CLAIRE BOOTH LUCE AND
AMERICAN-BORN LEE OSWALD
In the early 1960s, soon after Fidel Castro's 1959 takeover of Cuba, Clare Boothe Luce (and her husband, Life Magazine magnate Henry Luce) began to sponsor anti-Castro groups. This support, according to Wikipedia, included funding exiles in commando speedboat raids against Cuba in the early 1960s. A number of reports seem to indicate that American-born Lee Oswald was involved in some of these activities, at the same time Russian-speaking Harvey Oswald was in Russia and then back home in New Orleans and Texas.
Excerpts of several documents below are from the John Armstrong collection at Baylor University. The OCR scans of these somewhat grainy pages are a little rough, but interested readers can always look at reproductions of the actual docs by clicking on this link:
http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/po-arm/id/4801/rec/1
From an FBI report dated 6/2/75 (Emphasis added by me):
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On 5/16/75 at 6:30pm Deputy Attorney General Tyler
advised InspectorJohn B. Hotis and SA Paul V. Daly that he had received Informationfrom Roderic Hills, Assistant Counsel to the President, that theCommission on CIA Activities was making an inquiry into a facet of the investigation of Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President Kennedy, and he requested that the FBI review its files to determine if any factual basis existed for these allegations.
Mr. Tyler stated that one of these allegations recelved was that former Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce had been financing a fishing boat to transport Cuban citizens from Cuba to Miami, Florida. This was in the period of 1960-61 and Mr. Tyler later stated the time frame was 1961 to 1962. The Captain of the ship allegedly advised Mrs. Luce that Lee Harvey Oswald and others were involved in the infiltration of a communist cell group in that area and had discussed assassination plans with no assassination target identified. Mrs. Lucei nstructed the Captain to notify the FBI and he later told her thathe had done so and was leaving the country.
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Another report is labeled Notes from 1977 Inspector General's Report
Taken by Betsy Palmer, 12/6/77
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1. Memo for Director of Central Intelligence
From: John H.Waller, Inspector General
Subject: President Kennedy Assassination - Mrs. Luce story
At behest of Director Colby, Mrs. Luce passed the story
on to Senato rRichard Schweiker. On 10 December 1975,
staff member of Senate Select Committee inquired as to
what the Agenc ythought of the story and was told it
had nothing to add to the newspaper story of Betty Beale
and suggested FBI would be the proper agency to contact.
Mrs. Luce's actual transcript could be considered news-
worthy and presented in a manner determental to CIA.
FBI was sent transcript in January 1977.
2. Transcript of telephone conversation, October 25, 1975,
Clare Booth Luce (CBL) call to William Colby (WC).
CBL got involved during and after the Bay of Pigs with
DRE. Up until the Cuban Missile Crisis when "Allen"
called her and told the secret Act had gone into effect
and that henceforth there would be no voluntary American
efforts. "I knew a number of these leaders well; they
were going in and out of Cuba, and I paid for one of the
motor boats. Bill Pawley did too." ... "The night of
the assassination,right after Oswald was caught, one
of my boys telephoned me from New Orleans." he was
captian of "her"boat ... the Cubans were told to leave
Miami. ..."he had opened a cell in New Orleans. He
telephoned me to tell me that Oswald was ...a hired gun;
Oswald had tried to penetrate their little cell; that
they turned around and did a counter penetration 30b on
Oswald; all of this was done several months before the
assassination. He said, "we had tape recordings of
what he was telling his groups." It was a counter
penetration they went on. He said, "We have photographs
of Oswald passing out handbills on the street, "Be Fair
to Cuba."
He said, "We are absolutely certain that
Oswald was one of three assassination teams, that they
were working out of Mexico City 9or funded in Mexico
City) by Castro."He said there were three assassinations
teams." CBL told him to give the information to the FBI.
After Garrison investigation came up, Luce began thinking
about the incident again. She called Justin McCarthy
to ge name of Cuban -- he was now in Miami. Got him on
the phone and he told CBL that FBI took all tapes, photos
and "told us to keep our mouths shut, and shortly after
that they informed us that if any of us talked to the press dire
things would happen." Said one of the fellows on boat was
deported toGuatemala or Chile, and one was
murdered. Said he was now a lawyer, had two children,
making way in Miami and never wants to hear a damn word
about the assassination of Kennedy because you Americans
really do not want to know the truth."
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Again, scans of these documents can be downloaded from the John Armstrong Collection at Baylor University at this url:
http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm...4801/rec/1
