Oswald and the CIA: The Documented Truth About the Unknown Relationship Between the U.S. Government and the Alleged Killer of JFK (22 page)

As Ned briefed the invasion plans, Hunt thought the ex-marine was crazy. Ned had not spent enough time with real troops, a perennial problem with the Agency's paramilitary operations, according to Hunt.

As March turned into April, "there were numerous cable exchanges with project headquarters having to do with my cover and activities," Hunt recalls, and then "came a message telling me that Costa Rica was out; Figueres had been unable to secure government assent, and so my Cuban government-in-exile group would be based in Mexico City." Hunt resigned his cover position in the foreign service and told his friends he was quitting the State Department and moving to Mexico "where I could live relatively well on a recent inheritance." After a detour of several days in Spain, Hunt delivered his recommendations to the Cuban task force in April. He listed four:

1. Assassinate Castro before or coincident with the invasion (a task for Cuban patriots);

2. Destroy the Cuban radio and television transmitters before or coincident with the invasion;

3. Destroy the island's microwave relay system just before the invasion begins;

4. Discard any thought of a popular uprising against Castro until the issue has already been militarily decided.

Hunt believed that, without Castro, the Cuban army would "collapse in leaderless confusion." Barnes and Bissell read Hunt's report and told him it "would weigh in the final planning."5S

It was not long until a plot was hatched to assassinate, not Castro, but his brother Raul. This happened in July 1960, but the level at which it was approved is still murky. The CIA's 1967 Inspector General's Report concluded it could "find no evidence that any of the schemes were approved at any level higher than division, if that."56 The outlines of how the plot unfolded for Raul Castro to have an "accident" were reconstructed by the Church Committee investigation. According to its report, Alleged Assassination Plots, the first CIA-sanctioned attempt on the life of a Cuban leader took place in July 1960. A Cuban informant working for the CIA case officer in Havana had said he might be able to meet with Castro's brother, Raul. On July 20, the CIA Havana station issued a cable requesting intelligence requirements that the Cuban might fulfills' Summoned to headquarters from his home, the duty officer contacted the director of plans, Bissell, his deputy, Barnes, and the chief of the Western Hemisphere Division, J. C. Kings"

Bissell and Barnes gave King "their instructions," which King relayed in a cable to the Havana station the next day, July 21, which said: "Possible removal top three leaders is receiving serious consideration at HQS." If that sentence did not wake up the case officer, the rest of the cable did. The Church Committee investigation summarized the cable's contents:

The cable inquired whether the Cuban was sufficiently motivated to risk "arranging an accident" involving Raul Castro and advised that the station could "at discretion contact subject to determine willingness to cooperate and his suggestions on details." Ten thousand dollars was authorized as payment "after successful completion," but no advance payment was permitted because of the possibility that the Cuban was a double agent.59

The case officer told the Church Committee in 1975 that this cable represented "quite a departure from the conventional activities" of the station, but he dutifully sought out the Cuban and told him that the CIA contemplated an "accident to neutralize this leader's [Raul's] influence."60 The Cuban demanded, in the event of his own death, a college education for his sons in return for taking a "calculated risk" in arranging the apparent accidental death of Raul Castro.

When the Havana case officer returned to the station on July 22, he received a shocking piece of news. Another cable from CIA headquarters had just arrived. This one, signed by Tracy Barnes, said: "Do not pursue ref [i.e. previous cable authorizing the elimination of Raul]. Would like to drop matter." It was, however, too late to "drop the matter" since the Cuban had already left to contact Raul Castro, who at that time was probably returning from the Soviet Union via Egypt.61 Fortunately, the Cuban was unable to establish quick contact with Raul, and the matter was finally dropped.

It is interesting, in retrospect, to ask: Who authorized the elimination of Raul Castro? The documentary trail leads no higher than a division chief, J. C. King, who says his instructions came from Bissell, head of the Clandestine Services. The authorizing cable from CIA headquarters was sent on July 21, just days before Nixon's nomination as the Republican candidate for president. Is there any evidence that Nixon might have known about the "accident plot"? As it turns out, there is one intriguing piece of evidence from July 1960, and it concerns a meeting someone from Nixon's office had with Hunt.

