OSWALD’S ATTEMPTS TO RENOUNCE HIS U.S. CITIZENSHIP
American officials in Moscow had no knowledge that Oswald was in Russia until October 31, 1959,[A15-5] more than 2 weeks after he had arrived, since he failed to register at the U.S. Embassy, as Americans traveling through Russia normally did.[A15-6] However, on October 31, 1959, a Saturday, Oswald presented himself at the American Embassy in Moscow.[A15-7] He placed his passport on the receptionist’s desk and informed her that he had come to “dissolve his American citizenship.”[A15-8] She immediately summoned the consul, Richard E. Snyder, who invited Oswald into his office.[A15-9] In the room with Snyder was his assistant, John A. McVickar, who observed what ensued.[A15-10] Snyder recalled Oswald as “neatly and very presentably dressed,”[A15-11] but he also remembered his arrogance. Oswald seemed to “know what his mission was. He took charge, in a sense, of the conversation right from the beginning.”[A15-12]
Oswald stated at once that he was there to renounce his citizenship[A15-13] and that “his allegiance was to the Soviet Union.”[A15-14] He said he had already applied for Soviet citizenship.[A15-15] He said he knew the provisions of American law on loss of citizenship and did not want to hear them reviewed by Snyder.[A15-16] Having taken his passport back from the receptionist, Oswald put it on Snyder’s desk.[A15-17] Snyder noticed that Oswald had inked out the portion which would have shown his address in the United States.[A15-18] Oswald also presented Snyder with a note[A15-19] which he had prepared in advance, which reads:
I Lee Harey Oswald do herby request that my present citizenship in the United States of america, be revoked.
I have entered the Soviet Union for the express purpose of appling for citizenship in the Soviet Union, through the means of naturalization.
My request for citizenship is now pending before Suprem 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.[A15-20]
Oswald told Snyder that he had not mentioned his intent to remain in the Soviet Union to the Soviet Embassy in Helsinki at the time he had applied for his tourist visa.[A15-21] Oswald’s passport, upon which his Soviet visa was stamped, shows that by the 31st of October he had already overstayed his visa, despite a 1-day extension which he had received.[A15-22]
Oswald gave as his “principal reason” for wanting to renounce his citizenship, “I am a Marxist.”[A15-23] He stated that he admired the system and policies of the Soviet Union and desired to serve the Soviet State, and that his intent to defect to the Soviet Union had been formed long before he was discharged from the Marine Corps.[A15-24] Shortly after the interview, Snyder observed that Oswald had “displayed all the airs of a new sophomore partyliner.”[A15-25] At one point, Oswald alluded to hardships endured by his mother as a “worker” and said he did not intend to let this happen to him.[A15-26] He stated that his Marine service in Okinawa and elsewhere had given him a chance “to observe American imperialism,” and he displayed some resentment at not having been given a higher rank in the Marine Corps.[A15-27] Oswald stated to Snyder that he had voluntarily told Soviet officials that he would make known to them all information concerning the Marine Corps and his specialty therein, radar operation, as he possessed.[A15-28]
Snyder did not permit Oswald to renounce his citizenship at that time. He told Oswald that his renunciation could not be effected on a Saturday, but that if he would return on a day when the Embassy was open for business, the transaction could then be completed.[A15-29] Snyder testified that his real reason for delaying Oswald was that he believed, as a matter of sound professional practice, that no one should be permitted to renounce his American citizenship precipitously; such an act has extremely serious consequences, and, once accomplished, it is irrevocable.[A15-30] Snyder noticed that Oswald was young, apparently not well educated and obviously in a highly emotional state.[A15-31] Snyder testified: “particularly in the case of a minor, I could not imagine myself writing out the renunciation form, and having him sign it, on the spot, without making him leave my office and come back at some other time, even if it is only a few hours intervening.”[A15-32] Snyder’s decision was also influenced by his familiarity with a recent unfavorable incident in which an American citizen by the name of Petrulli had been allowed to renounce his citizenship hastily, without awareness that Petrulli was mentally ill at the time.[A15-33] Snyder was able to persuade Oswald to tell him his home address and the name of his mother, however, by saying that no progress on his renunciation could be made without this information.[A15-34] The State Department has advised that Snyder’s treatment of Oswald “was in line * * * with the general policy of the Department to discourage expatriation of American citizens.”[A15-35]
The same day, the Embassy sent a telegram to the Department of State, advising that Oswald had appeared there in an attempt to renounce his American citizenship, and setting out most of the details of the interview with Snyder.[A15-36] Copies were immediately furnished to the FBI[A15-37] and the CIA.[A15-38] The telegram was followed on November 2, 1959, by an Embassy report addresed to the Department of State,[A15-39] which concluded:
