A MOTHER WHO WANTS TO WRITE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600170008-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 4, 1998
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: February 21, 1964
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

Sanitized - Approved For Releas
FOIAb3b
A Mother Who Wants to Write
CPYRGHT
Determined to defend her sons name,
Marguerite Oswald last week delivered
a monologue before the Warren Com-
mission in Washington. She carried with
her a shoulder bag containing letters
,that Lee Harvey Oswald had written to
her from the Soviet Union, as well as
several undisclosed "documents." Pre-
cisely what she told the commission was
not made public, but it was evident
that the patient investigators learned lit-
tle that was new or pertinent. Mrs.
Oswald, said Chief Justice Earl Warren,
"produced nothing that would change
the picture."
A Positive Person. Away from the
commission's hearing room, she held
court for reporters. "I can. talk for
hours," she said. She insisted that Lee
Oswald had been an agent for the Cen-
tral.Intelligence Agency, and that he
"had been set up to take the blame" for
the Kennedy assassination. He was the
scapegoat, she said, mispronouncing it
as "scrapgoat." Frequently referring to
him in the present tense, she asked:
"Who can prove he is not a CIA agent?
He isn't going to say he's a CIA agent,
and the Government isn't going to say
he is. Lee, being an agent, would not
say so to anyone." If he was, he didn't
tell CIA Chief John McCone, who hast-
ily announced that Oswald had never
worked for his outfit.
Undaunted, Mrs. Oswald vowed to
reporters that, "I'm a positive person.
You know, I have a philosophy. I have
a deep sense of justice. I even think a
Communist is a human being. Even if
my son is a Marxist, he is a human be-
ing. Even Buddhists are human beings-
Catholics, Jews and Negroes, or what-
ever our religion, we are all human
beings. We live and breathe the same
free air. I don't think a name means
anything. Just because. you're a high
official, .it doesn't mean anything. It's
the man behind the name. Suppose you
are a high official, that doesn't impress
mc. Even a Communist may have won-
derful views."
"I'm Indignant." Mrs. Oswald is not
very high on one official in particular-
Lyndon Johnson. She was offended be-
cause the President did not invite her
to the White House during her Wash-
ington visit. She was also miffed because
Jackie Kennedy had neglected to send
condolences when Lee Oswald was shot.
"After all," Mrs. Oswald said, "we loved
Lee just as much as she loved her hus-
band. We're human beings, too. I'm in-
dignant at her, and I resent her thinking
we're not as good as she is."
Marguerite Oswald claims that she has
plenty more to tell, but she is saving it.
"I have to have something left to write
about, don't I?" she said to a reporter.
"I can't tell you everything." She plans
to visit some New York publishers,
hopes to get an advance of $25,000 or
$50,000 for a book she intends to write.
"I don't even think I'll have to have a
ghostwriter for my book," she muses.
"No, I don't want one. I believe I can
write the book by just dictating."
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600170008-3