Some Doubts on the Warren Commission

...To label the Commission a failure may be premature, but there is by now sufficient ground for subjecting it to severe criticism...

...It follows that, apart from all other reasons, the death sentence of Jack Ruby should not be carried out, for there remains the possibility that certain evidence, suppressed or neglected, could be had only from him...

...On the contrary, the Commission has apparently relied most on material submitted to it by the very agencies that should themselves also be the object of critical inspection...

...That seemed a hell of a way of launching a full-scale investigation into the outstanding political crime of recent years...

...A declaration by the Commission that it intends to follow up every lead, no matter where it may point...

...Four baffling months later it is hard to feel the same confidence...

...A packaged final report by the Commission, in view of Douglas MacArthur—Jack D. Ripper or Again, Art Copies Nature Reading the weird posthumous revelation of General MacArthur's proposal during the Korean War to drop 30 to 50 atom bombs on China and seal the Korean border by a radioactive cobalt belt and force the Russians into an atomic confrontation, one wonders: Are there still people around who think that Dr...

...Sauvage convinces one that until a full investigation is held there can be no definitive ground for declaring Oswald the assassin...

...She may be right...

...The Commission, by its own announcement, will not strike out on an independent investigation of its own, taking nothing for granted—especially, not taking for granted either the guilt of Oswald or the protestations of the FBI and CIA that Oswald was never connected with either agency...

...nevertheless, this is a highly prejudicial and even propagandistic procedure...

...had they intended to deceive in some way, they could not have been more irresponsible than they were...

...Strangelove was a wild and unwarranted exaggeration, beyond the bounds of permissible esthetic distortion...

...A final public review of the case, open to the press and competent legal representatives, at which the evidence would be summarized, unsolved problems frankly acknowledged, and critical questions answered...

...At the most, Mr...

...The announced purpose of the Commission— to get to the very bottom of the tragedy—together with at least some of its personnel, led most of us to anticipate that a full and fair investigation would be held, in which every possible clue would be followed up...

...all that has already happened, will no longer be sufficient...

...The Commission got off to a poor start when its chairman, Chief Justice Earl Warren, announced that most of its findings might never be divulged because these touched on matters of national security, and then a few days later blithely declared that his announcement had merely been "facetious...

...And this holds not merely for federal agencies, but even more so, for the fabulously incompetent or careless (or worse) Dallas police department...

...What makes this all the more dubious is the publication in the April Commentary of a disturbing article by Leo Sauvage, a responsible French journalist who covers American affairs, in which he raises a great many detailed questions about the assassination and the methods of the Dallas authorities...

...For the truth is that the Warren statement, despite his subsequent lame and utterly unpersuasive repudiation, reinforced the many rumors to the effect that various official and semi-official governmental agencies, supposedly either involved with Oswald or negligent in Dallas, would be spared the hard light of public exposure...

...Anything less, in our opinion, will only leave a haze of doubt, uncertainty and rumor...

...In a word, then, the Commission began with a tacit acceptance of the "official" version of the case and thereby left open the possibility that it would not, as had at first been promised, get "to the bottom of everything...

...The investigation should be held in public, and executive sessions held only when there are urgent security reasons, as is the case with Congressional investigating Committees...

...Marina Oswald who, after months of unexplained isolation in the hands of law-enforcement agencies, announced in Washington her belief that her husband was guilty of the murder...

...The secrecy in which the hearings have been held, together with an obvious calculated leakage of unconfirmed reports, and also the curious treatment of Marina Oswald—all these leave one uneasy...

...When the Warren Commission to investigate President Kennedy's assassination was first appointed, there seemed reason to feel a certain confidence in its work...

...We would therefore propose: • An immediate end to the secret hearings...

...While the Commission has, so far as one can tell, thus far failed to investigate thoroughly the Dallas police and the numerous contradictions of its testimony, it has brought to public attention Mrs...

...Publication of all documents and testimony received thus far, but without any interim conclusions...

...By "security reasons" we mean matters of peace and war, not the power or prestige of the CIA and FBI...

...p.s...

...One is hardly inspired to feel that it is proceeding with exemplary fairness when it appoints an ultra-conservative lawyer as legal representative of Oswald...

...The Commission has not, so far as one can tell, sufficiently protected the rights of the accused murderer...

...At the very least, Mr...

...By announcing in advance that it does not intend to investigate or criticize any governmental agency, the Commission seriously undercuts the ground for confidence in its thoroughness and fearlessness...

...Sauvage convinces one that the bungling of the Dallas authorities was monumental...