Warren Commission (09 of 26): Hearings Vol. IX (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (09 of 26): Hearings Vol. IX (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
I had gotten the feeling, and I don't know how specific I can make
this, but all of his comments to me about Russia were somewhat along a
negative vein. He said nothing to me that would indicate that he still
had any romantic feeling about Russia. His comments to me seemed to be
fairly realistic.
Some time as we talked on, he displayed somewhat the same type of
detached objective criticism towards the United States and our own
institutions.
Mr. LIEBELER. Can you remember anything specifically that he said along
that line?
Mr. BALLEN. I don't believe I can recall anything specific, but
there were just during the entire course of this 2 hours, general
observations, general smirks, general slurs that were significant to me
that he was equally a critic of the United States and of the U.S.S.R.,
and that he was standing in his own mind as somewhat of a detached
student and critic of both operations, and that he was not going to be
snowed under by either of the two operations, whether it be the press
or official spokesmen.
He would have displayed pretty much to me a plague-on-both-your-houses
type of viewpoint, but the one thing that greatly started to rub me
the wrong way is, as I started to seriously think through possible
industrial openings or possible people I could refer him to, and he
could see I was really making an effort in this respect, he kept
saying, and then he repeated himself a little too often on this, he
said to me, "Now, don't worry about me, I will get along. Don't you
worry yourself about me." He said that often enough that gradually it
became annoying and I just felt this is a hot potato that I don't think
will fit in with any organization that I could refer him to.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did he ever demonstrate or indicate to you any particular
hostility toward any official of the U.S. Government?
Mr. BALLEN. None whatsoever; none whatsoever. My own subjective
reaction is, that the sum total of these 2 hours that I spent with him,
I just can't see his having any venom towards President Kennedy.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did President Kennedy come up in any way during the
course of your discussion?
Mr. BALLEN. No; it did not. The sum total of his reaction, limited
as it was that I got from this individual, is that this man would
have--this is subjective, I can put no concrete support in there, but I
would have thought that this is an individual who felt warmly towards
President Kennedy.
Mr. LIEBELER. You drew that inference simply as a general impression
based on the 2 hours that you spent conversing with him?
Mr. BALLEN. That's correct.
Mr. LIEBELER. Could you--and you can't pinpoint anything specifically
that led you to that conclusion?
Mr. BALLEN. No, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you have any discussion, or was the name of Governor
Connally mentioned?
Mr. BALLEN. No; it was not.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did Oswald manifest any hostilities toward any particular
institution of the United States?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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