed to those systems which have brough them misery." 217 Oswald realized that "their thinking and education will be steeped in the traditions of those systems [and] they would never except a 'new order' complete beyond their understanding." 218 As a result he thought it would be "neccary to oppose the old systems but at the same time support their cherished tractions." 219

Expanding on his ideas on how his alternative to communism and capitalism might be introduced, he wrote of a "readily foreseeable ... economic, political or military crisis, internal or external, [which] will bring about the final destruction of the capitalist. system," 220 and indicated that "preparation in a special party could safeguard an inde-

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pendant course of action after the debacle," 221 which would achieve the goal, which was:

The emplacement of a separate, democratic, pure communist society ... but one with union-communes, democratic socializing of production and without regard to the twisting apart of Marxism Marxist Communism by other powers.222
While "[r]esoufualniss and patient working towards the aforesaid goal's are preferred rather than loud and useless manifestation's of protest," 223 Oswald went on to note:

But these preferred tactics now, may prove to be too limited in the near future, they should not be confused with slowness, indecision or fear, only the intellectually fearless could even be remotely attracted too our doctrine, and yet this doctrine requires the utmost utmost restraint, a state of being in itself majustic in power.224
Oswald's decided rejection of both capitalism and communism seemed to place him in a situation in which he could not live with satisfaction either in the United States or in the Soviet Union. The discussion above has already set forth examples of his expression of hatred for the United States. He also expressed hatred of the Soviet Union and of the Communist Party, U.S.A., even though he later referred to the latter as "trusted long time fighters for progress." 225 He wrote:

The Communist Party of the United States has betrayed itself! it has turned itself into the tradional lever of a foreign power to overthrow the government of the United States; not in the name of freedom or high ideals, but in servile conformity to the wishes of the Soviet Union and in anticipation of Soviet Russia's complete domination of the American continent.226
° ° ° ° ° °
There can be no sympathy for those who have turned the idea of communism into a vill curse to western man.
The Soviets have committed crimes unsurpassed even by their early day capitalist counterparts, the imprisonment of their own peoples, with the mass extermination so typical of Stalin, and the individual surpresstion and regimentation under Krushehev.
The deportations, the purposeful curtailment of diet in the consumer slighted population of Russia, the murder of history, the prositution of art and culture.227
A suggestion that Oswald hated more than just capitalism and communism is provided by the following, which was apparently written either on the ship coming back, or after his return from the Soviet Union:

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I have often wondered why it is that the communist, anarchist capitalist and even the fascist and anarchist elements in american, allways profess patrotistism toward the land and the people, if not the government; although their ideals movements must surly lead to the bitter destruction of all and everything.
I am quite sure these people must hate not only the government but our the peop culture, traditions, heritage and very people itself, and yet they stand up and piously pronouce themselfs patriots, displaying their war medles, that they gained in conflicts long past between themselfs.
I wonder what would happen it somebody was to stand up and say he was utterly opposed not only to the governments, but to the people, too the entire land and complete foundations of his socically.228
Oswald demonstrated his thinking in connection with his return to the United States by preparing two sets of identical questions of the type which he might have thought he would be asked at a press conference when he returned. With either great ambivalence, or cold calculation he prepared completely different answers to the same questions. Judged by his other statements and writings, however, he appears to have indicated his true feelings in the set of answers first presented and to have stated in the second what he thought would be least harmful to him as he resumed life in the United States. For example, in response to his questions about his decision to go to the Soviet Union, his first draft answered "as a mark of discuss and protest against american political policies in foreign countrys, my personal sign of discontent' and horror at the misguided line of resoning of the U.S. Government." 229 His second answer was that he "went as a citizen of the U.S. (as a tourist) residing in a forieng country which I have a perfect fight to do. I went there to see the land, the people and how their system works."

To the question of "Are you a communits?" he first answered "Yes, basically, allthough I hate the USSR and socialist system I still think marxism can work under different cir stances." 231 His second answer to this question was, "No of course not, I have never even know a communist, outside of the ones in the USSR but you can't help that." 282 His first set of questions and answers indicated his belief that there were no outstanding differences between the Soviet Union and the United States, "except in the US, the living standard is a little higher. freedoms are about the same, medical aid and the educational system in the USSR is better than in the USA." In the second simulated transcript which ended with the statement "Newspapers, thank you sir; you are a real patriot!!" he apparently concluded that the United States offered "freedom of speech travel outspoken opposition to unpopular policies freedom to believe in god," while the Soviet Union did not.234

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Despite the hatred that Oswald expressed toward the Soviet Union after his residence there, he continued to be interested in that country after he returned to the United States. Soon after his arrival he wrote to the Soviet Embassy in Washington requesting information on how to subscribe to Russian newspapers and magazines and asked for "any periodicals or bulletins which you may put out for the beneifit of your citizens living, for a time, in the U.S.A.." 235 Oswald subsequently did subscribe to several Soviet journals. 236 While Marina Oswald tried to obtain permission to return to the Soviet Union she testified that she did so at her husband's insistence.237

In July of 1963, Oswald also requested the Soviet Union to provide a visa for his return to that country.238 In August of 1963, he gave the New Orleans police as a reason for refusing to permit his family to learn English, that ~'he hated America and he did not want them to become 'Americanized' and that his plans were to go back to Russia." 239 Even though his primary purpose probably was to get to Cuba, he sought an immediate grant of visa on his trip to Mexico City in late September of 1963.240 He also inquired about visas for himself and his wife in a letter which he wrote to the Soviet Embassy in Washington on November 9, 1963.241

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Personal Relations

Apart from his relatives, Oswald had no friends or close associates in Texas when he returned there in June of 1962, and he did not establish any close friendships or associations, although it appears that he came to respect George De Mohrenschildt.242 Somewhat of a nonconformist,243 De Mohrenschildt was a peripheral member of the so-called Russian community, with which Oswald made contact through Mr. Peter Gregory, a Russian-speaking petroleum engineer whom Oswald met as a result of his contact with the Texas Employment Commission office in Fort Worth.244 Some of the members of that group saw a good deal of the Oswalds through the fall of 1963, and attempted to help Mrs. Oswald particularly, in various ways.245 In general, Oswald did not like the member's of the Russian community.246 In fact, his relations with some of them, particularly George Bouhe, became quite hostile.247 Part of the problem resulted from the fact that, as Jeanne De Mohrenschildt testified, Oswald was "very, very disagreeable and disappointed." 248 He also expressed considerable resentment at the help given to his wife by her Russian-American friends. Jeanne De Mohrenschildt said:

Marina had a hundred dresses given to her ... [and] he objected to that lavish help, because Marina was throwing it into his face.
He was offensive with the people. And I can understand why, ... because that hurt him. He could never give her what the
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people were showering on her. ... no matter how hard he worked--and he worked very hard.249
The relations between Oswald and his wife became such that Bouhe wanted to "liberate" her from Oswald.250 While the exact sequence of events is not clear because of conflicting testimony, it appears that De Mohrenschildt and his wife actually went to Oswald's apartment early in November of 1962 and helped to move the personal effects of Marina Oswald and the baby. Even though it appears that they may have left Oswald a few days before, it seems that he resisted the move as best he could. He even threatened to tear up his wife's dresses and break all the baby things. According to De Mohrenschildt, Oswald submitted to the inevitable, presumably because he was "small, you know, and he was rather a puny individual." 251 De Mohrenschildt said that the whole affair made him nervous since he was "interfering in other people's affairs, after all." 252

Oswald attempted to get his wife to come back and, over Bouhe's protest, De Mohrenschildt finally told him where she was. De Mohrenschildt admitted that:

if somebody did that to me, a lousy trick like that, to take my wife away, and all the furniture, I would be mad as , too. I am surprised that he didn't do something worse.253
After about a 2-week separation, Marina Oswald returned to her husband.254 Bouhe thoroughly disapproved of this and as a result almost all communication between the Oswalds and members of the Russian community ceased. Contacts with De Mohrenschildt and his wife did continue and they saw the Oswalds occasionally until the spring of 1963.255

Shortly after his return from the Soviet Union, Oswald severed all relations with his mother; he did not see his brother Robert from Thanksgiving of 1962 until November 23, 1963.256 At the time of his defection, Oswald had said that neither his brother, Robert, nor his mother were objects of his affection, "but only examples of workers in the U.S." He also indicated to officials at the American Embassy in Moscow that his defection was motivated at least in part by so-called exploitation of his mother by the capitalist system.257 Consistent with this at ude he first told his wife that he did not have a mother, but later admitted that he did but that "he didn't love her very much." 258

When they arrived from the Soviet Union, Oswald and his family lived at first with his brother Robert. The latter testified that they "were just together again," as if his brother "had not been to Russia." He also said that he and his family got along well with Marina Oswald and enjoyed showing her American things.259 After about a month with his brother, Oswald and his family lived for a brief period with his mother at her urging, but Oswald soon decided to move out.260

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Marguerite Oswald visited her son and his family at the first apartment which he rented after his return, and tried to help them get settled there. After she had bought some clothes for Marina Oswald and a highchair for the baby, Oswald emphatically told her to stop. As Marguerite Oswald testified, "he strongly put me in my place about buying things for his wife that he himself could not buy." 261 Oswald objected to his mother visiting the apartment and became quite incensed with his wife when she would open the door for her in spite of his instructions to the contrary.262 Oswald moved to Dallas on about October 8, 1962, without telling his mother where he was going. He never saw or communicated with her in any way again until she came to see him after the assassination.263

Even though Oswald cut off relations with his mother, he attempted for the first time to learn something about his family background when he went to New Orleans in April of 1963. He visited some of his father's elderly relatives and the cemetery where his father was buried in an effort to develop the facts of his genealogy.264 While it does not appear that he established any new relationships as a result of his investigation, he did obtain a large picture of his father from one of the elderly relatives with whom he spoke.265 Oswald's interest in such things presents a sharp contrast with his at ude at the time of his defection, when he evidenced no interest in his father and hardly mentioned him, even when questioned.266

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Employment

Oswald's defection, his interest in the Soviet Union, and his activities on behalf of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee not only caused him difficulties in his employment relations, but they also provided him with excuses for employment failures which were largely of his own making. Oswald experienced some difficulty finding employment. Perhaps this was partially because of his lack of any specific skill or training.267 Some of his acquaintances, feeling that Oswald tried to impress people with the fact that he had lived and worked in Russia, were led to the belief that his employment difficulties were caused by his telling prospective employers that he had last been employed in Minsk.268 While he might have expected difficulty from such an approach, in fact the evidence indicates that Oswald usually told his prospective employers and employment counselors that he had recently been discharged from the Marine Corps.269

Oswald obtained a job in July of 1962 as a sheet metal worker with a company in Fort Worth. His performance for that company was satisfactory.270 Even though he told his wife that he had been fired, he voluntarily left on October 8, 1962, and moved to Dallas.271

On October 9, 1962 he went to the Dallas office of the Texas Employment Commission where he expressed a reluctance to work in the industrial field.272 He indicated an interest in writing. An employment counselor testified, on the basis of a general ap ude test Oswald had taken, that he had some ap ude in that area, "because the verbal score

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is high and the clerical score is high." 273 While that counselor found that he was qualified to handle many different types of jobs, because of his need for immediate employment she attempted to obtain for him any job that was available at the time. Oswald made qualifying marks in 19 of 23 categories included on the general ap ude examination and scored 127 on the verbal test, as compared with 50 percent of the people taking it who score less than 100. The counselor testified that there was some indication that Oswald was capable of doing college work and noted that Oswald's verbal and clerical potential was "outstanding." 274 Employment Commission records concerning Oswald stated: "Well-groomed & spoken, business suit, alert replies--Expresses self extremely well." 275 Oswald said that he hoped eventually to develop qualifications for employment as a junior executive through a work-study program at a local college. He indicated, however, that he would have to delay that program because of his immediate financial needs and responsibilities.276

On October 11, 1962, the Employment Commission referred Oswald to a commercial advertising photography firm in Dallas,277 where he was employed as a trainee starting October 12, 1962.278 Even though Oswald indicated that he liked photographic work,279 his employer found that he was not an efficient worker. He was not able to produce photographic work which adhered with sufficient precision to the job specifications and as a result too much of his work had to be redone.280 He also had difficulty in working with the other employees. This was at least in part because of the close physical confines in which some of the work had to be done.281 He did not seem to be able to make the accommodations necessary when people work under such conditions and as a result became involved in conflicts, some of which were fairly heated, with his fellow employees.282

In February or March of 1963, it began to appear that Oswald was having considerable difficulty doing accurate work and in getting along with the other employees. It appears that his discharge was hastened by the fact that he brought a Russian language newspaper to work.283 It is not possible to tell whether Oswald did this to provide an excuse for his eventual discharge, or whether he brought the Russian language newspaper with him one day after his other difficulties became clear. It is possible that his immediate supervisor noticed the newspaper at that time because his attention had otherwise been drawn more directly to Oswald. In any event, Oswald was discharged on April 6, 1963, ostensibly because of his inefficiency and difficult personality. His supervisor admitted, however, that while he did not fire Oswald because of the newspaper incident or even weigh it heavily in his decision, "it didn't do his case any good." 284

Upon moving to New Orleans on April 24, 1963, Oswald's employment problems became more difficult. He left his wife and child at the home of a friend, Mrs. Ruth Paine, of Irving, Tex.285 In New Orleans he obtained work as a greaser and oiler of coffee processing machines for the William B. Reily Co., beginning May 10, 1963.286

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After securing this job and an apartment, Oswald asked his wife to join him. Mrs. Paine brought Oswald's family to New Orleans.287 Refusing to admit that he could only get work as a greaser, Oswald told his wife and Mrs. Paine that he was working as a commercial photographer.288 He lost his job on July 19, 1963, because his work was not satisfactory 289 and because he spent too much time loitering in the garage next door, where he read rifle and hunting magazines.290 Oswald apparently concluded that his Fair Play for Cuba Committee activities were not related to his discharge.291 The correct-ness of that conclusion is supported by the fact that he does not seem to have been publicly identified with that organization until August 9, 1963, almost a month after he lost his job.292

His Fair Play for Cuba Committee activities, however, made it more difficult for him to obtain other employment. A placement interviewer of the Louisiana Department of Labor who had previously interviewed Oswald, saw him on television and heard a radio debate in which he engaged on August 21, 1963. He consulted with his supervisor and "it was determined that we should not undertake to furnish employment references for him." 293 Ironically, he failed to get a job in another photographic firm after his return to Dallas in October of 1963, because the president of the photographic firm for which he had previously worked told the prospective employer that Oswald was "kinda peculiar sometimes and that he had some knowledge of the Russian language," and that he "may be a damn Communist. I can't tell you. If I was you, I wouldn't hire him." 294 The plant superintendent of the new firm testified that, one of the employees of the old firm "implied that Oswald's fellow employees did not like him because he was propagandizing and had been seen reading a foreign newspaper." As a result Oswald was not hired.295 He subsequently found a job with the Texas School Book Depository for which he performed his duties satisfactorily.296

