Warren Commission (11 of 26): Hearings Vol. XI (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (11 of 26): Hearings Vol. XI (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Then, in addition to that, because of war operations, American
citizens were stationed in the Soviet Union and they had married
Soviet women, and so we had pressing cases of correspondents. American
correspondents, a few people assigned to the Embassy in Moscow who
married Soviet wives, probably about 15 or 16 who were very, what we
would call, worthy cases of good marriages and good people who had made
a good marriage with women we thought were good people, and they have
since made good American citizens.
So in 1953, when Stalin died, we had the first break, and they issued
the visas on this group. And since then we have gone forward with
this. We saw we had a break and so we have been pressing the Soviet
Government to issue visas to clear this problem up.
In 1959 when Mr. Nixon went there, he was importuned by relatives to
help to get their relatives out, I mean American citizens, and he took
a list of about 80 people, and he agreed to take up these cases, and
we added a number of worthy cases, and Mr. Khrushchev said, "I want to
clear up this problem"--present it through channels.
Since then, we have presented it through channels and we have succeeded
in getting about 800 relatives of American citizens out. And the
defector's wife falls into that pattern, because while we are not
sympathetic with these people we know that if we refuse to grant U.S.
visas to a wife of an American citizen, the Soviet Government can
immediately say, "Well, we grant visas to these people, exit visas.
Then you don't allow them to go to the United States. What does this
mean?"
So that was the basis of our whole policy with Marina Oswald, that we
felt that we didn't want to put the Embassy in a position of fighting
for exit visas for relatives, and then when they issue you say, "Well,
this is not quite the kind we want."
Mr. COLEMAN. In other words, you say that once the Passport Office
made the decision that Oswald was still an American citizen, then your
policy that you don't want to separate husbands and wives came into
play, and if the Soviet Union is willing to let both of them out, that
we will let them come in?
Miss JAMES. That is the basic policy. That was the whole interest in
our Office, the Embassy in Moscow's primary interest there as far as
Marina Oswald was concerned, and her child.
Mr. COLEMAN. I have no further questions.
Thank you.
TESTIMONY OF JAMES L. RITCHIE
The testimony of James L. Ritchie was taken at 12:20 p.m., on June
17, 1964, at 200 Maryland Avenue NE., Washington, D.C., by Messrs.
William T. Coleman, Jr., and W. David Slawson, assistant counsel of the
President's Commission, Thomas Ehrlich, Special Assistant to the Legal
Adviser, Department of State, and Carroll H. Seeley, Jr., were present.
Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. Ritchie, will you state your full name?
Mr. RITCHIE. James L. Ritchie.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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