ting membership cards in his fictitious chapter to several party officials.406 In a letter from Arnold S. Johnson, director of the information and lecture bureau of the party, Oswald was informed that although the Communist Party had no "organizational ties" with the committee, the party issued much literature which was "important for anybody who is concerned about developments in Cuba." 407 In September 1963 Oswald inquired how he might contact the party when he relocated in the Baltimore-Washington area, as he said he planned to do in October, and Johnson suggested in a letter of September 19 that he "get in touch with us here [New York] and we will find some way of getting in touch with you in that city [Baltimore] ." 408 However, Oswald had also written asking whether, "handicapped as it were, by * * * [his] past record," he could "still * * * compete with antiprogressive forces, above ground or whether in your opinion * * * [he] should always remain in the background, i.e., underground," and in the September 19 letter received the reply that "often it is advisable for some people to remain in the background, not underground."

In a letter postmarked November 1, Oswald informed the party that he had moved to Dallas, and reported his attendance at a meeting at which General Walker had spoken, and at a meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union; he asked Johnson for the party's "general view" of the latter organization and "to what degree, if any, [he] should attempt to highten its progressive tendencies." According to Johnson, this letter was not received by the Communist Party until after the assassination.410 At different times, Oswald also wrote the Worker and the Hall-Davis Defense Committee, enclosing samples of his photographic work and offering to assist in preparing posters; he was told that "his kind offer [was] most welcomed and from time to time we shall call on you," but he was never asked for assistance.411 The correspondence between Oswald and the Communist Party, and with all other organizations, is printed in the record accompanying this report.

When Oswald applied for a visa to enter Cuba during his trip to Mexico City, discussed below,412 Senora Silvia Duran, the Cuban consular employee who dealt with Oswald, wrote on the application that Oswald said he was a member of the Communist Party and that he had "displayed documents in proof of his membership."

When Oswald went to Mexico, he is believed to have carried his letters from the Soviet Embassy in Washington and from the Communist Party in the United States, his 1959 passport, which contained stamps showing that he had lived in Russia for 2 1/2 years, his Russian work permit, his Russian marriage certificate, membership cards and newspaper clippings purporting to show his role in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, and a prepared statement, of his qualifications as a "Marxist." 414 Because of the mass of papers Oswald did present showing Iris affinity for communism, some in the Russian language, which was foreign to Senora Duran, and because further investigation, discussed below, indicated that Oswald was not