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Attack on General Walker

The Commission has concluded that on April 10, 1963, Oswald shot at Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker (Resigned, U.S. Army), demonstrating once again his propensity to act dramatically and, in this instance violently, in furtherance of his beliefs. The shooting occurred 2 weeks before Oswald moved to New Orleans and a few days after he had been discharged by the photographic firm. As indicated in chapter IV, Oswald had been planning his attack on General Walker for at least 1297 and perhaps as much as 2 months.298 He outlined his plans in a notebook and studied them at considerable length before his attack.299 He also studied Dallas bus schedules to prepare for his later use of buses to travel to and from General Walker's house.300 Sometime after March 27, but according to Marina Oswald, prior to April 10, 1963,301 Oswald posed for two pictures with his recently acquired rifle and pistol, a copy of the March 24, 1963, issue of the Worker, and the March 11, 1963, issue of the

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Militant.302 He told his wife that he wanted to send the pictures to the Militant and he also asked her to keep one of the pictures for his daughter, June.303

Following his unsuccessful attack on Walker, Oswald returned home. He had left a note for his wife telling her what to do in case he were apprehended, as well as his notebook and the pictures of himself holding the rifle.304 She testified that she was agitated because she had found the note in Oswald's room, where she had gone, contrary to his instructions, after she became, worried about his absence.305 She indicated that she had no advance knowledge of Oswald's plans, that she became quite angry when Oswald told her what he had done, and that she made him promise never to repeat such a performance. She said that she kept the note to use against him "if something like that should be repeated again." 306 When asked if Oswald requested the note back she testified that:

He forgot about it. But apparently after he thought that what he had written in his book might be proof against him, and he destroyed it. [the book] 307
She later gave the following testimony [*indicates that the witness answered without using the interpreter]:

Q. After he brought the rifle home, then, he showed you the book?
*A. Yes.
Q. And you said it was not a good idea to keep this book ?
*A. Yes.
Q. And then he burned the book?
*A. Yes.
Q. Did you ask him why he had not destroyed the book before he actually went to shoot General Walker?
A. It never came to me, myself, to ask him that question.308
Marina Oswald's testimony indicates that her husband was not particularly concerned about his continued possession of the most incriminating sort of evidence.309 If he had been successful and had been apprehended even for routine questioning, his apartment would undoubtedly have been searched, and his role would have been made clear by the evidence which he had left behind. Leaving the note and picture as he did would seem to indicate that he had considered the possibility of capture. Possibly he might have wanted to be caught, and wanted his involvement made clear if he was in fact apprehended. Even after his wife told him to destroy the notebook he removed at least some of the pictures which had been pasted in it and saved them among his effects, where they were found after the assassination.310 His behavior was entirely consistent with his wife's testimony that:

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I asked him what for he was making all these entries in the book and he answered that he wanted to leave a complete record so that all the details would be in it.
I am guessing that perhaps he did it to appear to be a brave man in case he were arrested, but that is my supposition. ... 311
The attempt on General Walker's life deserves close attention in any consideration of Oswald's possible motive for the assassination and the trail of evidence he left behind him on that occasion. While there are differences between the two events as far as Oswald's actions and planning are concerned, there are also similarities that should be considered. The items which Oswald left at home when he made his attack on Walker suggest a strong concern for his place in history. If the attack had succeeded and Oswald had been caught, the pictures showing him with his rifle and his Communist and Socialist Worker's Party newspapers would probably have appeared on the front pages of newspapers or magazines all over the country, as, in fact, one of them did appear after the assassination.312 The cir stances of the attack on Walker coupled with other indications that Oswald was concerned about his place in history 313 and with the cir stances surrounding the assassination, have led the Commission to believe that such concern is an important factor to consider in assessing possible motivation for the assassination.

In any event, the Walker incident indicates that in spite of the belief among those who knew him that he was apparently not dangerous,314 Oswald did not lack the determination and other traits required to carry out a carefully planned killing of another human being and was willing to consummate such a purpose if he thought there was sufficient reason to do so. Some idea of what he thought was sufficient reason for such an act may be found in the nature of the motive that he stated for his attack on General Walker. Marina Oswald indicated that her husband had compared General Walker to Adolph Hitler. She testified that Oswald said that General Walker "was a very bad man, that he was a fascist, that he was the leader of a fascist organization, and when I said that even though all of that might be true, just the same he had no right to take his life, he said if someone had killed Hitler in time it would have saved many lives." 315

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Political Activities

Oswald's political activities after his return to the United States center around his interest in Cuba and in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Although, as indicated above, the Commission has been unable to find any credible evidence that he was involved in any conspiracy, his political activities do provide insight into certain aspects of Oswald's character and into his possible motivation for the assassination. While it appears that he may have distributed

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ctober 12, 1962.278 Even though Oswald indicated that he liked photographic work,279 his employer found that he was not an efficient worker. He was not able to produce photographic work which adhered with sufficient precision to the job specifications and as a result too much of his work had to be redone.280 He also had difficulty in working with the other employees. This was at least in part because of the close physical confines in which some of the work had to be done.281 He did not seem to be able to make the accommodations necessary when people work under such conditions and as a result became involved in conflicts, some of which were fairly heated, with his fellow employees.282

In February or March of 1963, it began to appear that Oswald was having considerable difficulty doing accurate work and in getting along with the other employees. It appears that his discharge was hastened by the fact that he brought a Russian language newspaper to work.283 It is not possible to tell whether Oswald did this to provide an excuse for his eventual discharge, or whether he brought the Russian language newspaper with him one day after his other difficulties became clear. It is possible that his immediate supervisor noticed the newspaper at that time because his attention had otherwise been drawn more directly to Oswald. In any event, Oswald was discharged on April 6, 1963, ostensibly because of his inefficiency and difficult personality. His supervisor admitted, however, that while he did not fire Oswald because of the newspaper incident or even weigh it heavily in his decision, "it didn't do his case any good." 284

Upon moving to New Orleans on April 24, 1963, Oswald's employment problems became more difficult. He left his wife and child at the home of a friend, Mrs. Ruth Paine, of Irving, Tex.285 In New Orleans he obtained work as a greaser and oiler of coffee processing machines for the William B. Reily Co., beginning May 10, 1963.286

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After securing this job and an apartment, Oswald asked his wife to join him. Mrs. Paine brought Oswald's family to New Orleans.287 Refusing to admit that he could only get work as a greaser, Oswald told his wife and Mrs. Paine that he was working as a commercial photographer.288 He lost his job on July 19, 1963, because his work was not satisfactory 289 and because he spent too much time loitering in the garage next door, where he read rifle and hunting magazines.290 Oswald apparently concluded that his Fair Play for Cuba Committee activities were not related to his discharge.291 The correct-ness of that conclusion is supported by the fact that he does not seem to have been publicly identified with that organization until August 9, 1963, almost a month after he lost his job.292

His Fair Play for Cuba Committee activities, however, made it more difficult for him to obtain other employment. A placement interviewer of the Louisiana Department of Labor who had previously interviewed Oswald, saw him on television and heard a radio debate in which he engaged on August 21, 1963. He consulted with his supervisor and "it was determined that we should not undertake to furnish employment references for him." 293 Ironically, he failed to get a job in another photographic firm after his return to Dallas in October of 1963, because the president of the photographic firm for which he had previously worked told the prospective employer that Oswald was "kinda peculiar sometimes and that he had some knowledge of the Russian language," and that he "may be a damn Communist. I can't tell you. If I was you, I wouldn't hire him." 294 The plant superintendent of the new firm testified that, one of the employees of the old firm "implied that Oswald's fellow employees did not like him because he was propagandizing and had been seen reading a foreign newspaper." As a result Oswald was not hired.295 He subsequently found a job with the Texas School Book Depository for which he performed his duties satisfactorily.296

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Attack on General Walker

The Commission has concluded that on April 10, 1963, Oswald shot at Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker (Resigned, U.S. Army), demonstrating once again his propensity to act dramatically and, in this instance violently, in furtherance of his beliefs. The shooting occurred 2 weeks before Oswald moved to New Orleans and a few days after he had been discharged by the photographic firm. As indicated in chapter IV, Oswald had been planning his attack on General Walker for at least 1297 and perhaps as much as 2 months.298 He outlined his plans in a notebook and studied them at considerable length before his attack.299 He also studied Dallas bus schedules to prepare for his later use of buses to travel to and from General Walker's house.300 Sometime after March 27, but according to Marina Oswald, prior to April 10, 1963,301 Oswald posed for two pictures with his recently acquired rifle and pistol, a copy of the March 24, 1963, issue of the Worker, and the March 11, 1963, issue of the

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Militant.302 He told his wife that he wanted to send the pictures to the Militant and he also asked her to keep one of the pictures for his daughter, June.303

Following his unsuccessful attack on Walker, Oswald returned home. He had left a note for his wife telling her what to do in case he were apprehended, as well as his notebook and the pictures of himself holding the rifle.304 She testified that she was agitated because she had found the note in Oswald's room, where she had gone, contrary to his instructions, after she became, worried about his absence.305 She indicated that she had no advance knowledge of Oswald's plans, that she became quite angry when Oswald told her what he had done, and that she made him promise never to repeat such a performance. She said that she kept the note to use against him "if something like that should be repeated again." 306 When asked if Oswald requested the note back she testified that:

He forgot about it. But apparently after he thought that what he had written in his book might be proof against him, and he destroyed it. [the book] 307
She later gave the following testimony [*indicates that the witness answered without using the interpreter]:

Q. After he brought the rifle home, then, he showed you the book?
*A. Yes.
Q. And you said it was not a good idea to keep this book ?
*A. Yes.
Q. And then he burned the book?
*A. Yes.
Q. Did you ask him why he had not destroyed the book before he actually went to shoot General Walker?
A. It never came to me, myself, to ask him that question.308
Marina Oswald's testimony indicates that her husband was not particularly concerned about his continued possession of the most incriminating sort of evidence.309 If he had been successful and had been apprehended even for routine questioning, his apartment would undoubtedly have been searched, and his role would have been made clear by the evidence which he had left behind. Leaving the note and picture as he did would seem to indicate that he had considered the possibility of capture. Possibly he might have wanted to be caught, and wanted his involvement made clear if he was in fact apprehended. Even after his wife told him to destroy the notebook he removed at least some of the pictures which had been pasted in it and saved them among his effects, where they were found after the assassination.310 His behavior was entirely consistent with his wife's testimony that:

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I asked him what for he was making all these entries in the book and he answered that he wanted to leave a complete record so that all the details would be in it.
I am guessing that perhaps he did it to appear to be a brave man in case he were arrested, but that is my supposition. ... 311
The attempt on General Walker's life deserves close attention in any consideration of Oswald's possible motive for the assassination and the trail of evidence he left behind him on that occasion. While there are differences between the two events as far as Oswald's actions and planning are concerned, there are also similarities that should be considered. The items which Oswald left at home when he made his attack on Walker suggest a strong concern for his place in history. If the attack had succeeded and Oswald had been caught, the pictures showing him with his rifle and his Communist and Socialist Worker's Party newspapers would probably have appeared on the front pages of newspapers or magazines all over the country, as, in fact, one of them did appear after the assassination.312 The cir stances of the attack on Walker coupled with other indications that Oswald was concerned about his place in history 313 and with the cir stances surrounding the assassination, have led the Commission to believe that such concern is an important factor to consider in assessing possible motivation for the assassination.

In any event, the Walker incident indicates that in spite of the belief among those who knew him that he was apparently not dangerous,314 Oswald did not lack the determination and other traits required to carry out a carefully planned killing of another human being and was willing to consummate such a purpose if he thought there was sufficient reason to do so. Some idea of what he thought was sufficient reason for such an act may be found in the nature of the motive that he stated for his attack on General Walker. Marina Oswald indicated that her husband had compared General Walker to Adolph Hitler. She testified that Oswald said that General Walker "was a very bad man, that he was a fascist, that he was the leader of a fascist organization, and when I said that even though all of that might be true, just the same he had no right to take his life, he said if someone had killed Hitler in time it would have saved many lives." 315

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Political Activities

Oswald's political activities after his return to the United States center around his interest in Cuba and in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Although, as indicated above, the Commission has been unable to find any credible evidence that he was involved in any conspiracy, his political activities do provide insight into certain aspects of Oswald's character and into his possible motivation for the assassination. While it appears that he may have distributed

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Fair Play for Cuba Committee materials on one uneventful occasion in Dallas sometime during the period April 6-24, 1963,316 Oswald's first public identification with that cause was in New Orleans. There, in late May and early June of 1963, under the name Lee Osborne, he had printed a handbill headed in large letters "Hands Off Cuba," an application form for, and a membership card in, the New Orleans branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.317 He first distributed his handbills and other material uneventfully in the vicinity of the U.S.S. Wasp, which was berthed at the Dumaine Street wharf in New Orleans, on June 16, 1963.318 He distributed literature in downtown New Orleans on August 9, 1963, and was arrested because of a dispute with three anti-Castro Cuban exiles, and again on August 16, 1963.319 Following his arrest, he was interviewed by the police, and at his own request, by an agent of the FBI.320 On August 17, 1963, he appeared briefly on a radio program a and on August 21, 1963, he debated over radio station WDSU, New Orleans, with Carlos Bringuier, one of the Cuban exiles who bad been arrested with him on August 9.322 Bringuier claimed that on August 5, 1963, Oswald had attempted to infiltrate an anti-Castro organization with which he was associated.323

While Oswald publicly engaged in the activities described above, his "organization" was a product of his imagination.324 The imaginary president of the nonexistent chapter was named A. J. Hidell,325 the name that Oswald used when he purchased the assassination weapon.326 Marina Oswald said she signed that name, apparently chosen because it rhymed with "Fidel," 327 to her husband's membership card in the New Orleans chapter. She testified that he threatened to beat her if she did not do so.328 The chapter had never been chartered by the national FPCC organization.329 It appears to have been a solitary operation on Oswald's part in spite of his misstatements to the New Orleans police that it had 35 members, 5 of which were usually present at meetings which were held once a month.330

