Table of Contents, Chapter VII, Appendix I
Prompted by these dismaying statistics, the Commission has inquired into the problems and methods of Presidential protection in effect at the time of President Kennedy's assassination. This study has led the Commission to conclude that the public interest might be served by any contribution it can make to the improvement of protective arrangements. The Commission has not undertaken a comprehensive examination of all facets of this subject; rather, it has devoted its time and resources to those broader aspects of Presidential protection to which the events of last November called attention.
In this part of its inquiry the Commission has had full access to a major study of all phases of protective activities prepared by the Secret Service for the Secretary of the Treasury following the assassination. As a result of this study, the Secretary of the Treasury has prepared a planning document dated August, 27, 1964, which recommends additional personnel and facilities to enable the Secret Service to expand its protection capabilities. The Secretary of the Treasury submitted this planning document on August 81, 1964, to the Bureau of the Budget for review and approval. This planning document has been made a part of the Commission's published record; the underlying staff and consultants' reports reviewed by the Commission have not, since a disclosure of such detailed information relating to protective measures might undermine present methods of protecting the President. However, all information considered by the Commission which pertains to the protective function as it was carried out in Dallas has been published as part of this report.
The protection of the President of the United States is an immensely difficult and complex task. It is unlikely that measures can be devised to eliminate entirely the multitude of diverse dangers that may arise, particularly when the President is traveling in this country or abroad. The protective task is further complicated by the reluctance of Presidents to take security precautions which might interfere with the performance of their duties, or their desire to have frequent and easy access to the people. The adequacy of existing procedures can fairly be assessed only after full consideration of the difficulty of the protective assignment, with particular attention to the diverse roles which the President is expected to fill. After reviewing this aspect of the matter this chapter will set. forth the Commission's conclusions regarding certain protective measures in force at the time of the Dallas trip and propose recommendations for improvements.
During his Presidency, Franklin D. Roosevelt made almost 400 journeys, and traveled more than 350,000 miles. Since 1945, Roosevelt's successors have ranged the world, and their foreign journeys have come to be accepted as normal rather than extraordinary. John F. Kennedy's journey to Texas in November 1963 was in this tradition. His friend and Special Assistant Kenneth O'Donnell, who accompanied him on his last visit to Dallas, stated the President's views of his responsibilities with simplicity and clarity:
The President's views of his responsibilities as President of the United States were that he meet the people, that he go out to their homes and see them, and allow them to see him, and discuss, if possible, the views of the world as he sees it, the problems of the country as he sees them. And he felt that leaving Washington for the President of the United States was a most necessarynot only for the people, but for the President himself, that he expose himself to the actual basic problems that were disturbing the American people. It helped him in his job here, he was able to come back here with a fresh view of many things. I think he felt very strongly that the President ought to get out of Washington, and go meet the people on a regular basis. Whatever their purposes Presidential journeys have greatly enlarged and complicated the task of protecting the President. The Secret Service and the Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies which cooperate with it, have been confronted in recent years with increasingly difficult problems, created by the greater exposure of the President during his travels and the greater diversity of the audiences he must face in a world torn by conflicting ideologies. If the sole goal were to protect the life of the President, it could be accomplished with reasonable assurance despite the multiple roles he must play. But his very position as representative of the people prevents him from effectively shielding himself from the people. He cannot and will not take the precautions of a dictator or a sovereign. Under our system, measures must be sought to afford security without impeding the President's performance of his many functions. The protection of the President must be thorough but inconspicuous to avoid even the suggestion of a garrison state. The rights of private individuals must not be infringed. If the protective job is well done, its performance will be evident only in the unexceptional fact of its success. The men in charge of protecting the President, confronted by complex problems and limited as they are in the measures they may employ, must depend upon the utmost cooperation and understanding from the public and the President. The problem and the reasonable approach to its solution were ably stated in a memorandum prepared by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover for the President soon after the assassination:
The degree of security that can be afforded the President of the United States is dependent to a considerable extent upon the degree of contact with the general public desired by the President. Absolute security is neither practical nor possible. An approach to complete security would require the President to operate in a sort of vacuum, isolated from the general public and behind impregnable barriers. His travel would be in secret; his public appearances would be behind bulletproof glass. A more practical approach necessitates compromise. Any travel, any contact with the general public, involves a calculated risk on the part of the President and the men responsible for his protection. Such risks can be lessened when the President recognizes the security problem, has confidence in the dedicated Secret Service men who are ready to lay down their lives for him and accepts the necessary security precautions which they recommend. Many Presidents have been understandably impatient with the security precautions which many years of experience dictate because these precautions reduce the President's privacy and the access to him of the people of the country. Nevertheless the procedures and advice should be accepted if the President wishes to have any security.
Many persons call themselves to the attention of PRS by attempting to visit the President for bizarre reasons or by writing or in some other way attempting to communicate with him in a threatening or abusive manner or with undue persistence. Robert I. Bouck, special agent in charge of PRS, estimated that most of the material received by his office originated in this fashion or from the occasional investigations initiated by the Secret Service, while the balance was furnished to PRS by other Federal agencies, with primary source being the FBI. The total volume of information received by PRS has risen steadily. In 1943 PRS received approximately 9,000 items of information; in 1953 this had increased to more than 17,000 items; in 1963 the total exceeded 32,000 items. Since many items may pertain to a single case, these figures do not show the caseload. In the period from November 1961 to November 1963, PRS received items in 8,709 cases.
Before the assassination of President Kennedy, PRS expressed its interest in receiving information on suspects in very general terms. For example, PRS instructed the White House mailroom, a source of much PRS data, to refer all communications on identified existing cases and, in addition, any communication "that in any way indicates anyone may have possible intention of harming the President." Slightly more specific criteria were established for PRS personnel processing White House mail referred by the White House mailroom, but again the standards were very general. These instructions to PRS personnel appear to be the only instance where an effort was made to reduce the criteria to writing. When requested to provide a specific statement of the standards employed by PRS in deciding what information to seek and retain, the Secret Service responded:
The criteria in effect prior to November 22, 1963, for determining whether to accept material for the PRS general files were broad and flexible. All material is and was desired, accepted, and filed if it indicated or tended to indicate that the safety of the President is or might be in danger, either at the present or in the future... There are many actions, situations, and incidents that may indicate such potential danger. Some are specific, such as threats; danger may be implied from others, such as membership or activity in an organization which believes in assassination as a political weapon. All material received by PRS was separately screened and a determination made as to whether the information might indicate possible harm to the President. If the material was evaluated as indicating some potential danger to the Presidentno matter how smallit was indexed in the general PRS files under the name of the individual or group of individuals to whom that material related. The general files of PRS consist of folders on individuals, card indexed by name. The files are manually maintained, without use of any automatic data-processing techniques. At the time of the assassination, the active PRS general files contained approximately 50,000 cases accumulated over a 20-year period, some of which included more than one individual. A case file was established if the information available suggested that the subject might be a danger to the President. Many of these cases were not investigated by PRS. The case file served merely as a repository for information until enough had accumulated to warrant an investigation. During the period November 1961 to November 1963, PRS investigated 34 newly established or reactivated cases concerning residents of Texas. Most of these cases involved persons who used threatening language in communications to or about the President. An additional 115 cases concerning Texas residents were established but not investigated.
When PRS learns of an individual whose conduct warrants scrutiny, it requests an investigation by the closest Secret Service field office, of which there are 65 throughout the country. If the field office determines that the case should be subject to continuing review, PRS establishes a file which requires a checkup at least, every 6 months. This might involve a personal interview or interviews with members of the person's household. Wherever possible, the Secret Service arranges for the family and friends of the individual, and local law enforcement officials, to advise the field office if the subject displays signs of increased danger or plans to leave his home area. At the time of the assassination there were approximately 400 persons throughout the country who were subject to periodic review.
If PRS concludes after investigation that an individual presents a significant danger to the life of the President, his name is placed in a "trip index file" which is maintained on a geographical field office basis. At the time of the assassination the names of about 100 persons were in this index, all of whom were included in the group of 400 being reviewed regularly. PRS also maintains an album of photographs and descriptions of about 12 to 15 individuals who are regarded as clear risks to the President and who do not have a fixed place of residence. Members of the White House detail of the Secret Service have copies of this album.
Individuals who are regarded as dangerous to the President and who are in penal or hospital custody are listed only in the general files of PRS, but there is a system for the immediate notification of the Secret Service by the confining institution when a subject is released or escapes. PRS attempts to eliminate serious risks by hospitalization or, where necessary, the prosecution of persons who have committed an offense such as threatening the President. In June 1964 PRS had arrangements to be notified about the re]ease or escape of approximately 1,000 persons.
In summary, at the time of the assassination PRS had received, over a 20-year period, basic information on some 50,000 cases; it had arrangements to be notified about release from confinement in roughly 1,000 cases; it had established periodic regular review of the status of 400 individuals; it regarded approximately 100 of these 400 cases as serious risks and 12 to 15 of these cases as highly dangerous risks. Members of the White House detail were expected to familiarize themselves with the descriptions and photographs of the highest risk cases. The cases subject to periodic review and the 100 or so cases in the higher risk category were filed on a geographic basis, and could conveniently be reviewed by a Secret Service agent preparing for a Presidential trip to a particular part of the country. These were the files reviewed by PRS on November 8, 1963, at the request of Special Agent Lawson, advance agent for President Kennedy's trip to Dallas. The general files of PRS were not indexed by geographic location and were of little use in preparing for a Presidential visit to a specific locality. Secret Service requests to other agencies for intelligence information were no more specific than the broad and general instructions its own agents and the White House mailroom. The head of PRS testified that the Secret Service requested other agencies to provide "any and all information that they may come in contact with that would indicate danger to the President." These requests were communicated in writing by the Secret Service; rather, the Service depended on the personal liaison maintained by PRS with the headquarters of the Federal intelligence agencies, particularly the FBI, and at the working level with personnel of the field offices of the various agencies. The Service frequently participated in the training programs of other law enforcement agencies, and agents from other agencies attended the regular Secret Service training schools. Presidential protection was an important topic in these training programs.
In the absence of more specific instructions, other Federal agencies interpreted the Secret Service's informal requests to relate principally to overt threats to harm the President or other specific manifestations of hostility. For example, at the time of the assassination, the FBI Handbook, which is in the possession of every Bureau special agent, provided:
Threats against the President of the US. , members of his immediate family, the President-elect, and the Vice-President Investigation of threats against the President of the United States, members of his immediate family, the President-Elect, and the Vice-President is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the U. S. Secret Service. Any information indicating the possibility of an attempt against the person or safety of the President, members of the immediate family of the President, the President-Elect or the Vice-President must be referred immediately by the most expeditious means of communication to the nearest office of the U. S. Secret Service. Advise the Bureau at the same time by teletype of the information so furnished to the Secret Service and the fact that it has been so disseminated. The above action should be taken without delay in order to attempt to verify the information and no evaluation of the information should be attempted. When the threat is in the form of a written communication, give a copy to local Secret Service and forward the original to the Bureau where it will be made available to Secret Service headquarters in Washington. The referral of the copy to local Secret, Service should not delay the immediate referral of the information by the fastest available means of communication to Secret Service locally.
