TO PROVE WHAT DID NOT HAPPEN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600160069-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 18, 1999
• Sequence Number: 69
• Publication Date: February 24, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

69-7
FOIAb3b
:AN SCIENCE
T to
Pr
CPYRGHT
ere is +?.o way Of telling
how soon the presidential com-
mission investigating the Ken-
nedy assassination can close
shnp, Earl Warren, Chief
Justice of ;he United States,
remarks as he pauses from
work in his oak-paneled, high-
ceilinged chambers.
The reason: The commission
must do everything it can to
run down - and disprove If
false-all the bizarre accusa-
tions that clustered around the
tragedy: that President Ken-
nedy's assassination was a
Castro plot, that it was a
Khrusltchev conspiracy, that a
high official in the United
ye
Chief of the as aanp Bureau
tan
long-held view that the United
,States must look to its ethics
and its morality if it is to sur-
vive, and succeed as a world
leader. Speaking at the Jewish
Theological Seminary of Amer-
ica in 1962, he proposed the de-
velopment of the profession of
"ethics counselors," wh'o would
be available to business lead-
ers and other professions.
"The business executive, the
labor leader, the academician,
the politician, need counsel as
to what is right no less than the
husband and the wife . . .
whether plans conceived are
socially useful, right, and' ap-
propriate under the- the. circum-
h
f
stances, C
ie
U ustice YY arren
Stales Government master- said.
minded it, or that (as the
mother of Lee Harvey Oswald Critics Answered
asserted) the Central Intelli-
gence Agency (CIA), was in-
volved. ?' ethics or morals counselor
"It is infinitely easier to would have been able to'
prove that something happened, "reach" 'Lee Harvey . Oswald
such as that Oswald shot the and so avert. the Kennedy as.
that a dPresident,ozen than other it is to things didn't t sassination-not if the assassin
happen," the' Chief Justice ob- were mentally deranged. Yet a
serves, attired in a business suit larger morality and compas-
rather than the black robes of sion in the United States would
office, diminish the bitterness that be-
Reliorts Etaniiiicd gets bitterness, many have ob-
In the commission quarters, served. ' ,
eral wing
not far down the street from Two years ago Chief Justice Criticism Stiller] of the court. A working coi.
are plowing -through volumi- power, or world resources. This press, it the under Justice had uianIty," witn a deep concern
attem ted to be secretive and `.for the "predicament of human
noun reports bearing on the is a great privilege, but it is a p. beincc.'!
enormous responsibility. nave been even more vigorous.
cation, the' CIA, the Secret "The responsibility which is More important, there would'
Scrvicc, other government ours is to stimulate mankind have been a 1 t 1
a cn
cu
o m
r
case ias only un~ need, with a view to the, long state attorney general in Cali :I R
derscored the Chief' justice s? perspectives of_ bigtory,. andfornia besides being three , , ? / s/
u
ore, w
e
terviewing of key witnesses. Chief Justice Warren, who
The ] an understanding of the public was a district attorney and
Oswald
o
b ?
es. to conduct its affairs. with wis-
e specu This winnowing is taking dom, with conscientiousness, wide of the press, much of it
wide the mark.
much longer than does the In. with a view to th
t III,
f
times Governor, feels much at
home with an investigating,
commission.
He has spent full days with
the commission fo;r the past,
CPYRGHT
anti-Conuuunist investigations.
above all, with 'great compas- When he was' asked earlier
Sion for the individual," this year for his reaction to
The lawlessness evident In these attacks, he replied firmly,
the United States today, the "My reaction is that I just
Chief Justice believes, is born don't discuss it."
of a lack of ethics. Without One has the impression that
ethics, which means morality, the Chief Justice believes
no amount of.laws passed will deeply in what he is doing. The
hold crime in check. Supreme Court has been will-
Chief Justice Warren Is ing to act where Congress was
aware that there has been unable to move, as in the 1954
some criticism of his willing- school - desegregation decision,
Hess to accept the chairman- and just this week, in the rul-
ship of the presidential in- ing that congressional districts
vestigation commission, and must be as nearly equal in pop-
indeed of his willingness to ulation size as possible,
answer, however ? briefly, the Foia'r years ado he comment-
questions of reporters when ed that he was ha
hearings have concluded for ppy to have
the day. traded a life of politics for a 1
His reply to the first criti-
cism. is a quotation from Pres-
ident Cleveland; "There are
times when you are confronted
with conditions and not theo-
ries," Supreme Court Justices
should indeed be detached from
politics and they 'should avoid
outside assignments, ordinar-
ily.
"But the president impressed
upon me, the Chief Justice
says, "that this should be a
life of "reflection and contem-
plation." Today, having reached'
72 and completed 10 years on
the court he is eligible for re-
tirement at full salary ($35,-
000), but he has no thought of
quitting soon, His recreations:
are still simple-fishing and
duck - hunting in California'
with his sons, and college spec-
tator sports - watching from
the bleachers.
strong and independent: com- - ' "? app. e eu '
to the court by President Eisen.
mission, and he was so earnest bower, he called his out-
about the need that I felt ob- look "progressive conserva-;
ligated as a good citizen to-,tism." Since then he has been'
accept the job." identified with the lib
sion affairs since Jan: 1, plus.
'a,good bit of reading of reports .
at home at night.
Meanwhile, though the Chief
.Justice does not talk about this
at all, his assignment to probe
the assassination' of thek Presi-
Sanitized - Approved For Rel
24 1964
idN
By William H. Stringer inions on racial sc 'c at
o tc Christian Sctcnce Monitor
:on him; including prgposals for.,
-
,his impeachment,, stemming Earl Warren
rom:., the + Stipr i$ ,Cburt~s'. Cltlel Justice of United State#
of .~. apppenn CPYRGHT