Oswald’s loan was sufficient to cover no more than the least expensive transportation from Moscow to New York. His passport was stamped as valid only for return to the United States.[A15-244] Oswald completed all necessary forms and affidavits to obtain the loan.[A15-245]
According to its own procedures the Department of State should have prepared a lookout card for Oswald in June 1962 when he received the proceeds of the loan.[A15-246] The promissory note which he signed contained a provision stating,
I further understand and agree that after my repatriation I will not be furnished a passport for travel abroad until my obligation to reimburse the Treasurer of the United States is liquidated.[A15-247]
However, a lookout card was never in fact prepared. With respect to this failure the State Department has informed the Commission as follows:
On receipt of notice of the loan from the Embassy in Moscow, the Department’s procedures provided that Miss Leola B. Burkhead of the Revenues and Receipts Branch of the Office of Finance should have notified the Clearance Section in the Passport Office of Oswald’s name, date, and place of birth. If the Passport Office received only the name and not the date and place of birth of a borrower, it would not have prepared a lookout card under its established procedures because of lack of positive identification. (Among the Passport Office’s file of millions of passport applicants, there are, of course, many thousands of identical names.) Mr. Richmond C. Reeley was the Chief of the Revenues and Receipts Branch of the Office of Finance and Mr. Alexander W. Maxwell was Chief of the Clearance Section. If the notice was received in the Clearance Section it would have been delivered to the Carding Desk for preparation of a lookout card on Oswald. It appears, however, that such a lookout card was not prepared. It may have been that the Finance Office did not notify the Clearance Section of Oswald’s loan. One reason for this might have been the Finance Office’s lack of information concerning Oswald’s date and place of birth. On the other hand, the Finance Office may have notified the Clearance Section of Oswald’s name only, in which case this Section would not have prepared a lookout card under its procedures. Since Oswald began repaying the loan in installments immediately after his return to the United States, it is also possible that the Office of Finance decided that it was unnecessary to pursue the matter further. In any event, Oswald’s loan was repaid in full on January 29, 1963, five months prior to his application for a new passport.[A15-248]
OSWALD’S RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES AND REPAYMENT OF HIS LOAN
On June 1, 1962, the some day that Oswald received his loan from the State Department, he and his family left Moscow by train destined for Rotterdam, The Netherlands.[A15-249] They boarded the SS Maasdam at Rotterdam on June 4 and arrived in New York on June 13, 1962.[A15-250] The Embassy sent word of the Oswalds’ departure to the Department of State in Washington on May 31.[A15-251] Consistent with its prior practice of keeping the Federal security agencies informed of Oswald’s activity,[A15-252] the Department notified the FBI.[A15-253]
Frederick J. Wiedersheim, an officer of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in New York, interviewed the Oswalds upon their entry into the United States at Hoboken, N.J., on June 13, 1962, but made no written report. Mr. Wiedersheim recalled that he asked the Oswalds various questions which would determine the eligibility of both Oswald and Marina to enter the United States. The questions included whether Oswald had expatriated himself and whether Marina belonged to any Communist organization which would bar her entry. These questions were answered in ways which did not appear to raise any problems and therefore the Oswalds were admitted.[A15-254]
After his reentry, Oswald repaid his loan without having to be reminded by the Department to do so. The early payments were very small because he first repaid the approximately $200 he had borrowed from his brother Robert to apply against the expenses of his travel from New York to Fort Worth, Tex.[A15-255] The schedule of payments is as follows:
| Aug. 13, 1962 | $10.00 |
| Sept. 5, 1962 | 9.71 |
| Oct. 10, 1962 | 10.00 |
| Nov. 19, 1962 | 10.00 |
| Dec. 11, 1962 | 190.00 |
| Jan. 9, 1963 | 100.00 |
| Jan. 29, 1963 | 106.00 |
| Total | [A15-256]435.71 |