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President - Personal Warren Commission
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Philip W. Buchen Files
Philip Buchen's General Subject Files
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President (1963-1969 : Johnson). President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. (11/30/1963 - 09/24/1964)
Presidential assassinations
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The original documents are located in Box 50, folder "President - Personal Warren
Commission" of the Philip Buchen Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Gerald R. Ford donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Digitized from Box 50 of the Philip Buchen Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
Prosider Tword
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
August 6, 1975
MEMORANDUM FOR PHIL BUCHEN
FROM:
RON NESSEN RAN
Will you please draft an answer to this request for
permission to reprint an article President Ford
wrote for Life Magazine in 1964 on the Warren
Commission investigation?
Attachment: Letter from Christiane Schlumberger
of Skeptic Magazine
skeptic
THE FORUM FOR CONTEMPORARY HISTORY
July 25, 1975
Mr. Ron Nessen
Press Secretary to the President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. Nessen:
I appreciate your thoughtful note acknowledging receipt, on behalf of
President Ford, of the current issue of SKEPTIC on America's foreign
policy.
Because of the continuing controversy, many years after the Warren Com-
mission Report, over the circumstances surrounding the assassination of
President Kennedy, we have decided to devote the forthcoming issue of
SKEPTIC to the troubling question of whether there should be a new
inquiry into the Kennedy assassination. We will present a broad spectrum
of viewpoints on this question from both supporters and critics of the
Warren Report, as well as from a number of prominent public figures.
We would like to include in this issue a condensed version of the article
by then-Congressman Ford entitled "Piecing Together the Evidence," which
was published in the October 2, 1964 issue of Life Magazine. I have enclosed
a copy of the article for your approval.
I would be most grateful for your assistance in obtaining the President's
permission for us to reprint his article or granting permission on his
behalf. (We have contacted Time Inc., and they have no objection to our
reprinting the article since they had first publication rights only.)
As our deadline is pressing, I will call your office next week for your
approval.
My thanks, in advance, for your help.
Sincerely,
Christiane Schlumburg
Christiane Schlumberger
Managing Editor
on ANACADA
EPTIC
itle:
Oswald Did It
thor:
Gerald R. Ford
Page
of
Pages
1
(subtitle)
The evidence is clear and overwhelming -- President Kennedy
was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, and Oswald worked alone
One of the three surviving members of the Warren Commission is now
President of the United States. Then a congressman from Michigan's 5th
5
District, Gerald R. Ford, in the October 2, 1964 issue of Life (his art-
icle has been slightly abridged here), told of the painstaking methods by
which the Commission arrived at its conclusions and explained why he was
satisfied that Lee Harvey Oswald alone assassinated President Kennedy.
According to the White House, President Ford's views on the matter have
10
not changed; he endorses not only the Warren Commission findings, but
those of the Rockefeller Commission.
President Ford is the only member to have written a book (Portrait
of the Assassin, 1965) about his ten months with the Commission.
15
20
3
CENALD
25
tle:
Piecing Together the Evidence
hor:
Gerald R. Ford
Page
of
15 Pages
1
1
The most important witness to appear before the Warren Commission
in the 10 months we sat was a neat, Bible-reading steam fitter from
Dallas. His name was H. L. Brennan and he had seen Lee Harvey Oswald
thrust a rifle from a sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book
5
Depository and shoot the President of the United States.
In the shock and turmoil that followed, Brennan had headed for a
policeman and given him a description of the man he had seen in the
window. The police sent out a "wanted" bulletin based on that descrip-
tion. About half an hour later, as police interrogated the assembled
e
10
employes of the Depository, the manager, noting that Lee Harvey Oswald
was missing, had checked the personnel files for Oswald's address and
description. The police then issued their second wanted bulletin based
on the new information. After this second bulletin was issued, Officer
J.D. Tippit stopped Oswald on the street and Oswald shot him dead.
15
The two descriptions differed in some details -- although Brennan
later identified Oswald in a police lineup - and it was this discrepancy
which set off the first of the countless rumors concerning the President's
assassination: namely, the story that two men were involved. Thus, both
here and abroad began the cascade of innuendo, supposition, imagination,
20
twisted fact, misunderstanding, faulty analysis and downright fantasy that
surrounded the tragic death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Nonetheless, the basic story of the assassination that emerged in
the first few weeks was never materially altered during the commission's
investigation. There were no startling developments, no sudden turns
25
of evidence or testimony that opened up truths previously unperceived.