The State Department advised the Secret Service of all crank and threat letter mail or crank visitors and furnished reports concerning any assassination or attempted assassination of a ruler or other major official anywhere in the world. The several military intelligence agencies reported crank mail and similar threats involving the President. According to Special Agent in Charge Bouck, the Secret Service had no standard procedure for the systematic review of its requests for and receipt of information from other Federal agencies.
The Commission believes that the facilities and procedures of the Protective Research section of the Secret Service prior to November 22, 1963, were inadequate. Its efforts appear to have been too largely directed at the "crank" threat. Although the Service recognized that its advance preventive measures must encompass more than these most obvious dangers, it made little effort to identify factors in the activities of an individual or an organized group, other than specific threats, which suggested a source of danger against which timely precautions could be taken. Except for its special "trip index" file of 400 names, none of the cases in the PRS general files was available for systematic review on a geographic basis when the President planned a particular trip. As reported in chapter II, when the special file was reviewed on November 8, it contained the names of no persons from the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area, notwithstanding the fact that Ambassador Stevenson had been abused by pickets in Dallas less than a month before. Bouck explained the failure to try to identify the individuals involved in the Stevenson incident after it occurred on the ground that. PRS required a more direct indication of a threat to the President, and that there was no such indication until the President's scheduled visit to that area became known. Such an approach seriously undermines the precautionary nature of PRS work; if the presence in Dallas of the Stevenson pickets might have created a danger for the President on a visit to that city, PRS should have investigated and been prepared to guard against it. Other agencies occasionally provided information to the Secret Service concerning potentially dangerous political groups. This was done in the ease of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, for example, but only after members of the group had resorted to political violence. However, the vague requests for information which the Secret Service made to Federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies were not well designed to elicit information from them about persons other than those who were obvious threats to the President. The requests shifted the responsibility for evaluating difficult cases from the Service, the agency most responsible for performing that task, to the other agencies. No specific guidance was provided. Although the CIA had on file requests from the Treasury Department for information on the counterfeiting of U. S. currency and certain smuggling matters, it had no written specification of intelligence information collected by CIA abroad which was desired by the Secret Service in advance of Presidential trips outside the United States.
Information known about Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the assassination. No information concerning Lee Harvey Oswald appeared in PRS files before the President's trip to Dallas. Oswald was known to other Federal agencies with which the Secret Service maintained intelligence liaison. The FBI had been interested in him, to some degree at least, since the time of his defection in October 1959. It had interviewed him twice shortly after his return to the United States, again a year later at his request and was investigating him at the time of the assassination. The Commission has taken the testimony of Bureau agents who interviewed Oswald after his return from the, Soviet Union and prior to November 22, 1963, the agent who was assigned his case at the time of the assassination, the Director of the FBI, and the Assistant to the Director in charge of all investigative activities under the Director and Associate Director. In addition, the Director and Deputy Director for Plans of the CIA testified concerning that Agency's limited knowledge of Oswald before the assassination. Finally, the Commission has reviewed the complete files on Oswald, as they existed at the time of the assassination, of the Department of State, the Office of Naval Intelligence, the FBI and the CIA. The information known to the FBI is summarized below.
From defection to return to Fort Worth. The FBI opened a file on Oswald in October 1959, when news reports appeared of his defection to the Soviet Union. The file was opened "for the purpose of correlating information inasmuch as he was considered a possible security risk in the event he returned to this country." Oswald's defection was also the occasion for the opening of files by the Department of State, CIA, and the Office of Naval Intelligence. Until April 1960, FBI activity consisted of placing in Oswald's file information regarding his relations with the U. S. Embassy in Moscow and background data relating largely to his prior military service, provided by other agencies. In April 1960, Mrs. Marguerite Oswald and Robert Oswald were interviewed in the course of a routine FBI investigation of transfers of small sums of money from Mrs. Oswald to her son in Russia.
During the next 2 years the FBI continued to accumulate information, and kept itself informed on Oswald's status by periodic reviews of State Department and Office of Naval Intelligence files. In this way, it learned that when Oswald had arrived in the Soviet Union he had attempted to renounce his U. S. citizenship and applied for Soviet citizenship, had described himself as a Marxist, had said he would give the Soviet Union any useful information he had acquired as a marine radar technician and had displayed an arrogant and aggressive attitude at the U. S. Embassy; it learned also that Oswald had been discharged from the Marine Corps Reserve as undesirable in August 1960. In June 1962, the Bureau was advised by the Department of State of Oswald's plan to return to the United States. The Bureau made arrangements to be advised by immigration authorities of his return, and instructed the Dallas office to interview him when he got back to determine whether he had been recruited by a Soviet intelligence service. Oswald's file at the Department of State Passport Office was reviewed in June 1962. It revealed his letter of January 30, 1962, to Secretary of the Navy Connally, in which he protested his discharge and declared that he would use "all means" to correct it. The file reflected the Department's determination that Oswald had not expatriated himself.
From return to Fort Worth to move to New Orleans. Oswald was first interviewed by FBI Agents John W. Fain and B. Tom Carter on June 26, 1962, in Fort Worth. Agent Fain reported to headquarters that Oswald was impatient and arrogant, and unwilling to answer questions regarding his motive for going to the Soviet Union. Oswald "denied that he bad ever denounced his U. S. citizenship, and ... that he had ever applied for Soviet citizenship specifically." Oswald was, however, willing to discuss his contacts with Soviet authorities. He denied having any involvement with Soviet intelligence agencies and promised to advise the FBI if he heard from them.
Agent Fain was not satisfied by this interview and arranged to see Oswald again on August 16, 1962. According to Fain's contemporaneous memorandum and his present recollection, while Oswald remained somewhat evasive at this interview, he was not antagonistic and seemed generally to be settling down. (Marina Oswald, however, recalled that her husband was upset by this interview.) Oswald again agreed to advise the FBI if he were approached under suspicious circumstances; however, he deprecated the possibility of this happening, particularly since his employment did not involve any sensitive information. Having concluded that Oswald was not a security risk or potentially dangerous or violent, Fain determined that nothing further remained to be done at that time and recommended that the case be placed in a closed status. This is an administrative classification indicating that no further work has been scheduled. It does not preclude the agent in charge of the case from reopening it if he feels that further work should be done.
From August 1962 until March 1963, the FBI continued to accumulate information regarding Oswald but engaged in no active investigation. Agent Fain retired from the FBI in October 1962, and the closed Oswald case was not reassigned. However, pursuant to a regular Bureau practice of interviewing certain immigrants from Iron Curtain countries, Fain had been assigned to see Marina Oswald at an appropriate time. This assignment was given to Agent James P. Hosty, Jr. of the Dallas office upon Fain's retirement. In March 1963, while attempting to locate Marina Oswald, Agent Hosty was told by Mrs. M. F. Tobias, a former landlady of the Oswalds at 602 Elsbeth Street in Dallas, that other tenants had complained because Oswald was drinking to excess and beating his wife. This information led Hosty to review Oswald's file, from which he learned that Oswald had become a subscriber to the Worker, a Communist Party publication. Hosty decided that the Lee Harvey Oswald case should be reopened because of the alleged personal difficulties and the contact with the Worker, and his recommendation was accepted. He decided, however, not to interview Marina Oswald at that time, and merely determined that the Oswalds were living at 214 Neely Street in Dallas.
On April 21, 1963, the FBI field office in New York was advised that Oswald was in contact with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New York, and that he had written to the committee stating that he had distributed its pamphlets on the streets of Dallas. This information did not reach Agent Hosty in Dallas until June. Hosty considered the information to be "stale" by that time, and did not attempt to verify Oswald's reported statement. Under a general Bureau request to be on the alert for activities of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee Hosty had inquired earlier and found no evidence that it was functioning in the Dallas area.
In New Orleans. In the middle of May of 1963, Agent Hosty checked Oswald's last known residence and found that he had moved. Oswald was tentatively located in New Orleans in June, and Hosty asked the New Orleans FBI office to determine Oswald's address and what he was doing. The New Orleans office investigated and located Oswald, learning his address and former place of employment on August 5, 1963. A confidential informant advised the FBI that Oswald was not known to be engaged in Communist Party activities in New Orleans.
On June 24, Oswald applied in New Orleans for a passport, stating that he planned to depart by ship for an extended tour of Western European countries, the Soviet Union, Finland, and Poland. The Passport Office of the Department of State in Washington had no listing for Oswald requiring special treatment, and his application was approved on the following day. The FBI had not asked to be informed of any effort by Oswald to obtain a passport, as it might have under existing procedures, and did not know of his application. According to the Bureau,
We did not request the State Department to include Oswald on a list which would have resulted in advising us of any application for a passport inasmuch as the facts relating to Oswald's activities at that time did not warrant such action. Our investigation of Oswald had disclosed no evidence that Oswald was acting under the instructions or on behalf of any foreign government or instrumentality thereof. On August 9, 1963, Oswald was arrested and jailed by the New Orleans Police Department for disturbing the peace, in connection with a street fight which broke out when he was accosted by anti-Castro Cubans while distributing leaflets on behalf of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. On the next day, he asked the New Orleans police to arrange for him to be interviewed by the FBI. The police called the local FBI office and an agent, John L. Quigley, was sent to the police station. Agent Quigley did not know of Oswald's prior FBI record when he interviewed him, inasmuch as the police had not given Oswald's name to the Bureau when they called the office.
Quigley recalled that Oswald was receptive when questioned about his general background but less than completely truthful or cooperative when interrogated about the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Quigley testified:
When I began asking him specific details with respect to his activities in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans as to where meetings were held, who was involved, what occurred, he was reticent to furnish information, reluctant and actually as far as I was concerned, was completely evasive on them. In Quigley's judgment, Oswald "was probably making a self-serving statement in attempting to explain to me why he was distributing this literature, and for no other reason, and when I got to questioning him further then he felt that his purpose had been served and he wouldn't say anything further." During the interview Quigley obtained background information from Oswald which was inconsistent with information already in the Bureau's possession. When Quigley returned to his office, he learned that another Bureau agent, Milton R. Kaack, had been conducting a background investigation of Oswald at the request of Agent Hosty in Dallas. Quigley advised Knack of his interview and gave him a detailed memorandum. Knack was aware of the facts known to the FBI and recognized Oswald's false statements. For example, Oswald claimed that his wife's maiden name was Prossa and that they had been married in Fort Worth and lived there until coming to New Orleans. He had told the New Orleans arresting officers that he had been born in Cuba.
Several days later, the Bureau received additional evidence that Oswald had lied to Agent Quigley. On August 22, it learned that Oswald had appeared on a radio discussion program on August 21. William Stuckey, who had appeared on the radio program with Oswald, told the Bureau on August 30 that Oswald had told him that he had worked and been married in the Soviet Union. Neither these discrepancies nor the fact that Oswald had initiated the FBI interview was considered sufficiently unusual to necessitate another interview. Alan H. Belmont, Assistant to the Director of the FBI, stated the Bureau's reasoning in this way:
Our interest in this man at this point was to determine whether his
activities constituted a threat to the internal security of the country. It was
apparent that he had made a self-serving statement to Agent Quigley. It became a
matter of record in our files as a part of the case, and if we determined that
the course of the investigation required us to clarify or face him down with
this information, we would do it at the appropriate time.
