Mr. Snyder. I think if there is a usual pattern—and, again, this is difficult to use words like "usual" because there are never two cases alike in this sort of thing—but if there is a usual pattern, it is that there is some exploitation of the defector in Soviet public media, usually after the details of his defection have been settled, particularly the detail as to whether the Soviet Union desires to have him.
Up to that point, publicity in the Soviet press probably is not to be expected.
Mr. Coleman. After you sent the airgram dated December 1, 1959, to the Department of State, which is Commission Exhibit No. 921, you didn't have any more contact with Oswald until some time in February 1961, is that correct?
Mr. Snyder. Yes, sir.
Mr. Coleman. In the meantime, however, there was correspondence between the Embassy in Moscow and the State Department, is that correct?
Mr. Snyder. Yes, sir.
Mr. Coleman. Did——
Mr. Snyder. Well, let me see.
Mr. Coleman. I will mark——
Mr. Snyder. I guess there was. There was one or more welfare and whereabouts inquiries concerning him from his mother, which I think was the bulk, if not all, of the correspondence which we were engaged in between those two periods.