Gerald R. Ford
Page 2 of 15 Pages
After taking millions of words of testimony from hundreds upon
hundreds of witnesses, the Warren Commission has established that there
is not a scintilla of credible evidence to suggest a conspiracy to kill
President Kennedy. The evidence is clear and overwhelming: Lee Harvey
Oswald did it.
There is no evidence of a second man, of other shots, of other guns.
There is no evidence to suggest that Oswald went to work at the
Depository for the long-range purpose of killing the President, that
Jack Ruby knew Oswald before he killed him, or that either of them knew
Officer Tippit.
There is no evidence, in short, that Oswald was more than a man
alone -- a sorely disturbed person whose need for recognition, at any
price, festered under his own terrible inability to attune himself to
his fellow man.
President Johnson phoned me at home one night, a week after the
assassination, to ask me to serve on the commission. Probably every
member protested the pressure of work, as I did, and doubtless the
President answered them much as he did me: "That's what they all say,
Jerry." Of course I accepted.
At the outset, we broke the investigation down into these areas:
the assassination itself -- the President's trip to Dallas, the actual
FORD
shooting and the events before and after; Oswald's movements before and
after the assassination, ending in his capture and then in his own
murder; Oswald's background, from birth to death; details of Oswald's
trip to Russia; details of his murder by Ruby and the possibility of
Gerald R. Ford
Page 3 of 15 Pages
1
prior association with Ruby, and, finally, the problem of security
measures to protect future presidents.
Our chief counsel was Lee Rankin, Solicitor General in the Eisen-
hower administration. He picked a handful of skilled men to work
5
directly under him. From the start we felt it was important that a strong
part of our staff come from outside the ranks of government, and to this
end we selected a dozen of the finest lawyers in the nation to serve
as consultants. Most of them have worked nearly full time.
It would have been a bulky and time-consuming process to recruit
10
our own investigators. Instead we elected to rely on the many agencies
of government which already were involved --- the FBI, Secret Service,
State Department investigators, Treasury agents, Internal Revenue agents,
and others. To back up our expert testimony on things like ballistics
and handwritings, we tapped state and local agencies as well.
15
As the lines of the investigation emerged, we tried to backcheck each
report to avert any softening of facts that might have occurred due to
any agency's policy or position in relation to the assassination. Each
of the endless rumors that spread like so many oil slicks had to be
traced to its origin; depositions had to be taken and witnesses called.
20
Before we began any of our own investigations, we had to digest the
massive reports which the federal agencies had gathered in the days
immediately after the President's death as well as the reports of the
FORD
Texas authorities. Then we plunged into the voluminous task of examining
LIBRAR
the people who were, in one way or another, involved by chance or associa-
25
tion.
itle:
thor:
Gerald R. Ford
Page 4 of 15 Pages
1
This brought before us an unusual cast of characters.
There was the mother, Mrs. Marguerite Oswald, a singularly angry
woman whose strange attitudes and actions provided an appropriate back-
ground for the strange son she had shaped. Mrs. Oswald's irrational
5
allegations gave rise to one of the most persistent and dangerous --
and completely untrue - rumors: that Lee Harvey Oswald was, or had
been, an agent of the U.S. government.
There was, also, Oswald's handsome Russian wife, a quiet young
woman who at first seemed simple and direct and eager to cooperate --
10
but who, as time went on and conflicts began to develop in her testimony,
emerged as a complex and even mysterious person.
There was Robert Oswald, the brother, who came out of his erratic
childhood passionately desiring stability, a solid and hardworking man
whom Lee seemed somehow to have loved and yet held in sharp contempt for
15
just these traits.
There was Jack Ruby, a sad and strange little man in the Dallas
County jail who had killed the only man in the world who could have
said with certainty just what happened.
And finally we came to know Lee Harvey Oswald himself, as well as
20
any obscure man can be known after he is dead -- particularly after he
has spent a critical two-plus years of his life behind the Iron Curtain.
When Oswald was coming home from Russia, he toyed with the thought
0
of writing a book. As a beginning, he jotted down a foreward. That
scrap of paper, filled with misspellings, survives in the commission
25
files: "Lee Harvey Oswald was born Oct. 18, 1939 to an insuraens sales
Title:
thor:
Gerald R. Ford
Page
5
of
15
Pages
1
man whose early death left a [the dashes were Oswald's] mean streak
of independence brough on by negleck.
