(Testimony of Richard Edward Snyder)
Mr. Coleman.
Exhibit No. 908, which is the Foreign Service dispatch. You had also sent forth 2 days earlier a telegram advising them about Oswald.
And on November 12 you had sent forth Commission Exhibit No. 920. Now, according to the files that we have, except for Commission Exhibit No. 916, which is the telegram asking where the dispatch was, we have no other communication during this period from the Department to the Embassy giving you advice on what to do in the Oswald case.
Was there any messages that went back to the Embassy, other than Commission Exhibit No. 916, during that period?
Mr. Snyder.
I can't really say, Mr. Coleman, that I have personal recollection. But I have no reason to believe that there was anything else came in, other than what is now in our files.
Mr. Coleman.
Well, would you expect to get some answers to those dispatches that you were sending forward to Washington?
Mr. Snyder.
Not really--not really. The thrust of information in something like this is from the field to the Department. The Department really answered the only thing which I asked them. That is, I told the Department what I intended to do concerning his request for renunciation, and the Department responded to that. And this was really all I would have expected from them at the time.
I would have expected--if the Department had had any information concerning Oswald in its files--I would have expected them to let me know if they had indication, for instance, that Oswald was mentally unbalanced or emotionally unstable or anything else of this sort, anything which might look like a repeat of the Petrulli pattern, I would have expected them to let me know this, so I would know how to handle the case.
Mr. Coleman.
Sir, 3 days before Mr. Oswald came into the Embassy, did you have occasion to write a letter to Mr. Boster in Washington, asking him how you should handle these matters of attempted renunciation of American citizenship?
Mr. Snyder.
Well----
Mr. Dulles.
Is this the first time he came into the Embassy?
Mr. Coleman.
This is 3 days before he came.
Mr. Dulles.
The first time?
Mr. Coleman.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Snyder.
I recall writing. I think probably the letter you have in mind----
Mr. Coleman.
I show you Commission Exhibit' No. 914 which is a letter dated October 28, 1959, from Mr. Snyder to Mr. Boster, and ask you whether that is a letter you sent.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 914 for identification.)
Mr. Coleman.
Is that a copy of the letter that you sent to Mr. Boster?
Mr. Snyder.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Coleman.
Doesn't that letter, at the bottom, indicate that you were attempting to get advice on how to handle an attempted renunciation of American citizenship? At the bottom of the first page.
Mr. Snyder.
Yes; this is a letter which I wrote to Gene Boster. This letter, I might add, did not refer to any particular case, but was a letter in which I had put down ideas which had been circulating in my mind for some time, based on my initial handling of cases in Moscow. And it was by way of putting down, as I say, some general ideas on the subject, and asking Gene what the Department felt about this general area of notions. It wasn't directed at any particular case.
Representative Ford.
Do you feel that the regulations then, as well as now, and the law as well, are archaic in this regard?
Mr. Snyder.
Oh, no; it is simply that--not the law, and certainly not the regulations--and certainly not the law, can ever take the place of the judgment of the officer on the spot.
Mr. Dulles.
Was this motivated by the Petrulli case?
Mr. Snyder.
No; I don't think it was. The Petrulli case was a clear-cut case, there was no problem with the Petrulli case, legal or otherwise.
It was motivated, as best I can recall, by my experience with a few other
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