Lee Harvey Oswald was instructed to kill John F. Kennedy by Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev, a former CIA chief has claimed, and went ahead ...
Lee Harvey Oswald was instructed to kill John F. Kennedy by Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev, a former CIA chief has claimed, and went ahead with the plan despite the Soviets changing their mind.
R. James Woolsey, who ran the CIA from 1993-1995, makes the remarkable claim in a new book, Operation Dragon.
Written with Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, a former acting chief of Nicolae Ceausescu's espionage service, the book claims that Oswald, who defected to Russia in 1959 and moved back to the U.S in 1961, was a KGB associate on a mission from Moscow.
Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed John F. Kennedy in November 1963, and died two days later
A new book claims that Oswald, 24, (center) was working for the KGB at the time
Woolsey, 79, and Pacepa, who died of COVID-19 on February 14, aged 92, base their claim on a new interpretation of already-published material.
They cite the 26-volume Warren Commission Report, published in 1964.
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, commonly known as the Warren Commission, was chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren and presented their findings to Lyndon Johnson on September 24, 1964.
They were made public on November 23, 1964, and comprised of testimonies from 550 witnesses, plus supplementary evidence.
Woolsey and Pacepa in their book, out on February 23 but obtained in advance by The New York Post, that so much of the Warren Commission Report was 'codified' that no one understood its significance until now.
'Decoded, these pieces of evidence prove that John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, had a clandestine meeting in Mexico City with his Soviet case officer, Comrade Kostin, who … belongs to the KGB's Thirteenth Department for assassinations abroad,' they claim.
JFK's murder in 1963 shocked the world and continues to spawn new theories to this day
Kruschev, who led the USSR from Stalin's death in 1953 to 1964, reportedly ordered JFK's death
The moments immediately after JFK is shot are captured on camera, with the first lady standing
The president is seen slumping over as Jackie Kennedy moves to help him as they drive in Dallas
Woolsey and Pacepa, who defected from Romania in 1978, becoming the highest-ranking intelligence official from an enemy country ever granted political asylum in the United States, believe Oswald was recruited in 1957.
Woolsey and Pacepa's book is to be published on February 28. Pacepa died on February 14
At the time, he was a U.S. Marine, serving in Japan.
The authors believe that Oswald worked for the Soviets for several years, including providing the information that allowed them to shoot down American pilot Gary Powers in 1960, before being given his mission to kill Kennedy.
They write that the task, to which he was assigned in 1962, was possibly even handed to Oswald by Khrushchev himself.
'Although Oswald wished to remain in the Soviet Union, he was eventually persuaded to return to the US to assassinate President Kennedy, whom Khrushchev had come to despise,' they write.
'Oswald was … given a Soviet wife and sent back to the US in June 1962.'
Kennedy and Khrushchev are pictured meeting in Vienna in June 1961 during the Cold War
Kennedy is pictured beside his wife Jackie, shortly before his death on November 22, 1963
Woolsey and Pacepa write that, between that June and April 1963, the Soviets changed their minds.
They called Oswald off, but he was now intent on seeing it through.
'Oswald knew that Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of Oswald's paradise and new home, the Soviet Union, had entrusted him with that task, and he was confident he could pull it off,' the authors write, in the excerpt obtained by the Post.
'By this time, however, the KGB and [the country's] leaders realized that Khrushchev's crazy ideas were giving their country a terrible reputation ... another false step by the hot-headed Khrushchev, and there might be nuclear war.'
The authors, according to the Post, provide no proof for their claim.
They do however show Oswald making plans to flee to the USSR after the murder, including a July 1, 1963 letter to the Soviet Embassy asking for separate visas for him and his wife and daughters.
Lee Harvey Oswald grimaces as he is shot dead at point blank range by Jack Ruby
The authors believe this makes it clear that 'Oswald wanted to see his wife and children back in the Soviet Union before assassinating President Kennedy and that he required a separate entry visa for himself to [use] after accomplishing his mission.'
Another letter, dated November 9 of that year, just two weeks before Kennedy's assassination, was written after Oswald returned from a trip to Mexico City, and references a meeting with 'Comrade Kostin,' who the authors identify as 'Valery Kostikov, an identified PGU officer of the Thirteenth Department.'
Oswald was shot and killed on November 24, two days after killing Kennedy.
He was killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby, while in custody of Dallas police - sparking a myriad of conspiracy theories that will never be fully resolved.
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