(Conferring with counsel.)
Mr. Oliver. The observer mentioned there is Col. Chesley Clark, retired.
Mr. Jenner. Clark.
Mr. Oliver. C-l-a-r-k, of the American Air Force.
Mr. Jenner. Did he publish—this is a new name to me—did he publish something on which you rely in making that statement?
Mr. Oliver. This he told me not with a pledge that it was confidential, but with the implication that I would not disclose his name in a publication. I see no bar to disclosing it for the purpose of these hearings. If I may say, his estimates were made entirely from, what should we say, experience in psychological warfare and in reading the indications in the sequence of events and the form the propaganda was taking, and that he obviously had not, so far as I know, no inside information.
Mr. Jenner. This conversation or conversations that you had had with Colonel Clark, did it or they occur between the time of the assassination and the time of the publication of your article?
Mr. Oliver. No, before the assassination, I am sure. I would say perhaps—it is hard to recollect but I would say a month or 6 weeks before.
Mr. Jenner. I take it, I don’t even like to say this because I don’t want you to take it wrong, certainly there was nothing in Colonel Clark’s statement to you, sir, that carried any implication of any anticipation of a possible assassination of President Kennedy?
Mr. Oliver. No. Of a, however—it did astutely anticipate some event that would create a national shock.