In other words, he
committed no violation of the law by telling us something that wasn't true, and
unless this required further investigation at that time, we would handle it in
due course, in accord with the whole context of the investigation.
On August 21, 1963, Bureau headquarters instructed the New Orleans and
Dallas field offices to conduct an additional investigation of Oswald in view of
the activities which had led to his arrest. FBI informants in the New Orleans
area, familiar with pro-Castro or Communist Party activity there, advised the
Bureau that Oswald was unknown in such circles. In Dallas. In early September
1963 the FBI transferred the principal responsibility for the Oswald case from
the Dallas office to the New Orleans office. Soon after, on October 1, 1963, the
FBI was advised by the rental agent for the Oswalds' apartment in New Orleans
that they had moved again. According to the information received by the Bureau
they had vacated their apartment, and Marina Oswald had departed with their
child in a station wagon with Texas registration. On October 3, Hosty reopened
the case in Dallas to assist the New Orleans office. He checked in Oswald's old
neighborhood and throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area but was unable to locate
Oswald.
The next word about Oswald's location was a communication from the CIA to the FBI on October 10, advising that an individual tentatively identified as Oswald had been in touch with the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City in early October of 1963. The Bureau had had no earlier information suggesting that Oswald had left the United States. The possible contact with the Soviet Embassy in Mexico intensified the FBI's interest in learning Oswald's whereabouts. The FBI representative in Mexico City arranged to follow up this information with the CIA and to verify Oswald's entry into Mexico. The CIA message was sent also to the Department of State where it was reviewed by personnel of the Passport Office, who knew from Oswald's file that he had sought and obtained a passport on June 25, 1963. The Department of State did not advise either the CIA or the FBI of these facts.
On October 25, the New Orleans office of the FBI learned that in September Oswald had given a forwarding address of 2515 West Fifth Street, Irving, Tex. After receiving this information on October 29, Agent Hosty attempted to locate Oswald. On the same day Hosty interviewed neighbors on Fifth Street and learned that the address was that of Mrs. Ruth Paine. He conducted a limited background investigation of the Paines, intending to interview Mrs. Paine and ask her particularly about Oswald's whereabouts.
Having determined that Mrs. Paine was a responsible and reliable citizen, Hosty interviewed her on November 1. The interview lasted about 20-25 minutes. In response to Hosty's inquiries, Mrs. Paine
... readily admitted that Mrs. Marina Oswald and Lee Oswald's two children were staying with her. She said that Lee Oswald was living somewhere in Dallas. She didn't know where. She said it was in the Oak Cliff area but she didn't have his address. I asked her if she knew where he worked. After a moment's hesitation, she told me that he worked at the Texas School Book Depository near the downtown area of Dallas. She didn't have the exact address, and it is my recollection that we went to the phone book and looked it up, found it to be 411 Elm Street. Mrs. Paine told Hosty also that Oswald was living alone in Dallas because she did not want him staying at her house, although she was willing to let Oswald visit his wife and children. According to Hosty, Mrs. Paine indicated that she thought she could find out where Oswald was living and would let him know. At this point in the interview, Hosty gave Mrs. Paine his name and ofice telephone number on a piece of paper. At the end of the interview, Marina Oswald came into the room. When he observed that she seemed "quite alarmed" about the visit, Hosty assured her, through Mrs. Paine as interpreter, that the FBI would not harm or harass her.
On November 4, Hosty telephoned the Texas School Book Depository and learned that Oswald was working there and that he had given as his address Mrs. Paine's residence in Irving. Hosty took the necessary steps to have the Dallas office of the FBI, rather than the New Orleans office, reestablished as the office with principal responsibility. On November 5, Hosty was traveling near Mrs. Paine's home and took the occasion to stop by to ask whether she had any further information. Mrs. Paine had nothing to add to what she had already told him, except that during a visit that past weekend, Oswald had said that he was a "Trotskyite Communist," and that she found this and similar statements illogical and somewhat amusing. On this occasion Hosty was at the Paine residence for only a few minutes.
During neither interview did Hosty learn Oswald's address or telephone number in Dallas. Mrs. Paine testified that she learned Oswald's telephone number at the Beckley Street rooming house in the middle of October shortly after Oswald rented the room on October 14. As discussed in chapter VI, she failed to report this to Agent Hosty because she thought the FBI was in possession of a great deal of information and certainly would find it very easy to learn where Oswald was living.
Hosty did nothing further in connection with the Oswald case until after the assassination. On November 1, 1963, he had received a copy of the report of the New Orleans office which contained Agent Quigley's memorandum of the interview in the New Orleans jail on August 10, and realized immediately that Oswald had given false biographic information. Hosty knew that he would eventually have to investigate this, and "was quite interested in determining the nature of his contact with the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City." When asked what his next step would have been, Hosty replied:
Well, as I had previously stated, I have between 25 and 40 cases assigned
to me at any one time. I had other matters to take care of. I had now
established that Lee Oswald was not employed in a sensitive industry. I can now
afford to wait until New Orleans forwarded the necessary papers to me to show me
I now had all the information. It was then my plan to interview Marina Oswald in
detail concerning both herself and her husband's background.
Q.: Had you planned any steps beyond that point?
A.: No. I would have to
wait until I had talked to Marina to see what I could determine, and from there
I could make my plans.
Q.: Did you take any action on this case between
November 5 and November 22?
A.: No, sir.
Non referral of Oswald to the Secret Service. The Commission has considered carefully the question whether the FBI, in view of all the information concerning Oswald in its files, should have alerted the Secret Service to Oswald's presence in Dallas prior to President Kennedy's visit. The Secret Service and the FBI differ as to whether Oswald fell within the category of "threats against the President" which should be referred to the Service. Robert I. Bouck, special agent in charge of the Protective Research Section, testified that the information available to the Federal Government about Oswald before the assassination would, if known to PRS, have made Oswald a subject of concern to the Secret Service. Bouck pointed to a number of characteristics besides Oswald's concern to the Secret Service. Bouck pointed to a number of characteristics besides Oswald's defection the cumulative effect of which would have been to alert the Secret Service to potential danger:
I would think his continued association with the Russian Embassy after his return, his association with the Castro groups would have been of concern to us, a knowledge that he had, I believe, been court-martialed for illegal possession of a gun, of a hand gun in the Marines, that he had owned a weapon and did a good deal of hunting or use of it, perhaps in Russia, plus a number of items about his disposition and unreliability of character, I think all of those, if we had had them altogether, would have added up to pointing out a pretty bad individual, and I think that, together, had we known that he had a vantage point would have seemed somewhat serious to us, even though I must admit, that none of these in themselves would bewould meet our specific criteria, none of them alone. But, it is when you begin adding them up to some degree that you begin to get criteria that are meaningful. Mr. Bouck pointed out, however, that he had no reason to believe that any one Federal agency had access to all this information, including the significant fact that Oswald was employed in a building which overlooked the motorcade route.
Agent Hosty testified that he was fully aware of the pending Presidential visit to Dallas. He recalled that the special agent in charge of the Dallas office of the FBI, J. Gordon Shanklin, had discussed the President's visit on several occasions, including the regular biweekly conference on the morning of November 22:
Mr. Shanklin advised us, among other things, that in view of the President's visit to Dallas, that if anyone had any indication of any possibility of any acts of violence or any demonstrations against the President, or Vice President, to immediately notify the Secret Service and confirm it in writing. He had made the same statement about a week prior at another special conference which we had held. I don't recall the exact date. It was about a week prior. In fact, Hosty participated in transmitting to the Secret Service two pieces of information pertaining to the visit. Hosty testified that he did not know until the evening of Thursday, November 21, that there was to be a motorcade, however, and never realized that the motorcade would pass the Texas School Book Depository Building. He testified that he did not read the newspaper story describing the motorcade route in detail, since he was interested only in the fact that the motorcade was coming up Main Street, "where maybe I could watch it if I had a chance." Even if he had recalled that Oswald's place of employment was on the President's route, Hosty testified that he would not have cited him to the Secret Service as a potebtial threat to the President. Hosty interpreted his instructions as requiring "some indication that the person planned to take some action against the safety of the President of the United States or the Vice President." In his opinion, none of the information in the FBI files, Oswald's defection, his Fair Play for Cuba activities in New Orleans, his lies to Agent Quigley, his recent visit to Mexico City, indicated that Oswald was capable of violence. Hosty's initial reaction on hearing that Oswald was a suspect in the assassination, was "shock, complete surprise," because he had no reason to believe that Oswald "was capable or potentially an assassin of the President of the United States." Shortly after Oswald was apprehended and identified, Hosty's superior sent him to observe the interrogation of Oswald. Hosty parked his car in the basement of police headquarters and there met an acquaintance, Lt. Jack Revill of the Dallas police force. The two men disagree about the conversation which took place between them. They agree that Hosty told Revill that the FBI had known about Oswald and, in particular, of his presence in Dallas and his employment at the Texas School Book Depository Building. Revill testified that Hosty said also that the FBI had information that Oswald was "capable of committing this assassination." According to Revill, Hosty indicated that he was going to tell this to Lieutenant Wells of the homicide and robbery bureau. Revill promptly made a memorandum of this conversation in which the quoted statement appears. His secretary testified that she prepared such a report for him that afternoon and Chief of Police Jesse E. Curry and District Attorney Henry M. Wade both testified that they saw it later that day.
Hosty has unequivocally denied, first by affidavit and then in his testimony before the Commission, that he ever said that Oswald was capable of violence, or that he had any information suggesting this. The only witness to the conversation was Dallas Police Detective V. J. Brian, who was accompanying Revill. Brian did not hear Hosty make any statement concerning Oswald's capacity to be an assassin but he did not hear the netire conversation because of the commotion at police headquarters and because he was not within hearing distance at all times.
Hosty's interpretation of the prevailing FBI instructions on referrals to the Secret Service was defended before the Commission by his superiors. After summarizing the Bureau's investigative interest in Oswald prior to the assassination, J. Edgar Hoover concluded that "There was nothing up to the time of the assassination that gave any indication that this man was a dangerous character who might do harm to the President or to the Vice President." Director Hoover emphasized that the first indication of Oswald's capacity for violence was his attempt on General Walker's life, which did not become known to the FBI until after the assassination. Both Director Hoover and his assistant, Alan H. Belmont, stressed also the decision by the Department of State that Oswald should pe permitted to return to the United States. Neither believed that the Bureau investigation of him up to November 22 revealed any information which would have justified referral to the Secret Service. According to Belmont, when Oswald returned from the Soviet Union,
... he indicated that he had learned his lesson, was disenchanted with
Russia, and had a renewed concept. I am paraphrasing, a renewed concept of the
American free society. . We talked to him twice. He likewise indicated he was
disenchanted with Russia. We satisfied ourselves that we had met our
requirement, namely to find out whether he had been recruited by Soviet
intelligence. The case was closed. We again exhibited interest on the basis of
these contacts with The Worker, Fair Play for Cuba Committee, which are
relatively inconsequential. His activities for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee
in New Orleans, we knew, were not a real consequence as he wa snot connected
with any organized activity here. The interview with him in jail is not
significant from the standpoint of whether he had a propensity for violence.
