Mr. COLEMAN. Is that correct?
Miss WATERMAN. What was your question again now?
Mr. COLEMAN. I am saying what you were agreeing to was the proposed
action of the Embassy as set forth in its Foreign Service Despatch
dated May 26, 1961?
Miss WATERMAN. Yes; but I see we also note that the Embassy intended
to contact the Department again before granting any documentation to
Oswald.
Mr. DULLES. Off the record.
(Discussion off the record.)
Mr. DULLES. Back on the record.
Mr. COLEMAN. I note on Commission Exhibit No. 975, which is your X-31,
that on the side there is written "Pink copy of this sent to EE:SOV
Miss James, BW7-17-61."
Miss WATERMAN. Yes; I am looking at that.
Mr. COLEMAN. Do you recall whether Miss James asked you to send her a
copy, or did you just send her a copy without being requested?
Miss WATERMAN. No; I would not recall, really. We tried to keep--since
there were many interests involved here, we did try to keep the
geographic division up to date on what we were doing, so that they
would have more or less a complete picture of the case.
Mr. COLEMAN. Then I would like to next call your attention to your
document which is X-28.
Miss WATERMAN. Yes.
Mr. COLEMAN. That is a memorandum which you prepared, Commission
Exhibit No. 978, in which you state that Miss James called and said
that she wanted to know what reply had you made to the Moscow despatch
29, July 11, 1961, in the case of Oswald. And you stated that the draft
reply was in preparation, and you also said that Miss James said that
the communication should be cleared with the SOV, and then you make a
comment that you never heard that the Passport Section's citizenship
decisions should be routed to SOV for clearance.
Miss WATERMAN. That is right.
Mr. COLEMAN. Nevertheless, you indicated in the memorandum that you
would indicate that the SOV had a special interest in the reply to the
despatch, is that correct?
Miss WATERMAN. Yes; that is right.
Mr. COLEMAN. Did you discuss with anybody in the Department Miss James'
request?
Miss WATERMAN. Well, I don't recall. I don't know. I wouldn't recall
right now.
Mr. COLEMAN. Well, is this the only time, to your knowledge, where the
SOV had made a request in connection with a passport?
Miss WATERMAN. Oh, no; I would not say that. I don't think so; no. I
think probably a great many of our communications went out as office
memoranda, and they received copies of them in the Division anyhow.
But I think this was probably more to avoid confusion in having
classified files be traveling around the different areas of the
Department. We could send a copy of an "OM" without trouble. But
handing the files around was another matter. And we didn't put them
around any more than we had to.
Mr. COLEMAN. The next document in the sheaf of papers I gave you is the
Operations Memorandum dated August 18, 1961, prepared by you----
Miss WATERMAN. Yes.
Mr. COLEMAN. And we have given it Commission Exhibit No. 979.
Miss WATERMAN. Yes.
Mr. COLEMAN. In that you indicate that you concur in the conclusion of
the Embassy that there is available no information and/or evidence to
show that Mr. Oswald has expatriated himself under the pertinent laws
of the United States.
Miss WATERMAN. That is right.
Mr. COLEMAN. Did you review the entire files which you had in the
Passport Office on Oswald before you wrote this memorandum?
Miss WATERMAN. Yes; our file was all together.
Mr. COLEMAN. And you also had the benefit of the various Embassy
Despatches which were sent prior to August 18, 1961?
Miss WATERMAN. Oh, yes.
Well, the part that concerned his citizenship, certainly, was with our
file.
Mr. COLEMAN. And reviewing the whole file, you, as the adjudicator,
determined on August 18, 1961, that there was nothing in the file which
would show that Mr. Oswald had expatriated himself?
Miss WATERMAN. That is correct.
Representative FORD. When you say "no information and/or evidence to
show that Mr. Oswald"----
Miss WATERMAN. No information or evidence.
Well, that is the way I worded it. No information or evidence. We would
have to have evidence to hold up any action on him. And, in addition to
having no evidence, we also had no information.
Representative FORD. Did you have the information that he had come in
and presented a statement to Mr. Snyder that he wanted to renounce his
citizenship?
Miss WATERMAN. Yes; but he hasn't done so. There was no place that he
could have done so, except at the Embassy, under a specified form, and
upon specified documents.
Representative FORD. In other words, you were relying upon the need for
this particular document?
Miss WATERMAN. Well, in the first place, when he came in--as I believe
Mr. Snyder said, or whoever reported from the Embassy--and threw down
his passport, he apparently was a disgruntled young man--and that
is not the first time a passport has been thrown down on a consular
officer's desk. And I think that we had--no--in other words, it looked
as if he were already regretting his first action. He was weakening a
little bit because he was not being accorded any kind of recognition in
the Soviet Union.