Oswald's Fair Play for Cuba activities may be viewed as a very shrewd political operation in which one man single handedly created publicity for his cause or for himself. It is also evidence of Oswald's reluctance to describe events accurately and of his need to present himself to others as well as to himself in a light more favorable than was justified by reality. This is suggested by his misleading and sometime untruthful statements in his letters to Mr. V. T. Lee, then national director of FPCC. In one of those letters, dated August 1. 1963, Oswald wrote that an office which he had previously claimed to have rented for FPCC activities had been "promply closed 3 days later for some obsure reasons by the renters, they said something about remodeling ect., I'm sure you understand." 331 He wrote that "thousands of circulars were distrubed" 332 and that he continued to receive inquiries through his post office box which he endeavored "to keep ansewering to the best of my ability." 333 In his letter to V. T. Lee, he stated that he was then alone in his efforts on behalf of FPCC, but he attributed his lack of support to an attack by Cuban

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exiles in a street demonstration and being "officialy cautioned" by the police, events which "robbed me of what support I had leaving me alone." 334

In spite of those claims, the Commission has not been able to uncover any evidence that anyone ever attacked any street demonstration in which Oswald was involved, except for the Bringuier incident mentioned above, which occurred 8 days after Oswald wrote the above letter to V. T. Lee.335 Bringuier, who seemed to be familiar with many anti-Castro activities in New Orleans, was not aware of any such incident.336 Police reports also fail to reflect any activity on Oswald's part prior to August 9, 1963, except for the uneventful distribution of literature at the Dumaine Street wharf in June.337 Furthermore, the general tenor of Oswald's next letter to V. T. Lee, in which he supported his report on the Bringuier incident with a copy of the charges made against him and a newspaper clipping reporting the event, suggests that his previous story of an attack by Cuban exiles was at least greatly exaggerated.338 While the legend "FPCC 544 Camp St. NEW ORLEANS, LA." was stamped on some literature that Oswald had in his possession at the time of his arrest in New Orleans, extensive investigation was not able to connect Oswald with that address, although it did develop the fact that an anti-Castro organization had maintained offices there for a period ending early in 1962.339 The Commission has not been able to find any other indication that Oswald had rented an office in New Orleans. In view of the limited amount of public activity on Oswald's part before August 9, 1963, there also seems to be no basis for his claim that he had distributed "thousands" of circulars, especially since he had claimed to have printed only 2,000 and actually had only 1,000 printed. In addition, there is no evidence that he received any substantial amount of materials from the national headquarters.340

In another letter to V. T. Lee, dated August 17, 1963, Oswald wrote that he had appeared on Mr. William Stuckey's 15-minute television program over WDSU-TV called "Latin American Focus" as a result of which he was "flooded with callers and invitations to debate's ect. as well as people interested in joining the F.P.C.C. New Orleans branch." 341 WDSU has no program of any kind called "Latin American Focus." 342 Stuckey had a radio program called "Latin Listening Post," on which Oswald was heard for less than 5 minutes on August 17, 1963.343 It appears that Oswald had only one caller in response to all of his FPCC activities, an agent of Bringuier's attempting to learn more about the true nature of the alleged FPCC "organization" in New Orleans.344

Oswald's statements suggest that he hoped to be flooded with callers and invitations to debate. This would have made him a real center of attention as he must have been when he first arrived in the Soviet Union and as he was to some extent when he returned to the United States. The limited notoriety that Oswald received as a result of the street fracas and in the subsequent radio debate was apparently not enough to satisfy him. He exaggerated in his letters to V. T. Lee in an appar-

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This page reproduces a photograph of Oswald distributing Fair Play for Cuba handbills in New Orleans, August 16, 1963 --Insets show samples of his handbills on which he had stamped his name and the name of "A J Hidell." (COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2966 A, COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2966 B, and GARNER DEPOSITION EXHIBIT 1.)

Handbills read:

HANDS OFF CUBA! Join the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. NEW ORLEANS CHARTER MEMBER BRANCH. Free Literature, Lectures LOCATION: [Stamps of Oswald/Hidell address]. EVERYONE WELCOME!
Page 410

ent attempt to make himself and his activities appear far more important than they really were.

His attempt to express himself through his Fair Play for Cuba activities, however, was greatly impeded by the fact that the radio debate over WDSU on August 21, 1963, brought out the history of his defection to the Soviet Union.345 The basic facts of the event were uncovered independently by William Stuckey, who arranged the debate, and Edward Butler, executive director of the Information Council of the Americas, who also appeared on the program.346 Oswald was confronted with those facts at the beginning of the debate and was so thrown on the defensive by this that he was forced to state that Fair Play for Cuba was "not at all Communist controlled regardless of the fact that I had the experience of living in Russia."

Stuckey testified that uncovering Oswald's defection was very important:

I think that we finished him on that program. ... because we had publicly linked the Fair Play for Cuba Committee with a fellow who had lived in Russia for 3 years and who was an admitted Marxist.
The interesting thing, or rather the danger involved, was the fact that Oswald seemed like such a nice, bright boy and was extremely believable before this. We thought the fellow could probably get quite a few members if he was really indeed serious about getting members. We figured after this broadcast of August 21, why, that was no longer possible.348
In spite of the fact that Oswald had been surprised and was on the defensive throughout the debate, according to Stuckey: "Mr. Oswald handled himself very well, as usual." 349 Stuckey thought Oswald "appeared to be a very logical, intelligent fellow," and "was arrested by his cleancutness." 350 He did not think Oswald looked like the "type" that he would have expected to find associating with a group such as the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.351 Stuckey thought that Oswald acted very much as would a young attorney.352

Following the disclosure of his defection, Oswald sought advice from the Communist Party, U.S.A., concerning his Fair Play for Cuba activity.358 He had previously sent, apparently unsolicited, to the Party newspaper, the Worker, samples of his photographic work, offering to contribute that sort of service without charge.354 The Worker replied: "Your kind offer is most welcomed and from time to time we shall call on you." 355 He later wrote to another official of the Worker, seeking employment, and mentioning the praise he had received for submitting his photographic work.356 He presented Arnold Johnson, Gus Hall, and Benjamin J. Davis honorary membership cards in his nonexistent New Orleans chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, and advised them of some of his activities on behalf of the organization.357 Arnold Johnson, director of the in-

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formation and lecture bureau of the Communist Party, U.S.A., replied stating:

It is good to know that movements in support of fair play for Cuba has developed in New Orleans as well as in other cities. We do not have any organizational ties with the Committee, and yet there is much material that we issue from time to time that is important for anybody who is concerned about developments in Cuba.358
Marina Oswald said that such correspondence from people he considered important meant much to Oswald. After he had begun his Cuban activity in New Orleans "he received a letter from somebody in New York, some Communist--probably from New York--I am not sure from where--from some Communist leader and he was very happy, he felt that this was a great man that he had received the letter from." 359 Since he seemed to feel that no one else understood his political views, the letter was of great value to him for it "was proof ... that there were people who' understood his activity." 360

He anticipated that the full disclosure of his defection would hinder him in "the struggle for progress and freedom in the United States" 361 into which Oswald, in his own words, had "thrown" himself. He sought advice from the central committee of the Communist Party, U.S.A., in a letter dated August 28, 1963, about whether he could "continue to fight, handicapped as it were, by my past record ... [and] compete with anti-progressive forces, above-ground or weather in your opinion I should always remain in the background, i.e. underground." 362 Stating that he had used his "position" with what he claimed to be the local branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee to "foster communist ideals," Oswald wrote that he felt that he might have compromised the FPCC and expressed concern lest "Our opponents could use my background of residence in the U.S.S.R. against any cause which I join, by association, they could say the organization of which I am a member, is Russian controled, ect." 363 In reply Arnold Johnson advised Oswald that, while as an American citizen he had a right to participate in such organizations as he wished, "there are a number of organizations, including possibly Fair Play, which are of a very broad character, and often it is advisable for some people to remain in the background, not underground." 364

By August of 1963, after a short 3 months in New Orleans, the city in which he had been born and had lived most of his early life, Oswald had fallen on difficult times. He had not liked his job as a greaser of coffee processing machinery and he held it for only a little over 2 months.365 He had not found another job. His wife was expecting their second child in October and there was concern about the cost which would be involved.366 His brief foray on behalf of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee had failed to win any support. While he had drawn some attention to himself and had actually

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appeared on two radio programs, he had been attacked by Cuban exiles and arrested, an event which his wife thought upset him and as a result of which "he became less active, he cooled off a little." 367 More seriously, the facts of his defection had become known, leaving him open to almost unanswerable attack by those who opposed his views. It would not have been possible to have followed Arnold Johnson's advice to remain in the background, since there was no background to the New Orleans FPCC "organization," which consisted solely of Oswald. Furthermore, he had apparently not received any letters from the national headquarters of FPCC since May 29, 1963,368 even though he had written four detailed letters since that time to Mr. V. T. Lee 369 and had also kept the national headquarters informed of each of his changes of mailing address.370 Those events no doubt had their effects on Oswald.

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Interest in Cuba

By August of 1963, Oswald had for some time been considering the possibility of leaving the United States again. On June 24, 1963, he applied for a new passport 371 and in late June or early July he told his wife that he wanted to return to the Soviet Union with her. She said that he was extremely upset, very unhappy, and that he actually wept when he told her that.372 He said that nothing kept him in the United States, that he would not lose anything if he returned to the Soviet Union, that he wanted to be with her and that it would be better to have less and not have to be concerned about tomorrow.373

As a result of that conversation, Marina Oswald wrote the Soviet Embassy in Washington concerning a request she had first made on February 17, 1963, for permission for herself and June to return to the Soviet Union.374 While that first request, made according to Marina Oswald at her husband's insistence, specifically stated that Oswald was to remain in the United States, she wrote in her letter of July 1963, that things are improving due to the fact that my husband expresses a sincere wish to return together with me to the USSR." 375 Unknown to his wife, however, Oswald apparently enclosed a note with her letter of July in which he requested the Embassy to rush his wife's entrance visa because of the impending birth of the second child but stated that: "As for my return entrance visa please consider it separtably." 376

Thus while Oswald's real intentions, assuming that they were known to himself, are not clear, he may not have intended to go to the Soviet Union directly, if at all.377 It appears that he really wanted to go to Cuba. In his wife's words:

I only know that his basic desire was to get to Cuba by any means, and that all the rest of it was window dressing for that purpose.378
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Marina Oswald testified that her husband engaged in Fair Play for Cuba Committee activities "primarily for purposes of self-advertising. He wanted to be arrested. I think he wanted to get into the newspapers, so that he would be known." 379 According to Marina Oswald, he thought that would help him when he got to Cuba.380 He asked his wife to help him to hijack an airplane to get there, but gave up that scheme when she refused.381

During this period Oswald may have practiced opening and closing the bolt on his rifle in a screened porch in his apartment.382 In September he began to review Spanish.333 He approved arrangements for his family to return to Irving, Tex., to live with Mrs. Ruth Paine.384 On September 20, 1963, Mrs. Paine and her two children arrived in New Orleans from a trip to the East Coast 385 and left for Irving with Marina Oswald and June and most of the Oswalds' effects 3 days later.386 While Marina Oswald knew of her husband's plan to go to Mexico and thence to Cuba if possible,387 Mrs. Paine was told that Oswald was going to Houston and possibly to Philadelphia to look for work.388

Oswald left for Mexico City on September 25, 1963, and arrived on September 27, 1963. He went almost directly to the Cuban Embassy and applied for a visa to Cuba in transit to Russia.389 Representing himself as the head of the New Orleans branch of the "organization called 'Fair Play for Cuba,' he stated his desire that he should be accepted as a 'friend' of the Cuban Revolution." 390 He apparently based his claim for a visa in transit to Russia on his previous residence, his work permit for that country, and several unidentified letters in the Russian language. The Cubans would not, however, give him a visa until he had received one from the Soviets, which involved a delay of several months. When faced with that situation Oswald became greatly agitated, and although he later unsuccessfully attempted to obtain a Soviet visa at the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City, he insisted that he was en led to the Cuban visa because of his background, partisanship, and personal activities on behalf of the Cuban movement. He engaged in an angry argument with the consul who finally told him that "as far as he was concerned he would not give him a visa" and that "a person like him [Oswald] in place of aiding the Cuban Revolution, was doing it harm." 391

Oswald must have been thoroughly disillusioned when he left Mexico City on October 2, 1963. In spite of his former residence in the Soviet Union and his Fair Play for Cuba Committee activities he had been rebuffed by the officials of both Cuba and the Soviet Union it. Mexico City. Now there appeared to be no chance to get to Cuba, where he had thought he might find his communist ideal. The U.S. Government would not permit travel there and as far as the perform- ante of the Cubans themselves was concerned, he was "disappointed at not being able to get to Cuba, and he didn't have any great desire to do so any more because he had run into, as he himself said--into bureaucracy and red tape." 392

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Oswald's attempt to go to Cuba was another act which expressed his hostility toward the United States and its ins utions as well as a concomitant attachment to a country in which he must have thought were embodied the political principles to which he had been committed for so long. It should be noted that his interest in Cuba seems to have increased along with the sense of frustration which must have developed as he experienced successive failures in his jobs, in his political activity, and in his personal relationships. In retrospect his attempt to go to Cuba or return to the Soviet Union may well have been Oswald's last escape hatch, his last gambit to extricate himself from the mediocrity and defeat which plagued him throughout most of his life.

Oswald's activities with regard to Cuba raise serious questions as to how much he might have been motivated in the assassination by a desire to aid the Castro regime, which President Kennedy so out-spokenly criticized. For example, the Dallas Times Herald of November 19, 1963, prominently reported President Kennedy as having "all but invited the Cuban people today to overthrow Fidel Castro's Communist regime and promised prompt U.S. aid if they do." 393 The Castro regime severely attacked President Kennedy in connection with the Bay of Pigs affair, the Cuban missile crisis, the ban on travel to Cuba, the economic embargo against that country, and the general policy of the United States with regard to Cuba. An examination of the Militant, to which Oswald subscribed,394 for the 3-month period prior to the assassination reflects an extremely critical at ude toward President Kennedy and his administration concerning Cuban policy in general as well as on the issues of automation and civil rights, issues which appeared to concern Oswald a great deal.395 The Militant also reflected a critical at ude toward President Kennedy's attempts to reduce tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. It also dealt with the fear of the Castro regime that such a policy might result in its abandonment by the Soviet Union.