11
The full details of Oswald's nearly three years in the U.S.S.R.
will remain covered in mystery until and unless the Seviet government
S
5
opens its files completely. It had not done so yet. Just after Presi
dent Kennedy was killed, the Soviet government, perhaps realizing that
its position was equivocal because of Oswald's background, rather drama
tically handed over certain files to U.S. authorities. The information
was of little value, and thereafter the Russians answered our additional
10
questions with bare minimums of information.
But It did became unmistakably clear that never in his life ---
here, in Russia, or anywhere else -- was Lee Oswald satisfied with the
environment in which he found himself. When he returned to the U.S.,
this same discontent quickly overtook him and he began to look to Cuba
15
as the place where his worth might be recognized and his shadowy
philosophical theories might finally come to fruit. For, from the time
he was 15, I believe his faith in Communism and the writings of Karl Marx
as he understood them was one of the main motivating forces of his life.
Only a few weeks before the assassination, Oswald visited the Cuban
20
and Soviet consulates in Mexico City to arrange entry to Cuba. Both
consulates largely ignored him. It was a time of crushing frustration
for Oswald. We have in our commission files a violent letter of com->
plaint sent to the Soviet embassy in Washington, implying that the petty
bureaucrats in the consulates in Mexico did not seem to realize who Lee
25
Oswald was or the importance of what he was doing.
PTIC
tle:
Gerald R. Ford
Page 6 of 15 Pages
1
Before he went to Mexico City, Oswald had told his wife, "I'll be
premier in 20 years. " Now he came home, nearly broke, dejected, un-
wanted.
As always, there was not a single meaningful relationship between
5
Oswald and any other human being.
There was no solace at home. As Marina Oswald's testimony developed,
it was obvious that their life together had been stormy. He lived away.
from home much of the time. In the last year of his life, he was
bringing to a peak his growing capacity for violence and his deep,
10
overpowering hatred of authority.
A week before the assassination, Oswald had a bitter argument with
his wife. When he came home on the Thursday night before the Friday on
which he shot President Kennedy, Marina believed he had come to make up,
but she did not permit the reconciliation. In fact, he had come home to
15
get his rifle. He left the next morning before anyone else was up.
Mrs. Oswald was to see her husband just once more He was in the
Dallas city jail and he told her simply that everything would be all
right
Marina Oswald was the first witness we called. She appeared in a
20
neat blue dress with light touches of make-up. Her manner was subdued.
When she was asked to identify her husband's clothing, she broke down,
and the Chief Justice, in his gentle way, soothed her back to composure.
By far the most poignant part of her testimony was her description of the
afternoon of the assassination.
25
Marina said that when she and Mrs. Ruth Paine, the woman in whose
KEPTIC
Title:
Author: Gerald R. Ford
Page 7 of 15 Pages
1
house she lived, heard the news of the President's murder, "We both
turned pale. I went to my room and cried." Later, Marina testified, Mrs.
Paine said, "By the way, they fired from the building where Lee is
working."
5
Mrs. Oswald continued: "My heart stopped. I went to the garage to
see if the rifle was still there and I saw that the blanket [in which
Oswald normally kept it wrapped] was still there, and I said, 'Thank God."
She did not then look inside the blanket, which appeared undisturbed.
When the police arrived and asked if her husband had a rifle, she led
10
them to the garage. She thought, "Well, now they'll find it." One of
the officers put a hand under the blanket and lifted and it folded over
his hand. It was empty.
This was an intensely dramatic moment in Marina Oswald's testimony.
There was a look of complete distress on her face. "Of course," she said,
15
"I already knew that it was Lee."
Oswald's mother was the next witness. She appeared in a black
dress and at the time I noted on a pad that she was "aggressive, dog-
matic, difficult." She told wild stories, frequently forgot her point,
meandered through blind and unproductive asides. When we tried to get
-20
her, back on the track, she denounced us for interrupting.
But Marguerite Oswald's widely publicized "secret agent" theory was
traceable in the tangled lines of her testimony. She never accepted
the fact that her son had simply taken off to Russia, leaving her
destitute. Instead, she decided that he must have been sent to Russia
25
on a secret mission for our government. Since her need was indeed genuine,
KEPTIC
Title:
uthor:
Gerald R. Ford
Page 8 of 15 Pages
1
she went to Washington to demand of various officials that her son
recalled to the U.S. so that he could support her. She had even
to get into the White House to petition President Kennedy.
Within two months of this, she had received a letter from Loo.