Q.: This is the Quigley interview you are talking about?
A.: Yes; it was a
self-serving interview. The visits with the Soviet Embassy were evidently for
the purpose of securing a visa, and he had told us during one of the interviews
that he would propably take his wife back to Soviet Russia some time in the
future. He had come back to Dallas. Hosty had established that he had a job, he
was working, and had told Mrs. Paine that when he got the money he was going to
take an appartment, when the baby was old enough, he was going to take an
appartment, and the family would live together. He gave evidence of settling
down. Nowhere during the course of this investigation or the information that
came to us from other agencies was there any indication of a potential for
violence on his part. Consequently, there was no basis for Hosty to go to Secret
Serviceand advise them of Oswald's presence...
However, there was much material in the hands of the FBI abou Oswald: the knowledge of his defection, his arrogance and hostility to the United States, his pro-Castro tendencies, his lies when interrogated by the FBI, his trip to Mexico where he was in contact with Soviet authorities, his presence in the School Book Depository job and its location along the route of the motorcade. All this does seem to amount to enough to have induced an alert agency, such as the FBI, possessed of this information to list Oswald as a potential threat to the safety of the President. This conclusion may be tinged with hindsight, but it stated primarily to direct the thought of those responsible for the future safety of our President to the need for a more imaginative and less narrow interpretation of their responsibilities. It is the conclusion of the Commission that, even in the absence of Secret Service criteria which specifically required the referral of such a case as Oswald's to the Secret Service, a more alert and carefully considered treatment of the Oswald case by the Bureau might have brought about such a referral. Had such a review been undertaken by the FBI, there might conceivably have been additional investigation of the Oswald case between November 5 and November 22. Agent Hosty testified that several matters brought to his attention in late October and early November, including the visit to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City, required further attention. Under proper procedures knowledge of the pending Presidential visit might have prompted Hosty to have made more vigorous efforts to locate Oswald's rooming house address in Dallas and to interview him regarding these unresolved matters. The formal FBI instructions to its agents outlining the information to be referred to the Secret Service were too narrow at the time of the assassination. While the Secret Service bears the principal responsibility for this failure, the FBI instructions did not reflect fully the Secret Service's need for information regarding potential threats. The handbook referred thus to "the possibility of an attempt against the person or safety of the President." It is clear from Hosty's testimony that this was construed, at least by him, as requiring evidence of a plan or conspiracy to injure the President. Efforts made by the Bureau since the assassination, on the other hand, reflect keen awareness of the necessity of communicating a much wider range of intelligence information to the Service.
Most important, notwithstanding that both agencies have professed to the
Commission that the liaison between thern was close and fully sufficient, the
Commission does not believe that the liaison between the FBI and the Secret
Service prior to the assassination was as effective as it should have been. The
FBI Manual of Instructions provided for liaisons with other government agencies.
The testimony reveals that liaison responsibilities in connection with the
President's visit were discussed twice officially by the special agent in charge
of the FBI office in Dallas. As discussed in chapter II, some limited
information was made available to the Secret Service. But there was no fully
adequate liaison between the two agencies. Indeed, the Commission believes that
the liaison between all Federal agencies responsible for Presidential protection
should be improved.
Advance preparations. The advance preparations in Dallas by Agent Winston G.
Lawson of the White House detail have been described' in chapter II. With the
assistance of Agent in Charge Sorrels of the Dallas field office of the Secret
Service, Lawson was responsible for working out a great many arrangements for
the President's trip. The Service prefers to have two agents perform advance
preparations. In the case of Dallas, because President Kennedy had scheduled
visits to five Texas cities and had also scheduled visits to other parts of the
country immediately before the Texas trip, there were not enough men available
to permit two agents to be assigned to all the advance work. Consequently,
Agent. Lawson did the advance work alone from November 13 to November 18, when
he was joined by Agent David B. Grant, who had just completed advance work on
the President's trip to Tampa.
The Commission concludes that the most significant advance arrangements for
the President's trip were soundly planned. In particular, the Commission
believes that the motorcade route selected by Agent Lawson, upon the advice of
Agent in Charge Sorrels and with the concurrence of the Dallas police, was
entirely appropriate, in view of the known desires of the President. There were
far safer routes via freeways directly to the Trade Mart, but these routes would
not have been in accordance with the White House staff instructions given the
Secret Service for a desirable motorcade route. Much of Lawson's time was taken
with establishing adequate security over the motorcade route and at the two
places where the President would stop, Love Field and the Trade Mart. The
Commission concludes that the arrangements worked out at the Trade Mart by these
Secret Service agents with the cooperation of the Dallas police and other local
law enforcement agents, were carefully executed. Since the President was to be
at the Trade Mart longer than at any other location in Dallas and in view of the
security hazards presented by the building, the Secret Service correctly gave
particular attention in the advance preparations to those arrangements. The
Commission also regards the security arrangements worked out by Lawson and
Sorrels at Love Field as entirely adequate.
The Commission believes, however, that the Secret Service has inadequately
defined the responsibilities of its advance agents, who have been given broad
discretion to determine what matters require attention in making advance
preparations and to decide what action to take. Agent Lawson was not given
written instructions concerning the Dallas trip or advice about any peculiar
problems which it might involve; all instructions from higher authority were
communicated to him orally. He did not have a checklist of the tasks he was
expected to accomplish, either by his own efforts or with the cooperation of
local authorities. The only systematic supervision of the activities of the
advance agent has been that provided by a requirement that he file interim and
final reports on each advance assignment. The interim report must be in the
hands of the agent supervising the protective group traveling with the President
long enough before his departure to apprise him of any particular problems
encountered and the responsive action taken. Agent Lawson's interim report was
received by Agent Kellerman on November 20, the day before departure on the
Texas trip.
The Secret Service has advised the Commission that no unusual precautions
were taken for the Dallas trip, and that "the precautions taken for the
President's trip were the usual safeguards employed on trips of this kind in the
United States during the previous year." Special Agent in Charge Sorrels
testified that the advance preparations followed on this occasion were "pretty
much the same" as those followed in 1936 during a trip to Dallas by President
Roosevelt, which was Sorrels' first important assignment in connection with
Presidential work.
In view of the constant change in the nature of threats to the President and
the diversity of the dangers which may arise in the various cities within the
United States, the Commission believes that standard procedures in use for many
years and applied in all parts of the country may not be sufficient. There is,
for example, no Secret Service arrangement for evaluating before a trip
particular difficulties that might be anticipated, which would bring to bear the
judgment and experience of members of the White House detail other than the
advance agent. Constant reevaluation of procedures, with attention to special
problems and the development of instructions specific to particular trips, would
be a desirable innovation. Liaison with local law enforcement authorities. In
the description of the important aspects of the advance preparations, there have
been references to the numerous discussions between Secret Service
representatives and the Dallas Police Department. The wholehearted support of
these local authorities was indispensable to the Service in carrying out its
duties. The Service had 28 agents participating in the Dallas visit. Agent
Lawson's advance planning called for the deployment of almost 600 members of the
Dallas Police Department, Fire Department, County Sheriff's Department, and the
Texas Department of Public Safety. Despite this dependence on local authorities,
which would be substantially the same on a visit by the President to any large
city, the Secret Service did not at the time of the assassination have any
established procedure governing its relationships with them. It had no prepared
checklist of matters to be covered with local police on such visits to
metropolitan areas and no written description of the role the local police were
expected to perform. Discussions with the Dallas authorities and requests made
of them were entirely informal. The Commission believes that a more formal
statement of assigned responsibilities, supplemented in each ease to reflect the
peculiar conditions of each Presidential trip, is essential. This would help to
eliminate varying interpretations of Secret Service instructions by different
local law enforcement representatives. For example, while the Secret Service
representatives in Dallas asked the police to station guards at each overpass to
keep "unauthorized personnel" off, this term was not defined. At some overpasses
all persons were excluded, while on the overpass overlooking the assassination
scene railroad and yard terminal workmen were permitted to remain under police
supervision, as discussed in chapter III.
Assistant Chief Batchelor of the Dallas police noted the absence of any
formal statement by the Secret Service of specific work assigned to the police
and suggested the desirability of such a statement. Agent Lawson agreed that
such a procedure would assist him and other agents in fulfilling their
responsibilities as advance agents. Except for inauguration or other parades involving foreign dignitaries
accompanied by the President in Washington, it has not been the practice of the
Secret Service to make surveys or checks of buildings along the route of a
Presidential motorcade. For the inauguration and certain other parades in
Washington where the traditional route is known to the public long in advance of
the event, buildings along the route can be checked by teams of law enforcement
officers, and armed guards are posted along the route as appropriate. But on
out-of-town trips where the route is decided on and made public only a few days
in advance, buildings are not checked either by Secret Service agents or by any
other law enforcement officers at the request of the Secret Service. With the
number of men available to the Secret Service and the time available, surveys of
hundreds of buildings and thousands of windows is not practical.
In Dallas the route selected necessarily involved passing through the
principal downtown section between tall buildings. While certain streets thought
to be too narrow could be avoided and other choices made, it was not practical
to select a route where the President could not be seen from roofs or windows of
buildings. At the two places in Dallas where the President would remain for a
period of time, Love Field and the Trade Mart, arrangements were made for
building and roof security by posting police officers where appropriate. Similar
arrangements for a motorcade of ten miles, including many blocks of tall
commercial buildings is not practical. Nor is it practical to prevent people
from entering such buildings, or to limit access in every building to those
employed or having business there. Even if it were possible with a vastly larger
force of security officers to do so, many observers have felt that such a
procedure would not be consistent with the nature and purpose of the motorcade
to let the people see their President and to welcome him to their city.
In accordance with its regular procedures, no survey or other check was made
by the Secret Service, or by any other law enforcement agency at its request, of
the Texas School Book Depository Building or those employed there prior to the
time the President was shot.
An attempt to cover only the most obvious points of possible ambush along the
route in Dallas might well have included the Texas School Book Depository
Building. Instead of such advance precautions, the Secret Service depended in
part on the efforts of local law enforcement personnel stationed along the
route. In addition, Secret Service agents riding in the motorcade were trained
to scan buildings as part of their general observation of the crowd of
spectators. These substitute measures were of limited value. Agent Lawson was
unable to state whether he had actually instructed the Dallas police to scan
windows of buildings lining the motorcade route, although it was his usual
practice to do so. If such instructions were in fact given, they were not
effectively carried out. Television films taken of parts of the motorcade by a
Dallas television station show the foot patrolmen facing the passing motorcade,
and not the adjacent crowds and buildings, as the procession passed.
Three officers from the Dallas Police Department were assigned to the
intersection of Elm and Houston during the morning of November 22 prior to the
motorcade. All received their instructions early in the morning from Capt. P. W.
Lawrence of the traffic division. According to Captain Lawrence:
I then told the officers that their primary duty was traffic and crowd
control and that they should be alert for any persons who might attempt to throw
anything and although it was not a violation of the law to carry a placard, that
they were not to tolerate any actions such as the Stevenson incident and arrest
any person who might attempt to throw anything or try to get at the President
and his party; paying particular attention to the crowd for any unusual
activity. I stressed the fact that this was our President and he should be shown
every respect due his position and that it was our duty to see that this was
done.