The October 7, 1963, issue of the Militant reported Castro as saying Cuba could not accept a situation where at the same time the United States was trying to ease world tensions it also. "was increasing its efforts to 'tighten the noose' around Cuba." 396 Castro's opposition to President Kennedy's attempt to reduce world tensions was also reported in the October 1, 1963, issue of the Worker, to which Oswald also subscribed.397 In this connection it should be noted that in speaking of the Worker, Oswald told Michael Paine, apparently in all seriousness, that "you could tell what they wanted you to do ... by reading between the lines, reading the thing and doing a little reading between the lines.." 398

The general conflict of views between the United States and Cuba was, of course, reflected in other media to such an extent that there can be no doubt that Oswald was aware generally of the critical at ude that Castro expressed about President Kennedy. Oswald was asked during the New Orleans radio debate in which he engaged on August 21, 1963, whether or not he agreed with Castro that President

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Kennedy was a "ruffian and a thief." He replied that he "would not agree with that particular wording." 399 It should also be noted, however, that one witness testified that shortly before the assassination Oswald had expressed approval of President Kennedy's active role in the area of civil rights.400

Although Oswald could possibly have been motivated in part by his sympathy for the Castro government, it should be remembered that his wife testified that he was disappointed with his failure to get to Cuba and had lost his desire to do so because of the bureaucracy and red tape which he had encountered.401 His unhappy experience with the Cuban consul seems thus to have reduced his enthusiasm for the Castro regime and his desire to go to Cuba.

While some of Castro's more severe criticisms of President Kennedy might have led Oswald to believe that he would be well received in Cuba after he had assassinated the American President, it does not appear that he had any plans to go there. Oswald was carrying only $13.87 at the time of his arrest, although he had left, apparently by design, $170 in a wallet in his wife's room in Irving.402 If there was no conspiracy which would help him escape, the possibility of which has been considered in chapter VI, it is unlikely that a reasoning person would plan to attempt to travel from Dallas, Tex., to Cuba with $13.87 when considerably greater resources were available to him. The fact that Oswald left behind the funds which might have enabled him to reach Cuba suggests the absence of any plan to try to flee there and raises serious questions as to whether or not he ever expected to escape.

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Possible Influence of Anti-Kennedy Sentiment in Dallas

It has been suggested that one of the motivating influences operating on Lee Oswald was the atmosphere in the city of Dallas, especially an atmosphere of extreme opposition to President Kennedy that was present in some parts of the Dallas community and which received publicity there prior to the assassination.403 Some of that feeling was expressed in the incident involving then vice-presidential candidate Johnson during the 1960 campaign, in the treatment of Ambassador Adlai Stevenson late in October of 1963 and in the extreme anti-Kennedy newspaper advertisement and handbills that appeared in Dallas at the time of the President's visit there.404

The Commission has found no evidence that the extreme views expressed toward President Kennedy by some rightwing groups centered in Dallas or any other general atmosphere of hate or rightwing extremism which may have existed in the city of Dallas had any connection with Oswald's actions on November 22, 1963. There is, of course, no way to judge what the effect of the general political ferment present in that city might have been, even though Oswald was aware of it. His awareness is shown by a letter that he wrote to Arnold Johnson of the Communist Party U.S.A., which Johnson said he did not receive until after the assassination. The letter said in part:

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On October 23rd, I had attened a ultra-right meeting headed by General Edwin A. Walker, who lives in Dallas.
This meeting preceded by one day the attack on A. E. Stevenson at the United Nations Day meeting at which he spoke
As you can see, political friction between "left" and "right" is very great here.
Could you advise me as to the general view we have on the American Civil Liberties Union? 405
In any event, the Commission has been unable to find any credible evidence that Oswald had direct contact or association with any of the personalities or groups epitomizing or representing the so-called rightwing, even though he did, as he told Johnson, attend a meeting at which General Walker spoke to approximately 1,300 persons.406 Oswald's writings and his reading habits indicate that he had an extreme dislike of the rightwing, an at ude most clearly reflected by his attempt to shoot General Walker.

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Relationship With Wife

The relations between Lee and Marina Oswald are of great importance in any attempt to understand Oswald's possible motivation. During the period from Oswald's return from Mexico to the assassination, he and his wife spent every weekend but one together at the Irving, Tex., home of Mrs. Ruth Paine, who was then separated from her husband. The sole exception was the weekend of November 16-17, 1963, the weekend before the assassination, when his wife asked Oswald not to come to Irving. During the week, Oswald lived in a roominghouse in Dallas, but he usually called his wife on the telephone twice a day.407 She testified that after his return from Mexico Oswald "changed for the better. He began to treat me better. ... He helped me more--although he always did help. But he was more attentive." 408 Marina Oswald attributed that to their living apart and to the imminent birth of their second child. She testified that Oswald "was very happy" about the birth of the child.409

While those considerations no doubt had an effect on Oswald's at ude toward his family it would seem that the need for support and sympathy after his recent rebuffs in Mexico City might also have been important to him. It would not have been the first time that Oswald sought closer ties with his family in time of adversity.410

His past relationships with his wife had been stormy, however, and it did not seem that she respected him very much. They had been married after a courtship of only about 6 weeks, a part of which Oswald spent in the hospital. Oswald's diary reports that he married his wife shortly after his proposal of marriage to another girl had been rejected. He stated that the other girl rejected him partly because he was an American, a fact that he said she had exploited. He stated that "In spite of fact I married Marina to hurt Ella [the girl that had rejected him] I found myself in love with Marina." 411

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Many of the people with whom the Oswalds became acquainted after their arrival in the United States thought that Marina Oswald had married her husband primarily in the hope that she would be able to leave the Soviet Union. Marina Oswald has denied this.412

Marina Oswald expressed one aspect of her husband's at ude toward her when she testified that:

... Lee wanted me to go to Russia, and I told him that if he wanted me to go then that meant that he didn't love me, and that in that case what was the idea of coming to the United States in the first place. Lee would say that it would be better for me if I went to Russia. I did not. know why. I did not know what he had in mind. He said he loved me but that it would be better for me if I went to Russia, and what he had in mind I don't know.413
On the other hand, Oswald objected to the invitation that his wife had received to live with Mrs. Ruth Paine, which Mrs. Paine had made in part to give her an alternative to returning to the Soviet Union.414 Marina Oswald wrote to Mrs. Paine that: "Many times

[Oswald] has recalled this matter to me and said that I am just waiting for an opportunity to hurt him. It has been the cause of many of our arguments." 415 Oswald claimed that his wife preferred others to him.416 He said this about members of the Russian-speaking group in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, whom she said he tried to forbid her from seeing,417 and also about Mrs. Paine.418 He specifically made that claim when his wife refused to come to live with him in Dallas as he asked her to do on the evening of November 21, 1963.419
The instability of their relations was probably a function of the personalities of both people. Oswald was overbearing in relations with his wife. He apparently attempted to be "the Commander" by dictating many of the details of their married life.420 While Marina Oswald said that her husband wanted her to learn English,421 he made no attempt to help her and there are other indications that he did not want her to learn that language. Oswald apparently wished to continue practicing his own Russian with her.422 Lieutenant Martello of the New Orleans police testified that Oswald stated that he did not speak English in his family because he did not want them to become Americanized.423 Marina Oswald's inability to speak English also made it more difficult, for her to have an independent existence in this country. Oswald struck his wife on occasion,424 did not want her to drink, smoke or wear cosmetics 425 and generally treated her with lack of respect in the presence of others.426

The difficulties which Oswald's problems would have caused him in any relationship were probably not reduced by his wife's conduct. Katherine Ford, with whom Marina Oswald stayed during her separation from her husband in November of 1962, thought that Marina Oswald was immature in her thinking and partly responsible for the difficulties that the Oswalds were having at that time.427 Mrs. Ford

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said that Marina Oswald admitted that she provoked Oswald on occasion.428 There can be little doubt that some provocation existed. Oswald once struck his wife because of a letter which she wrote to a former boy friend in Russia. In the letter Marina Oswald stated that her husband had changed a great deal and that she was very lonely in the United States. She was "sorry that I had not married him [the Russian boy friend] instead, that it would have been much easier for me." 429 The letter fell into Oswald's hands when it was returned to his post office box because of insufficient postage, which apparently resulted from an increase in postal rates of which his wife had been unaware.430 Oswald read the letter, but refused to believe that it was sincere, even though his wife insisted to him that it was. As a result Oswald struck her, as to which she testified: "Generally, I think that was right, for such things that is the right thing to do. There was some grounds for it.431

Although she denied it in some of her testimony before the Commission,432 it appears that Marina Oswald also complained that her husband was not able to provide more material things for her.433 On that issue George De Mohrenschildt, who was probably as close to the Oswalds as anyone else during their first stay in Dallas, said that:

She was annoying him all the time--"Why don't you make some money?" ... Poor guy was going out of his mind. ... We told her she should not annoy him--poor guy, he is doing his best, "Don't annoy him so much." 434
The De Mohrenschildts also testified that "right in front" of Oswald Marina Oswald complained about Oswald's inadequacy as a husband.435 Mrs. Oswald told another of her friends that Oswald was very cold to her, that they very seldom had sexual relations and that Oswald "was not a man." 436 She also told Mrs. Paine that she was not satisfied with her sexual relations with Oswald.437

Marina Oswald also ridiculed her husband's political views, thereby tearing down his view of his own importance. He was very much interested in autobiographical works of outstanding statesmen of the United States, to whom his wife thought he compared himself.438 She said he was different from other people in "At, least his imagination, his fantasy, which was quite unfounded, as to the fact that he was an outstanding man." 439 She said that she "always tried to point out to him that he was a man like any others who were around us. But he simply could not understand that? 440 Jeanne De Mohrenschildt, however, thought that Marina Oswald "said things that will hurt men's pride." 441 She said that if she ever spoke to her husband the way Marina Oswald spoke to her husband, "we would not last long." 442 Mrs. De Mohrenschildt thought that Oswald, whom she compared to "a puppy dog that everybody kicked," 443 had a lot of good qualities, in spite of the fact that "Nobody said anything good about him." 444 She had "the impression that he was just pushed, pushed, pushed, and she [Marina Oswald] was probably nagging, nag-

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ging, nagging." 445 She thought that he might not have become involved in the assassination if people had been kinder to him.446

In spite of these difficulties, however, and in the face of the economic problems that were always with them, things apparently went quite smoothly from the time Oswald returned from Mexico until the weekend of November 16-17, 1963.447 Mrs. Paine was planning a birthday party for one of her children on that weekend and her husband, Michael, was to be at the house. Marina Oswald said that she knew her husband did not like Michael Paine and so she asked him not to come out that weekend, even though he wanted to do so. She testified that she told him "that he shouldn't come every week, that perhaps it is not convenient for Ruth that the whole family be there, live there." She testified that he responded: "As you wish. If you don't want me to come, I won't." 448 Ruth Paine testified that she heard Marina Oswald tell Oswald about the birthday party.449

On Sunday, November 17, 1963, Ruth Paine and Marina Oswald decided to call Oswald 450 at the place where he was living, unbeknownst to them, under the name of O. H. Lee.451 They asked for Lee Oswald who was not called to the telephone because he was known by the other name.452 When Oswald called the next day his wife became very angry about his use of the alias.453 He said that he used it because "he did not want his landlady to know his real name because she might read in the paper of the fact that he had been in Russia and that he had been questioned." 454 Oswald also said that he did not want the FBI to know where he lived "Because their visits were not very pleasant for him and he thought that he loses jobs because the FBI visits the place of his employment." 455 While the facts of his defection had become known in New Orleans as a result of his radio debate with Bringuier,456 it would appear to be unlikely that his landlady in Dallas would see anything in the newspaper about his defection, unless he engaged in activities similar to those which had led to the disclosure of his defection in New Orleans. Furthermore, even though it appears that at times Oswald was really upset by visits of the FBI, it does not appear that he ever lost his job because of its activities, although he may well not have been aware of that fact.457

While Oswald's concern about the FBI had some basis in fact, in that FBI agents had interviewed him in the past and had renewed their interest to some extent after his Fair Play for Cuba Committee activities had become known, he exaggerated their concern for him. Marina Oswald thought he did so in order to emphasize his importance.458 For example, in his letter of November 9, 1963, to the Soviet Embassy in Washington, he asked about the entrance visas for which he and his wife had previously applied. He absolved the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City of any blame for his difficulties there. He advised the Washington Embassy that the FBI was "not now" interested in his Fair Play for Cuba Committee activities, but noted that the FBI "has visited us here in Dallas, Texas, on November 1. Agent James P. Hasty warned me that if I engaged in F.P.C.C. activities in Texas

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the F.B.I. will again take an 'interrest' in me." 459 Neither Hosty nor any other agent of the FBI spoke to Oswald on any subject from August 10, 1963, to the time of the assassination.460 The claimed warning was one more of Oswald's fabrications. Hosty had come to the Paine residence on November 1 and 5, 1963, but did not issue any such warning or suggest that Marina Oswald defect from the Soviet Union and remain in the United States under FBI protection, as Oswald went on to say.461 In Oswald's imagination "I and my wife strongly protested these tactics by the notorious F.B.I." 462 In fact, his wife testified that she only said that she would prefer not to receive any more visits from the Bureau because of the "very exciting and disturbing effect" they had upon her husband,463 who was not even present at that time.464

The arguments he used to justify his use of the alias suggest that Oswald may have come to think that the whole world was becoming involved in an increasingly complex conspiracy against him. He may have felt he could never tell when the FBI was going to appear on the scene or who else was going to find out about his defection and use it against him as had been done in New Orleans.465 On the other hand, the concern he expressed about the FBI may have been just another story to support the objective he sought in his letter.

Those arguments, however, were not persuasive to Marina Oswald, to whom "it was nothing terrible if people were to find out that he had been in Russia." 466 She asked Oswald: "After all, when will all your foolishness come to an end? All of these comedies. First one thing and then another. And now this fic ious name." 467 She said: "On Monday [November 18, 1963] he called several times, but after I hung up on him and didn't want to talk to him he did not call again. He then arrived on Thursday [November 21, 1963]." 468

The events of that evening can best be appreciated through Marina Oswald's testimony:

Q. Did your husband give any reason for coming home on Thursday?

A. He said that he was lonely because he hadn't come the pre- ceding weekend, and he wanted to make his peace with me.

Q. Did you say anything to him then?

A. He tried to talk to me but I would not answer him, and he was very upset.

Q. Were you upset with him?

A. I was angry, of course. He was not angry--he was upset. I was angry. He tried very hard to please me. He spent quite a bit of time putting away diapers and played with the children on the street.

Q. How did you indicate to him that you were angry with him?

A. By not talking to him.

Q. And how did he show that he was upset?

A. He was upset over the fact that I would not answer him. He tried to start a conversation with me several times, but I

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would not answer. And he said that he didn't want me to be angry at him because this upsets him.

