Mr. Liebeler. Can you remember any of the details of what he told you about his activities in New Orleans?
Mr. Ballen. That would have been the only reference to New Orleans, and he said nothing whatsoever about any involvement with any Cuban committees or anything like that. I would have the feeling that this was a man who was at that stage a political, had no involvement with any Communist group, that he washed his hands pretty much of anyone or any part of the political spectrum.
Mr. Liebeler. You did not know that he was a professed Marxist?
Mr. Ballen. He may have—I think I had the feeling that he, to the extent that he could define it, that he was a student of Marxism and was a critic of societies along Marxist lines.
Mr. Liebeler. Were you led to that belief partly by his remarks about religion?
Mr. Ballen. No; I learned that from George De Mohrenschildt, and I think Oswald would have, somewhere along the line during my interview with him, made statements to reenforce that.
Mr. Liebeler. Do you remember what De Mohrenschildt told you about Oswald before you actually met Oswald?
Mr. Ballen. Yes; he said that this was a very unusual situation, sir. Here is a chap who suddenly appears in the Dallas area, and that he had been to Russia, went to Russia, came back, and has no hatred either for Russia or for the United States, and is just a man with no hatred, and by gosh here he appears in the United States, having gotten out of Russia with a wife, and that this was an independent and truth seeking young man and very interesting, and George was talking to him at length in Russian, and someone just totally unlike anyone else who came back who was either very much pro and very much anti, and this is a fellow with no hatred.
Mr. Liebeler. Did De Mohrenschildt indicate to you that Oswald had no hatred of anything?
Mr. Ballen. That is what—De Mohrenschildt had emphasized it to me that his view of this man was that the chap wasn't getting involved with hatred and was outside the cold war on either side and his emotions connected with it.