SOVIET OFFICIALS CUT RED TAPE FAST FOR LEE OSWALD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400310004-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 1999
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: April 16, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

PALO ALTO TIRS APR 1 6 Pete
Sanitized - Approve For a ease':. CI
~fficialsc
in ac'hievIng his wife's and
.daughter's freedom..
!.In Russia, Oswald apparently
experienced no such difficulty
Americans years' of frustration
to gain exit visas fel' loved ones
Where It has ,taken o t h e r
the curiosity of U.S. officials.
pushed with little difficulty -
than 21/2 years'was accom-
Sian-born'wife. and child'arrived
in the United Suites in dune,
]962, withqut fanfare.
Oswald's unheralded return:
home after an absence of more'
A Soviet agent? 'l
,Hy JO11N KEPl.lN tER '
ri
s)
(Third to - s
e
e
Perhaps the Russians j u's't
wanted to get rid of the young,
.ex-Marine who defected to the
"Soviet Union in the fail, of 1959,
then claimed 'to have a change
of heart.
__ it t)SWRI 'c Wiflt? ev ward mnrri ,i An.:r 'n'
~IVI Ill w"et duinunaes to
speak little Fnclish on her ar 1961, and by I
iva In the United Stat s. She recalls, Oswald already had in they really considered Oswaldt
as born in Archangel,; but ap- dicated his desire to r e t u r n to be a' 'Trotskyite' or -an 'ene??
arently lived most of ? her life home. He finds it difficult to my of the people,, as they
n Leningrad. b e l i e v e the Russians would claim e
refu dnathe they wouto
(Oswald met Iq Minsk early in such 'circumstances, unless, of dy's
have refused the exit visa to`
1961. They began seeing each course, everything had been ar- Marina :.. Oswald would have'
lother regularly and In a, few ranged. gone to jail ... Marina would'
;weeks were married. SUBSTANDARD not have been allowed to marry!
Marina was no ordinary Rus- If the explanation, were sim- him.' But not: only did she get
sign peasant girl, Smith 'says. pier . if Owald had merely the visa, she received it with a
She was well educated, had a been a defector found too, un- speed that is. truly unique in'
degree in pharmacy and was a:
Latin and French scholar. stable or unpalatable, for Soviet S010 Historyi+..; )4,u
Smith speculates the; coupic! citizenship, who was thinking of
met at a ' Young Communisti returning. home, then, by Soviet
usual' circumstances. he cir
norms, he would have been con-1
sidereq "substandard . . thel
,
.
usual, he believes, q Oswald' It is more logical to assume
was supposedly only' a p o o riMarina was assigned to Oswald
sheet metal worker and she anlas his companion, he states.
educated Russian girl possibly! "The most revealing piece of
related to a colonel in 'the So levidence," Smith contends, "is
viet intelligence service. also the most incontrovertible
- i
ff MORE MEANING I! I: Or, perhaps Oswald" s hast.ilyl;along caste and class lines, Tina and her child.
arranged departure, from 'be- ?lmith exolains, gieh-rankine ot-. "Soviet authorities have, true
hind tho Trnn r,irehin hurl ,dicers in particular are v e r Yienoueh. on occasion Allowed Sn-
clannish.
Thus, he Interprets
'
i Edward Ellis Smith of Palo Oswald's courtship of Marina Russia. In practically every
flnfect,Icase, however, the husband was
Alto, a former Armv. State De to mean the American d case, however, the husband was
partment and Central Intelli-'was moving in circles consider- a diplomat or a foreign -cor-
i gence Agency security - intelliably above the station of an respondent.
gence officer who lived in Mos-alleged sheet'metal worker. "And In every case It took a
cow several years, is -(),f the
latter opinion.
Smith has carefully reviewed
Oswald's movements from 1959
`until Nov. 22, 1963, the day he
allegedly -murdered the Presi-
dent of the~United States.
He be 1'' e v e s the evidence!
strongly points to the likelihood
Oswald was a trained S o v ire t
agent, but one who acted on
his own that tragic; day in pal
"The very fact he was ?al-,,great-: deal of doing to obtain
lowed . to meet this girl even' the exit visa, Including In many1
once; 'demonstrates he was alinstances well-timed interces
very, special guest of the Krem-'sons by , ambassadors, minis-.
fin, Smith says.' ; tors and even heads of state.
CONDITIONS
T h e i r marriage Indicates "Exit visas usually, have been.
"Oswald was moving in official granted only when -the- Kremlin'
circles .. . that he was on felt the -need- to 'demonstrat4
good terms with Soviet authors-!willingness to coexist peaceful:
ties' , , that' he .was- not 'anly," he adds. As for Oswald's
80-rubl5 nobody L,i -')I+ accord plans to return to the United
8..t~,. >~~1 ?~ ~~,1, a ;,;States, Smith argues, "There
iwae;Fno,;ieasot}-~tbaolutely none
Continued'
Approved: for Release CIA-1D'7,00001 8000400310004-6
scum of the earth
" Smith says