Captain Lawrence was not instructed to have his men watch buildings
along the motorcade route and did not mention the observation of buildings to
them. The three officers confirm that their primary concern was crowd and
traffic control, and that they had no opportunity to scan the windows of the
Depository or any other building in the vicinity of Elm and Houston when the
motorcade was passing. They had, however, occasionally observed the windows of
buildings in the area before the motorcade arrived, in accordance with their own
understanding of their function.
As the motorcade approached Elm Street there were several Secret Service
agents in it who shared the responsibility of scanning the windows of nearby
buildings. Agent Sorrels, riding in the lead car, did observe the Texas School
Book Depository Building as he passed by, at least for a sufficient number of
seconds to gain a "general impression" of the lack of any unusual activity. He
was handicapped, however, by the fact that he was riding in a closed car whose
roof at times obscured his view. Lawson, also in the lead car, did not scan any
buildings since an important part of his job was to look backward at the
President's car. Lawson stated that he "was looking back a good deal of the
time, watching his car, watching the sides, watching the crowds, giving advice
or asking advice from the Chief. and also looking ahead to the known hazards
like overpasses, under-passes, railroads, et cetera." Agent Roy H. Kellerman,
riding in the front seat of the Presidential car, stated that he scanned the
Depository Building, but not sufficiently to be alerted by anything in the
windows or on the roof. The agents in the follow-up car also were expected to
scan adjacent buildings. However, the Commission does not believe that agents
stationed in a car behind the Presidential car, who must concentrate primarily
on the possibility of threats from crowds along the route, provide a significant
safeguard against dangers in nearby buildings.
Conduct of Secret Service agents in Fort Worth on November 22. In the early
morning hours on November 22, 1963, in Fort Worth, there occurred a breach of
discipline by some members of the Secret Service who were officially traveling
with the President. After the President had retired at his hotel, nine agents
who were off duty went to the nearby Fort Worth Press Club at midnight or
slightly thereafter, expecting to obtain food; they had had little opportunity
to eat during the day. No food was available at the Press Club. All of the
agents stayed for a drink of beer, or in several cases, a mixed drink. According
to their affidavits, the drinking in no ease amounted to more than three glasses
of beer or 1 1/2 mixed drinks, and others who were present say that no agent was
inebriated or acted improperly. The statements of the agents involved are
supported by statements of members of the Fort Worth press who accompanied or
observed them and by a Secret Service investigation.
According to their statements, the agents remained at the Press Club for
periods varying from 30 minutes to an hour and a half, and the last agent left
the Press Club by 2 a. m. Two of the nine agents returned to their rooms. The
seven others proceeded to an establishment called the Cellar Coffee House,
described by some as a beatnik place and by its manager as "a unique show place
with continuous light entertainment all night [serving] only coffee, fruit
juices and no hard liquors or beer." There is no indication that any of the
agents who visited the Cellar Coffee House had any intoxicating drink at that
establishment. Most of the agents were there from about 1:30 or 1:45 a. m. to
about 2:45 or 3 a. m. ; one agent was there from 2 until 5 a. m.
The lobby of the hotel and the areas adjacent to the quarters of the
President were guarded during the night by members of the midnight to 8 a. m.
shift of the White House detail. These agents were each relieved for a half hour
break during the night. Three members of this shift separately took this
opportunity to visit the Cellar Coffee House. Only one stayed as long as a half
hour, and none had any beverage there. Chief Rowley testified that agents on
duty in such a situation usually stay within the building during their relief,
but that their visits to the Cellar were "neither consistent nor inconsistent"
with their duty.
Each of the agents who visited the Press Club or the Cellar Coffee House
(apart from the three members of the midnight shift) had duty assignments
beginning no later than 8 a. m. that morning. President Kennedy was scheduled to
speak across the street from his hotel in Fort Worth at 8:30 a. m. , and then at
a breakfast, after which the entourage would proceed to Dallas. In Dallas, one
of the nine agents was assigned to assist in security measures at Love Field,
and four had protective assignments at the Trade Mart. The remaining four had
key responsibilities as members of the complement of the follow-up car in the
motorcade. Three of these agents occupied positions on the running boards of the
car, and the fourth was seated in the car.
The supervisor of each of the off-duty agents who visited the Press Club or
the Cellar Coffee House advised, in the course of the Secret Service
investigation of these events, that each agent reported for duty on time, with
full possession of his mental and physical capabilities and entirely ready for
the performance of his assigned duties. Chief Rowley testified that, as a result
of the investigation he ordered, he was satisfied that each of the agents
performed his duties in an entirely satisfactory manner. and that their conduct
the night before did not impede their actions on duty or in the slightest way
prevent them from taking any action that might have averted the tragedy.
However, Chief Rowley did not condone the action of the off-duty agents,
particularly since it violated a regulation of the Secret Service, which
provides:
Liquor, use of. Employees are strictly enjoined to refrain from the use
of intoxicating liquor during the hours they are officially employed at their
post of duty, or when they may reasonably expect that they may be called upon to
perform an official duty. During entire periods of travel status, the special
agent is officially employed and should not use liquor, until the completion of
all of his official duties for the day, after which time a very moderate use of
liquor will not be considered a violation. However, all members of the White
House Detail and special agents cooperating with them on Presidential and
similar protective assignments are considered to be subject to call for official
duty at any time while in travel status. Therefore, the use of intoxicating
liquor of any kind, including beer and wine, by members of the White House
Detail and special agents cooperating with them, or by special agents on similar
assignments, while they are in a travel status, is prohibited.
The regulations provide further that "violation or slight disregard" of
these provisions "will be cause for removal from the Service. The Commission recognizes that the responsibilities of members of the White
House detail of the Secret Service are arduous. They work long, hard hours,
under very great strain, and must travel frequently. It might seem harsh to
circumscribe their opportunities for relaxation. Yet their role of protecting
the President is so important to the well-being of the country that it is
reasonable to expect them to meet very high standards of personal conduct, so
that nothing can interfere with their bringing to their task the finest
qualities and maximum resources of mind and body. This is the salutary goal to
which the Secret Service regulation is directed, when it absolutely forbids
drinking by any agent accompanying the President on a trip. Nor is this goal
served when agents remain out until early morning hours, and lose the
opportunity to get a reasonable amount of sleep. It is conceivable that those
men who had little sleep, and who had consumed alcoholic beverages, even in
limited quantities, might have been more alert in the Dallas motorcade if they
had retired promptly in Fort Worth. However, there is no evidence that these men
failed to take any action in Dallas within their power that would have averted
the tragedy. As will be seen, the instantaneous and heroic response to the
assassination of some of the agents concerned was in the finest tradition of
Government service.
The motorcade in Dallas. Rigorous security precautions had been arranged at
Love Field with the local law enforcement authorities by Agents Sorrels and
Lawson. These precautions included reserving a ceremonial area for the
Presidential party, stationing police on the rooftops of all buildings
overlooking the reception area, and detailing police in civilian clothes to be
scattered throughout the sizable crowd. When President and Mrs. Kennedy shook
hands with members of the public along the fences surrounding the reception
area, they were closely guarded by Secret Service agents who responded to the
unplanned event with dispatch.
As described in chapter II, the President directed that his car stop on two
occasions during the motorcade so that he could greet members of the public. At
these stops, agents from the Presidential follow-up car stood between the
President and the public, and on one occasion Agent Kellerman left the front
seat of the President's car to take a similar position. The Commission regards
such impromptu stops as presenting an unnecessary danger, but finds that the
Secret Service agents did all that could have been done to take protective
measures.
The Presidential limousine. The limousine used by President Kennedy in Dallas
was a convertible with a detachable, rigid plastic "bubble" top which was
neither bulletproof nor bullet resistant. The last Presidential vehicle with any
protection against small-arms fire left the White House in 1953. It was not
theft replaced because the state of the art did not permit the development of a
bulletproof top of sufficiently light weight to permit its removal on those
occasions when the President wished to ride in an open car. The Secret Service
believed that it was very doubtful that any President would ride regularly in a
vehicle with a fixed top, even though transparent. Since the assassination, the
Secret Service, with the assistance of other Federal agencies and of private
industry, has developed a vehicle for the better protection of the President.
Access to passenger compartment of Presidential car. On occasion the Secret
Service has been permitted to have an agent riding in the passenger compartment
with the President. Presidents have made it clear, however, that they did not
favor this or any other arrangement which interferes with the privacy of the
President and his guests. The Secret Service has therefore suggested this
practice only on extraordinary occasions. Without attempting to prescribe or
recommend specific measures which should be employed for the future protection
of Presidents, the Commission does believe that there are aspects of the
protective measures employed in the motorcade at Dallas which deserve special
comment.
The Presidential vehicle in use in Dallas, described in chapter II, had no
special design or equipment which would have permitted the Secret Service agent
riding in the driver's compartment to move into the passenger section without
hindrance or delay. Had the vehicle been so designed it is possible that an
agent riding in the front seat could have reached the President in time to
protect him from the second and fatal shot to hit the President. However, such
access to the President was interfered with both by the metal bar some 15 inches
above the back of the front seat and by the passengers in the jump seats. In
contrast, the Vice Presidential vehicle, although not specially designed for
that purpose, had no passenger in a jump seat between Agent Youngblood and Vice
President Johnson to interfere with Agent Youngblood's ability to take a
protective position in the passenger compartment before the third shot was
fired.
The assassination suggests that it would have been of prime importance in the
protection of the President if the Presidential car permitted immediate access
to the President by a Secret Service agent at the first sign of danger. At that
time the agents on the framing boards of the follow-up car were expected to
perform such a function. However, these agents could not reach the President's
car when it was traveling at an appreciable rate of speed. Even if the car is
traveling more slowly, the delay involved in reaching the President may be
crucial. It is clear that. at the time of the shots in Dallas, Agent Clinton J.
Hill leaped to the President's rescue as quickly as humanly possible. Even so,
analysis of the motion picture films taken by amateur photographer Zapruder
reveals that Hill first placed his hand on the Presidential car at frame 343, 30
frames and therefore approximately 1. 6 seconds after the President was shot in
the head. About 3 seconds after the President received this wound, Hill had both
feet on the car and was climbing aboard to assist President and Mrs. Kennedy.
Planning for motorcade contingencies. In response to inquiry by the
Commission regarding the instructions to agents in a motorcade of emergency
procedures to be taken in a contingency such as that which actually occurred,
the Secret Service responded:
The Secret Service has consistently followed two general principles in
emergencies involving the President. All agents are so instructed. The first
duty of the agents in the motorcade is to attempt to cover the President as
closely as possible and practicable and to shield him by attempting to place
themselves between the President and any source of danger. Secondly, agents are
instructed to remove the President as quickly as possible from known or
impending danger. Agents are instructed that it is not their responsibility to
investigate or evaluate a present danger, but to consider any untoward
circumstances as serious and to afford the President maximum protection at all
times. No responsibility rests upon those agents near the President for the
identification or arrest of any assassin or an attacker. Their primary
responsibility is to stay with and protect the President.
