[1]DQ AnANN
[2]Tioa-10300-10124) .'. .|2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992 |
[3]- ONAL Pet NO. 10 . ‘ i .
[5]Bel rg 5010-104 iad id
[7]Lor ° UNITED STATES GOVL, NMENT
[8]Memorandum
[10]TO DATE: 29 January 1964
[12]FROM
[14]suBJEcT: THE LEE HARVEY OSWALD CASE #35116)
[16]1. According to a newspaper colum of "Allen and Scott" in the
[17]Chicago American of 6 December 1963, on the OSWALD Case, Abram CHAYES,
[18]Legal Officer of the State Department, was one of two persons im-
[19]mediately responsible for OSWALD's being permitted to return to the
[20]United States from the Soviet Union in June 1962. The other individual
[21]named was Llewellyn THOMPSON, the then Ambassador to Russia. Another -
[22]said to have been involved in the handling of OSWALD's case was Samuel
[23]WISE, Counsel’ of the American Embassy in Moscow.
[25]2. Abram CHAYES, #352234, who as of 16 February 1961 was described
[26]as "the new Counsel in State", was granted Security approval for liaison
[27]contact with J. Foster COLLINS (in the office of the Chief of the Covert
[28]Action Staff) on 6 March 1961. The request for CHAYES' clearance was a
[29]"Blanket" request to permit discussion with him of NSC 5412/2 matters on
[30]a need-to-know basis. ,
[32]3. In September 1961 there was a White House namecheck request on
[33]CHAYES' wife Antonia (Toni) Leigh CHAYES, nee: HANDLER.
[35]4, In March 1962, CHAYES was granted a renewal of his liaison
[36]contact clearance with C/CA on a continuing basis. This time his contact
[37]was Archibald ROOSEVELT, Jr.
[39]5. On 10 February 1962, HUMAN EVENTS reported as follows with
[40]reference to CHAYES: .
[42]“SOFT ON COMMUNISM: Representative Francis E. Walter (R.-Pa.),
[43]Chairman of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, has
[44]scored the new State Department regulations on passports, claim-
[45]ing they would allow Reds denied passports to "rifle freely the
[46]confidential files of the FBI, the CIA and other investigative
[47]agencies." The man behind the new regulations, which Walter
[48]claims violate the Internal Security Act of 1950, is reportedly
[49]State's chief legal officer, Abram Chayes. Chayes, a Kennedy
[50]appointee, is an ex-Harvard professor who was Chester Bowles?
[51]top legal adviser when Bowles was Governor of Connecticut.
[52]Walter has introduced legislation to remedy the new passport
[54]regulations."
[55]. SECRET Document Number (ZT NO29
[59]CROW? I ee
[60]Excluded from automatic; H
[61]dosngrading and for FOIA Review on FEB 1977
[62]coclassitication
[65]13-00000
[67]6. Samuel WISE, "Counsel in the American Embassy in Moscow" who
[68]is referred to above, may well be Samuel Griffin WISE Jr.,
[69]SD & SSD, who apparently was once a contract employee on &
[70][The State Department reviewed WISE's file on 2 June 1954; and as of
[71]September 1962 a Samuel G. WISE was Second Secretary of the American
[72]Embassy in Moscow. At that time WISE advised in a cable to the State
[73]Department that it appeared that Bruce Frederick DAVIS, #352267, who
[74]defected from the United States Army in Germany on 18 August 1960, had
[75]not expatriated himself. DAVIS' case is very similar to that of
[76]OSWALD; and he, like OSWALD, lived in the Soviet Union for two years
[77]after his defection and prior to making application for return to the
[78]United States wa
[80]7. WISE was an applicant for CIA employment in early 1953 and
[81]was security approved subject to polygraph on 11 August 1953. He did
[82]not enter on duty and in September 1953 the office which had been
[83]interested in him was "no longer interested". On 13 November 1953,
[84]WISE was granted a CSA to permit his use as a contract employee on
[85]MVE? in New York City. His CSA was cancelled on 24 March 1958.
[87]8. WISE was named as a friend of William Orville MUNSELL, #61693-DL,
[88]during an investigation of the latter for possible CIA employment in 1952.
[89]WISE, according to MUNSELL's landlady and social acquaintance in Washington,
[90]D.C. during the period of about a year which ended in April 1952, was the
[91]only person she knew by name with whom MUNSELL was friendly. According
[92]to the informant, WISE was a student at Columbia University whose address
[93]was 423 Furnald Hall. MUNSELL was Security disapproved for CIA employment
[94]in June 1952 because of his close association on a professionai and social
[95]basis, while attending Denver University from 1946 to 1951, with persons
[96]of questi nab.le loyality. In November 1954, MUNSELL was of interest to
[97]project MARWEewith reference to assignment to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia;
[98]however, the “inberested office withdrew their request on him, after
[99]Security advised of the derogatory information regarding him.
[101]9. WISE from 1951 to 1954 attended Scarsdale High School in Scarsdale,
[102]New York, which was attacked by a Citizen's Group, which alleged Communist
[103]influence in the school system. He had several questionable associates in
[104]addition to MUNSELL.