It's important to understand that from
the very beginning, officials of our governtment did not want
a true investigation and made every attempt to "make the
public satisfied that Oswald was the assassin."
There may be no other document that makes
it more clear that there was no interest in a true investigation
by the highest federal authorities and it was issued just days
after the assassination. A memo prepared by Walter Jenkins reflects
his conversation with J. Edgar Hoover where Hoover makes this
telling statement:
"The thing I am most concerned about,
and Mr. Katzenbach, is having something issued so that they can
convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin."
This conversation occured on November
24, 1963, one day prior to Katzenbach's memo below. Meanwhile,
Hoover himself wrote a glaring similar memo on the same day that
reads:
"The thing I am most concerned about,
and SO IS Mr. Katzenbach, is having something issued so that
WE can convince the pubic that Oswald is the real assassin."
(HSCA, vol 3, pp 471-473. This memo was apparently prepared
by Hoover at 4 pm.)
A third memo written by the FBI's Courtney
Evans on November 26th mentions that Hoover himself drafted the
Katzenbach memo. (North, "Act of Treason")
It is important that all of the facts surrounding President
Kennedy's Assassination be made public in a way which will satisfy
people in the United States and abroad that all the facts have
been told and that a statement to this effect be made now.
1. The public must be satisfied that
Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who
are still at large; and that the evidence was such that he would
have been convicted at trial.
2. Speculation about Oswald's motivation ought to be cut off,
and we should have some basis for rebutting thought that this
was a Communist conspiracy or (as the Iron Curtain press is saying)
a right-wing conspiracy to blame it on the Communists. Unfortunately
the facts on Oswald seem about too pat-- too obvious (Marxist,
Cuba, Russian wife, etc.). The Dallas police have put out statements
on the Communist conspiracy theory, and it was they who were
in charge when he was shot and thus silenced.
3. The matter has been handled thus far with neither dignity
nor conviction. Facts have been mixed with rumour and speculation.
We can scarcely let the world see us totally in the image of
the Dallas police when our President is murdered.
I think this objective may be satisfied by making public as
soon as possible a complete and thorough FBI report on Oswald
and the assassination. This may run into the difficulty of pointing
to in- consistencies between this report and statements by Dallas
police officials. But the reputation of the Bureau is such that
it may do the whole job. The only other step would be the appointment
of a Presidential Commission of unimpeachable personnel to review
and examine the evidence and announce its conclusions. This has
both advantages and disadvantages. It think it can await publication
of the FBI report and public reaction to it here and abroad.
I think, however, that a statement that all the facts will
be made public property in an orderly and responsible way should
be made now. We need something to head
off public speculation or Congressional hearings of the wrong
sort.
Nicholas deB. Katzenbach
Deputy Attorney General
Background
on Katzenbach: Oral History at the LBJ Library