Beyond these two principles the Secret Service believes a derailed
contingency or emergency plan is not feasible because the variations possible
preclude effective planning. A number of steps are taken, however, to permit
appropriate steps to be taken in an emergency. For instance, the lead car always
is manned by Secret Service agents familiar with the area and with local law
enforcement officials; the radio net in use in motorcades is elaborate and
permits a number of different means of communication with various local points.
A doctor is in the motorcade.
It is anomalous that Congress has legislated in other ways touching upon the
safety of the Chief Executive or other Federal officers, without making an
attack on the President a crime. Threatening harm to the President is a Federal
offense, as is advocacy of the overthrow of the Government by the assassination
of any of its officers. The murder of Federal judges, U. S. attorneys and
marshals, and a number of other specifically designated Federal law enforcement
officers is a Federal crime. Equally anomalous are statutory provisions which
specifically authorize the Secret Service to protect the President, without
authorizing it to arrest anyone who harms him. The same provisions authorize the
Service to arrest without warrant persons committing certain offenses, including
counterfeiting and certain frauds involving Federal checks or securities. The
Commission agrees with the Secret Service that it should be authorized to make
arrests without warrant for all offenses within its jurisdiction, as are FBI
agents and Federal marshals.
There have been a number of efforts to make assassination a Federal crime,
particularly after the assassination of President McKinley and the attempt on
the life of President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1902 bills passed both
Houses of Congress but failed of enactment when the Senate refused to accept the
conference report. A number of bills were introduced immediately following the
assassination of President Kennedy.
The Commission recommends to the Congress that it adopt legislation which
would:
Punish the murder or manslaughter of, attempt or conspiracy to murder,
kidnapping of and assault upon the President, Vice President, or other officer
next in the order of succession to the Office of President, the President-elect
and the Vice-President-elect, whether or not the act is committed while the
victim is in the performance of his official duties or on account of such
performance.
Such a statute would cover the President and Vice President or, in the
absence of a Vice President, the person next in order of succession. During the
period between election and inauguration, the President-elect and
Vice-President-elect would also be covered. Restricting the coverage in this way
would avoid unnecessary controversy over the inclusion or exclusion of other
officials who are in the order of succession or who hold important governmental
posts. In addition, the restriction would probably eliminate a need for the
requirement which has been urged as necessary for the exercise of Federal power,
that the hostile act occur while the victim is engaged in or because of the
performance of official duties.
The governmental consequences of assassination of one of the specified
officials give the United States ample power to act for its own protection. The
activities of the victim at the time an assassination occurs and the motive for
the assassination bear no relationship to the injury to the United States which
follows from the act. This point was ably made in the 1902 debate by Senator
George F. Hoar, the sponsor of the Senate bill:
... what this bill means to punish is the crime of interruption of the
Government of the United States and the destruction of its security by striking
down the life of the person who is actually in the exercise of the executive
power, or of such persons as have been constitutionally and lawfully provided to
succeed thereto in case of a vacancy. It is important to this country that the
interruption shall not take place for an hour...
Enactment of this statute would mean that the investigation of any of
the acts covered and of the possibility of a further attempt would be conducted
by Federal law enforcement officials, in particular, the FBI with the assistance
of the Secret Service. At present, Federal agencies participate only upon the
sufferance of the local authorities. While the police work of the Dallas
authorities in the early identification and apprehension of Oswald was both
efficient and prompt, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who strongly supports such
legislation, testified that the absence of clear Federal jurisdiction over the
assassination of President Kennedy led to embarrassment and confusion in the
subsequent investigation by Federal and local authorities. In addition, the
proposed legislation will insure that any suspects who are arrested will be
Federal prisoners, subject to Federal protection from vigilante justice and
other threats.
The Commission suggests that consideration might be given to assigning to a
Cabinet-level committee or the National Security Council (which is responsible
for advising the President respecting the coordination of departmental policies
relating to the national security) the responsibility to review and oversee the
protective activities of the Secret Service and the other Federal agencies that
assist in safeguarding the President. The Committee should include the Secretary
of the Treasury and the Attorney General, and, if the Council is used,
arrangements should be made for the attendance of the Secretary of the Treasury
and the Attorney General at any meetings which are concerned with Presidential
protection. The Council already includes, in addition to the President and Vice
President, the Secretaries of State and Defense and has a competent staff.
The foremost assignment of the Committee would be to insure that the maximum
resources of the Federal Government are fully engaged in the job of protecting
the President, by defining responsibilities clearly and overseeing their
execution. Major needs of personnel or other resources might be met more easily
on its recommendation than they have been in the past. This arrangement would provide a continuing high-level contact for agencies
that may wish to consult respecting particular protective measures. For various
reasons the Secret Service has functioned largely as an informal part of the
White House staff, with the result that it has been unable, as a practical
matter, to exercise sufficient influence over the security precautions which
surround Presidential activities. A Cabinet-level committee which is actively
concerned with these problems would be able to discuss these matters more
effectively with the President.
Although the Secret Service has had the primary responsibility for the
protection of the President, the FBI, which was established within the
Department of Justice in 1908, has had in recent years an increasingly important
role to play. In the appropriations of the FBI there has recurred annually an
item for the "protection of the person of the President of the United States,"
which first appeared in the appropriation of the Department of Justice in 1910
under the heading "Miscellaneous Objects." Although the FBI is not charged with
the physical protection of the President, it does have an assignment, as do
other Government agencies, in the field of preventive investigation in regard to
the President's security.
As discussed above, the Bureau has attempted to meet its responsibilities in
this field by spelling out in its Handbook the procedures which its agents are
to follow in connection with information received "indicating the possibility of
an attempt against the person or safety of the President" or other protected
persons. The Commission believes that both the FBI and the Secret Service have too
narrowly construed their respective responsibilities. The Commission has the
impression that too much emphasis is placed by both on the investigation of
specific threats by individuals and not enough on dangers from other sources. In
addition, the Commission has concluded that the Secret Service particularly
tends to be the passive recipient of information regarding such threats and that
its Protective Research Section is not adequately staffed or equipped to conduct
the wider investigative work that is required today for the security of the
President.
During the period the Commission was giving thought to this situation, the
Commission received a number of proposals designed to improve current
arrangements for protecting the President. These proposals included suggestions
to locate exclusive responsibility for all phases of the work in one or another
Government agency, to clarify the division of authority between the agencies
involved, and to retain the existing system but expand both the scope and the
operations of the existing agencies, particularly those of the Secret Service
and the FBI.
It has been pointed out that the FBI, as our chief investigative agency, is
properly manned and equipped to carry on extensive information gathering
functions within the United States. It was also suggested that it would take a
substantial period of time for the Secret Service to build up the experience and
skills necessary to meet the problem. Consequently the suggestion has been made,
on the one hand, that all preventive investigative functions relating to the
security of the President should be transferred to the FBI, leaving with the
Secret Service only the responsibility for the physical protection of the
President, that is, the guarding function alone.
On the other hand, it is urged that all features of the protection of the
President and his family should be committed to an elite and independent corps.
It is also contended that the agents should be intimately associated with the
life of the Presidential family in all its ramifications and alert to every
danger that might befall it, and ready at any instant to hazard great danger to
themselves in the performance of their tremendous responsibility. It is
suggested that an organization shorn of its power to investigate all the
possibilities of danger to the 'President and becoming merely the recipient of
information gathered by others would become limited solely to acts of physical
alertness and personal courage incident to its responsibilities. So
circumscribed, it could not maintain the esprit de corps or the necessary
alertness for this unique and challenging responsibility.
While in accordance with its mandate this Commission has necessarily examined
into the functioning of the various Federal agencies concerned with the tragic
trip of President Kennedy to Dallas and while it has arrived at certain
conclusions in respect thereto, it seems clear that it was not within the
Commission's responsibility to make specific recommendations as to the
long-range organization of the President's protection, except as conclusions
flowing directly from its examination of the President's assassination can be
drawn. The Commission was not asked to apply itself as did the Hoover Commission
in 1949, for examples to a determination of the optimum organization of the
President's protection. It would have been necessary for the Commission to take
considerable testimony, much of it extraneous to the facts of the assassination
of President Kennedy, to put it in a position to reach final conclusions in this
respect. There are always dangers of divided responsibility, duplication, and
confusion of authority where more than one agency is operating in the same
field; but on the other hand the protection of the President is in a real sense
a Government-wide responsibility which must necessarily assumed by the
Department of State the FBI, the CIA, and the military intelligence agencies as
well as the Secret Service. Moreover, a number of imponderable questions have to
be weighed if any change in the intimate association now established between the
Secret Service and the President and his family is contemplated.
These considerations have induced the Commission to believe that the
determination of whether or not there should be a relocation of responsibilities
and functions should be left to the Executive and the Congress, perhaps upon
recommendations based on further studies by the Cabinet-level committee
recommended above or the National Security Council. Daily supervision of the operations of the Secret Service within the
Department of the Treasury should be improved. The Chief of the Service now
reports to the Secretary of the Treasury through an Assistant Secretary whose
duties also include the direct supervision of the Bureau of the Mint and the
Department's Employment Policy Program, and who also represents the Secretary of
the Treasury on various committees and groups. The incumbent has no technical
qualifications in the area of Presidential protection. The Commission recommends
that the Secretary of the Treasury Payne appoint a special assistant with the
responsibility of supervising the Service. This special assistant should be
required to have sufficient stature and experience in law enforcement,
intelligence, or allied fields to be able to provide effective continuing
supervision, and to keep the Secretary fully informed regarding all significant
developments relating to Presidential protection.
This report has already pointed out several respects in which the Commission
believes that the Secret Service has operated with insufficient planning or
control. Actions by the Service since the assassination indicate its awareness
of the necessity for substantial improvement in its administration. A formal and
thorough description of the responsibilities of the advance agent is now in
preparation by the Service. Work is going forward toward the preparation of
formal understandings of the respective roles of the Secret Service and other
agencies with which it collaborates or from which it derives assistance and
support. The Commission urges that the Service continue this effort to overhaul
and define its procedures. While manuals and memoranda are no guarantee of
effective operations, no sizable organization can achieve efficiency without the
careful analysis and demarcation of responsibility that is reflected in definite
and comprehensive operating procedures.
The Commission also recommends that the Secret Service consciously set about
the task of inculcating and maintaining the highest standard of excellence and
esprit, for all of its personnel. This involves tight and unswerving discipline
as well as the promotion of an outstanding degree of dedication and loyalty to
duty. The Commission emphasizes that it finds no causal connection between the
assassination and the breach of regulations which occurred on the night of
November 21 at Fort Worth. Nevertheless, such a breach, in which so many agents
participated, is not consistent with the standards which the responsibilities of
the Secret Service require it to meet.
