JFK Files: Oswald’s Communist Ties, Conversations With the KGB

JFK Files: Oswald’s Communist Ties, Conversations With the KGB

The government released some more of the files pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Harvey Lee Oswald along with files about Oswald’s death at the hands of Jack Ruby.

I scoured through a handful and noticed one particular name kept coming up: Arnold Johnson, the public relations director of the Communist Party the USA (CPUSA). In three instances that I have found so far the files stop when the documents are about to go into the substance of a Johnson speech or his correspondence with Oswald. I also found a file that documents a conversation between Oswald and a KGB agent.

JFK’s assassination continues to fascinate people (especially my father, whom I spoke with at length about these files) and so many theories have been floating around over who killed JFK: Cuba, Soviet Union, Mafia, the CIA, or even Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Oswald was a Communist. He defected to the Soviet Union in 1959, married a Russian woman, and came back to the states in two and a half years.

On Tuesday, The London Times published an article that these files would show links Oswald had to Soviet spies. Those interested in this angle wanted to know more about his visit to Mexico City where he visited the Soviet and Cuban embassies, which took place seven weeks before the assassination.

So far I have found a few files about Oswald’s Communist ties and possible ties to the Soviets.

Conversation With a KGB Agent?

A document from the CIA dated 11/23/63 discussed a conversation between Oswald and Valeriy Vladimirovich Kostikov, a member of the Soviet KGB Assassination Department at the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City.

Our government learned about this meeting on October 1 when he called the Soviet Embassy and officials intercepted the call. He identified himself by his name and spoke in broken Russian. The file said that Oswald asked “the guard who answered the phone whether there was ‘anything new concerning the telegram to Washington.'” The guard told Oswald “that a request had been sent, but nothing had as yet been received.”

The file then explains that Kostikov worked on an operation from the KGB’s 13th Department, which covered sabotage and assassinations.

The file noted that Kostikov traveled outside of Mexico City three times to supposedly buy cotton. The State Department said that Kostikov met with people in Movimento Liberation National and central Compesina Independienta, large Communist front organizations. He brought with him Ivan Gavrilovich Alferyev, a PRAVDA correspondent in Mexico, who had close contact with Cuban diplomats and Communist leaders in Quito, Ecuador. Alferyev made contact with Communist sympathizers on these trips, people “who previously had been associated with Soviet officials stationed in Mexico City.”

Arnold Johnson

Arnold Johnson, the PR guy for CPUSA, has popped up a lot, but three files caught my eye and raised a few flags for me because the files abruptly stop when its about to discuss anything that he said.

In one file, an informant met with Gus Hall, the CPUSA General Secretary, in New York City. The informant said that Dallas police leaked that Oswald’s personal effects contained “letters on CPUSA stationary dealing with how he should proceed in his activities in the FPCC [Fair Play for Cuba] and as the informant stated ‘How to Handle Noisy Neighbors.'” The informant said that it became “apparent that Johnson had not revealed the fact that he had corresponded with Oswald.” Johnson explained that he answered three letters from Oswald, one was to a woman and the other to himself. The file ends: “He indicated that there apparently was….”

So as soon as the file was about to discuss the correspondence it just ends.

In another file, an informant recounted how she went to CPUSA headquarters and spoke to Jack Stachel, CPUSA district organizer, and Phil Bart, CPUSA national organizational secretary. They told her that the headquarters would remain closed and she would not be needed. They persuaded her not to meet with Hall even though she said she had “numerous things” to talk to him about. So she picked up her dictation notebooks and as she searched these notebooks, “she came upon her shorthand notes reflecting a letter to Oswald” that was sent to him at Irving, TX. “The letter was dictated by Arnold Johnson, and reads as….” Yes, it abruptly ends just as it was going to go into detail about Johnson’s words.

Another file talked about a CPUSA meeting that Johnson presided over in December 1963. He asked the people present if people blamed Marxism or right wing activity on JFK’s assassination. This is how it ends: “Those present they first thought president killed by Marxist but after Lee Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby, they….”

I won’t go all Alex Jones on you guys, but will say these files in particular made me suspicious and wish we had the rest of the pages. Hopefully when the government releases the remaining pages it will include those that belong in these files. I’m going to keep looking through the released files and if I come across anything else I’ll add to this post.

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