79-03-B3
- Main Page \ Reagan Radio Commentaries \ 1979
| << Previous Broadcast | Next Broadcast >> |
Conspiracy
TranscriptI suppose this commentary could be seen as taking a backward look, but it will be looking back at an issue that may not go away. I'll be right back. Beyond the testimony about the police radio soundtrack with its alleged evidence that a fourth shot had been fired from the grassy knoll in Dallas, we haven't heard too much lately about the recent investigations of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This matter will probably come back again and again, as witness the modern books purporting to offer new evidence in the assassination of Lincoln. I'd like to comment on a conspiracy theory in the Kennedy case that seems to have been overlooked. So far, the demands for further investigation stem from ideas that Lee Harvey Oswald acted not alone and that possibly his cohorts were agents of our own government. But have we hesitated to investigate the possibility that Oswald might have been carrying out a plot engineered by an international agency. Even the original investigation by the Warren Commission seems to have ignored some obvious clues and been rather in haste to settle for Oswald as a lone killer. Former marine Lee Harvey Oswald gave up his American citizenship and moved to Russia. He learned the Russian language before he defected. Someone must have helped him do this. Once in Russia, he married the niece of a colonel in the Soviet spy organization the K.G.B. Thanks to that marriage he lived at a level of luxury above that of the average citizen in Russia. While he is supposed to have recanted his favorable views on the U.S.S.R., it does seem strangely unlike the Soviets that he was allowed to return to the United States with his Russian wife. He was not the usual disillusioned, returnee eager to blow the whistle on his one-time Soviet connection in good working condition. The Warren Commission was evidently unimpressed by the fact that he was an enthusiastic member of the pro-Castro, Fair Play for Cuba Committee, nor did the Commission find it significant that two months before the assassination, he went to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City and was seen in the company of two known Cuban agents. After his arrest, his wallet was found to contain the addresses of the Communist Daily Worker and the Soviet Embassy in Washington. It's been reported by more than one source that President Johnson and the Commission were fearful that evidence of a communist conspiracy involving, as it would, the Soviet Union and/or Cuba would anger the American people and lead to a confrontation, possibly even to war. It is also reported that the F.B.I. files indicate there might have been a communist conspiracy involving Oswald but that the commission was unwilling to pursue this. The files further showed that the Justice Department and the Warren Commission wanted to establish Oswald as alone in the case and to get this conclusion to the American people as quickly as possible. Maybe someday, a new investigation will start down that trail. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
Details
| |||||||||||
Added Notes |
