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.
Mr. JENNER. Would you repeat what you just said, sir, or would you read
it, Mr. Reporter?
(The reporter read the answer.)
Mr. JENNER. You said Lee was to tell you, did you mean by that
expression that he actually acknowledged receipt of the photograph?
Mr. OSWALD. Yes, sir, he did.
Mr. JENNER. Which leads you to believe necessarily then that he
received your response to his letter of November 26.
Mr. OSWALD. That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Did he state that he had received that photograph in a
letter that he wrote you or was that orally after he returned to the
United States?
Mr. OSWALD. I believe this was orally, sir.
Mr. JENNER. After he returned to the United States?
Mr. OSWALD. Yes, sir, that is correct.
Mr. JENNER. Now, returning to his short stay at Fort Worth upon his
being discharged from the Marines, what do you recall, if anything, of
any discussion respecting his financial status at that time, that is
whether he was in funds and if so, what volume of funds.
Mr. OSWALD. I was not aware of his financial situation at that time.
Mr. JENNER. Was it discussed?
Mr. OSWALD. Not that I recall, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Did any member of the family, during that period of time,
ever discuss with you, having in turn discussed that subject matter
with Lee?
Mr. OSWALD. No, sir, they did not.
Mr. JENNER. Did you ever have a conversation with your mother prior to
November 22, 1963 respecting Lee's financial status at the period of
time when he was immediately--right at the time he was discharged from
the Marines?
Mr. OSWALD. No, sir; I did not. I do not remember one.
Mr. JENNER. So that up to November 22, 1963, there was never any
discussion in which you participated or which you overheard on that
subject?
Mr. OSWALD. That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Now, with respect to the remaining series of letters, were
you ever advised while your brother Lee was in Russia how much money he
was given or earned?