Oswald Not a Communist
Moscow TASS International Service in English 0944 GMT 25 November 1963--L
(TASS correspondent Leonid Velichanskiy dispatch)
(Text) New York--The "mysterious" murder of Lee Oswald,
accused of assassinating President Kennedy, cuts the ground from under the
anticommunist, anti-Soviet, and anti-Cuban hysteria which the yellow press is
trying to whip up in order to distract attention from the real perpetrators of
the abominable crime. It should be noted that not one statesmen, serious
newspaper, or well-known political analyst in the United States accepted the
police version of Oswald's "communist" connections. Even Dallas District
Attorney Wade had to admit that there was no proof of Oswald's being a member of
the Communist Party.
AP released the full text of a radio panel discussion in New
Orleans on 21 August in which Oswald took part. In that program, Oswald
slandered the Soviet Union and declared that he was a "Marxist, not a
communist," and sought to prove that there was a great difference between these
two things. Equally significant is the fact--which appeared fleetingly in the
press--that Oswald had tried to join an organization of counterrevolutionary
Cuban emigres.
It will be recalled that the entire hysterical anticommunist
outcry was built on statements by Dallas policy ["police"?--KAR] officials who
told the press about Oswald's "testimony." But now the seriously compromised
force is refusing to publish the material of the interrogation.
The whole thing is obviously a crude provocation. Americans
have long become accustomed to southern police always trying to put the blame
for crimes by racists, and their own crimes, on "communists" and "foreign
agitators."
Where the shot at President Kennedy came from was only too
clear. At all Ku Klux Klan and White Citizen's Council gatherings, President
Kennedy and his bother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, were denounced as
"Negro-lovers." In Dallas itself, on the day of the President's arrival, posters
were taken away from ultra rightwingers on which the words "wanted for treason"
were superimposed on the President's picture in the manner of "wanted" posters.
On the day of Kennedy's arrival, the reactionary Dallas NEWS
printed as an ad a whole page where the sentence "Welcome Mr. Kennedy to Dallas"
was followed by many provocative questions such as: Why did you order....
(ellipsis as received) your brother Bobby, the attorney general, to promote a
soft policy in respect to communists, fellow travelers, and extreme leftwingers
in America, and at the same time allow him to persecute loyal Americans who
criticize your administration and your leadership.
The American press cites examples showing that at the time
when the entire nation is in grief and mourning, the thugs from the
ultra-rightwing organizations can hardly conceal their joy.
It is true, though, that the leaders of the American ultras,
including General Walker, made a statement that they "mourn" the death of the
President! This is an old trick! The Baltimore SUN published a cartoon yesterday
ridiculing this hypocrisy. It shows a "merchant of hatred" with the tongue of a
snake, bloodstained hands, and a carbine with smoke still coming out of its
barrel. The cartoon is captioned: I did not know it shoots!
While rejecting the anticommunist insinuations of the police,
many Americans at first believed that the President's assassination might have
been the work of a half-crazed fanatic. But Oswald's assassination exploded
this, too. AP correspondents interviewed scores of people in various American
cities and their first reactions were typical. A taxi driver in Chicago said
Oswald might have been shot by an accomplice to silence him. Another man, Luis
Zaltsman, believed that others were implicated in the case. Another man, K.
Taylor, in Cleveland, said the killing was a stupid thing unless it was am
attempt to prevent the revelation of the circumstances of the president's
assassination.
Three hours after Oswald was shot, the Dallas police
announced that since the only accused was dead, investigation of the president's
assassination would be stopped and that Jack Rubinstein, alias Ruby, who shot
Oswald, would be tried for murder.
At the same time, Dallas television began transmitting
statements by Ruby's sister and friends which were to "prove" that Ruby killed
Oswald purely for "patriotic motives."
It remains a "mystery" why the police allowed gangster
Ruby--they have a long file on him--into the building where Oswald was kept.
Pressmen were allowed in only with special passes and after they were searched
twice. This is only one of the many questions about the behavior of the Dallas
police in this criminal story.
But the efforts of the Dallas police to squash the Kennedy
assassination case have failed. Such excessive haste to hush up the case would
have thrown too long a shadow, and not only on the Dallas police. According to
the latest reports, the Department of Justice, headed by the late President's
brother, has ordered the FBI to make a thorough investigation of the
circumstances of the entire affair.