Representative Ford. Do you feel that the regulations then, as well as now, and the law as well, are archaic in this regard?
Mr. Snyder. Oh, no; it is simply that—not the law, and certainly not the regulations—and certainly not the law, can ever take the place of the judgment of the officer on the spot.
Mr. Dulles. Was this motivated by the Petrulli case?
Mr. Snyder. No; I don't think it was. The Petrulli case was a clear-cut case, there was no problem with the Petrulli case, legal or otherwise.
It was motivated, as best I can recall, by my experience with a few other cases. Well, let's say—let's go back a little bit further, in a more general vein. The kind of people, the kind of Americans, and I suppose not only Americans but Frenchmen, Englishmen, and otherwise, who occasionally drift into the Soviet Union and state that they want to roll up their sleeves and go to work for socialism for the rest of their lives, or something of this sort, are usually quite a peculiar kind of person.
In the first place, they are rarely Marxists in any meaningful sense of the term. That is, they don't really know what it is all about. They probably don't know two words about Marxist theories, or Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism, or anything else. Even less do they know anything about the country that they have chosen to spend their lives in, theoretically.
Almost universally they have never been to the country before. They speak no Russian. And they are rebounding from something—in some cases, such as the Petrulli case, the man is simply incompetent. In other cases, as in the Webster case, he appears to have been fleeing from his wife and the general responsibilities of his prior position, and finding that he could not escape from them in the Soviet Union either.
In the case of Oswald, a man who, for one reason or another, seemed to have been uncomfortable in his own society, unable to accommodate himself to it, and hoping he will make out better some place else.
At any rate, almost universally, the pattern is of a person who is not acting out of any ideological grounds. He simply doesn't—and I think this is essentially true probably of Oswald—this was my feeling in speaking with him—that Oswald really knew nothing about Marxism and Leninism, that he professed to be modeling his life after.
Mr. Dulles. Isn't it possible, though, from this discussion—maybe this should be asked to your legal adviser—that our procedure under law about renunciation may be in conflict with general international law, because if he comes into the country with an American passport, as an American citizen, I gather under ordinary international law we have to take him back. We are responsible for him. And no renunciation he makes changes that, as the Petrulli case shows.