On that day, he suggested that we rent an apartment in Dallas. He said that he was tired of living alone and perhaps the reason for my being so angry was the fact that we were not living together. That if I want to he would rent an apartment in Dallas tomorrow--that he didn't want me to remain with Ruth any longer, but wanted me to live with him in Dallas.

He repeated this not once but several times, but I refused. And he said that once again I was preferring my friends to him, and that I didn't need him.

Q. What did you say to that?

A. I said it would be better if I remained with Ruth until the holidays, he would come, and we would all meet together. That this was better because while he was living alone and I stayed with Ruth, we were spending less money. And I told him to buy me a washing machine, because two children it became too difficult to wash by hand.

Q. What did he say to that?

A. He said he would buy me a washing machine.

Q. What did you say to that?

A. Thank you. That it would be better if he bought something for himself--that I would manage.469

That night Oswald went to bed before his wife retired. She did not speak to him when she joined him there, although she thought that he was still awake. The next morning he left for work before anyone else arose.470 For the first time he left his wedding ring in a cup on the dresser in his room.471 He also left $170 in a wallet in one of the dresser drawers. He took with him $13.87 472 and the long brown package that Frazier and Mrs. Randle saw him carry and which he was to take to the School Book Depository.473

The Unanswered Questions

No one will ever know what passed through Oswald's mind during the week before November 22, 1963. Instead of returning to Irving on November 15 for his customary weekend visit, he remained in Dallas at his wife's suggestion because of the birthday party. He had argued with her over the use of an alias and had not called her after that argument, although he usually telephoned once or twice a day. Then on Thursday morning, November 21, he asked Frazier for a ride to Irving that night, stating falsely that he wanted to pick up some curtain rods to put in an apartment.474

He must have planned his attack at the very latest prior to Thursday morning when he spoke to Frazier. There is, of course, no way to determine the degree to which he was committed to his plan at that time. While there is no way to tell when he first began to think specifically of assassinating the President it should be noted that mention of

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the Trade Mart as the expected site of the Presidential luncheon appeared in The Dallas Times Herald on November 15, 1963.475 The next day that paper announced the final approval of the Trade Mart as the luncheon site and stated that the motorcade "apparently will loop through the downtown area, probably on Main Street, en route from Dallas Love Field" on its way to the Trade Mart on Stemmons Freeway. 476 Anyone who was familiar with that area of Dallas would have known that the motorcade would probably pass the Texas School Book Depository to get from Main Street onto the Stemmons Freeway. That fact was made precisely clear in subsequent news stories on November 19, 20, and 22. 477

On November 15, 1963, the same day that his wife told him not to come to Irving, Oswald could have assumed that the Presidential motorcade would pass in front of his place of work. Whether he thought about assassinating the President over the weekend can never be known, but it is reasonably certain that over the weekend he did think about his wife's request that he not come to Irving, which was prompted by the birthday party being held at the Paine home. Oswald had a highly exaggerated sense of his own importance, but he had failed at almost everything he had ever tried to do. He had great difficulty in establishing meaningful relations with other people. Except for his family he was completely alone. Even though he had searched--in the Marine Corps, in his ideal of communism, in the Soviet Union and in his attempt to get to Cuba--he had never found anything to which he felt he could really belong.

After he returned from his trip to Mexico where his application to go to Cuba had been sharply rejected, it must have appeared to him that he was unable to command even the attention of his family. He could not keep them with him in Dallas, where at least he could see his children whom, several witnesses testified, he seemed to love.478 His family lived with Mrs. Paine, ostensibly because Oswald could not afford to keep an apartment in Dallas, but it was also, at least in part, because his wife did not want to live there with him.479 Now it appeared that he was not welcome at the Paine home, where he had spent every previous weekend since his return from Mexico and his wife was once again calling into question his judgment, this time concerning his use of an alias.

The conversation on Monday, November 18, 1963, ended when Marina Oswald hung up and refused to talk to him. Although he may long before have decided on the course he was to follow and may have told his wife the things he did on the evening of November 21, 1963, merely to disarm her and to provide a justification of sorts, both she and Mrs. Paine thought he had come home to make up after the fight on Monday. 480 Thoughts of his personal difficulties must have been at least partly on his mind when he went to Irving on Thursday night and told his wife that he was lonely, that he wanted to make peace with her and bring his family to Dallas where they could live with him again.

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The Commission does not believe that the relations between Oswald and his wife caused him to assassinate the President. It is unlikely that the motivation was that simple. The feelings of hostility and aggression which seem to have played such an important, part in Oswald's life were part of his character long before he met his wife and such a favorable opportunity to strike at a figure as great as the President would probably never have come to him again.

Oswald's behavior after the assassination throws little light on his motives. The fact that he took so little money with him when he left Irving in the morning indicates that he did not expect to get very far from Dallas on his own and suggests the possibility, as did his note to his wife just prior to the attempt on General Walker, that he did not expect to escape at all. On the other hand, he could have traveled some distance with the money he did have and he did return to his room where he obtained his revolver. He then killed Patrolman Tippit when that police officer apparently tried to question him after he had left his roominghouse and he vigorously resisted arrest when he was finally apprehended in the Texas Theatre. Although it is not fully corroborated by others who were present, two officers have testified that at the time of his arrest Oswald said something to the effect that "it's all over now." 481

Oswald was overbearing and arrogant throughout much of the time between his arrest and his own death.482 He consistently refused to admit involvement in the assassination or in the killing of Patrolman Tippit.483 While he did become enraged at at least one point. in his interrogation, the testimony of the officers present indicates that he handled himself with considerable composure during his questioning. He admitted nothing that would damage him but discussed other matters quite freely. 484 His denials under questioning, which have no probative value in view of the many readily demonstrable lies he told at that time 485 and in the face of the overwhelming evidence against him which has been set forth above, only served to prolong the period during which he was the center of the attention of the entire world.

Conclusion

Many factors were undoubtedly involved in Oswald's motivation for the assassination, and the Commission does not believe that it can ascribe to him any one motive or group of motives. It is apparent, however, that Oswald was moved by an overriding hostility to his environment. He does not appear to have been able to establish meaningful relationships with other people. He was perpetually discontented with the world around him. Long before the assassination he expressed his hatred for American society and acted in protest against it. Oswald's search for what he conceived to be the perfect society was doomed from the start. He sought for himself a place in history--a role as the "great man" who would be recognized as having been in advance of his times. His commitment to Marxism and communism appears to have been another important factor in his motivation. He

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also had demonstrated a capacity to act decisively and without regard to the consequences when such action would further his aims of the moment. Out of these and the many other factors which may have molded the character of Lee Harvey Oswald there emerged a man capable of assassinating President Kennedy.

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IN THE 100 years since 1865 four Presidents of the United States have been assassinated--Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. During this same period there were three other attacks on the life of a President, a President-elect, and a candidate for the Presidency, which narrowly failed: on Theodore Roosevelt while campaigning in October of 1912; on President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt, when visiting Miami on February 15, 1933; and on President Harry S. Truman on November 1, 1950, when his temporary residence, Blair House, was attacked by Puerto Rican Nationalists.1 One out of every five Presidents since 1865 has been assassinated; there have been attempts on the lives of one out of every three.

Prompted by these dismaying statistics, the Commission has inquired into the problems and methods of Presidential protection in effect at the time of President Kennedy's assassination. This study has led the Commission to conclude that the public interest might be served by any contribution it can make to the improvement of protective arrangements. The Commission has not undertaken a comprehensive examination of all facets of this subject; rather, it has devoted its time and resources to those broader aspects of Presidential protection to which the events of last November called attention.

In this part of its inquiry the Commission has had full access to a major study of all phases of protective activities prepared by the Secret Service for the Secretary of the Treasury following the assassination. As a result of this study, the Secretary of the Treasury has prepared a planning do ent dated August 27, 1964, which recommends additional personnel and facilities to enable the Secret Service to expand its protection capabilities. The Secretary of the Treasury submitted this planning do ent on August 31, 1964, to the Bureau of the Budget for review and approval. This planning do ent has been made a part of the Commission's published record; the underlying staff and consultants' reports reviewed by the Commission have not, since a disclosure of such detailed information relating to protective measures might undermine present methods of protecting the President. However, all information considered by

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the Commission which pertains to the protective function as it was carried out in Dallas has been published as part of this report.



The protection of the President of the United States is an immensely difficult and complex task. It is unlikely that measures can be devised to eliminate entirely the mul ude of diverse dangers that may arise, particularly when the President is traveling in this country or abroad. The protective task is further complicated by the reluctance of Presidents to take security precautions which might interfere with the performance of their duties, or their desire to have frequent and easy access to the people. The adequacy of existing procedures can fairly be assessed only after full consideration of the difficulty of the protective assignment, with particular attention to the diverse roles which the President is expected to fill. After reviewing this aspect of the matter this chapter will set forth the Commission's conclusions regarding certain protective measures in force at the time of the Dallas trip and propose recommendations for improvements.

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THE NATURE OF THE PROTECTIVE ASSIGNMENT

The President is Head of State, Chief Executive, Commander in Chief, and leader of a political party. As the ceremonial head of the Government the President must discharge a wide range of public duties, not only in Washington but throughout the land. In this role he appears to the American people, in the words of William Howard Taft, as "the personal embodiment and representative of their dignity and majesty."2 As Chief Executive, the President controls the exercise of the vast, almost incalculable powers of the executive branch of the Federal Government. As Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, he must maintain ultimate authority over the development and disposition of our military power. Finally, in accordance with George Washington's maxim that Americans have a government "of accommodation as well as a government of laws," 3 it is the President's right and duty to be the active leader of his party, as when he seeks to be reelected or to maintain his party in power.

In all of these roles the President must go to the people. Exposure of the President to public view through travel among the people of this country is a great and historic tradition of American life. Desired by both the President and the public, it is an indispensable means of communication between the two. More often than not, Presidential journeys have served more than one purpose at' the same time: ceremonial, administrative, political.

From George Washington to John F. Kennedy, such journeys have been a normal part of the President's activities. To promote nation-wide acceptance of his administration Washington made grand tours that, served also to excite interest in the Presidency.4 In recent years, Presidential journeys have been frequent and extensive, partly be-

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cause of the greater speed and comfort of travel and partly because of the greater demands made on the President. It is now possible for Presidents to travel the length and breadth of a land far larger than the United States in 1789 in less time than it took George Washington to travel from New York to Mount Vernon or Thomas Jefferson from Washington to Monticello. During his Presidency, Franklin D. Roosevelt made almost 400 journeys and traveled more than 350,000 miles. 5 Since 1945, Roosevelt's successors have ranged the world, and their foreign journeys have come to be accepted as normal rather than extraordinary.

John F. Kennedy's journey to Texas in November 1963 was in this tradition. His friend and Special Assistant Kenneth O'Donnell, who accompanied him on his last visit to Dallas, stated the President's views of his responsibilities with simplicity and clarity:
The President's views of his responsibilities as President of the United States were that he meet the people, that he go out to their homes and see them, and allow them to see him, and discuss, if possible, the views of the world as he sees it, the problems of the country as he sees them. And he felt that leaving Washington for the President of the United States was a most necessary--not only for the people, but for the President himself, that he expose himself to the actual basic problems that were disturbing the American people. It helped him in his job here, he was able to come back here with a fresh view of many things. I think he felt very strongly that the President ought to get out of Washington, and go meet the people on a regular basis. 6
Whatever their purposes Presidential journeys have greatly enlarged and complicated the task of protecting the President. The Secret Service and the Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies which cooperate with it, have been confronted in recent years with increasingly difficult problems, created by the greater exposure of the President during his travels and the greater diversity of the audiences he must face in a world torn by conflicting ideologies.

If the sole goal were to protect the life of the President, it could be accomplished with reasonable assurance despite the multiple roles he must play. But his very position as representative of the people prevents him from effectively shielding himself from the people. He cannot and will not take the precautions of a dictator or a sovereign. Under our system, measures must be sought to afford security without impeding the President's performance of his many functions. The protection of the President must be thorough but incon uous to avoid even the suggestion of a garrison state. The rights of private individuals must not be infringed. If the protective job is well done, its performance will be evident only in the unexceptional fact of its success. The men in charge of protecting the President, confronted by complex problems and limited as they are in the measures they may

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employ, must depend upon the utmost cooperation and understanding from the public and the President.

The problem and the reasonable approach to its solution were ably stated in a memorandum prepared by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover for the President soon after the assassination:
The degree of security that can be afforded the President of the United States is dependent to a considerable extent upon the degree of contact with the general public desired by the President. Absolute security is neither practical nor possible. An approach to complete security would require the President to operate in a sort of vacuum, isolated from the general public and behind impregnable barriers. His travel would be in secret; his public appearances would be behind bulletproof glass.
A more practical approach necessitates compromise. Any travel, any contact with the general public, involves a calculated risk on the part of the President and the men responsible for his protection. Such risks can be lessened when the President recognizes the security problem, has confidence in the dedicated Secret Service men who are ready to lay down their lives for him and accepts the necessary security precautions which they recommend. Many Presidents have been understandably impatient with the security precautions which many years of experience dictate because these precautions reduce the President's privacy and the access to him of the people of the country. Nevertheless the procedures and advice should be accepted if the President wishes to have any security.7
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EVALUATION OF PRESIDENTIAL PROTECTION AT THE TIME OF THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY

The history of Presidential protection shows growing recognition over the years that the job must be done by able, dedicated, thoroughly professional personnel, using the best technical equipment that can be devised.8 The assassination of President Kennedy demands an examination of the protective measures employed to safe guard him and an inquiry whether improvements can be made which will reduce the risk of another such tragedy. This section considers first the means used to locate potential sources of danger to the President in time to take appropriate precautions. In this connection the information available to Federal agencies about Lee Harvey Oswald is set out and the reasons why this information was not furnished to the Secret Service appraised. Second, the adequacy of other advance preparations for the security of the President, during his visit to Dallas, largely measures taken by the Secret Service, is considered. Finally, the performance of those charged with the immediate responsibility of protecting the President on November 22 is reviewed.

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Intelligence Functions Relating to Presidential Protection at the Time of the Dallas Trip

A basic element of Presidential protection is the identification and elimination of possible sources of danger to the President before the danger becomes actual. The Secret Service has attempted to perform this function through the activities of its Protective Research Section and requests to other agencies, Federal and local, for useful information. The Commission has concluded that at the time of the assassination the arrangements relied upon by the Secret Service to perform this function were seriously deficient.