The Secret Service has embarked upon a complete overhaul of its research
activities. The staff of the Protective Research Section (PRS) has been
augmented, and a Secret Service inspector has been put in charge of this
operation. With the assistance of the President 's Office of Science and
Technology, and of the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of
Defense, it has obtained the services of outside consultants, such as the Rand
Corp. , International Business Machines Corp. , and a panel of psychiatric and
psychological experts. It has received assistance also from data processing
experts at the CIA and from a specialist in psychiatric prognostication at
Walter Reed Hospital. As a result of these studies, the planning document
submitted by the Secretary of the Treasury to the Bureau of the Budget on August
31, 1964, makes several significant recommendations in this field. Based on the
Commission's investigation, the following minimum goals for improvements are
indicated:
Broader and more selective criteria. Since the assassination, both the Secret
Service and the FBI have recognized that the PRS files can no longer be limited
largely to persons communicating actual threats to the President. On December
26, 1963, the FBI circulated additional instructions to all its agents,
specifying criteria for information to be furnished to the Secret Service in
addition to that covered by the former standard, which was the possibility of an
attempt against the person or safety of the President. The new instructions
require FBI agents to report immediately information concerning:
Subversives, ultra rightists, racists and fascists (a) possessing
emotional instability or irrational behavior, (b) who have made threats of
bodily harm against officials or employees of Federal, state or local government
or officials of a foreign government, (c) who express or have expressed strong
or violent anti-U. S. sentiments and who have been involved in bombing or
bomb-making or whose past conduct indicates tendencies toward violence, and (d)
whose prior acts or statements depict propensity for violence and hatred against
organized government.
Alan II. Belmont, Assistant to the Director of the FBI, testified that
this revision was initiated by the FBI itself. The volume of references to the
Secret Service has increased substantially since the new instructions went into
effect; more than 5,000 names were referred to the Secret Service in the first 4
months of 1964. According to Chief Rowley, by mid-June 1964, the Secret Service
had received from the FBI some 9,000 reports on members of the Communist Party.
The FBI now transmits information on all defectors, a category which would, of
course, have included Oswald.
Both Director Hoover and Belmont expressed to the Commission the great
concern of the FBI, which is shared by the Secret Service, that referrals to the
Secret Service under the new criteria might, if not properly handled, result in
some degree of interference with the personal liberty of those involved. They
emphasized the necessity that the information now being furnished be handled
with judgment and care. The Commission shares this concern. The problem is
aggravated by the necessity that the Service obtain the assistance of local law
enforcement officials in evaluating the information which it receives and in
taking preventive steps.
In June 1964, the Secret Service sent to a number of Federal law enforcement
and intelligence agencies guidelines for an experimental program to develop more
detailed criteria. The suggestions of Federal agencies for revision of these
guidelines were solicited. The new tentative criteria are useful in making clear
that the interest of the Secret Service goes beyond information on individuals
or groups threatening to cause harm or embarrassment to the President.
Information is requested also concerning individuals or groups who have
demonstrated an interest in the President or "other high government officials in
the nature of a complaint coupled with an expressed or implied determination to
use a means, other than legal or peaceful, to satisfy any grievance, real or
imagined. Under these criteria, whether the case should be referred to the
Secret Service depends on the existence of a previous history of mental
instability, propensity toward violent action, or some similar characteristic,
coupled with some evaluation of the capability of the individual or group to
further the intention to satisfy a grievance by unlawful means.
While these tentative criteria are a step in the right direction, they seem
unduly restrictive in continuing to require some manifestation of animus against
a Government official. It is questionable whether such criteria would have
resulted in the referral of Oswald to the Secret Service. Chief Rowley believed
that they would, because of Oswald's demonstrated hostility toward the Secretary
of the Navy in his letter of January 30, 1962.
I shall employ all means to right this gross mistake or injustice to a
bonified U. S. citizen and ex-service man. The U. S. government has no charges
or complaints against me. I ask you to look into this case and take the
necessary steps to repair the damage done to me and my family.
Even with the advantage of hindsight, this letter does not appear to
express or imply Oswald's "determination to use a means, other than legal or
peaceful, to satisfy [his] grievance" within the meaning of the new criteria.
Liaison with other agencies regarding intelligence. The Secret Service's
liaison with the agencies that supply information to it has been too casual.
Since the assassination, the Service has recognized that these relationships
must be far more formal and each agency given clear understanding of the
assistance which the Secret Service expects. This is especially necessary with regard to the FBI and CIA, which carry the
major responsibility for supplying information about potential threats,
particularly those arising from organized groups, within their special
jurisdiction. Since these agencies are already obliged constantly to evaluate
the activities of such groups, they should be responsible for advising the
Secret Service if information develops indicating the existence of an
assassination plot and for reporting such events as a change in leadership or
dogma which indicate that the group may present a danger to the President.
Detailed formal agreements embodying these arrangements should be worked out
between the Secret Service and both of these agencies.
It should be made clear that the Secret Service will in no way seek to
duplicate the intelligence and investigative capabilities of the agencies now
operating in this field but will continue to use the data developed by these
agencies to carry out its special duties. Once experience has been gained in
implementing such agreements with the Federal and leading State and local
agencies, the Secret Service, through its field offices, should negotiate
similar arrangements with such other State and local law enforcement agencies as
may provide meaningful assistance. Much useful information will come to the
attention of local law enforcement agencies in the regular course of their
activities, and this source should not be neglected by undue concentration on
relationships with other Federal agencies. Finally, these agreements with
Federal and local authorities will be of little value unless a system is
established for the frequent formal review of activities thereunder.
In this regard the Commission notes with approval several recent measures
taken and proposed by the Secret Service to improve its liaison arrangements. In
his testimony Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillon informed the
Commission that an interagency committee has been established to develop more
effective criteria. According to Secretary Dillon, the Committee will include
representatives of the President's Office of Science and Technology, Department
of Defense, CIA, FBI, and the Secret Service. In addition, the Department of the
Treasury has requested five additional agents for its Protective Research
Section to serve as liaison officers with law enforcement and intelligence
agencies. On the basis of the Department's review during the past several
months, Secretary Dillon testified that the use of such liaison officers is the
only effective way to insure that adequate liaison is maintained. As a beginning
step to improve liaison with local law enforcement officials, the Secret Service
on August 26, 1964, directed its field representatives to send a form request
for intelligence information to all local, county, and State law enforcement
agencies in their districts. Each of these efforts appears sound, and the
Commission recommends that these and the other measures suggested by the
Commission be pursued vigorously by Secret Service.
Automatic data processing. Unless the Secret Service is able to deal rapidly
and accurately with a growing body of data, the increased information supplied
by other agencies will be wasted. PRS must develop the capacity to classify its
subjects on a more sophisticated basis than the present geographic breakdown.
Its present manual filing system is obsolete; it makes no use of the recent
developments in automatic data processing which are widely used in the business
world and in other Government offices.
The Secret Service and the Department of the Treasury now recognize this
critical need. In the planning document currently under review by the Bureau of
the Budget, the Department recommends that it be permitted to hire five
qualified persons "to plan and develop a workable and efficient automated file
and retrieval system." Also the Department requests the sum of $100,000 to
conduct a detailed feasibility study; this money would be used to compensate
consultants, to lease standard equipment or to purchase specially designed pilot
equipment. On the basis of such a feasibility study, the Department hopes to
design a practical system which will fully meet the needs of the Protective
Research Section of the Secret Service.
The Commission recommends that prompt and favorable consideration be given to
this request. The Commission further recommends that the Secret Service
coordinate its planning as closely as possible with all of the Federal agencies
from which it receives information. The Secret Service should not and does not
plan to develop its own intelligence gathering facilities to duplicate the
existing facilities of other Federal agencies. In planning its data processing
techniques, the Secret Service should attempt to develop a system compatible
with those of the agencies from which most of its data will come. *
Protective Research participation in advance arrangements. Since the
assassination, Secret Service procedures have been changed to require that a
member of PRS accompany each advance survey team to establish liaison with local
intelligence gathering agencies and to provide for the immediate evaluation of
information received from them. This PRS agent will also be responsible for
establishing an informal local liaison committee to make certain that all
protective intelligence activities are coordinated. Based on its experience
during this period, the Secret Service now recommends that additional personnel
be made available to PRS so that these arrangements can be made permanent
without adversely affecting the operations of the Service's field offices. The
Commission regards this as a most. useful innovation and urges that the practice
be continued.
In its budget request for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1964, the Secret
Service sought funds for 25 new positions, primarily in field offices. This
increase has been approved by the Congress. Chief Rowley explained that this
would not provide enough additional manpower to take all the measures which he
considers required. However, the 1964- 65 budget request was submitted in
November 1963 and requests for additional personnel were not made because of the
studies then being conducted.
The Secret Service has now presented its recommendations to the Bureau of the
Budget. The plan proposed by the Service would take approximately 20 months to
implement and require expenditures of approximately $3 million during that
period. The plan provides for an additional 205 agents for the Secret Service.
Seventeen of this number are proposed for the Protective Research Section; 145
are proposed for the field offices to handle the increased volume of security
investigations and be available to protect the President or Vice President when
they travel; 18 agents are proposed for a rotating pool which will go through an
intensive training cycle and also be available to supplement the White House
detail in case of unexpected need; and 25 additional agents are recommended to
provide the Vice President full protection.
The Commission urges that the Bureau of the Budget review these
recommendations with the Secret Service and authorize a request for the
necessary supplemental appropriation, as soon as it can be justified. The
Congress has often stressed that it will support any reasonable request for
funds for the protection of the President.
The FBI has indicated that it is willing to continue to make such assistance
available, even though it agrees with the Secret Service that it is preferable
for the Service to have enough agents to handle all protective demands. The
Commission endorses these efforts to supplement the Service's own personnel by
obtaining, for short periods of time, the assistance of trained Federal law
enforcement officers. In view of the ever-increasing mobility of American
Presidents, it seems unlikely that the Service could or should increase its own
staff to a size which would permit it to provide adequate protective manpower
for all situations. The Commission recommends that the agencies involved
determine how much periodic assistance they can provide, and that each such
agency and the Secret Service enter into a formal agreement defining such
arrangements. It may eventually be desirable to codify the practice in an
Executive order. The Secret Service will be better able to plan its own
long-range personnel requirements if it knows with reasonable certainty the
amount of assistance that it can expect from other agencies.
The occasional use of personnel from other Federal agencies to assist in
protecting the President has a further advantage. It symbolizes the reality that
the job of protecting the President has not been and cannot be exclusively the
responsibility of the Secret Service. The Secret Service in the past has
sometimes guarded its right to be acknowledged as the sole protector of the
Chief Executive. This no longer appears to be the case. Protecting the President
is a difficult and complex task which requires full us of the best resources of
many parts of our Government. Recognition that the responsibility must be shared
increases the likelihood that it will be met.
Much of the Secret Service work requires the development and use of highly
sophisticated equipment, some of which must be specially designed to fit unique
requirements. Even before the assassination, and to a far greater extent
thereafter, the Secret Service has been receiving full cooperation in scientific
research and technological development from many Government agencies including
the Department of Defense and the President's Office of Science and Technology.