In July, Esterline invited Howard Hunt to lunch with the vice president's assistant for National Security Affairs (and chief of Nixon's personal staff), Robert E. Cushman, Jr. Hunt described what transpired:

I reviewed for Cushman my impressions of Cuba under Castro and my principal operational recommendations, then went into the specifics of my mission: form and guide the Cuban governmentin-exile, accompany its members to a liberated Havana, and stay on as a friendly adviser until after the first post-Castro elections. In Mexico I was to work independently of the station, though drawing on it for communications and logistical support. Policy was to be transmitted to me by Tracy Barnes, who was at once in touch with Bissell and Allen Dulles, the higher echelons at State, and the Project Chief. Cushman's reaction was to tell me that the Vice President was the project's action officer within the White House, and that Nixon wanted nothing to go wrong. To that end, Cushman was responsible for clearing bottlenecks and resolving differences that might arise among State, CIA, and the National Security Council. He gave me his private telephone numbers and asked that I call him night or day whenever his services might be needed.62

While this does not prove that Nixon knew of the accident plot, it does demonstrate that his chief lieutenant, Cushman, was in close contact with the CIA operational elements involved at approximately the same time. Did Cushman also meet the other component chiefs on Bissell's task force? The idea is intriguing, but the evidence is so far lacking.

Of course Nixon and Cushman would not be around when their services were needed for the invasion of Cuba. The planned invasion did not occur before the election, which Nixon lost to Kennedy. Hunt says this about Cushman's generous offer of twenty-four-hour assistance from the vice president's office:

I found general's [colonel's] confirmation of high-level interest and good will reassuring. Unfortunately, when I was later to need them, Nixon and Cushman had been supplanted by a new administration.63

Cushman was thus unable to help in 1960. Hunt would meet Colonel Cushman again a decade later, however, this time as General Cushman, whom Nixon installed as the deputy director of the CIA. This time Hunt was after materials for the break-in to the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.

CHAPTER NINE

Lost in Minsk

"Dear Robert," Lee Oswald wrote to his brother at the end of 1959, "I will be moving from this hotel, so you need not write me here." In fact, he did not want any letters at all. Lee said good-bye to Robert in these three sentences:

I have chosen to remove all ties with my past, and so I will not write again, nor do I wish you to try and contact me, I'm sure you understand that I would not like to receive correspondence from people in the country which I have fled. I am starting a new life and I do not wish to have anything to do with the old life.

I hope you and your family will always be in good health. Lee'

Besides this terse farewell, the only other thing Marguerite and Robert received from Lee was a note on a scrap of paper asking for cash instead of checks. The "dear Robert" note arrived in late December and the scrap of paper arrived on January 5. They did not hear a word after that.

While Lee Harvey Oswald vanished into Russia, what happened next at home was itself a lost chapter in his history, a chapter in which his mother, worried about his fate, was a central figure. In the events that unfolded in 1960, the actions of Marguerite Oswald loom large. Except for an action by the marine reserves to process Oswald for an undesirable discharge, virtually everything in the 1960 Oswald files is directly attributable to the actions of his mother.

"When did you first hear from Lee?" U.S. Secret Service Special Agent John M. Howard asked Marguerite after the Kennedy assassination. "Did you hear from him while he was in Russia?" It was just three days after the assassination and one day after Ruby murdered Oswald, and the Secret Service had hidden Marguerite and Robert in the Six Flags Inn Motel in Arlington, Texas. "Now we will get to the very important part of the story," Marguerite replied to Howard. Indeed, what Marguerite was getting ready to tell the Secret Service about the FBI has never been acknowledged by the Bureau. On the contrary, the FBI has no record of this "important part of the story."

Mr. "Fannan ": FBI Mystery Man

"Mrs. Oswald, it looks like he wanted to go there [to Russia]," the FBI man said grimly to Marguerite in February 1960. This is just one of the details Marguerite remembers from their meeting. She recalled the entire story of how the FBI contacted her just after Oswald's disappearance inside Russia in January 1960. "I had no contact with Lee at all," Marguerite told the Secret Service in the November 25, 1963, tape-recorded interview, referring to her son's disappearance from Moscow and the fact that, other than the December scrap of paper with his request for cash, she had heard nothing from him. Marguerite explained that she had gathered, by "reading the [news] stories again," that there was an investigation of "the family background as in the service." From this is it would seem that someone was looking into the military service background of Lee Oswald and possibly that of other family members. We do know that the Air Force Office of Special Investigation (OSI) conducted an interview of Oswald's half brother, John Pic, who was an air force staff sergeant in Japan.