5
which he indicated he would soon be trying to come home. She took
you
for confirmation that her demands on government officials had
After the assassination, she simply revived her belief that vas
agent and told everyone who would listen that this had been the
The result was a massive search by the commission to prove
10
disprove the secret-agent theory. First we took the sworn dentals
&
the directors of various agencies in Washington -- men like
Hoover and Secretary of State Dean Rusk. We quizzed personal
1
\
U.S. Embassy in Moscow. We sent our own men into the agencie*
to study their old personnel files.
-
1
15
We were, and we are now, convinced that Oswald was
never
for the U.S. government.
We interrogated Jack Ruby in an austere little jury
!
-
-
a sink at one end, and a long narrow table around which
VP
i
wore sandals and a white jumper with several buttons 1111
1
-
20
he told us no more than he claimed at his trial -- that
he
moved only by his horror at the assassination -- it conned
per
-
and-go whether we could keep his nerves from explod!!!
tense and, at one point, balked completely. Suddenly what's ⑉⑉
home
of
Decker of Dallas roared at Ruby, "Now be a man with
is
25
have come a long way to give you an opportunity to
FORD
GERALD
(EPTIC
Title:
athor:
Gerald R. Ford
Page 9 of 15 Pages
1
I
was afraid that would blow everything up but instead, Ruby
began talking again. From this and other sessions, and from total
examination of the lives of both Ruby and Oswald, we were convinced there
was no prior relationship between Ruby and Oswald.
5
There were several trips to Dallas and on one of these the staff
conducted an extraordinary experiment. It actually re-created the
0
assassination, taking a similar car through a foot-by-foot re enactment
of what had happened. The restaging was based on three strips of movie
film of the actual event, plus a variety of still photographs.
10
By making a triangulation with surveyor's transits located at the
precise point at which each photographer had been standing, we were
able to place the car exactly at each step.
A man of John Kennedy's approximate build rode in the President's
seat. On the jump seat in front of him, just where Governor Connally
15
had sat, was another stand-in wearing the actual coat Connally had
worn on that day, the bullet hole outlined in chalk.
The rifle Oswald had used was mounted in the window from which he
had fired, and a camera was fitted to its telescopic sight. The car
was taken foot-by-foot down the sloping road and photographed again at
20
each spot in its passage. By coordinating these photos and from a very
close study of the evidence, the commission was able to conclude with
certainty that there were three shots.
I personally believe that one of these three shots missed entirely
but which of the three may never be known. I believe that another
25
struck the President in the back and emerged from his throat, and that
Gerald R. Ford
Page 10 of 15 Pages
1
this same bullet struck Governor Connally in the back and emerged from
his chest, then went through his right hand and pierced his left thigh.
Governor Connally does not agree with this. He thinks the first
bullet struck the President, the second hit him alone, and the third
5
struck the President's head. Nevertheless, it is frequently true that
a wounded man does not know immediately when he has been hit. I think
that Governor Connally did not know for an instant or two that he him-
self was wounded as well as the President.
Certainly there is no question that a following bullet finally
10
killed President Kennedy, inflicting a massive head wound. From the
moment that bullet struck, there was no question of a chance for survival.
In effect, the President was dead at that moment
As we proceeded through experiment, investigation and testimony, we
came to feel more and more confident of our facts. But the matter could
15
not be considered finished until each of the hundreds of rumors was
run to ground.
There were, for instance, the tales emanating from a crowd picture
that included one Billy Lovelady, a youthful employe of the Depository.
At the moment the President was shot, Lovelady was standing with a group
e
20
of fellow employes at the Depository's front entrance. One of the
1
pictures taken at the time of the assassination showed him in the back
ground. When blown up, the grainy image bore a surprising resemblance
to Lee Oswald.
This provoked a storm of rumors here and abroad. Major newspapers
25
ran the picture and asked how if there was a possibility that this was
GER.
LICENSE
tle:
Gerald R. Ford
Page 11 of 15 Pages
1
Oswald, it could be said that Oswald had himself fired the shot. Did not
this give credence to the theories that there were other gunmen, who were
upstairs while Oswald was down? Or to the theory that Oswald was the wrong
man?
5
The doubt was compounded by Lovelady's own actions. He virtually
went into seclusion, refusing to talk to reporters or to allow his
picture to be made. It is hard to blame him. Immediately after the
assassination there was an almost tangible aura of fear in Dallas.
Even important officials could not be sure in the first hours that a major
10
plot was not underway (H.L. Brennan, who actually saw Oswald shoot- the
President and provided the -first description, decided-soon afterward that
his own life was in critical danger. At the first police lineup, he
later told us, he recognized - Oswald immediately but feared to admit it.