* * * in view of the Petrulli case and other considerations, the Embassy proposes to delay action on Oswald’s request to execute an oath of renunciation to the extent dictated by developments and subject to the Department’s advice.[A15-40]
Copies of this memorandum were also furnished both Federal security agencies.[A15-41]
After having received the telegram of October 31, 1959,[A15-42] but not the Embassy Despatch of November 2, 1959, the State Department on November 2, 1959, sent a telegram to the Moscow Embassy which read in part:
If Oswald insists on renouncing U.S. citizenship, Section 1999 Revised Statutes precludes Embassy withholding right to do so regardless status his application pending Soviet Government and final action taken Petrulli case.[A15-43]
This telegram, like most of the communications from the Department regarding Oswald, was prepared in the Passport Office and cleared by the Office of Eastern European Affairs and the Office of Soviet Union Affairs.[A15-44]
Oswald never returned to the Embassy.[A15-45] On November 6, 1959, the Embassy received[A15-46] a handwritten letter from Oswald on the stationery of the Metropole Hotel, dated November 3, 1959, which read:
I, Lee Harvey Oswald, do hereby request that my present United States citizenship be revoked.
I appeered in person, at the consulate office of the United States Embassy, Moscow, on Oct. 31st, for the purpose of signing the formal papers to this effect. This legal right I was refused at that time.
I wish to protest against this action, and against the conduct of the official of the United States consular service who acted on behalf of the United States government.
My application, requesting that I be considered for citizenship in the Soviet Union is now pending before the Surprem Soviet of the U.S.S.R.. In the event of acceptance, I will request my government to lodge a formal protest regarding this incident.[A15-47]
The Embassy immediately informed the Department of the receipt of this letter and advised that it intended to reply to Oswald by letter telling him that, if he wished, he could appear at the Embassy on any normal business day and request that the necessary expatriation documents be prepared.[A15-48] On the same day, November 6, the Embassy sent Oswald a letter so advising him.[A15-49] From then until November 30 the Embassy attempted to communicate with Oswald on several occasions to deliver messages from his relatives in the United States urging him to reconsider, but he refused to receive the messages or talk to anyone from the Embassy.[A15-50] The messages were therefore sent to him by registered mail.[A15-51]
On November 16, 1959, Priscilla Johnson, an American newspaperwoman stationed in Moscow, interviewed Oswald at the Metropole Hotel.[A15-52] On November 17, 1959, she informed the Embassy of her interview, and the information was recorded in a file memorandum.[A15-53] Oswald told Miss Johnson that he was scheduled to leave Moscow within a few days. She thought that Oswald “may have purposely not carried through his original intent to renounce [citizenship] in order to leave a crack open.”[A15-54] The Embassy accordingly informed the Department of State about 2 weeks later that Oswald had departed from the Hotel Metropole within the last few days.[A15-55] According to his “Historic Diary”[A15-56] and other records available to the Commission,[A15-57] however, Oswald probably did not in fact leave Moscow for Minsk until about January 4, 1960. Miss Johnson’s report of her interview with Oswald was the last information about him which the U.S. Government was to receive until February 13, 1961.[A15-58]
On March 6, 1960, Oswald’s mother asked Representative James C. Wright, Jr., of Texas to help her locate her son. The Congressman forwarded her inquiry to the Department of State, which in turn sent it to the Embassy.[A15-59] In response, the Embassy in Moscow informed the Department on March 28, 1960, that they had had no contact with Oswald since November 9, 1959.[A15-60] The Embassy went on to say that it had no evidence that Oswald had expatriated himself “other than his announced intention to do so.” It believed, therefore, that since Oswald was presumably still an American citizen, the American Government could properly make inquiry concerning him through a note to the Soviet Foreign Office. The Embassy went on to suggest, however, that it would be preferable if Oswald’s mother wrote a letter to her son which could then be forwarded by the Department to the Soviet Government.[A15-61]
The Department replied on May 10, 1960, that no action should be taken in the case other than on a request voluntarily submitted by a member of Oswald’s family.[A15-62] On June 22, a second communication was dispatched, asking whether the Embassy had been able to contact Oswald.[A15-63] On July 6, 1960, the Embassy replied that it had received no further communication with anyone on the subject of Oswald and that in view of the Department’s memorandum of May 10, 1960, it intended to take no further action in the matter.[A15-64] Mrs. Oswald apparently took no steps to follow up on her original inquiry.
