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

1959 Passport Issuance

On September 4, 1959, while on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps, Oswald applied for a passport at a Santa Ana, California superior court clerk’s office. He stated he intended to leave the U.S. for approximately 4 months starting around September 21, 1959, via ship from New Orleans, with travel plans to attend Albert Schweitzer College in Switzerland and the University of Turku in Finland, plus tourist visits to Cuba, the Dominican Republic, England, France, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, and Russia. He submitted a signed statement from a Marine officer confirming his upcoming September 10, 1959 discharge from the Corps. Passport No. 1733242 was routinely issued to him on September 10, 1959, and the U.S. had no travel proscriptions for any of the countries Oswald listed at the time of issuance.

Oswald’s Citizenship Renunciation Attempts

U.S. officials in Moscow had no knowledge of Oswald’s presence in the Soviet Union until October 31, 1959, more than two weeks after his arrival, as he failed to complete standard registration at the U.S. Embassy for American travelers in the country. On that Saturday, Oswald visited the American Embassy in Moscow, placed his passport on the receptionist’s desk, and stated he had come to dissolve his U.S. citizenship. Consul Richard E. Snyder and his assistant John A. McVickar met with Oswald, who was neatly dressed but came across as arrogant and in command of the conversation from the outset. Oswald declared his allegiance was to the Soviet Union, confirmed he had already applied for Soviet citizenship, and stated he was familiar with U.S. loss of citizenship laws, refusing a review of them. He retrieved his passport from the receptionist and placed it on Snyder’s desk, having inked out the portion showing his U.S. address, and provided a pre-written formal note requesting revocation of his U.S. citizenship, citing his pending Soviet citizenship application and political motivations for the request. He stated his primary reason for renouncing citizenship was his identification as a Marxist, his admiration for the Soviet system and policies, and his long-held intent to defect to the Soviet Union, formed before his Marine Corps discharge; he also claimed he had volunteered to share all information about his Marine Corps radar operation specialty with Soviet officials. Snyder refused to process the renunciation immediately, citing State Department policy to discourage impulsive expatriation (a permanent, high-stakes act) and a recent precedent in which a mentally ill U.S. citizen had been allowed to renounce citizenship without proper review. He told Oswald he could return on a regular business day to complete the process, and persuaded Oswald to provide his home address and mother’s name by stating the information was required to proceed. The Embassy sent a telegram to the State Department the same day detailing the visit, with copies provided to the FBI and CIA, followed by a November 2, 1959, memorandum proposing to delay action on the renunciation request pending further developments and State Department guidance. The State Department replied on November 2 that the Embassy could not block Oswald’s right to renounce citizenship if he insisted, per Section 1999 of the Revised Statutes. Oswald never returned to the Embassy to complete the renunciation. On November 3, 1959, he sent a handwritten letter from his Moscow Metropole Hotel formally protesting the refusal to process his renunciation on October 31, restating his request to revoke his citizenship, and noting he would ask the U.S. government to protest the incident if his Soviet citizenship application was approved. The Embassy responded on November 6, advising Oswald he could visit on any normal business day to complete expatriation paperwork, and made multiple attempts through November 30, 1959, to deliver messages from his U.S. family urging him to reconsider; he refused to communicate with Embassy staff, so the messages were sent via registered mail. American journalist Priscilla Johnson interviewed Oswald at the Metropole Hotel on November 16, 1959, and informed the Embassy the next day that Oswald claimed he planned to leave Moscow soon, and may have intentionally not completed the renunciation to leave an option open. The Embassy later reported to the State Department that Oswald had left the Metropole Hotel, though other records indicate he did not actually depart Moscow for Minsk until approximately January 4, 1960. Johnson’s interview was the last U.S. government contact with Oswald until February 13, 1961. In March 1960, Oswald’s mother asked Texas Representative James C. Wright Jr. to help locate her son; the inquiry was forwarded to the State Department and then the Moscow Embassy, which responded on March 28, 1960, that it had had no contact with Oswald since November 9, 1959, and found no evidence he had expatriated other than his stated intent. The Embassy suggested Oswald’s mother send a letter to her son that could be forwarded to the Soviet government, and the State Department replied on May 10, 1960, that no action should be taken unless a family member submitted a voluntary request. A follow-up inquiry sent June 22 was answered by the Embassy on July 6, 1960, stating no further contact had been made, and no further action would be taken per the May 10 guidance. Mrs. Oswald did not follow up on the inquiry.