Mr. DULLES. Could I ask one question there? Did he take his passport or
did he leave it?
Mr. SNYDER. No; I kept it.
Mr. DULLES. You kept the passport?
Mr. SNYDER. Yes, sir.
Mr. COLEMAN. I show you a document which has been marked Commission
Exhibit No. 908, and it is a Foreign Service dispatch dated November
2, 1959. This is from Embassy, Moscow, to the Department of State,
Washington. It is signed by Edward L. Freers, but on the first page
there is an indication it was actually drafted by you. Do you recall
drafting the original of that document?
Mr. SNYDER. Yes, sir.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 908 for
identification.)
Mr. COLEMAN. That statement was drafted within a day or two after you
had the interview with Mr. Oswald. I take it it reflects what happened
at that time.
Mr. SNYDER. Yes, sir.
Mr. DULLES. Was there any cabled report of this incident?
Mr. SNYDER. Yes; I cabled a report on the 31st, Mr. Dulles. Commission
Exhibit No. 908 is a somewhat fuller report, 2 days later.
Mr. COLEMAN. To answer Mr. Dulles' question, I show you a document
which has been marked Commission Exhibit No. 910, which purports to be
a copy of a cable from Moscow to the Secretary of State, and ask you
whether that is the cable which was sent off on October 31, 1959.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 910 for
identification.)
Mr. SNYDER. Yes, sir.
Mr. COLEMAN. I also had marked, and I would like to show you,
Commission Exhibit No. 909, which is a copy of a telegram from American
Embassy, Tokyo, to Secretary of State, dated November 27, 1963. This
telegram purports to be an interview which the Ambassador in Tokyo had
with you immediately after the assassination in which you attempted to
recall what happened on October 31, 1959, when Mr. Oswald appeared at
the Embassy.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 909 for
identification.)
Mr. COLEMAN. I ask you if you can identify that telegram?
Mr. SNYDER. Might I just inject something? I notice in my reports, on
my first interview with Oswald, that I mention the Petrulli case. You
might at this time or later on wish to refer to the Petrulli case.
Mr. DULLES. Mr. Chairman, this cable is very short and quite
significant. I wonder if it could not be read into the record at this
point, just for the continuity of the record.
Mr. SNYDER. There is a slight problem of classification on these, Mr.
Dulles. I don't know how public the records are.
Mr. DULLES. Maybe you could paraphrase it, then. You mean it is a
question of codes?
Mr. SNYDER. It is a question of code security; yes, sir.
The CHAIRMAN. If this is in the record, it will be published.
Mr. COLEMAN. Off the record.
(Discussion off the record.)
The CHAIRMAN. Back on the record.
Mr. COLEMAN. Would you be kind enough to read Commission Exhibit No.
910 into the record?
Mr. SNYDER. In paraphrase?
The CHAIRMAN. Paraphrase, yes; in your own way.
Representative FORD. Of course keeping the intent of what was said
precisely as it was sent.
Mr. SNYDER. Yes, sir.
A person appeared at the Embassy today, October 31, identified himself
as Lee Harvey Oswald, and stated that he had come to renounce his
American citizenship. He was the bearer of U.S. passport No. 1733242,
date of issuance September 10, 1959, which showed him to be unmarried
and gave his age as 20, or which showed him to be 20--it gives his date
of birth. Mr. Oswald stated that he had applied for Soviet citizenship
in Moscow. He stated that he had entered the Soviet Union from
Helsinki, Finland, on October 15. He said that he had contemplated this
action for the previous 2 years. The main reason given was that "I am a
Marxist." He has a mother living at 4936 Collinwood Street, Fort Worth,
Tex., which was also his last address.
His attitude was arrogant and aggressive. He stated that he had
recently been discharged from the Marine Corps. He also volunteered
the information that he had offered to the Soviet authorities any
information which he had acquired as an enlisted radar operator in the
Marines.
In view of the Petrulli case, the Embassy proposes to delay completing
the renunciation procedure until the action of the Soviet authorities
on his request for Soviet citizenship is known or the Department
advises.
A dispatch follows.
The press has been informed.
The CHAIRMAN. Would the Commissioners like to see the document itself?
Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. Snyder, could you tell the Commission what the
Petrulli case was?
Mr. SNYDER. Yes. The Petrulli case I remember quite well.
Mr. Petrulli was an American citizen who came into the Embassy some
weeks before, I believe, asking to renounce his American citizenship.
Mr. Petrulli hung around Moscow for quite some time, again a number of
weeks, and perhaps as long as 3 weeks or a month. He had entered the
Soviet Union as a tourist, I believe.
It is not clear what intent he had when he arrived.
