(Testimony of Bernard William Weissman Resumed)
Mr. Weissman.
and pointed him out to me. And this fellow just followed us right out, and that was that.
Mr. Dulles.
As I recall, you fixed the time when you went to the mail box as probably sometime Sunday morning.
Mr. Weissman.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Dulles.
Can you be any more definite as to the time Sunday morning when you were there?
Mr. Weissman.
I am almost 100 percent sure it was between 8 and 9 o'clock.
Mr. Dulles.
In the morning?
Mr. Weissman.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Dulles.
I have no further questions.
The Chairman.
Senator Cooper, have you any questions?
Senator COOPER. What age did the man seem to be?
Mr. Weissman.
About 60.
Senator COOPER. I have two or three other questions.
Did your organization, CUSA, ever consider violence as a means to reaching its objectives?
Mr. Weissman.
This had been--I don't remember exactly. It had been hashed over in skull sessions, so many things come up, and you talk about it and throw it away. These things did come up over the year or so that I was involved in it in Munich, and thrown out. No. In schedules that we had made up, we figured probable political happenings over a period of years, and we took into account there might be a war for example in 1968 or 1970 or 1972, and what would happen before or after, or who would probably be President at that time, and the type of action America would take. But it had never gone any further than a lot of supposition.
Senator COOPER. Did you consider the advertisements in the paper there as possibly inciting to violence under the circumstances?
Mr. Weissman.
Definitely not.
Senator COOPER. Was that considered at all?
Mr. Weissman.
Definitely not. At least not by me. And nobody ever mentioned it.
Senator COOPER. This group of men that you have named, of which you were one, who formed this CUSA with objectives, both political and business you said?
Mr. Weissman.
Yes, sir.
Senator COOPER. Was there. any background of writings or theory of any kind upon which you depended? Where did it come from?
Mr. Weissman.
Let's see. You are putting me in sort of a box but I will answer you. We read, for example--for example, I did not know I was a conservative until I got to Germany. I just knew how I felt. But I never identified myself with any particular political leaning. I thought I was a Democrat, an independent voter and independent thinker. For example, I voted for Kennedy in 1960 and I would have voted against him in 1964. But this is neither here nor there.
We were asked--not asked--we had a list of required reading. In other words, if you are going to expound the conservative philosophy we figured you should know something about it, a little bit of the background, aside from your own personal feelings. So we read, for example I didn't--I never did find the time to do it-some of the fellows read "Conscience of a Conservative" by Barry Goldwater, one or two books that Barry Goldwater had written, and "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, which I did not read.
Mr. Jenner.
Did the others read them?
Mr. Weissman.
I guess Larrie read them, because he suggested these. There were many times when I said yes--I yessed him to death, and did as I pleased. And this is one of the cases.
Senator COOPER. That was about the extent of your reading background?
Mr. Weissman.
Not completely. In other words, I cannot point to any specific volumes that I read for the specific purpose of giving me a certain background. In other words, I am motivated personally by my own feelings in the situation, and the particular dogma that you might read in a book does not interest me too much.
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