In the transcript of this taped interview, Marguerite claimed to have read about the background investigation in the papers. She added this confusing but engaging detail: "But it was the State Department that they had said was investigating his background, so I called the FBI in Fort Worth and wanted to know" [emphasis added]. It would be helpful if these words were specific, for this statement leaves open the possibility that Marguerite had checked with the newspapers about the investigation story. What is certain is that she claims to have called the FBI, whether or not there was earlier contact with someone else.

"Mr. Fannan (phonetic) [sic] is the FBI agent I talked to," Marguerite told the Secret Service about the call to the FBI. "What did he tell you?" Secret Service Agent Howard asked next. The transcript of the Secret Service interview shows how Marguerite responded:

Mr. Fannan (phonetic) came out to the house, and I had all these newspaper clippings and everything. He said, "Mrs. Oswald, it looks like the boy wanted to go there [to Russia]," and since I had no contact, he recommended that I get in touch with some senators and congressmen and people who could help me because we had extenuating circumstances in the case by now.

Who was this Agent "Fannan" who visited Marguerite at her home? And what was the FBI's purpose in suggesting she ask for highlevel help?

Even more curious than the identity of Mr. "Fannan" was the date of this contact: "This was February," Marguerite said about the visit to her house. The FBI has never acknowledged any contact with Marguerite Oswald prior to April 28, 1960, when Special Agent Fain of the Dallas FBI office interviewed her. There was no Fannan in Texas or anywhere else, and the phonetic resemblance of "Fannan" to Fain makes it likely that Fain was the FBI agent who visited Marguerite in February. The possibility that the letters Marguerite Oswald wrote in search of her son were actually prompted by the FBI is interesting. An element of intrigue is added by the FBI's failure to acknowledge this lost chapter in its own investigation of Oswald.

Marguerite's Search for Her Son

"Mrs. Oswald," Special Agent Fain said to her, "things do not look right."' The intent of this dark prognosis was evidently to cause Marguerite to worry about her son. "I recommend that you get in touch with someone," Fain offered as a solution. "Would you help me there please?" Marguerite predictably replied. Fain suggested Congressmen Jim Wright and Sam Rayburn, as well as Secretary of State Christian Herter.

"I am very much concerned," Marguerite wrote to Herter, "because I have no contact with him now." Some researchers have noted how the Oswalds had a penchant for going straight to the top with a complaint or a request. In this case, Marguerite was doing exactly what FBI Special Agent Fain had suggested she do, and the result sparked a spectacular amount of paper for the rest of the year. Marguerite was justifiably worried because Lee had tried to renounce his American citizenship while the Soviets had refused his request for citizenship. She summed up her concerns in a March 7 letter to the State Department:

I am writing to you because I am under the impression that Lee is probably stranded and even if he now realizes that he has made a mistake he would have no way of financing his way home. He probably needs help.

I also realize that he might like Russia. That he might be working and be quite content. In that case, feeling very strongly that he has a right as an individual to make his own decisions I would in no way want to hinder or influence him in any way.

If it is at all possible to give me any information concerning my son I would indeed be very grateful.'

Marguerite did not include the fact that she had written the previous day to Congressman Jim Wright to appeal for his help as well.'

The involvement of a congressman made prompt action a must. On March 21, the State Department sent copies of Marguerite's letter and Congressman Wright's follow-up letter to the American Embassy in Moscow.' The operations memorandum to which these letters were attached asked the embassy to report back on Oswald's "circumstances" so that "the Department may reply to Congressman Wright." No concern was expressed about a reply to the worried mother, but the memorandum did authorize, "If feasible, the substance of Mrs. Oswald's letter should be made available to her son." The same day, the department wrote to Congressman Wright, telling him about the cable to Moscow. It was signed by Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations, William Macomber.'