At the second lineup, he made the identification despite the feared
15
consequences.)
The-commission questioned Lovelady, and in the absence of publicity
he identified himself in the picture immediately, saying he had been standing
e
precisely at that spot. Several other employes testified that they had-
1
been there with him. The Depository manager agreed that the picture
20
plainly was of Lovelady, not Oswald. And that was all there was to that
Then there was the rumor that there had been a sheriff's office
alert of trouble at the Depository at 12:25 p.m. on Nov. 22 five
minutes before the assassination Did that mean someone knew in advance
there would be trouble? Was this not evidence of a plot?
&
25
We checked the records of the Dallas County- sheriff's dispatchér desk\
LIBRARY
KEPTIC
Title:
uthor:
Gerald R. Ford
Page 12 of 15 Pages
1
and found that the call, tape recorded and time keyed, had been issued
at 18:30 p.m., just after the shots were fired.
The "second rifle" also touched off misleading talk. The weapon which
killed President Kennedy was a- Mannlicher Carcano rifle;- it was made- in
5
Italy. Oswald purchased it secondhand.
But- an early report had quoted police as saying the rifle was a
Mauser, which is made in Germany The two rifles bear only slight
resemblance Result: more public confusion except among subscribers
to the "conspiracy" theories, for whom it was further proof of more than
10
one gunman. When police insisted that there had been just the one
Italian rifle, it seemed to many that they were trying to hide something:
We had to go back to the-arternoon-af the assassination to set this
rumor straight When Oswald fled the sixth floor of the Depository, he
had thrust the rifle behind a stack. of boxes Nt. was found by the first
15
investigating officers and a guard was put over it until the weapons and
fingerprint men arrived.
A reporter, facing an-immediate deadline, asked an officer standing
nearby what make the rifle might-be- He said he thought it might be a>
Mauser The reporter filed his story, calling the gum a Mauser; and
У
20
the description was relaved around the world Although it was followed
by a correction, the error stirred up wide suspicions.
Perhaps the most rumor-ridden subject of all was the direction
from which the shots were fired. Many people found it difficult to be-
lieve that anyone but a superb marksman could have fired three shots so
25
quickly and so accurately. Our tests indicated, however, that this was
ORD
OLL
le:
or:
Gerald R. Ford
Page 13 of 15 Pages
1
not a remarkable feat.
There also are those who insist that Oswald, in the time available
to him, could not have got from the sixth floor of the Depository to
the second, where he was observed moments after the shooting. I ran
5
down those steps myself, stopwatch in hand. There was time for him to
make it.
-There were also some cruel happenstances that day which broke in
Oswald's favor. Several carpenters had been working on the sixth floor,
laying a new plywood floor. At lunchtime they all went downstairs.
10
Had they stayed at the jobsite while eating, Oswald would have been denied
his concealment.
e
Another young employe actually did eat his lunch on the sixth floor
that day. He left a few chicken bones, which at first had been thought
e
to have been Oswald's lunch. Had this employe stayed to watch the parade
15
from the sixth floor, Oswald might have been thwarted. Instead, he
joined two others on the fifth floor, at windows directly underneath the
point where Oswald installed himself and waited for the President to
appear.
And so the three men heard the shots fired, the ejector mechanism
20
working, the shells hitting the floor just over their heads. The rever-
berations dislodged plaster that sifted down into their hair. Subsequently,
their eerie testimony pinpointed the rifle shots.
When I was in Dallas, I stood in that same place while an investiga-
tor worked a rifle on the floor above. I too could hear the ejected
25
shells hitting the floor.
le:
or:
Gerald R. Ford
Page 14 of 15 Pages
1
Perhaps because of early confused reports on the President's
wounds, there have been persistent rumors; too, that a second gunman
or even the only gunman was near the railroad overpass which overlooks
the scene of the assassination.
5
But from 10 a.m. that day, the overpass had been sealed- off by
e
Dallas Patrolman J.W. Foster to all but railway employes. A railroad
1
towerman could see the whole area. He saw no strangers in the yard
When the motorcade appeared, the handful of spectators on the overpass
clustered to the railing. Foster stationed himself slightly behind them
10
and all were within his range of vision.
When the shots were-fired, Foster thought immediately that they
came from the area of the Depository. Others present had a variety
of other theories, which were subsequently advanced to reporters: The
towerman as an example, couldn' be sure whether they came from-the
15
Depository or the overpass: he said he had noted in the past that
because of echoes in the area, noises originating from either place
tended to sound the same.