But, at any rate, he did apply for Soviet citizenship while in Moscow,
and he did come into the Embassy, and was interviewed by me to renounce
his American citizenship. I did not, in accordance with the thinking
which I outlined to you earlier--I did not accept his renunciation
the first time he came in, but did accept it when he subsequently
appeared, and insisted that is what he wanted to do.
The case had a--I might skip over the minor details, but it had a
rather rapid denouncement, when the Soviet authorities, after having
looked him over for a number of weeks, decided they did not want him
as a citizen or resident of the Soviet Union. And when we subsequently
learned, that is I learned, from my reporting to the Department, and
correspondence with them, that Mr. Petrulli had been discharged from
the Armed Forces some time earlier on, I believe, a 100-percent mental
disability--the Soviet, I think it was the head of the consular section
of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, called me into the Foreign Ministry one
day and said words to the effect that an American citizen Mr. Petrulli,
has overstayed his visa in the Soviet Union, he is living here
illegally, and "We request that you take steps to see that he leaves
the country immediately."
I told the Soviet official that to the best of my knowledge Mr.
Petrulli was not then an American citizen, he having executed a
renunciation of citizenship before me.
The Soviet official said in effect, "As far as we are concerned, he
came here on an American passport, and we ask that you get him out of
here."
Well, again to end what was a long, involved and terribly
time-consuming story at the time, it was determined by the Department
that Mr. Petrulli's renunciation was null and void because he was not
competent, and therefore he was an American citizen, and we shipped him
home.
The Petrulli case, as I say, was very much in my mind when Mr. Oswald
showed up.
Mr. COLEMAN. After you sent the telegram, which is Commission Exhibit
No. 910, to the State Department, I take it that the first word that
you received from the State Department is a telegram which I have
marked as Commission Exhibit No. 916.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 916 for
identification.)
Mr. SNYDER. Yes.
Mr. COLEMAN. Now, by paraphrasing, could you read the second paragraph
of that telegram into the record?
Mr. SNYDER. "For your information, in the event that Mr. Oswald insists
on completing a renunciation of his United States citizenship, the
Embassy is precluded by the provisions of section 1999 of the Revised
Statutes from withholding the right to do so without regard to the
status of his application for citizenship which is pending before the
Soviet government and without regard to the Petrulli case."
Mr. COLEMAN. At the same time that you were notifying the State
Department that Oswald had appeared, someone in the Embassy also sent
a telegram to the Navy Department, didn't he, advising that Oswald, a
former Marine, had appeared at the Embassy and stated that he was a
radar operator in the Marine Corps, and that he had offered to furnish
the Soviets the information he possessed on radar.
I have marked as Commission Exhibit No. 917 this telegram and ask you
whether that is the telegram that went forth to the Navy Department.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 917 for
identification.)
Mr. SNYDER. I don't recall that I saw this telegram at the time. But I
would say from the content of it, and the form, that it is clearly a
telegram sent by the naval attaché of the Embassy to his home office.
Mr. COLEMAN. We also have had marked as Commission Exhibit No. 918 the
telegram which the Navy sent in reply to Commission Exhibit No. 917.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 918 for
identification.)
Mr. COLEMAN. Have you seen that before and can you identify that?
Mr. SNYDER. I do not recall having seen this telegram before; no, sir.
Mr. COLEMAN. Now, sir; the next contact that you had with Oswald was by
a letter dated November 3, 1959, which has been marked as Commission
Exhibit No. 912, is that correct?
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 912 for
identification.)
Mr. SNYDER. Yes--to the best of my knowledge, this was the next thing
that I heard of Oswald--the next thing I heard from Oswald.
Mr. COLEMAN. How did the original of Commission Exhibit No. 912 come
into your possession?
Mr. SNYDER. I believe it came through the mail.
Mr. COLEMAN. And after you received Commission Exhibit No. 912, what
did you do?
Mr. SNYDER. I wrote Mr. Oswald a reply, I believe, the same day.
The CHAIRMAN. Exhibit No. 912 was a request to revoke his application
to renounce citizenship, was it not?
Mr. COLEMAN. No, Mr. Chief Justice; Commission Exhibit No. 912 is a
letter from Mr. Oswald complaining that the Embassy had not permitted
him to renounce.
The CHAIRMAN. I misread it. Yes; that is right. Excuse me.
Mr. COLEMAN. You say you wrote Mr. Oswald a letter the same day?
We have had marked as Commission Exhibit No. 919 a letter from Richard
E. Snyder, to Lee Harvey Oswald, dated November 6, 1959.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 919 for
identification.)
Mr. COLEMAN. I show it to you and ask you is this a copy of the letter
which you wrote to Mr. Oswald?
Mr. SNYDER. Yes, sir.