Under the procedures in effect in 1960, a “refusal sheet” was prepared in the Department of State Passport Office whenever circumstances created the possibility that a prospective applicant would not be entitled to receive an American passport.[A15-65] The records section of the Passport Office, on the basis of the refusal sheet, would prepare what was known as a lookout card[A15-66] and file it in the lookout file in the Passport Office. Whenever anyone applied for a passport from any city in the world, his application was immediately forwarded to this office, and his name and date of birth checked against the lookout file.[A15-67] If a lookout card was found, appropriate action, including the possible refusal of a passport, was taken.[A15-68] Passport Office procedures also provided that the lookout card would be removed from a prospective applicant’s file whenever facts warranted an unquestioned passport grant.[A15-69]
On March 25, 1960, the Passport Office had made up a “refusal sheet” on Lee Harvey Oswald, typed across which was the explanation that Oswald “may have been naturalized in the Soviet Union or otherwise * * * expatriated himself.”[A15-70] An Operations Memorandum stating the reasons for which the card had been prepared was drawn up on March 28 and also put on file[A15-71] and a copy sent to the Embassy. It advised the Embassy to take no further action on the Oswald case unless it came into possession of evidence upon which to base the preparation of a certificate of loss of nationality. Included in the operations memorandum was the following:
An appropriate notice has been placed in the lookout card section of the Passport Office in the event that Mr. Oswald should apply for documentation at a post outside the Soviet Union.[A15-72]
Despite these indications that a lookout card was prepared, the Department of State on May 18, 1964, informed the Commission that “investigations, to date, failed to reveal any other indication or evidence that a lookout card was ever prepared, modified or removed.” No such card was ever located, and certain file entries indicate that such a card was never prepared.[A15-73]
The State Department has advised the Commission that as of October 1959 the Department had “developed information which might reasonably have caused it to prepare * * * a lookout card for Lee Harvey Oswald.”[A15-74] The Passport Office employee who prepared the refusal sheet for Oswald has suggested as a possible explanation of the failure to prepare a lookout card that between the day she prepared the refusal sheet and the time the records section would normally have prepared the lookout card, Oswald’s file was temporarily pulled from its place because the Department received some additional correspondence from the Embassy. When the file was returned, she suggested, it may have been assumed that the card had already been prepared.[A15-75]
Had a lookout card been prepared on the ground of possible expatriation, it would have been removed and destroyed after the decision was made in 1961 that Oswald had not expatriated himself and thus prior to the time that he applied for a second passport in June 1963. Hence, the Department’s apparent failure to prepare a lookout card on Oswald had no effect on its future actions. As of February 20, 1964, the Department issued additional regulations regarding the manner in which the lookout file is to be handled.[A15-76] On March 14, 1964, a category was established for returned defectors, so that these persons automatically have lookout cards in their files, and on July 27, 1964, the Office of Security of the Department of State issued a procedural study of the lookout-card system, with recommendations.[A15-77]