In any event, no one present at the time saw anything at all sus
sicious.
*
*
20
Thus we came, gradually and finally, to the end of our assignment.
We had bęcome masters of much more information than we had expected to
gather, veterans of many more twisting trails than we had expected to
follow. We spent nearly two months writing our massive report -- on
which all of us, with our different backgrounds, are agreed.
25
This report is the truth as we see it, as best we know it, and on
EPTIC
itle:
thor:
Gerald R. Ford
Page 15 of 15 Pages
1
this, we rest.
5
10
15
20
25
ALD GREATH
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
July 13, 1976
MEMO FOR:
Phil Buchen
FROM:
Barry Roth
BM
Attached are copies of two letters to
Congressman Ford concerning Professor
Norman Redlich, a member of the Warren
Commission staff. These letters have
recently been released by GSA under the
Freedom of Information Act after Professor
Redlich indicated he had no objection to their
release.
FORD LIBRARY
EIGHTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS
EDWIN E. WILLIS, LA., CHAIRMAN
WILLIAM M. TUCK, VA.
AUGUST E. JOHANSEN, MICH.
JOE R. POOL, TEX.
DONALD C. BRUCE, IND.
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES
RICHARD H. ICHORD, MO.
HENRY C. SCHADEBERG, WIS.
GEORGE F. SENNER, JR., ARIZ.
JOHN M. ASHBROOK, OHIO
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
FRANCIS J. MCNAMARA, DIRECTOR
WASHINGTON
FRANK S. TAVENNER, JR., GENERAL COUNSEL
ALFRED M. NITTLE, COUNSEL
February 27, 1964
Honorable Gerald R. Ford
351 House Office Building
Washington, D. C.
Dear Congressman Ford:
Pursuant to conversations he has had with you, Mr. Willis has
asked me to forward to you the enclosed reports on Norman Redlich, staff
member of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President
Kennedy, and on Mark Lane, who unsuccessfully attempted to represent the
interests of Lee Harvey Oswald before the Commission.
Re: Norman Redlich Report
The first sheet of this report, which contains only references
to groups officially cited as Communist, is the normal report furnished
by the Committee in response to requests for information on Redlich. The
second page, as noted, contains references to activities not officially
cited as Communist. They are being furnished only to members of the Com-
mission who desire information on Redlich because they shed additional
light on his activities or association with groups and causes which --
though not officially cited as Communist -- are Communist influenced,
originated, or oriented.
It may interest you to know that during the past few days Frank
Wilkinson, who has been identified as a member of the Communist Party by
two witnesses who have appeared before this Committee, has been in the
House Office Building attempting to "lobby" Members to vote against this
Committee's appropriation for the current year. Wilkinson is the Executive
Director of the National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American
Activities Committee, a group cited as Communist by this Committee in House
Report 1278 of the 87th Congress.
Wilkinson has been distributing in the House Office Building the
February 21, 1964 issue of "Abolition News," bulletin of the National Com-
mittee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee, which lists
"Prof. Norman Redlich, Law, New York University," as one of the sponsors
of the committee. A reproduction of this bulletin is enclosed for your
information.
- 2 -
It may also interest you to know that certain facts on
Redlich's background are now in the "public domain." Enclosed is a re-
production of page 1 of the February 12, 1964 issue of "Tocsin," a West
Coast newsletter, which features an item on Redlich.
Re: Mark Lane Report
The two-page report, dated February 10, 1964, is the normal re-
port furnished by the Committee in response to requests for information on
Mark Lane. The longer report, dated February 20, 1964, contains supplemen-
tary information of the same general character as the information contained
on the second sheet of the report on Mr. Redlich, and is being furnished
for the same reasons.
Sincerely yours,
Tania MMamara
Francis J. McNamara
Enclosures
Director
PC8
INFORMATION FROM THE FILES OF THE COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
U. S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Redlich
Noma
DATE: February 24, 1964
Honorable Gerald R. Ford
FOR:
Norman Redlich
SUBJECT:
This Committee makes NO EVALUATION in this report. The following is only a com-
pilation of recorded public material contained in our files and should not be construed
as representing the results of any investigation or finding by the Committee. The fact
that the Committee has information as set forth below on the subject of this report is
not per se an indication that this individual, organization, or publication is subversive,
unless specifically stated.
