Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

State Department Repatriation Loan to Oswald

In a letter dated January 5, 1962, Oswald asked about arranging a loan from the Embassy or a private organization for part of the airplane fares. The Embassy replied on February 6, 1962, that he would have to supply certain personal and financial data, and noted that after repatriation he would not be furnished a passport for travel abroad until the money was repaid. Between February 6 and May 1, 1962, Oswald attempted to secure a loan from the Red Cross and the International Rescue Committee in the United States. The State Department wrote to Oswald’s mother on February 1 asking whether she could advance the money, but Oswald later advised both his mother and the Department that his mother should not be bothered about the loan. After an exchange of communications, the Department approved a loan to Oswald for passage to New York only, directing the Embassy to “Keep cost minimum.” On June 1, Oswald signed a promissory note for $435.71. Statutory authority for such a loan was conferred by title 5, section 170(a) of the U.S. Code, which authorizes the Secretary of State to make expenditures for unforeseen emergencies arising in the diplomatic and consular service. Since 1947, the State Department’s annual appropriation act has included a sum for such emergencies, used in recent years for relief and repatriation loans to U.S. citizens abroad. The Secretary has annually allotted approximately $100,000 to meet the expenses of indigent U.S. nationals, including those in the Soviet Union. From 1959 to 1963, 2,343 such loans were granted. Section 423.2-1 of the Department’s regulations provides that repatriation loans may be granted only to destitute U.S. nationals who are in complete and unquestioned possession of their citizenship rights, are entitled to receive U.S. passports, and whose loyalty to the United States Government is beyond question, or to whom section 423.1-2(b) applies. Oswald satisfied the first two requirements because he was determined to be a U.S. citizen and had been issued a passport to return. The Commission noted a serious question whether he could have qualified under the loyalty clause, given his expressed hostility and disloyalty and manifested desire to renounce his citizenship. The Department instead exercised its judgment under section 423.1-2(b), which authorizes loans when the U.S. national is in, or the cause of, a situation damaging to the prestige of the United States Government or constituting a compelling reason for extending assistance to effect his return. The Department decided this provision applied to Oswald because his “unstable character and prior criticism of the United States” would make his continued presence in the Soviet Union damaging to U.S. prestige. The Department acted within its competence and the law, and as required by the regulations sought funds from private sources—Oswald’s mother and the International Rescue Committee—before using Government funds. Regulations further provide that repatriation loans may be authorized for the alien wife and children of a U.S. national to avoid the division of families, but loans are limited to the minimum amount required to cover transportation and subsistence en route to the nearest continental U.S. port, with transportation limited to third-class passage by ship. Oswald’s loan covered no more than the least expensive transportation from Moscow to New York, and his passport was stamped valid only for return to the United States. According to its own procedures, the Department should have prepared a lookout card for Oswald in June 1962 when he received the loan proceeds, and his promissory note contained a provision that he would not be furnished a passport for travel abroad until the obligation was repaid. However, a lookout card was never prepared. The State Department informed the Commission that the Revenues and Receipts Branch of the Office of Finance should have notified the Clearance Section in the Passport Office of Oswald’s name, date, and place of birth; if only the name was received, the Passport Office would not have prepared a lookout card under its procedures. The Finance Office may not have notified the Clearance Section, possibly because of lack of information concerning Oswald’s date and place of birth, or the Finance Office may have notified the Clearance Section of the name only. Since Oswald began repaying the loan immediately after his return, the Office of Finance may have decided not to pursue the matter further. In any event, Oswald’s loan was repaid in full on January 29, 1963, five months prior to his application for a new passport.