Adequacy of preventive intelligence operations of the Secret Service.--The main job of the Protective Research Section (PRS) is to collect, process, and evaluate information about persons or groups who may be a danger to the President. In addition to this function, PRS is responsible for such tasks as obtaining clearance of some categories of White House employees and all tradesmen who service the White House, the security processing of gifts sent to the President, and technical inspections against covert listening devices.9 At the time of the assassination PRS was a very small group, comprised of 12 specialists and 3 clerks.10

Many persons call themselves to the attention of PRS by attempting to visit, the President for bizarre reasons or by writing or in some other way attempting to communicate with him in a threatening or abusive manner or with undue persistence. Robert I. Bouck, special agent in charge of PRS, estimated that most of the material received by his office originated in this fashion or from the occasional investigations initiated by the Secret Service, while the balance was furnished to PRS by other Federal agencies, with primary source being the FBI.11 The total volume of information received by PRS has risen steadily. In 1943 PRS received approximately 9,000 items of information; in 1953 this had increased to more than 17,000 items; in 1963 the total exceeded 32,000 items.12 Since many items may pertain to a single case, these figures do not show the caseload. In the period from November 1961 to November 1963, PRS received items in 8,709 cases.13

Before the assassination of President Kennedy, PRS expressed its interest in receiving information on suspects in very general terms. For example, PRS instructed the White House mailroom, a source of much PRS data, to refer all communications on identified existing cases and, in addition, any communication "that in any way indicates anyone may have possible intention of harming the President." 14 Slightly more specific criteria were established for PRS personnel processing White House mail referred by the White House mailroom, but again the standards were very general.15 These instructions to PRS personnel appear to be the only instance where an effort was made to reduce the criteria to writing. 16 When requested to provide a specific statement of the standards employed by PRS in deciding what information to seek and retain, the Secret Service responded:

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The criteria in effect prior to November 22, 1963, for determining whether to accept material for the PRS general files were broad and flexible. All material is and was desired, accepted, and filed if it indicated or tended to indicate that the safety of the President is or might be in danger, either at the present or in the future.... There are many actions, situations, and incidents that may indicate such potential danger. Some are specific, such as threats; danger may be implied from others, such as membership or activity in an organization which believes in assassination as a political weapon. All material received by PRS was separately screened and a determination made as to whether the information might indicate possible harm to the President. If the material was evaluated as indicating some potential danger to the President--no matter how small--it was indexed in the general PRS files under the name of the individual or group of individuals to whom that material related. 17
The general files of PRS consist of folders on individuals, card indexed by name. The files are manually maintained, without use of any automatic data-processing techniques. 18 At the time of the assassination, the active PRS general files contained approximately 50,000 cases ac ulated over a 20-year period,19 some of which included more than one individual. A case file was established if the information available suggested that the subject might be a danger to the President. Many of these cases were not investigated by PRS. The case file served merely as a repository for information until enough had ac ulated to warrant an investigation.20 During the period November 1961 to November 1963, PRS investigated 34 newly established or reactivated cases concerning residents of Texas.21 Most of these cases involved persons who used threatening language in communications to or about the President. An additional 115 cases concerning Texas residents were established but not investigated.22

When PRS learns of an individual whose conduct warrants scrutiny, it requests an investigation by the closest Secret Service field office,23 of which there are 65 throughout the country. If the field office determines that the case should be subject to continuing review, PRS establishes a file which requires a checkup at least, every 6 months.24 This might involve a personal interview or interviews with members of the person's household. 25 Wherever possible, the Secret. Service arranges for the family and friends of the individual, and local law enforcement officials, to advise the field office if the subject displays signs of increased danger or plans to leave his home area. At the time of the assassination there were approximately 400 persons throughout the country who were subject to periodic review. 26

If PRS concludes after investigation that an individual presents a significant danger to the life of the President, his name is placed in a "trip index file" which is maintained on a geographical field office basis. 27 At the time of the assassination the names of about 100 persons were in this index, all of whom were included in the group of

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400 being reviewed regularly. 28 PRS also maintains an album of photographs and descriptions of about 12 to 15 individuals who are regarded as clear risks to the President and who do not have a fixed place of residence. 29 Members of the White House detail of the Secret Service have copies of this album.30

Individuals who are regarded as dangerous to the President and who are in penal or hospital custody are listed only in the general files of PRS, but there is a system for the immediate notification of the Secret Service by the confining ins ution when a subject is released or escapes. 31 PRS attempts to eliminate serious risks by hospitalization or, where necessary, the prosecution of persons who have committed an offense such as threatening the President. 32 In June 1964 PRS had arrangements to be notified about the release or escape of approximately 1,000 persons. 33

In summary, at the time of the assassination PRS had received, over a 20-year period, basic information on some 50,000 cases; it had arrangements to be notified about release from confinement in roughly 1,000 cases; it had established periodic regular review of the status of 400 individuals; it regarded approximately 100 of these 400 cases as serious risks and 12 to 15 of these cases as highly dangerous risks. Members of the White House detail were expected to familiarize themselves with the descriptions and photographs of the highest risk cases. The cases subject to periodic review and the 100 or so cases in the higher risk category were filed on a geographic basis, and could conveniently be reviewed by a Secret Service agent preparing for a Presidential trip to a particular part of the country. These were the files reviewed by PRS on November 8, 1963, at the request of Special Agent Lawson, advance agent for President Kennedy's trip to Dallas.34 The general files of PRS were not indexed by geographic location and were of little use in preparing for a Presidential visit to a specific locality.

Secret Service requests to other agencies for intelligence information were no more specific than the broad and general instructions its own agents and the White House mailroom. The head of PRS testified that the Secret Service requested other agencies to provide "any and all information that they may come in contact with that would indicate danger to the President." 35 These requests were communicated in writing by the Secret Service; rather, the Service depended on the personal liaison maintained by PRS with the headquarters of the Federal intelligence agencies, particularly the FBI, and at the working level with personnel of the field offices of the various agencies.36 The Service frequently participated in the training programs of other law enforcement agencies, and agents from other agencies attended the regular Secret. Service training schools. Presidential protection was an important topic in these training programs. 37

In the absence of more specific instructions, other Federal agencies interpreted the Secret Service's informal requests to relate principally to overt threats to harm the President or other specific manifestations of hostility. For example, at the time of the assassination, the FBI

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Handbook, which is in the possession of every Bureau special agent, provided:
Threats against the President of the U.S., members of his immediate family, the President-elect, and the Vice-President
Investigation of threats against the President of the United States, members of his immediate family, the President-Elect, and the Vice-President is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the U.S. Secret Service. Any information indicating the possibility of an attempt against the person or safety of the President, members of the immediate family of the President, the President-Elect or the Vice-President must be referred immediately by the most expeditious means of communication to the nearest office of the U.S. Secret Service. Advise the Bureau at the same time by teletype of the information so furnished to the Secret Service and the fact that it has been so disseminated. The above action should be taken without delay in order to attempt to verify the information and no evaluation of the information should be at tempted. When the threat is in the form of a written communication, give a copy to. local Secret Service and forward the original to the Bureau where it will be made available to Secret Service headquarters in Washington. The referral of the copy to local Secret, Service should not delay the immediate referral of the information by the fastest available means of communication to Secret Service locally.38
The State Department advised the Secret Service of all crank and threat letter mail or crank visitors and furnished reports concerning any assassination or attempted assassination of a ruler or other major official anywhere in the world. 39 The several military intelligence agencies reported crank mail and similar threats involving the President. 40 According to Special Agent in Charge Bouck, the Secret Service had no standard procedure for the systematic review of its requests for and receipt of information from other Federal agencies. 41

The Commission believes that the facilities and procedures of the Protective Research Section of the Secret Service prior to November 22, 1963, were inadequate. Its efforts appear to have been too largely directed at the "crank" threat. Although the Service recognized that its advance preventive measures must encompass more than these most obvious dangers, it made little effort to identify factors in the activities of an individual or an organized group, other than specific threats, which suggested a source of danger against which timely precautions could be taken. Except for its special "trip index" file of 400 names, none of the cases in the PRS general files was available for systematic review on a geographic basis when the President planned a particular trip.

As reported in chapter II, when the special file was reviewed on November 8, it contained the names of no persons from the entire

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Dallas-Fort Worth area, notwithstanding the fact that Ambassador Stevenson had been abused by pickets in Dallas less than a month before. Bouck explained the failure to try to identify the individuals involved in the Stevenson incident after it occurred on the ground that PRS required a more direct indication of a threat to the President, and that there was no such indication until the President's scheduled visit to that area became known. 42 Such an approach seriously undermines the precautionary nature of PRS work; if the presence in Dallas of the Stevenson pickets might have created a danger for the President on a visit to that city, PRS should have investigated and been prepared to guard against it.

Other agencies occasionally provided information to the Secret Service concerning potentially dangerous political groups. This was done in the case of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, for example, but only after members of the group had resorted to political violence. 43 However, the vague requests for information which the Secret Service made to Federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies were not well designed to elicit information from them about persons other than those who were obvious threats to the President. The requests shifted the responsibility for evaluating difficult cases from the Service, the agency most responsible for performing that task, to the other agencies. No specific guidance was provided. Although the CIA had on file requests from the Treasury Department for information on the counterfeiting of U.S. currency and certain smuggling matters,44 it had no written specification of intelligence information collected by CIA abroad which was desired by the Secret Service in advance of Presidential trips outside the United States.

Information known about Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the assassination.--No information concerning Lee Harvey Oswald appeared in PRS files before the President's trip to Dallas. Oswald was known to other Federal agencies with which the Secret Service maintained intelligence liaison. The FBI had been interested in him, to some degree at least, since the time of his defection in October 1959. It had interviewed him twice shortly after his return to the United States, again a year later at his request and was investigating him at the time of the assassination. The Commission has taken the testimony of Bureau agents who interviewed Oswald after his return from the Soviet Union and prior to November 22, 1963, the agent who was assigned his case at the time of the assassination, the Director of the FBI, and the Assistant to the Director in charge of all investigative activities under the Director and Associate Director.45 In addition, the Director and Deputy Director for Plans of the CIA testified concerning that Agency's limited knowledge of Oswald before the assassination. 46 Finally, the Commission has reviewed the complete files on Oswald, as they existed at the time of the assassination, of the Department of State, the Office of Naval Intelligence, the FBI and the CIA. The information known to the FBI is summarized below.

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From defection to return to Fort Worth.--The FBI opened a file on Oswald in October 1959,47 when news reports appeared of his defection to the Soviet Union.48 The file was opened "for the purpose of correlating information inasmuch as he was considered a possible security risk in the event he returned to this country." 49 Oswald's defection was also the occasion for the opening of files by the Department of State, CIA, and the Office of Naval Intelligence. Until April 1960, FBI activity consisted of placing in Oswald's file in formation regarding his relations with the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and background data relating largely to his prior military service, provided by other agencies. In April 1960, Mrs. Marguerite Oswald and Robert Oswald were interviewed in the course of a routine FBI investigation of transfers of small sums of money from Mrs. Oswald to her son in Russia. 50

During the next 2 years the FBI continued to ac ulate information, and kept itself informed on Oswald's status by periodic reviews of State Department and Office of Naval Intelligence files. In this way, it learned that when Oswald had arrived in the Soviet Union he had attempted to renounce his U.S. citizenship and applied for Soviet citizenship, had described himself as a Marxist, had said he would give the Soviet Union any useful information he had acquired as a marine radar technician and had displayed an arrogant and aggressive at ude at the U.S. Embassy; it learned also that Oswald had been discharged from the Marine Corps Reserve as undesirable in August 1960.51 In June 1962, the Bureau was advised by the Department of State of Oswald's plan to return to the United States. The Bureau made arrangements to be advised by immigration authorities of his return, and instructed the Dallas office to interview him when he got back to determine whether he had been recruited by a Soviet intelligence service. 52 Oswald's file at the Department of State Passport Office was reviewed in June 1962. It revealed his letter of January 30, 1962, to Secretary of the Navy Connally, in which he protested his discharge and declared that he would use "all means" to correct it. The file reflected the Department's determination that Oswald had not expatriated himself.53

From return to Fort Worth to move to New Orleans.--Oswald was first interviewed by FBI Agents John W. Fain and B. Tom Carter on June 26, 1962, in Fort Worth.54 Agent Fain reported to headquarters that Oswald was impatient and arrogant, and unwilling to answer questions regarding his motive for going to the Soviet Union. Oswald "denied that he bad ever denounced his U.S. citizenship, and ... that he had ever applied for Soviet citizenship specifically." 55 Oswald was, however, willing to discuss his contacts with Soviet authorities. He denied having any involvement with Soviet intelligence agencies and promised to advise the FBI if he heard from them.56

Agent Fain was not satisfied by this interview and arranged to see Oswald again on August 16, 1962.57 According to Fain's contemporaneous memorandum and his present recollection, while Oswald remained somewhat evasive at this interview, he was not antagonistic

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and seemed generally to be settling down.58 (Marina Oswald, however, recalled that her husband was upset by this interview.)59 Oswald again agreed to advise the FBI if he were approached under su ious cir stances; however, he deprecated the possibility of this happening, particularly since his employment did not involve any sensitive information. 60 Having concluded that Oswald was not a security risk or potentially dangerous or violent, Fain determined that nothing further remained to be done at that time and recommended that the case be placed in a closed status.61 This is an administrative classification indicating that no further work has been scheduled. It does not preclude the agent in charge of the case from reopening it if he feels that further work should be done.62

From August 1962 until March 1963, the FBI continued to ac ulate information regarding Oswald but engaged in no active investigation. Agent Fain retired from the FBI in October 1962, and the closed Oswald case was not reassigned.63 However, pursuant to a regular Bureau practice of interviewing certain immigrants from Iron Curtain countries, Fain had been assigned to see Marina Oswald at an appropriate time.64 This assignment was given to Agent James P. Hosty, Jr. of the Dallas office upon Fain's retirement. In March 1963, while attempting to locate Marina Oswald, Agent Hosty was told by Mrs. M. F. Tobias, a former landlady of the Oswalds at 602 Elsbeth Street in Dallas, that other tenants had complained because Oswald was drinking to excess and beating his wife.65 This information led Hosty to review Oswald's file, from which he learned that Oswald had become a subscriber to the Worker, a Communist Party publication. Hosty decided that the Lee Harvey Oswald case should be reopened because of the alleged personal difficulties and the contact with the Worker, and his recommendation was accepted.66 He decided, however, not to interview Marina Oswald at that time, and merely determined that the Oswalds were living at 214 Neely Street in Dallas. 67