Symbols in parentheses after the name of any organization or publication mentioned
herein indicate that the organization or publication has been cited as being subversive
by one or more Federal authorities. The name of each agency is denoted by a capital
letter, as follows: A-Attorney General of the United States; C-Committee on Un-American
Activities; I-Internal Security Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee; J-Senate
Judiciary Committee; and, S-Subversive Activities Control Board. The numerals after
each letter represent the year in which that agency first cited the organization or
publication. (For more complete information on citations, see this Committee's "Guide
to Subversive Organizations and Publications.")
COMMUNIST PARTY MEMBERSHIP
No evidence
COMMUNIST FRONTS
1955- EMERGENCY CIVIL LIBERTIES COMMITTEE (C-1958; I-1956)
1963
Speaker on the Fifth Amendment at Conference on an Appeal to Congress for a
Rebirth of Freedom, New York City, April 16, 1955. [Call and Program of Conference]
To speak at meeting called to promote abolition of House Committee on Un-American
Activities, February 24, 1961, New York City. [The Worker, February 19, 1961, P. 12]
National Council member. ["Rights." an ECLC publication, May, 1961, P. 6; letter-
heads, January 9, May and December 1962, April 29 and October 1, 1963]
Among 25 professors who signed a statement published by ECLC condemning the
Supreme Court decision of June 5. 1961 upholding the registration provisions of the
Internal Security Act. [The Worker, June 24, 1962, P. 14]
1961- NEW YORK COUNCIL TO ABOLISH THE HOUSE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE (C-1961)
1963
Sponsor of rally to be held April 21, 1961, New York City, jointly sponsored by the
above organization and Youth to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee
(C-1961). [letterhead, April 15, 1961; and press release, April 21, 1961, PP. 12 & 13
Member, Advisory Committee (in formation). [letterheads, April 20 & Oct. 12, 1962]
Signer of statement protesting HCUA's hearings of May 6, 1963 on Violations of
State Department Travel Regulations and Pro-Castro Propaganda Activities in the
United States. [press release, May 6, 1963, P. 2]
1961 YOUTH TO ABOLISH THE HOUSE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE (C-1961)
Sponsor of rally CO be held April 21, 1961, New York City, jointly sponsored by the
above organization and New York Council to Abolish the House Un-American Activities
Committee (C-1961). [See item above under New York Council to Abolish the House
Un-American Activities Committee]
M.FORD
RAD
LIBRAR
THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES AND ORGANIZATIONS HAVE NOT BEEN OFFICIALLY
CITED AS COMMUNIST. THEY WOULD NOT BE INCLUDED IN A NORMAL COMMITTEE REPORT.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
1961 PETITION FOR CLEMENCY FOR WITNESSES CONVICTED FOR CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS
Signer of petition to the President asking for clemency for Carl Braden and Frank
Wilkinson, who were both serving prison sentences for contempt of congress [undated,
printed PETITION FOR CLEMENCY TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; and the National
Guardian, December 4, 1961, P. 8]. Braden and Wilkinson, identified Communist Party
members, appeared before the Committee on Un-American Activities, July 29, 1958,
during its hearings on "Communist Infiltration and Activities in the South." Braden
refused to answer pertinent questions relating to membership in the Communist Party
and Communist propaganda activities in the South, basing his refusal to answer on
the first amendment, invalidity of the committee, and lack of pertinency of the
questions to the subject under inquiry. Wilkinson based his refusal to answer ques-
tions relating to the activities and purposes of the Emergency Civil Liberties
Committee in the Atlanta area on the claim that the Committee on Un-American Activities
was illegally established and on what he termed "a matter of conscience and personal
responsibility."
1961- PETITIONS TO CONGRESS TO ABOLISH THE HCUA
1962 Signer of petition to the 87th Congress to eliminate the HCUA as a standing com->
mittee [advertisement, "Petition to the House," Washington Post, January 2, 1961]
Signer of "An Appeal to the House of Representatives-Abolish HUAC," a full-page
ad of the Ad Hoc Committee, 160 N. 15th St., Philadelphia. [New York Times, Feb-
ruary 22, 1962, P. C-17]
1962 PROTEST AGAINST COMMITTEE HEARINGS
Signer of statement on HCUA's hearings of December 11-13, 1962, asking: "... In
the name of democracy and survival, ...cancel the proposed investigation into the
peace program." [press release, Women Strike for Peace, December 12, 1962; and The
Worker, December 18, 1962, PP. 4 & 6]
1964 COMMITTEE TO AID THE BLOOMINGTON STUDENTS (three leaders of the Bloomington, Indiana,
Young Socialist Alliance, the youth section of the Socialist Workers Party (A-1947;
C-1948), indicted for subversive activity under a state sedition law)
Sponsor (letterhead states: Sponsorship in no way implies agreement with the
political ideas of the defendants.) [letterheads, January 28 and February 5, 1964]
FORD
CAVE
LEGRARY
EIGHTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS
EDWIN E. WILLIS, LA., CHAIRMAN
WILLIAM M. TUCK, VA.
