Jenner. Your reply—did you write him a letter?
Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.
Mr. Jenner. Do you have a copy of that letter?
Mr. Oswald. No, sir; I do not have a copy of any letter that I wrote to him.
Mr. Jenner. You do not know the whereabouts of that letter?
Mr. Oswald. No, sir; I do not, other than to say that I asked Mrs. Marina Oswald if Lee kept any of my letters and her reply was that "No, he always threw them away."
Mr. Jenner. In view of that, Mr. Oswald, would you please recite to the best of your recollection the contents of your letter in response to your brother's letter of November 8, 1959?
Mr. Oswald. Sir, I do not remember anything other than that statement referring to the money request. I do not recall anything else in the letter.
Mr. Jenner. You have heard Mr. McKenzie read that letter through. Did it refresh your recollection, or does it as to whether you made any comment upon his political statements in his letter to you of November 8?
Mr. Oswald. I do not believe I did at any time make any statement in reference to his political statements that he made in the letter of November 8. Generally, my statements to the members of the press at the time was that I felt Lee was not aware of what he was doing. I believe I referred to him as a kid. And that he just generally didn't know what he was doing, and that was just about the general text of anything I had to say to the members of the press at that time.
Mr. Jenner. There is an entry in your brother's diary of November 1, 1959, somewhat cryptic, referring to three telephone calls from mother and brother. Now you say you didn't call. Do you know whether your brother John ever called him?
Mr. Oswald. No, sir, not to my knowledge. However, that was November 1, sir, 1959.
Mr. Jenner. That is when the entry was made.
Mr. Oswald. I would say that he did not at that time try to contact Lee by telephone, because I do not believe at that early date—he was in Japan and was not aware that Lee had gone to Russia, because we were just aware of it on October 31, and recalling a letter from John over there, that he was not aware of it for a number of days after he actually went over there.
Mr. Jenner. I see. But efforts were made on the part of your mother to reach him or she did reach him by telephone?
Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir, I understand he spoke to her briefly, and then he hung up.
Mr. Jenner. For the purpose of refreshing your recollection, would you be good enough to read your brother's letter to you or what purports to be your brother's letter to you of November 26, 1959, and in reading through it—the reason I have asked you to look at it is that the letter is framed as a response to what apparently were questions that you put to him in your letter which was in response to his letter of November 8, and seeking to refresh your recollection as to the contents of your letter.
Mr. Chairman, this is a fairly long letter, and if Chief Justice Warren has a little time perhaps we might have Mr. Oswald read the letter over this evening since we are quite late in the day and I can pursue it tomorrow.
Mr. Dulles. I think we had better adjourn fairly soon.
Mr. Jenner. This would be a convenient time if it is convenient with you gentlemen.
The Chairman. What does Mr. McKenzie think, I see him smiling.
Mr. McKenzie. I am not going to place myself in a position, Mr. Chief Justice, of overruling either you or Mr. Dulles.
Mr. Jenner. I can question the witness with respect to some unrelated matters. That matter is not related to this, if I might.
Mr. McKenzie. Mr. Jenner, one thing I would appreciate if you could bring out in response to some of Mr. Bogg's questions which I don't believe he was quite clear on, I would like for the sake of the record to show what Robert's career in the Marine Corps was from the standpoint of whether he was a noncommissioned officer, and so forth, and so on, if you could bring that out.
Mr. Jenner. All right.
I had asked him to state his military career and maybe out of modesty he just left left that out.
Would you—you did give us in detail in your various stages and your specialty.
Mr. Oswald. I might say going through boot camp at San Diego, Calif., during the second week of boot training I was selected as the right guide of the platoon which actually was a go-between the drill instructors and the rest of the platoon, and I retained that position all the way through the remainder of the boot camp. On completion of boot camp I was a Pfc. I retained that—excuse me, I retained that rank until I went to Miami, Fla., at which time on my departure from Miami, Fla., I received my corporal's stripe, and prior to leaving Korea in April of 1955 I received my sergeant's stripe which was my last stripe that I received in the Marine Corps.
I did receive, of course, an honorable discharge, a Good Conduct Medal, and the various citations of the unit in Korea, Presidential Unit Citations, and such.
Mr. Jenner. All right. Thank you.
I can't recall whether it was Representative Boggs or Representative Ford who was questioning you about conversations between yourself and your mother regarding her claim that your brother may have been a representative of the CIA or some other government agency, and you mentioned there were two occasions. I did ask you to state the detail of one of the occasions which was in the Six Flags Motel in Dallas.
Would you please state where the second conversation took place and who was present and what was said?
Mr. Oswald. The second conversation took place over the telephone in a call that originated from my mother's house in Fort Worth, Tex., to my home in Denton, Tex.
I do not know if my wife was present at my end or who was present on the other end, at my mother's home.
Mr. Jenner. You recognized her voice?
Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; I did.
Mr. Jenner. It was your mother?
Mr. Oswald. It was my mother.
Mr. Jenner. What did she say on the subject?
Mr. Oswald. She was still pursuing this question or this speculation as far as I am concerned that Lee was an agent of the CIA, and that she was going to be able to, I believe use used the word "concrete", to be able to concretely establish that with the officials.
Mr. Jenner. You fixed that as having occurred subsequent to the occasion in the Six Flags Motel?
Mr. Oswald. That is correct, sir.
Mr. Jenner. Can you fix the time of the second occasion more definitely than that it followed the other?
Mr. Oswald. I would say this was approximately during the week of December 9, 1963.
Mr. Jenner. Was it before or after her trip to Washington which you have testified about when Mr. Ford questioned you?
Mr. Oswald. This was before her trip to Washington.
Mr.