On April 21, 1963, the FBI field office in New York was advised that Oswald was in contact with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New York, and that he had written to the committee stating that he had distributed its pamphlets on the streets of Dallas.68 This information did not reach Agent Hosty in Dallas until June.69 Hosty considered the information to be "stale" by that time, and did not attempt to verify Oswald's reported statement. 70 Under a general Bureau request to be on the alert for activities of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee Hosty had inquired earlier and found no evidence that it was functioning in the Dallas area.71

In New Orleans.--In the middle of May of 1963, Agent Hosty checked Oswald's last known residence and found that he had moved.72 Oswald was tentatively located in New Orleans in June, and Hosty asked the New Orleans FBI office to determine Oswald's address and what he was doing.73 The New Orleans office investigated and located Oswald, learning his address and former place of employment on August 5, 1963. 74 A confidential informant advised the FBI that Oswald

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was not known to be engaged in Communist Party activities in New Orleans. 75

On June 24, Oswald applied in New Orleans for a passport, stating that he planned to depart by ship for an extended tour of Western European countries, the Soviet Union, Finland, and Poland. The Passport Office of the Department of State in Washington had no listing for Oswald requiring special treatment, and his application was approved on the following day. 76 The FBI had not asked to be informed of any effort by Oswald to obtain a passport, as it might have under existing procedures, and did not know of his application. 77 According to the Bureau,
We did not request the State Department to include Oswald on a list which would have resulted in advising us of any application for a passport inasmuch as the facts relating to Oswald's activities at that time did not warrant such action. Our investigation of Oswald had disclosed no evidence that Oswald was acting under the instructions or on behalf of any foreign government or instrumentality thereof.78
On August 9, 1963, Oswald was arrested and jailed by the New Orleans Police Department for disturbing the peace, in connection with a street fight which broke out when he was accosted by anti-Castro Cubans while distributing leaflets on behalf of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. On the next day, he asked the New Orleans police to arrange for him to be interviewed by the FBI. The police called the local FBI office and an agent, John L. Quigley, was sent to the police station. 79 Agent Quigley did not know of Oswald's prior FBI record when he interviewed him, inasmuch as the police had not given Oswald's name to the Bureau when they called the office. 80

Quigley recalled that Oswald was receptive when questioned about his general background but less than completely truthful or cooperative when interrogated about the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Quigley testified:
When I began asking him specific details with respect to his activities in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans as to where meetings were held, who was involved, what occurred, he was reticent to furnish information, reluctant and actually as far as I was concerned, was completely evasive on them. 81
In Quigley's judgment, Oswald "was probably making a self-serving statement in attempting to explain to me why he was distributing this literature, and for no other reason, and when I got to questioning him further then he felt that his purpose had been served and he wouldn't say anything further." 82

During the interview Quigley obtained background information from Oswald which was inconsistent with information already in the Bureau's possession. When Quigley returned to his office, he learned

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that another Bureau agent, Milton R. Kaack, had been conducting a background investigation of Oswald at the request of Agent Hosty in Dallas. Quigley advised Knack of his interview and gave him a detailed memorandum. 83 Knack was aware of the facts known to the FBI and recognized Oswald's false statements.84 For example, Oswald claimed that his wife's maiden name was Prossa and that they had been married in Fort Worth and lived there until coming to New Orleans.85 He had told the New Orleans arresting officers that he had been born in Cuba.86

Several days later, the Bureau received additional evidence that Oswald had lied to Agent Quigley. On August 22, it learned that Oswald had appeared on a radio discussion program on August 21. 87 William Stuckey, who had appeared on the radio program with Oswald, told the Bureau on August 30 that Oswald had told him that he had worked and been married in the Soviet Union.88 Neither these discrepancies nor the fact that Oswald had initiated the FBI interview was considered sufficiently unusual to necessitate another interview. 89 Alan H. Belmont, Assistant to the Director of the FBI, stated the Bureau's reasoning in this way:
Our interest in this man at this point was to determine whether his activities cons uted a threat to the internal security of the country. It was apparent that he had made a self-serving statement to Agent Quigley. It became a matter of record in our files as a part of the case, and if we determined that the course of the investigation required us to clarify or face him down with this information, we would do it at the appropriate time.
In other words, he committed no violation of the law by telling us something that wasn't true, and unless this required further investigation at that time, we would handle it in due course, in accord with the whole context of the investigation. 90
On August 21, 1963, Bureau headquarters instructed the New Orleans and Dallas field offices to conduct an additional investigation of Oswald in view of the activities which had led to his arrest. 91 FBI informants in the New Orleans area, familiar with pro-Castro or Communist Party activity there, advised the Bureau that Oswald was unknown in such circles. 92

In Dallas.--In early September 1963 the FBI transferred the principal responsibility for the Oswald case from the Dallas office to the New Orleans office.93 Soon after, on October 1, 1963, the FBI was advised by the rental agent for the Oswalds' apartment in New Or]cans that they had moved again.94 According to the information received by the Bureau they had vacated their apartment, and Marina Oswald had departed with their child in a station wagon with Texas registration. 95 On October 3, Hosty reopened the case in Dallas to assist the New Orleans office.96 He checked in Oswald's old neighborhood and throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area but was unable to locate Oswald. 97

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The next word about Oswald's location was a communication from the CIA to the FBI on October 10, advising that an individual tentatively identified as Oswald had been in touch with the Soviet. Embassy in Mexico City in early October of 1963. 98 The Bureau had no earlier information suggesting that Oswald had left. the United States. The possible contact with the Soviet Embassy in Mexico intensified the FBI's interest in learning Oswald's whereabouts. 99 The FBI representative in Mexico City arranged to follow up this information with the CIA and to verify Oswald's entry into Mexico.100 The CIA message was sent also to the Department of State where it was reviewed by personnel of the Passport Office, who knew from Oswald's file that he had sought and obtained a passport on June 25, 1963.101 The Department of State did not advise either the CIA or the FBI of these facts.102

On October 25, the New Orleans office of the FBI learned that in September Oswald had given a forwarding address of 2515 West Fifth Street, Irving, Tex.103 After receiving this information on October 29, Agent Hosty attempted to locate Oswald. On the same day Hosty interviewed neighbors on Fifth Street and learned that the address was that of Mrs. Ruth Paine.104 He conducted a limited background investigation of the Paines, intending to interview Mrs. Paine and ask her particularly about Oswald's whereabouts.105

Having determined that Mrs. Paine was a responsible and reliable citizen, Hosty interviewed her on November 1. The interview lasted about 20-25 minutes.106 In response to Hosty's inquiries, Mrs. Paine
... readily admitted that Mrs. Marina Oswald and Lee Oswald's two children were staying with her. She said that Lee Oswald was living somewhere in Dallas. She didn't know where. She said it was in the Oak Cliff area but she didn't have his address.
I asked her if she knew where he worked. After a moment's hesitation, she told me that he worked at the Texas School Book Depository near the downtown area of Dallas. She didn't have the exact address, and it is my recollection that we went to the phone book and looked it up, found it to be 411 Elm Street.107
Mrs. Paine told Hosty also that Oswald was living alone in Dallas because she did not want him staying at her house, although she was willing to let Oswald visit his wife and children.108 According to Hosty, Mrs. Paine indicated that she thought she could find out where Oswald was living and would let him know.109 At this point in the interview, Hosty gave Mrs. Paine his name and office telephone number on a piece of paper.110 At the end of the interview, Marina Oswald came into the room. When he observed that she seemed "quite alarmed" about the visit, Hosty assured her, through Mrs. Paine as interpreter, that the FBI would not harm or harass her.111

On November 4, Hosty telephoned the Texas School Book Depository and learned that Oswald was working there and that he had given

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as his address Mrs. Paine's residence in Irving.112 Hosty took the necessary steps to have the Dallas office of the FBI, rather than the New Orleans office, reestablished as the office with principal responsibility.113 On November 5, Hosty was traveling near Mrs. Paine's home and took the occasion to stop by to ask whether she had any further information. Mrs. Paine had nothing to add to what she had already told him, except that during a visit that past weekend, Oswald had said that he was a "Trotskyite Communist," and that she found this and similar statements illogical and somewhat amusing.114 On this occasion Hosty was at the Paine residence for only a few minutes.115

During neither interview did Hosty learn Oswald's address or telephone number in Dallas. Mrs. Paine testified that she learned Oswald's telephone number at the Beckley Street roominghouse in the middle of October shortly after Oswald rented the room on October 14. As discussed in chapter VI, she failed to report this to Agent Hosty because she thought the FBI was in possession of a great deal of information and certainly would find it very easy to learn where Oswald was living.116

Hosty did nothing further in connection with the Oswald case until after the assassination. On November 1, 1963, he had received a copy of the report of the New Orleans office which contained Agent Quigley's memorandum of the interview in the New Orleans jail on August 10,117 and realized immediately that Oswald had given false biographic information.118 Hosty knew that he would eventually have to investigate this, and "was quite interested in determining the nature of his contact with the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City." 119 When asked what his next step would have been, Hosty replied:
Well, as I had previously stated, I have between 25 and 40 cases assigned to me at any one time. I had other matters to take care of. I had now established that Lee Oswald was not employed in a sensitive industry. I can now afford to wait until New Orleans forwarded the necessary papers to me to show me I now had all the information. It was then my plan to interview Marina Oswald in detail concerning both herself and her husband's background.

Q. Had you planned any steps beyond that point?

A. No. I would have to wait until I had talked to Marina to see what I could determine, and from there I could make my plans.

Q. Did you take any action on this case between November 5 and November 22?

A. No, sir.120
The official Bureau files confirm Hosty's statement that from November 5 until the assassination, no active investigation was conducted.121 On November 18 the FBI learned that Oswald recently had been in communication with the Soviet Embassy in Washington and so advised the Dallas office in the ordinary course of business.

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Hosty received this information on the afternoon of November 22, 1963.122

Nonreferral of Oswald to the Secret Service.--The Commission has considered carefully the question whether the FBI, in view of all the information concerning Oswald in its files, should have alerted the Secret Service to Oswald's presence in Dallas prior to President Kennedy's visit. The Secret Service and the FBI differ as to whether Oswald fell within the category of "threats against the President" which should be referred to the Service.

Robert I Bouck, special agent in charge of the Protective Research Section, testified that the information available to the Federal Government about Oswald before the assassination would, if known to PRS, have made Oswald a subject of concern to the Secret Service.123 Bouck pointed to a number of characteristics besides Oswald's defection the ulative effect of which would have been to alert the Secret Service to potential danger:
I would think his continued association with the Russian Embassy after his return, his association with the Castro groups would have been of concern to us, a knowledge that he had, I believe, been courtmartialed for illegal possession of a gun, of a hand gun in the Marines, that he had owned a weapon and did a good deal of hunting or use of it, perhaps in Russia, plus a number of items about his disposition and unreliability of character, I think all of those, if we had them altogether, would have added up to pointing out a pretty bad individual, and I think that, together, had we known that he had a vantage point would have seemed somewhat serious to us, even though I must admit, that none of these in themselves would be--would meet our specific criteria, none of them alone.
But, it is when you begin adding them up to some degree that you begin to get criteria that, are meaningful.124
Mr. Bouck pointed out, however, that he had no reason to believe that any one Federal agency had access to all this information, including the significant fact that Oswald was employed in a building which overlooked the motorcade route.125

Agent Hosty testified that he was fully aware of the pending Presidential visit to Dallas. He recalled that the special agent in charge of the Dallas office of the FBI, J. Gordon Shanklin, had discussed the President's visit on several occasions, including the regular biweekly conference on the morning of November 22:

Mr. Shanklin advised us, among other things, that in view of the President's visit to Dallas, that if anyone had any indication of any possibility of any acts of violence or any demonstrations against the President, or Vice President, to immediately notify the Secret Service and confirm it in writing. He had made the

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same statement about a week prior at another special conference which we had held. I don't recall the exact date. It was about a week prior.126

In fact, Hosty participated in transmitting to the Secret Service two pieces of information pertaining to the visit.127 Hosty testified that he did not know until the evening of Thursday, November 21, that there was to be a motorcade, however, and never realized that the motorcade would pass the Texas School Book Depository Building. He testified that he did not read the newspaper story describing the motorcade route in detail, since he was interested only in the fact that the motorcade was coming up Main Street, "where maybe I could watch it if I had a chance." 128

Even if he had recalled that Oswald's place of employment was on the President's route, Hosty testified that he would not have cited him to the Secret Service as a potential threat to the President.129 Hosty interpreted his instructions as requiring "some indication that the person planned to take some action against the safety of the President of the United States or the Vice President." 130 In his opinion, none of the information in the FBI files-- Oswald's defection, his Fair Play for Cuba activities in New Orleans, his lies to Agent Quigley, his recent visit to Mexico City--indicated that Oswald was capable of violence.131 Hosty's initial reaction on hearing that Oswald was a suspect in the assassination, was "shock, complete surprise," because he had no reason to believe that Oswald "was capable or potentially an assassin of the President of the United States." 132

Shortly after Oswald was apprehended and identified, Hosty's superior sent him to observe the interrogation of Oswald.133 Hosty parked his car in the basement of police headquarters and there met an acquaintance, Lt. Jack Revill of the Dallas police force. The two men disagree about the conversation which took place between them. They agree that Hosty told Revill that the FBI had known about Oswald and, in particular, of his presence in Dallas and his employment at the Texas School Book Depository Building.134 Revill testified that Hosty said also that the FBI had information that Oswald was "capable of committing this assassination." 135 According to Revill, Hosty indicated that he was going to tell this to Lieutenant Wells of the homicide and robbery bureau.136 Revill promptly made a memorandum of this conversation in which the quoted statement appears.137 His secretary testified that she prepared such a report for him that afternoon 138 and Chief of Police Jesse E. Curry and District Attorney Henry M. Wade both testified that they saw it later that day.139

Hosty has unequivocally denied, first by affidavit and then in his testimony before the Commission, that he ever said that Oswald was capable of violence, or that he had any information suggesting this.140 The only witness to the conversation was Dallas Police Detective V. J. Brian, who was accompanying Revill. Brian did not hear Hosty make any statement concerning Oswald's capacity to be an

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assassin but he did not hear the entire conversation because of the commotion at police headquarters and because he was not within hearing distance at all times.141

Hosty's interpretation of the prevailing FBI instructions on referrals to the Secret Service was defended before the Commission by his superiors. After summarizing the Bureau's investigative interest in Oswald prior to the assassination, J. Edgar Hoover concluded that "There was nothing up to the time of the assassination that gave any indication that this man was a dangerous character who might do harm to the President or to the Vice President." 142 Director Hoover emphasized that the first indication of Oswald's capacity for violence was his attempt on General Walker's life, which did not become known to the FBI until after the assassination.143 Both Director Hoover and his assistant, Alan H. Belmont, stressed also the decision by the Department of State that Oswald should be permitted to return to the United States.144 Neither believed that the Bureau investigation of him up to November 22 revealed any information which would have justified referral to the Secret Service. According to Belmont, when Oswald returned from the Soviet Union,
... he indicated that he had learned his lesson, was disenchanted with Russia, and had a renewed concept--I am paraphrasing, a renewed concept--of the American free society.
We talked to him twice. He likewise indicated he was disenchanted with Russia. We satisfied ourselves that we had met our requirement, namely to find out whether he had been recruited by Soviet intelligence. The case was closed.
We again exhibited interest on the basis of these contacts with The Worker, Fair Play for Cuba Committee, which are relatively inconsequential.
His activities for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans, we knew, were not of real consequence as he was not connected with any organized activity there.
The interview with him in jail is not significant from the standpoint of whether he had a propensity for violence.
Q. This is the Quigley interview you are talking about?