AUGUST E. JOHANSEN, MICH.
JOE R. POOL, TEX.
DONALD C. BRUCE, IND.
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES
RICHARD H. ICHORD, MO.
HENRY C. SCHADEBERG, WIS.
GEORGE F. SENNER, JR., ARIZ.
JOHN M. ASHBROOK, OHIO
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FRANCIS J. MC NAMARA, DIRECTOR
COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
WASHINGTON
FRANK S. TAVENNER, JR., GENERAL COUNSEL
ALFRED M. NITTLE, COUNSEL
March 17, 1964
Honorable Gerald R. Ford
351 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. Ford:
Since I last wrote to you at the request of Mr. Willis re-
lative to the matter of Mr. Norman Redlich, some additional background
data has come to the attention of the Committee.
I am enclosing for your information a reproduction of a letter
written by Redlich and published in the New York Times of October 13, 1961.
It may interest you to know that the rally referred to by Mr. Redlich,
the National Assembly for Democratic Rights, was one of the most blatantly
Communist operations to take place in this country in recent years. Copies
of the Committee's two-part hearing and report are still available should
you desire to have a set.
The other item which has come to the Committee's attention is
the fact that the Nation Magazine, issue of June 6, 1953, featured an
article entitled "Does Silence Mean Guilt?" co-authored by Redlich and
Laurent B. Frantz.
Frantz, with whom Redlich wrote this article, testified before
the Special Committee on Un-American Activities on April 19, 1940. At
that time he denied present or past membership in the Communist Party.
Subsequently, however, he was identified as a member of the Communist
Party by three ex-Communists who testified before the Committee -- Paul
Crouch, on May 6, 1949; Howard A. Bridgman, on April 29, 1950; and Ralph
V. Long, on November 30, 1954. Both Crouch and Bridgman testified that
they knew Frantz as a member of the Communist Party in the 1930's. If
their testimony was true -- and the Committee has no reason to doubt it --
this meant that Frantz had perjured himself when he denied on April 19,
1940, ever having been a Party member.
Frantz again testified before this Committee on May 14, 1960.
At that time he invoked the Fifth Amendment privilege when asked about
present and past Communist Party membership.
Sincerely,
Francie J. McNamara
Director
Enclosures
President
THE WHITE HOUSE
Personal
WASHINGTON
September 20, 1976
Dear Mr. Dobyns:
In behalf of the President, I wish to
thank you for your letter of September 13.
The President was a Member of the Warren
Commission, and except for Mr. John McCloy,
I believe he is the only surviving member.
A special committee of the House of
Representatives has recently been
established which plans to conduct a
further investigation into the assassina-
tion of President John F. Kennedy.
Many thanks for your good wishes to the
President.
Sincerely,
They W. Buchen
Philip W. Buchen
Counsel to the President
Mr. Carlton F. Dobyns
211 East Eaton Street
Trenton, Tennessee 38382
September 13, 1976
211 East Saton St.
Trenton, Tennessee 58382
to
Gerald R. Ford
President Off The United States
Dear Ir. President:
First I must wish you all the success in your debate and the
election in November.
As My brother Edward P. Dobyns was with the Department Of State
Foreign service division for 37 years but now is retired, I have
taken quit an interest in our government and all its functions.
It started with the Roosevelt Adm. Truman Adm. Eisenhower
Mennedy - Johnson - Mixon, Last but not least the Ford Adm.
I must say that in those years I saw 2 lot of history being made.
I am in Ed Jones Pep. district and an a presonel friend of Ed's.
and have been in his farm home many times.
I PM very much interested in the President John 7. Kennedy murder
case. In reading about it I noted that you were one of the members
of the Warren Commission, is a matter of fact I believe youare
the only living member, Am I right or wrong? Are there any plans
to reopen that case?
I have just been released from the Veterans Aöninistration
Hospital in Temphis Tennessee. I underwent a hernia 0 peration.
The hospital staff is very efficient and is a hospital your
Mdministrator there in Washington, cen be proud of.
Again wishing you all the success in the world.
Sincerly
&
FORD
cfd.
Carlton ?.
Carlton 7.Dobyns
LIBRARY
of