Soviet KGB agents believed Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who assassinated President John F. Kennedy, was too abnormal to keep in the country permanently and not useful to the KGB, according to a newly declassified document related to the Kennedy assassination.
Oswald resided in the USSR from October 1959-June 1962. His KGB surveillance was overseen by Yuriy Nosenko, the KGB’s deputy chief of the American section of its tourist department, one of the KGB positions he held before he defected to the U.S., according to a CIA document created in 1968 to examine Nosenko’s credentials. (RELATED: Did The CIA Really Kill JFK?)
The JFK files have been released https://t.co/K5BxJ5LHWt
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Nosenko and a subordinate decided in October 1959 that Oswald’s visa application should be rejected because “he was not an interesting person and he wasn’t normal,” the document reads. The subordinate, Krupnov, informed Oswald of his rejection, and he responded by attempting to commit suicide in his hotel room. Following Oswald’s suicide attempt, KGB officials upheld Nosenko’s original assessment and decided the KGB should not get involved with Oswald, according to the document.
KGB agents first examined Oswald when he expressed interest in permanently residing in the Soviet Union. Nosenko and Krupnov assessed Oswald based on information gathered from his visa application and KGB informants at the Hotel Berlin, where he was staying in October 1959, according to the CIA document.
Nonetheless, Oswald was allowed to stay in the USSR temporarily and got sent to Minsk because the KGB would not allow him to live in Moscow. Local KGB spies in Minsk monitored Oswald “passively” and carried out periodic checks of his employer, associates and mail, the CIA found. When Oswald threatened to attempt suicide again, the KGB “washed its hands of him” and their interest in him was “practically nil,” according to the document.
Oswald married a Russian woman in Minsk named Marina Oswald, who left the Soviet Union with him in 1962, along with their baby daughter. The KGB kept information about Marina in Lee Harvey Oswald’s file and showed no interest in her, according to the CIA document. (RELATED: RFK Jr Tells Joe Rogan He Has To ‘Be Careful’ The CIA Doesn’t Assassinate Him)
When Oswald left the USSR, Nosenko did not hear about him until September 1963, when he requested a visa at the Soviet Embassy in Mexico. KGB officials decided Oswald should not be allowed back in the country because of his suicide attempt and “the fact that he was not considered normal,” the CIA examined based on their knowledge of Nosenko. The KGB defector said he did not read the cable about Oswald directed from the Mexican embassy to the KGB and did not know who Oswald spoke to at the embassy.
This December 10, 1960 photo shows John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline holding their son John during the christening ceremony at the chapel of Georgetown University in Washington, DC. (SAM SCHULMAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Nosenko did not hear about Oswald again until he killed President Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, at Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. Shortly after Kennedy was assassinated, Nosenko was ordered to provide all the information the American tourist section had on Oswald. Nosenko called the Minsk office and he was told the local KGB tried “to influence Oswald in the right direction” despite orders that the KGB only monitor Oswald passively, according to the CIA.
Nosenko read the file on Oswald from Minsk before sending it to his boss, and it showed the KGB did not contact Oswald and did not attempt to make use of him. The KGB never gave Oswald any training or assignments, which Nosenko’s department would have had to approve, according to the document.
The CIA recorded Nosenko’s varying statements about the time he spent viewing the final Oswald file. He once said he “only skimmed the file,” and another time he said he only held the file for 20 minutes. Nosenko said in October 1966 he read the file and saw a picture of Oswald, who he never met personally. Nosenko also had no knowledge of Oswald’s communication with the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C., prior to his trip to Mexico, according to the CIA.
CIA agents concluded Nosenko was once a senior KGB official and suspected he was still under KGB control in 1968, based on the exaggerated biographical information he apparently provided to impress U.S. intelligence, the document concludes.
Nosenko later testified to the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) in 1978 as part of its investigation into Kennedy’s death, a newly declassified document shows. HSCA staffers viewed CIA records about Nosenko as part of their investigation, according to declassified documents. The committee found Nosenko to be unreliable in its final report about the Kennedy assassination, which left open the possibility of a second gunman based on Dallas police radio tape. Acoustic experts later discredited the HSCA report, according to the Kennedy Library. A 1988 memo from the Justice Department also discredited the HSCA’s findings.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on Friday announced the release of additional records about the Kennedy assassination. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the same day that 99% of the Kennedy archive has been released to the public.