A. Yes; it was a self-serving interview.
The visits with the Soviet Embassy were evidently for the purpose of securing a visa, and he had told us during one of the interviews that he would probably take his wife back to Soviet Russia some time in the future. He had come back to Dallas. Hosty had established that he had a job, he was working, and had told Mrs. Paine that when he got the money he was going to take an apartment, when the baby was old enough, he was going to take an apartment, and the family would live together.
He gave evidence of settling down. Nowhere during the course of this investigation or the information that came to us from other agencies was there any indication of a potential for violence on his part.
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Consequenty, there was no basis for Hosty to go to Secret Service and advise them of Oswald's presence.... 145
As reflected in this testimony, the officials of the FBI believed that there was no data in its files which gave warning that Oswald was a source of danger to President Kennedy. While he had expressed hostility at times toward the State Department, the Marine Corps, and the FBI as agents of the Government,146 so far as the FBI knew he had not shown any potential for violence. Prior to November 22, 1963, no law enforcement agency had any information to connect Oswald with the attempted shooting of General Walker. It was against this background and consistent with the criteria followed by the FBI prior to November 22 that agents of the FBI in Dallas did not consider Oswald's presence in the Texas School Book Depository Building overlooking the motorcade route as a source of danger to the President and did not inform the Secret Service of his employment in the Depository Building.

The Commission believes, however, that the FBI took an unduly restrictive view of its responsibilities in preventive intelligence work, prior to the assassination. The Commission appreciates the large volume of cases handled by the FBI (636,371 investigative matters during fiscal year 1963).147 There were no Secret Service criteria which specifically required the referral of Oswald's case to the Secret Service; nor was there any requirement to report the names of defectors. However, there was much material in the hands of the FBI about Oswald: the knowledge of his defection, his arrogance and hostility to the United States, his pro-Castro tendencies, his lies when interrogated by the FBI, his trip to Mexico where he was in contact with Soviet authorities, his presence in the School Book Depository job and its location along the route of the motorcade. All this does seem to amount to enough to have induced an alert agency, such as the FBI, possessed of this information to list Oswald as a potential threat to the safety of the President. This conclusion may be tinged with hindsight, but it stated primarily to direct the thought of those responsible for the future safety of our Presidents to the need for a more imaginative and less narrow interpretation of their responsibilities.

It is the conclusion of the Commission that, even in the absence of Secret Service criteria which specifically required the referral of such a case as Oswald's to the Secret Service, a more alert and carefully considered treatment of the Oswald case by the Bureau might have brought about such a referral. Had such a review been undertaken by the FBI, there might conceivably have been additional investigation of the Oswald case between November 5 and November 22. Agent Hosty testified that several matters brought to his attention in late October and early November, including the visit to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City, required further attention. Under proper procedures knowledge of the pending Presidential visit might have prompted Hosty to have made more vigorous efforts to locate

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Oswald's roominghouse address in Dallas and to interview him regarding these unresolved matters.

The formal FBI instructions to its agents outlining the information to be referred to the Secret Service were too narrow at the time of the assassination. While the Secret Service bears the principal responsibility for this failure, the FBI instructions did not reflect fully the Secret Service's need for information regarding potential threats. The handbook referred thus to "the possibility of an attempt against the person or safety of the President." 148 It is clear from Hosty's testimony that this was construed, at least by him, as requiring evidence of a plan or conspiracy to injure the President.149 Efforts made by the Bureau since the assassination, on the other hand, reflect keen awareness of the necessity of communicating a much wider range of intelligence information to the Service.150

Most important, notwithstanding that both agencies have professed to the Commission that the liaison between them was close and fully sufficient,151 the Commission does not believe that the liaison between the FBI and the Secret Service prior to the assassination was as effective as it should have been. The FBI Manual of Instructions provided:
Liaison With Other Government Agencies
To insure adequate and effective liaison arrangements, each SAC should specifically designate an Agent (or Agents) to be responsible for developing and maintaining liaison with other Federal Agencies. This liaison should take into consideration FBI-agency community of interests, location of agency head quarters, and the responsiveness of agency representatives. In each instance, liaison contacts should be developed to include a close friendly relationship, mutual understanding of FBI and agency jurisdictions, and an indicated willingness by the agency representative to coordinate activities and to discuss problems of mutual interest. Each field office should determine those Federal agencies which are represented locally and with which liaison should be conducted.152
The testimony reveals that liaison responsibilities in connection with the President's visit were discussed twice officially by the special agent in charge of the FBI office in Dallas. As discussed in chapter II, some limited information was made available to the Secret Service.153 But there was no fully adequate liaison between the two agencies. Indeed, the Commission believes that the liaison between all Federal agencies responsible for Presidential protection should be improved.

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Other Protective Measures and Aspects of Secret Service Performance

The President's trip to Dallas called into play many standard operating procedures of the Secret Service in addition to its preventive

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intelligence operations. Examination of these procedures shows that in most respects they were well conceived and ably executed by the personnel of the Service. Against the background of the critical events of November 22, however, certain shortcomings and lapses from the high standards which the Commission believes should prevail in the field of Presidential protection are evident.

Advance preparations.--The advance preparations in Dallas by Agent Winston G. Lawson of the White House detail have been described in chapter II. With the assistance of Agent in Charge Sorrels of the Dallas field office of the Secret Service, Lawson was responsible for working out a great many arrangements for the President's trip. The Service prefers to have two agents perform advance preparations. In the case of Dallas, because President Kennedy had scheduled visits to five Texas cities and had also scheduled visits to other parts of the country immediately before the Texas trip, there were not enough men available to permit two agents to be assigned to all the advance work. Consequently, Agent. Lawson did the advance work alone from November 13 to November 18, when he was joined by Agent David B. Grant, who had just completed advance work on the President's trip to Tampa.

The Commission concludes that the most significant advance arrangements for the President's trip were soundly planned. In particular, the Commission believes that the motorcade route selected by Agent Lawson, upon the advice of Agent in Charge Sorrels and with the concurrence of the Dallas police, was entirely appropriate, in view of the known desires of the President. There were far safer routes via freeways directly to the Trade Mart, but these routes would not have been in accordance with the White House staff instructions given the Secret Service for a desirable motorcade route.154 Much of Lawson's time was taken with establishing adequate security over the motorcade route and at the two places where the President would stop, Love Field and the Trade Mart. The Commission concludes that the arrangements worked out at the Trade Mart by these Secret Service agents with the cooperation of the Dallas police and other local law enforcement agents, were carefully executed. Since the President was to be at the Trade Mart longer than at any other location in Dallas and in view of the security hazards presented by the building, the Secret Service correctly gave particular attention in the advance preparations to those arrangements. The Commission also regards the security arrangements worked out by Lawson and Sorrels at Love Field as entirely adequate.

The Commission believes, however, that the Secret Service has inadequately defined the responsibilities of its advance agents, who have been given broad discretion to determine what matters require attention in making advance preparations and to decide what action to take. Agent Lawson was not given written instructions concerning the Dallas trip or advice about any peculiar problems which it might involve; all instructions from higher authority were communicated to him orally. He did not have a checklist of the tasks he was expected to

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accomplish, either by his own efforts or with the cooperation of local authorities.155 The only systematic supervision of the activities of the advance agent has been that provided by a requirement that he file interim and final reports on each advance assignment. The interim report must be in the hands of the agent supervising the protective group traveling with the President long enough before his departure to apprise him of any particular problems encountered and the responsive action taken.156 Agent Lawson's interim report was received by Agent Kellerman on November 20, the day before departure on the Texas trip.157

The Secret Service has advised the Commission that no unusual precautions were taken for the Dallas trip, and that "the precautions taken for the President's trip were the usual safeguards employed on trips of this kind in the United States during the previous year."158 Special Agent in Charge Sorrels testified that the advance preparations followed on this occasion were "pretty much the same" as those followed in 1936 during a trip to Dallas by President Roosevelt, which was Sorrels' first important assignment in connection with Presidential work.159

In view of the constant change in the nature of threats to the President and the diversity of the dangers which may arise in the various cities within the United States, the Commission believes that standard procedures in use for many years and applied in all parts of the country may not be sufficient. There is, for example, no Secret Service arrangement for evaluating before a trip particular difficulties that might be anticipated, which would bring to bear the judgment and experience of members of the White House detail other than the advance agent. Constant reevaluation of procedures, with attention to special problems and the development of instructions specific to particular trips, would be a desirable innovation.

Liaison with local law enforcement authorities.-- In the description of the important aspects of the advance preparations, there have been references to the numerous discussions between Secret Service representatives and the Dallas Police Department. The wholehearted support of these local authorities was indispensable to the Service in carrying out its duties. The Service had 28 agents participating in the Dallas visit.160 Agent Lawson's advance planning called for the deployment of almost 600 members of the Dallas Police Department, Fire Department, County Sheriff's Department, and the Texas Department of Public Safety.161 Despite this dependence on local authorities, which would be substantially the same on a visit by the President to any large city, the Secret Service did not at the time of the assassination have any established procedure governing its relationships with them.162 It had no prepared checklist of matters to be covered with local police on such visits to metropolitan areas and no written description of the role the local police were expected to perform. Discussions with the Dallas authorities and requests made of them were entirely informal.

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The Commission believes that a more formal statement of assigned responsibilities, supplemented in each case to reflect the peculiar conditions of each Presidential trip, is essential. This would help to eliminate varying interpretations of Secret Service instructions by different local law enforcement representatives. For example, while the Secret Service representatives in Dallas asked the police to station guards at each overpass to keep "unauthorized personnel" off, this term was not defined. At some overpasses all persons were excluded, while on the overpass overlooking the assassination scene railroad and yard terminal workmen were permitted to remain under police supervision, as discussed in chapter III.163 Assistant Chief Batchelor of the Dallas police noted the absence of any formal statement by the Secret Service of specific work assigned to the police and suggested the desirability of such a statement.164 Agent Lawson agreed that such a procedure would assist him and other agents in fulfilling their responsibilities as advance agents.165

Check of buildings along route of motorcade.--Agent Lawson did not arrange for a prior inspection of buildings along the motorcade route, either by police or by custodians of the buildings, since it was not the usual practice of the Secret Service to do so.166 The Chief of the Service has provided the Commission a detailed explanation of this policy:
Except for inauguration or other parades involving foreign dignitaries accompanied by the President in Washington, it has not been the practice of the Secret Service to make surveys or checks of buildings along the route of a Presidential motorcade. For the inauguration and certain other parades in Washington where the traditional route is known to the public long in advance of the event, buildings along the route can be checked by teams of law enforcement officers, and armed guards are posted along the route as appropriate. But on out-of-town trips where the route is decided on and made public only a few days in advance, buildings are not checked either by Secret Service agents or by any other law enforcement officers at the request of the Secret Service. With the number of men available to the Secret Service and the time available, surveys of hundreds of buildings and thousands of windows is not practical.
In Dallas the route selected necessarily involved passing through the principal downtown section between tall buildings. While certain streets thought to be too narrow could be avoided and other choices made, it was not practical to select a route where the President could not be seen from roofs or windows of buildings. At the two places in Dallas where the President would remain for a period of time, Love Field and the Trade Mart, arrangements were made for building and roof security by posting police officers where appropriate. Similar arrangements for a motorcade of ten miles, including many blocks of tall commercial buildings is not practical. Nor is it practical to prevent
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people from entering such buildings, or to limit access in every building to those employed or having business there. Even if it were possible with a vastly larger force of security officers to do so, many observers have felt that such a procedure would not be consistent with the nature and purpose of the motorcade to let the people see their President and to welcome him to their city.
In accordance with its regular procedures, no survey or other check was made by the Secret Service, or by any other law enforcement agency at its request, of the Texas School Book Depository Building or those employed there prior to the time the President was shot.167
This justification of the Secret Service's standing policy is not persuasive. The danger from a concealed sniper on the Dallas trip was of concern to those who had considered the problem. President Kennedy himself had mentioned it that morning.168 as had Agent Sorrels when he and Agent Lawson were fixing the motorcade route.169 Admittedly, protective measures cannot ordinarily be taken with regard to all buildings along a motorcade route. Levels of risk can be determined, however, as has been confirmed by building surveys made since the assassination for the Department of the Treasury.170 An attempt to cover only the most obvious points of possible ambush along the route in Dallas might well have included the Texas School Book Depository Building.

Instead of such advance precautions, the Secret Service depended in part on the efforts of local law enforcement personnel stationed along the route. In addition, Secret Service agents riding in the motorcade were trained to scan buildings as part of their general observation of the crowd of spectators.171 These subs ute measures were of limited value. Agent Lawson was unable to state whether he had actually instructed the Dallas police to scan windows of buildings lining the motorcade route, although it was his usual practice to do so.172 If such instructions were in fact given, they were not effectively carried out. Television films taken of parts of the motorcade by a Dallas television station show the foot patrolmen facing the passing motorcade, and not the adjacent crowds and buildings, as the procession passed.173

Three officers from the Dallas Police Department were assigned to the intersection of Elm and Houston during the morning of November 22 prior to the motorcade.174 All received their instructions early in the morning from Capt. P. W. Lawrence of the traffic division.175 According to Captain Lawrence:
I then told the officers that their primary duty was traffic and crowd control and that they should be alert for any persons who might attempt to throw anything and although it was not a violation of the law to carry a placard, that they were not to tolerate any actions such as the Stevenson incident and arrest any person who might attempt to throw anything or try to get at the Presi-

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