But will you grant me the privilege first of finding out the name of the man in the State Department that wrote the letter to Senator Tower, because it is an incorrect—it is incorrect—the whole testimony is incorrect.
Mr. Rankin. We will get that correspondence for you.
Mrs. Oswald. All right. I was going to go into something else, but while we are here, I will continue this.
And this, to me, will be in this line. And I think very important to you gentlemen. And you do not have a copy of what I am going to show you. I am the only person that has this copy.
I am sorry to take time, but these were not copied, sir. We sealed them up, and we were going to have them copied this afternoon. But I can get to this particular one. This is the defection. I have much more testimony than this. I have testimony, sir.
Mr. Rankin. Do you think that you can tell us the name of the high official you spoke about?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, I think so. And I am going to tell you. But please do not ask me at this particular moment. I do not think this is the proper time for me to—it is just—I have no proof. Understand? As I said, it is my right to think and my analysis of the papers I have. I have papers where I can come to a conclusion, just like you gentlemen are going to have papers and witnesses and come to a conclusion.
Now, this particular instance——
Mr. Dulles. I wonder if we could not possibly explore that agent matter. I am very much interested in that. I cannot be here tomorrow. We laid all the groundwork for that.
The Chairman. Mr. Dulles would like to know her reasons for believing that he was an agent.
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, sir, I have two very long stories.
Mr. Dulles. I have to be absent, unfortunately, tomorrow, so I would like very much to have it.
Mr. Rankin. If you could go into that question, Mrs. Oswald, because Mr. Dulles is not going to be here tomorrow.
Mrs. Oswald. We have everything just so, and yet when we come here we don't have it. The International Rescue Committee is what I am looking for.
I have also the original application from the Albert Schweitzer coming that you gentlemen do not have.
The Chairman. Let's stay on one thing, please.
Mrs. Oswald. All right. I am a little excited now, because I meant to go story by story.
Gentlemen, I have at least four more stories to tell—two I don't think there are some parts you possibly can know about.
Mr. Rankin. Well, if you could tell about why you think your son was an agent, it will help to get that taken care of this afternoon while Mr. Dulles can be with us. That is why I asked you that.
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, sir. We have a special file. You see, gentlemen, all morning long I was in the backroom and we were copying things. We had everything just so. So now I don't know what condition they are in. Mr. Doyle and I worked on the papers again last night and we had them just so. And then when they were copied, evidently they were mixed up again.
Mr. Rankin. We tried to have you present so that would not happen. Mrs. Oswald. I guess you didn't accomplish that.
Mrs. Oswald. Well, they did take it into the other room, and we saw that they took it.
Well, I can be telling the story about it.
It is the International Rescue Committee, and a telegram.
I received a letter from Lee—this is going to be real short, Chief Justice Warren. It is going to continue this one story. And then I will go into the defection—is that right—because this will continue that.
A letter from Lee asking me to go to the Red Cross in Vernon—I was on a case there—and asking me to show the letter to the lady at the Red Cross. And this is from Moscow. This is the letter from Moscow. And telling her that all exit visas and everything had been documented and he is ready to come home, but he needs help financially to come home.
Evidently you have that information. That I know, sir.
Mr. Rankin. Yes.
Mrs. Oswald. So when I entered the Vernon Red Cross—now, this came with Lee's letter, Chief Justice Warren—the letter you have there direct from Moscow. That is why I have it, sir—because it was in Lee's letter asking me to go to the Red Cross in Vernon. So I have the original from Moscow.
I told the young lady, showed her the letter and showed her the paper. And I said, "Would you find out, please, the address of the International Rescue Committee? My son is in Russia and asked me to contact you."
She said, "What is your son doing in Russia?"
I said, "I don't know."
"You are his mother and you don't know what he is doing in Russia?"
I said, "Young lady, I said I do not know what he is doing in Russia."
"Well, I think anybody goes to Russia doesn't need any help to get back, they should stay over there."
So I said, "I am not interested in your personal opinion. I need help. Would you please contact, give me the address of the International Rescue Committee so I can continue to try to get money for my son to come home?"
She did not know of any address for the International Rescue Committee.
I asked her if she had a private line to Wichita Falls, which was approximately 40 miles away, which would be the next big city. She called Wichita Falls, and they did not know the address of the international committee.
So I called Robert and told Robert what I had and asked him to try to find out the address of the International Rescue Committee. However, he gave me no satisfaction.
Now, I sent a telegram—and you know this part of it—to the State Department, asking—I told them I was in a small town, Vernon, Tex., and I had received a letter from Lee asking me to get the address and help from the International Rescue Committee. But being a small town I had no success—could they help me out?
So they sent a telegram back with the address of the International Rescue Committee. That you have.
And this is Lee's letter—that goes with the other part.
Now, this young lady was very, very regalish. She didn't want to help anybody going to Russia. So when I received the telegram from the State Department, it was on a Saturday. I called her that morning. I was delayed 4 or 5 days. And to me it was very important, since my son and daughter-in-law had all documents finished with to get the money to come home, because I wanted that baby to be born here.
So I called her at her home and told her that I had the address from the State Department of the International Rescue Committee, and would she be so kind enough as to come to the office and write the letter for me.
She said, "Well, Mrs. Oswald, I don't have a key."
This is on a Saturday morning and she is in the courthouse.
I said, "Do you mean to tell me you are in charge of the Red Cross and you don't have a key?"
"No, I don't."
"Well, young lady, you have delayed me 4 days, and I don't like your attitude. I am going to ask you especially to make a point to come to the office and get this in the mail for me. It is very important."
So, reluctantly, after much persuasion, she came.
So she wrote the letter to the International Rescue Committee, and handed it to me, and I mailed that letter—I mailed the letter.
This is dated January 22, 1962.
So she called me—her name—Mrs. Harwell. She is the only woman in the Red Cross office in Vernon, Tex.
She called me and told me she had received