Mr. Rankin. Will you initial those two as I have done, Mr. Johnson.
(Witness complies.)
Mr. Rankin. In Exhibit 4-A, you speak about finding some way to get in touch with Mr. Oswald in Baltimore. Can you tell us what you meant by that?
Mr. Johnson. In his letter of September 1, he refers that he is going to come to the Baltimore-Washington area and asked for information about how to reach somebody. It is not my practice to refer them to people until a person comes into an area, and if there is any reason to refer them to a person, then I do so under those circumstances. Thus, this is a simple form of simply—of just saying that when such a circumstance arises we can make a contact, that is, look him up wherever he is at the time.
Mr. Rankin. After you received the letter, Exhibit 4, with regard to Lee Harvey Oswald's trying to dissolve his American citizenship while he was in the Soviet Union, did you make any inquiry to try to determine whether he had taken such action?
Mr. Johnson. Nothing further than was in the letter itself.
Mr. Rankin. And you said that it is often advisable for some people to remain in the background, not underground. What did you mean by that?
Mr. Johnson. Very simply that as an American citizen, whatever he is doing should always be aboveground; that a person remains in the background within any organizational activities, that he does not push himself forward in whatever he is doing.
(Document marked Johnson Exhibit No. 5.)
Mr. Rankin. I hand you Exhibit No. 5 and ask you whether that letter dated August 31, 1963, consisting of two pages and an envelope, was one of the pieces of correspondence you turned over to the FBI at the time you described?