The Commission has, however, from its examination of the facts of President
Kennedy's assassination made certain recommendations which it believes would, if
adopted, materially improve upon the procedures in effect at the time of
President Kennedy's assassination and result in a substantial lessening of the
danger. Liaison With Other Government Agencies
To insure adequate and effective
liaison arrangements, each SAC should specifically designate an Agent (or
Agents) to be responsible for developing and maintaining liaison with other
Federal Agencies. This liaison should take into consideration FBI-agency
community of interests, location of agency headquarters, and the responsiveness
of agency representatives. In each instance, liaison contacts should be
developed to include a close friendly relationship, mutual understanding of FBI
and agency jurisdictions, and an indicated willingness by the agency
representative to coordinate activities and to discuss problems of mutual
interest. Each field office should determine those Federal agencies which are
represented locally and with which liaison should be conducted.
Other Protective Measures and Aspects of Secret Service Performance
The
President's trip to Dallas called into play many standard operating procedures
of the Secret Service in addition to its preventive intelligence operations.
Examination of these procedures shows that in most respects they were well
conceived and ably executed by the personnel of the Service. Against the
background of the critical events of November 22, however, certain shortcomings
and lapses from the high standards which the Commission believes should prevail
in the field of Presidential protection are evident.
Check of buildings along route of
motorcade. Agent Lawson did not arrange for a prior inspection of buildings
along the motorcade route, either by police or by custodians of the buildings,
since it was not the usual practice of the Secret Service to do so. The Chief of
the Service has provided the Commission a detailed explanation of this policy:
Chief Rowley
testified that under ordinary circumstances he would have taken disciplinary
action against those agents who had been drinking in clear violation of the
regulation. However, he felt that any disciplinary action might have given rise
to an inference that the violation of the regulation had contributed to the
tragic events of November 22. Since he was convinced that this was not the case,
he believed that it would be unfair to the agents and their families to take
explicit disciplinary measures. He felt that each agent recognized the
seriousness of the infraction and that there was no danger of a repetition.
The Commission finds that the Secret Service agents in the motorcade who
were immediately responsible for the President's safety reacted promptly at the
time the shots were fired. Their actions demonstrate that the President and the
Nation can expect courage and devotion to duty from the agents of the Secret
Service.
Recommendations
The Commission's review of the provisions for
Presidential protection at the time of President Kennedy's trip to Dallas
demonstrates the need for substantial improvements. Since the assassination, the
Secret Service and the Department of the Treasury have properly taken the
initiative in reexamining major aspects of Presidential protection. Many changes
have already been made and others are contemplated, some of them in response to
the Commission's questions and informal suggestions.
Assassination a Federal Crime
There was no Federal criminal jurisdiction
over the assassination of President Kennedy. Had there been reason to believe
that the assassination was the result of a conspiracy, Federal jurisdiction
could have been asserted; it has long been a Federal crime to conspire to injure
any Federal officer, on account of, or while he is engaged in, the lawful
discharge of the duties of his office. Murder of the President has never been
covered by Federal law, however, so that once it became reasonably clear that
the killing was the act of a single person, the State of Texas had exclusive
jurisdiction.
Committee of Cabinet Officers
As our Government has become more complex,
agencies other than the Secret Service have become involved in phases of the
overall problem of protecting our national leaders. The FBI is the major
domestic investigating agency of the United States, while the CIA has the
primary responsibility for collecting intelligence overseas to supplement
information acquired by the Department of State. The Secret Service must rely in
large part upon the investigating capacity and experience of these and other
agencies for much of its information regarding possible dangers to the
President. The Commission believes that it is necessary to improve the
cooperation among these agencies and to emphasize that the task of Presidential
protection is one of broad national concern.
The Committee would
be able to provide guidance in defining the general nature of domestic and
foreign dangers to Presidential security. As improvements are recommended for
the advance detection of potential threats to the President, it could act as a
final review board. The expert assistance and resources which it could draw upon
would be particularly desirable in this complex and sensitive area.
Responsibilities for Presidential Protection
The assignment of the
responsibility of protecting the President to an agency of the Department of the
Treasury was largely an historical accident. The Secret Service was organized as
a division of the Department of the Treasury in 1865, to deal with
counterfeiting. In 1894, while investigating a plot to assassinate President
Cleveland, the Service assigned a small protective detail of agents to the White
House. Secret Service men accompanied the President and his family to their
vacation home in Massachusetts and special details protected him in Washington,
on trips, and at special functions. These informal and part-time arrangements
led to more systematic protection in 1902, after the assassination of President
McKinley; the Secret Service, then the only Federal investigative agency,
assumed full-time responsibility for the safety of the President. Since that
time, the Secret Service has had and exercised responsibility for the physical
protection of the President and also for the preventive investigation of
potential threats against the President.
With two Federal agencies operating in the same general field of
preventive investigation, questions inevitably arise as to the scope of each
agency's authority and responsibility. As the testimony of J. Edgar Hoover and
other Bureau officials revealed, the FBI did not believe that its directive
required the Bureau to notify the Secret Service of the substantial information
about Lee Harvey Oswald which the FBI had accumulated before the President
reached Dallas. On the other hand, the Secret Service had no knowledge whatever
of Oswald, his background, or his employment at the Book Depository, and Robert
I. Bouck, who was in charge of the Protective Research Section of the Secret
Service, believed that the accumulation of the facts known to the FBI should
have constituted a sufficient basis to warn the Secret Service of the Oswald
risk.
Pending any such
determination, however, this Commission is convinced of the necessity of better
coordination and direction of the activities of all existing agencies of
Government which are in a position to and do, furnish information and services
related to the security of the President. The Commission feels the Secret
Service and the FBI, as well as the State Department and the CIA when the
President travels abroad, could . improve their existing capacities and
procedures so as to lessen the chances of assassination. Without, therefore,
coming to final conclusions respecting the long-range organization of the
President's security, the Commission believes that the facts of the
assassination of President Kennedy point to certain measures which, while
assuming no radical relocation of responsibilities, can and should be
recommended by this Commission in the interest of the more efficient protection
of the President. These, recommendations are reviewed below.
General Supervision of the Secret Service
The intimacy of the Secret
Service's relationship to the White House and the dissimilarity of its
protective functions to most activities of the Department of the Treasury have
made it difficult for the Treasury to maintain close and continuing supervision.
The Commission believes that the recommended Cabinet-level committee will help
to correct many of the major deficiencies of supervision disclosed by the
Commission's investigation. Other measures should be taken as well to improve
the overall operation of the Secret Service.
Preventive Intelligence
In attempting to identify those individuals who
might prove a danger to the President, the Secret Service has largely been the
passive recipient of threatening communications to the President and reports
from other agencies which independently evaluate their information for potential
sources of danger. This was the consequence of the Service's lack of an adequate
investigative staff, its inability to process large amounts of data, and its
failure to provide specific descriptions of the kind of information it sought.
It is apparent that a good deal of further consideration and experimentation
will be required before adequate criteria can be framed. The Commission
recognizes that no set of meaningful criteria will yield the names of all
potential assassins. Charles J. Guiteau, Leon F. Czolgosz, John Schrank, and
Guiseppe Zangarafour assassins or would-be assassinswere all men who acted alone
in their criminal acts against our leaders. None had a serious record of prior
violence. Each of them was a failure in his work and in his relations with
others, a victim of delusions and fancies which led to the conviction that
society and its leaders had combined to thwart him. It will require every
available resource of our Government to devise a practical system which has any
reasonable possibility of revealing such malcontents.
Once the Secret Service has
formulated its new standards for collection of information, it should enter into
written agreements with each Federal agency and the leading State and local
agencies that might be a source of such information. Such agreements should
describe in detail the information which is sought, the manner in which it will
be provided to the Secret Service, and the respective responsibilities for any
further investigation that may be required.
Liaison With Local Law Enforcement Agencies
Advice by the Secret Service
to local police in metropolitan areas relating to the assistance expected in
connection with a Presidential visit has hitherto been handled on an informal
basis. The Service should consider preparing formal explanations of the
cooperation anticipated during a Presidential visit to a city, in formats that
can be communicated to each level of local authorities. Thus, the local chief of
police could be given a master plan, prepared for the occasion, of all
protective measures to be taken during the visit; each patrolman might be given
a prepared booklet of instructions explaining what is expected of him.
Inspection of Buildings
Since the assassination of President Kennedy,
the Secret Service has been experimenting with new techniques in the inspection
of buildings along a motorcade route. According to Secretary Dillon, the studies
indicate that there is some utility in attempting to designate certain buildings
as involving a higher risk than others. The Commission strongly encourages these
efforts to improve protection along a motorcade route. The Secret Service should
utilize the personnel of other Federal law enforcement offices in the locality
to assure adequate manpower for this task, as it is now doing. Lack of adequate
resources is an unacceptable excuse for failing to improve advance precautions
in this crucial area of Presidential protection.
Secret Service Personnel and Facilities
Testimony and other evidence
before the Commission suggest that the Secret Service is trying to accomplish
its job with too few people and without adequate modern equipment. Although
Chief Rowley does not complain about the pay scale for Secret Service agents,
salaries are below those of the FBI and leading municipal police forces. The
assistant to the Director of the FBI testified that the caseload of each FBI
agent averaged 20-25, and he felt that this was high. Chief Rowley testified
that the present workload of each Secret Service agent averages 110. 1 cases.
While these statistics relate to the activities of Secret Service agents
stationed in field offices and not the White House detail, field agents
supplement those on the detail, particularly when the President is traveling.
Although the Commission does not know whether the cases involved are entirely
comparable, these figures suggest that the agents of the Secret Service are
substantially overworked.
Manpower and Technical Assistance From Other Agencies
Before the
assassination the Secret Service infrequently requested other Federal law
enforcement agencies to provide personnel to assist in its protection functions.
Since the assassination, the Service has experimented with the use of agents
borrowed for short periods from such agencies. It has used other Treasury law
enforcement agents on special experiments in building and route surveys in
places to which the President frequently travels. It has also used other Federal
law enforcement agents during Presidential visits to cities in which such agents
are stationed. Thus, in the 4 months following the assassination, the FBI, on 16
separate occasions, supplied a total of 139 agents to assist in protection work
during a Presidential visit, which represents a departure from its prior
practice. From February 11 through June 30, 1964, the Service had the advantage
of 9, 500 hours of work by other enforcement agencies.
Even if the manpower and technological resources of the Secret Service are
adequately augmented, it will continue to rely in many respects upon the greater
resources of the Office of Science and Technology and other agencies. The
Commission recommends that the present arrangements with the Office of Science
and Technology and the other Federal agencies that have been so helpful to the
Secret Service be placed on a permanent and formal basis. The exchange of
letters dated August 31, 1964, between Secretary Dillon and Donald F. Hornig,
Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, is a useful
effort in the right direction. The Service should negotiate a memorandum of
understanding with each agency that has been assisting it and from which it can
expect to need help in the future. The essential terms of such memoranda might
well be embodied in an Executive order.
Conclusion
This Commission can recommend no procedures for the future
protection of our Presidents which will guarantee security. The demands on the
President in the execution of His esponsibilities in today's world are so varied
and complex and the traditions of the office in a democracy such as ours are so
deep-seated as to preclude absolute security.
As has been pointed out, the Commission has not resolved all the
proposals which could be made. The Commission nevertheless is confident that,
with the active cooperation of the responsible agencies and with the
understanding of the people of the United States in their demands upon their
President, the recommendations we have here suggested would greatly advance the
security of the office without any impairment of our fundamental liberties.