President's Commission on the Assassination of - The Warren Commission (Complete Edition)

Mr. Oswald. I feel that it was, particularly to Lee, because I——

Mr. Jenner. Would you elaborate on that, please; we are interested in that.

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir. Because I feel very surely that the reason that Lee joined the United States Marine Corps was because of my service in the United States Marine Corps and he wanted to follow——

Mr. Jenner. And your reaction to it had been communicated by you to him?

Mr. Oswald. I feel like it was, sir.

Mr. Jenner. Many witnesses have a habit that you have when you feel like it was. Do you mean that you actually conveyed that thought to him?

Mr. Oswald. I believe I did, sir.

Mr. Jenner. All right.

Mr. Oswald. Thank you.

I believe I was stating that I believe that the reason that Lee joined the United States Marine Corps was to follow in my footsteps, in that same service, and frankly I believe that at that time in earlier years and later years that he looked up to me, not only in that respect, but that eventually he wanted to follow in my footsteps.

I would say within the family relation that Lee and I were closer than Lee and mother or Lee and John during our entire lifetime. That if there was something that he was going to discuss with anybody, or say to anybody, within the family I would be the one that he would discuss it with.

I refer to his statement on the second page of the letter of November 26, 1959, "I will ask you a question, Robert, what do you support the American government for? What is the ideal you put forward. Do not say freedom because freedom is a word used by all people through all of time."

I did refer to the word "freedom" and I recall stating to him that the word "freedom" to me was something that was earned and not handed down.

I refer to the third page of the letter of November 26, 1959, and the brief statement, "America is a dying country."

I replied to him that perhaps, and I believe some great man said this statement at one time or the other, I do not recall who, that we were a sleeping giant, and that we were coming awake.

This was, of course, in reference to the Communist world.

Mr. Jenner. This was something you said in your letter?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.

Mr. Jenner. All right.

Mr. Dulles. May I ask what is the date of this letter?

Mr. Jenner. It is in response to the letter of November 26.

Mr. Dulles. November 26, yes.

Mr. Oswald. I refer to the bottom of the page of the letter of November 26, "So you speak of advantages. Do you think that is why I am here for personal material advantages, happiness is not based on oneself, it does not consist of a small home of taking and getting."

I recall my reply to this series of questions as being—as to having that right to seek for oneself his own personal desires to the extent that the material advantages were something of a secondary nature, and was something of a reward for his efforts.

Mr. Jenner. While the witness is looking further, Mr. Chairman, this is a little tedious, but as counsel for the Commission, I suggest its importance and relevancy in that, if nothing else, it serves to demonstrate the response of the witness to the letter indicating the attitude of the Oswald family on these subjects and isolating these views to Lee Harvey Oswald.

Mr. Dulles. I think this is important, and the more I hear of this letter the more I get the impression that there was some help given in writing this letter.

Mr. Jenner. That is why I am spending so much time on it.

Mr. Dulles. Yes.

Mr. Jenner. With apologies to you, Mr. McKenzie, that is the only way we can go at it because we don't have the actual response itself.

Mr. McKenzie. Mr. Jenner, I commend you on the way that you are conducting this interrogation.

Mr. Jenner. Thank you.

Mr. McKenzie. Mr. Oswald, under no circumstances speculate on what you wrote in answer to these letters. State to the best of your recollection only what you did write, if you recall.

If you can't recall tell Mr. Jenner so.

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir, this is what I have been doing, sir.

Mr. Dulles. In view of the importance of this letter of November 26 and certain other of these letters, as Chairman and in view of the absence of a number of my colleagues today for unavoidable reasons, I think it might be well to insert the entire letter in the record and possibly certain other letters on which you are going to interrogate the witness.

You see no objection?

Mr. McKenzie. None whatsoever, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Dulles. I have in mind that other members of the Commission may not be able to read all of the exhibits but I think they should read these letters on which we are interrogating the witness.

Mr. McKenzie. Yes, sir.

Mr. Dulles. In order to get the full purport, flavor of this particular line of interrogation.

Mr. McKenzie. I couldn't concur more, Mr. Dulles.

Mr. Dulles. We will leave it then to your discretion with Mr. Rankin to decide what letters should go in, in connection with his testimony.

Mr. McKenzie. I might add in that regard, Mr. Chairman, that I have no objection, whatsoever to any or all of the letters going into the record.

Mr. Dulles. Thank you.

Mr. Jenner. They are already in the record. But you mean set forth in full in the record.

Mr. McKenzie. I would mark right now the spot in the record following the Chairman's remarks and my concurrence and, of course, Mr. Jenner's suggestion that the letter be in its entirety placed in the record, I would mark that place now so that it could go in at this spot.

Mr. Jenner. Also the letter of November 8. And November 26 letter.

Mr. Jenner. Proceed, Mr. Oswald.

Mr. Oswald. I do not recall any other statements that I would have replied to, or did reply to, in my reply to his letter of November 26, 1959.

Mr. Jenner. All right, sir.

Now, did you receive any direct response to your letter, and your next letter is Commission Exhibit No. 296, sometime during the summer of 1959, it is a short one-page letter.

Mr. Oswald. This is December, 1959, sir.

Mr. Jenner. No, it is in the summer of 1959, isn't it, or is that the one-page letter which you had written December 17, 1959.

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.

Mr. Jenner. And is that the next letter you received from your brother?

Mr. Oswald. That is correct, sir.

Mr. Jenner. Is there any reference in that letter to the response you made to the November 26 letter?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir. There is not.

Mr. Jenner. Did you receive any subsequent letter in which he made any direct response to your long letter which you wrote him in response to the letter of November 26?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir, he did not, and if I might say I wrote earlier and as a reminder to myself that I was concerned at the time I received the letter of December 17, 1959.

Mr. Jenner. That is Commission Exhibit 297.

Mr. Oswald. That Lee did not have time to receive my reply to his letter of November 26, 1959.

Mr. Jenner. I see.

Then the next letter you received, at least in the series you have produced, is May 5, 1961, a two-page letter, Commission Exhibit 298.

Mr. Oswald. Could I have that date again, please, sir?

Mr. Jenner. May 5, 1961.

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.

Mr. Jenner. He makes no response in that letter to your response to his letter of November 26.

Mr. Oswald. No, sir, he does not. Perhaps, sir, the only way that I can be aware that he received my letter in reply to November 26 letter, to his letter of November 26, 1959, I did enclose one photograph of my daughter Cathy Marie Oswald at the age of 2 years old in that letter.

Mr. Jenner. In your response to his letter of November 26?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; and at a later date Lee was to tell me that he did keep this photograph, so he did receive my letter.