13-00000 -20~ T-R: There'll never be any certainty about what was in his mind but there are other people who were witnesses to episodes in that sequence of events who have not been summoned. Childers: Mr. Roper, can I take it beyond this detail which obviously we can't resolve here. You also challenged, in fact you said above all there is the question of Lee Harvey Oswald's motive, Why should he have done this? What did you really mean by that? T-R: I mean that the Commission, having come to the conclusion that Oswald, and Oswald alone, without external motivation, shot the President, and being therefore unable to provide a rational explanation of why he did it, has appealed to a psychological explanation. The Commission has said, "We must look for the sources of Oswald's action in Oswald's psychological case history." Very well, let us accept that basis. Now if Oswald was either, on the one hand, a perverted idealist, or, on the other hand, a mere exhibitionist, and shot the President for one of those reasons, or both, the psychological reaction when he was arrested would be to boast of it. As an idealist he would say, "I did the act of justice.” As an exhibitionist, he would say, "It was I who did it." Cooper: ?? I read this report and one of the things that struck me immensely was here was a man who was at odds with his wife, they'd been separated, he goes home the
-21- night before, he tries to strike up a conversation with her, she will have nothing to do with him and he goes off the next morning, he goes to the garage, picks up this rifle, and he says, "I will >, Mow show her that I am a man" and goes out to do the brave act isn't this psychologically acceptable theory? Childers: Anthony Lewis. | fT-R: But then he doesn’t show it because when he arrested he says, “I didn't do it, I don*t know what you're talking about." Cooper: This is a game--the man who wants to go on trial and wants to be able to brave it out and fight the authorities and collect all the publicity.. T-R: In that case, he miscalculated, but on your own reasoning, _if he did it in order to draw attention to himself, he singularly failed to draw attention to himself. Cooper: No, he didn't. Childers: Anthony,Lewis, a very brief word from you on Oswald. Lewis: Well, I was really going to turn a little bit to say that, Professor Trevor-Roper, you said at the end of your article that you thought the acceptance of the Report was emotional not rational, Some might feel that your article was the same. I wonder whether you really are ‘not basing your whole approach on a premise that
13-00000 ~ he ho American society is sick, that there's something wrong with it, suggestions that you made. T-R: I do not believe that American society is sick, I regard it as a perfectly rational society, I don't know why you should say this. I regard the Report as a document which does not stand up on the evidence which is available in those twenty-six volumes. Childers: Well finally, Professor, after all this controversy, and what we've just been saying, I think, are you going to continue to challenge the Warren Report? T-R: I'm not going to go on repeating myself. I shall go on, naturally, I shall watch it. As a matter of fact, even since I published my article, an American lawyer, a lawyer actually employed by the Warren Commission, has published an article in the American Bar Association Journal stating that on the evidence produced by the Warren Commission, no court of law. could find Oswald guilty. Childers: You're going to continue then what you hope to see - new witnesses brought forward? T-R: I shall continue to observe what happens, I think that witnesses' memories will fade, a great deal of testimony is lost, witnesses’ memories are even m ore deceptive than politician's memoirs, and, on the other hand, there may be further revelations.
, . . ° vA * 7 4 & £ .= 23 - 3 % ie I think that we haven't heard the last and that the suQgestion that DT Tene ae oe the Warren Commission resolves all doubts and leaves no problems, I think, is totally untrue. Childers: You feel then, for example, that there are Still. ccscsee nf ote® Qof. 2ZVILRVE be pine zgi, Tara Matte sagegnenssstE +. “REAR sents ate earn ate page Se SOCEM Ra ow SF Teg, § the attaato ener pate