AGENCY:  HSCA RECORD NUMBER : 180-10129-10077 RECORD SERIES: © NUMBERED FILES AGENCY FILENUMBER: 007488 Document Information _ ORIGINATOR:  HSCA FROM: 4 TO: TITLE: DATE: 04/14/1978 PAGES: 8 SUBJECTS : SNYDER, RICHARD E. DOCUMENT TYPE: SUMMARY CLASSIFICATION: | Unclassified RESTRICTIONS : 3 CURRENT STATUS: — Redact DATE OF LAST REVIEW: 03/19/1997 OPENING CRITERIA : COMMENTS: Tabbed CIA 143-3. Box 143. i JFK Assassination System Identification Form Agency Information v9.1 ° HW 56629 Docld:322702754 Page 1
~ JFK Assassination System ~ _ Date: 9/23/201 Identification Form nO AGENCY: HSCA RECORD NUMBER: 180-10074-10330 po RECORD SERIES: | NUMBERED FILES AGENCY FILENUMBER: 007488 Document Information ORIGINATOR: HSCA FROM: SNYDER, RICHARD E. TO: TITLE: DATE: 04/14/1978 PAGES: 8 SUBJECTS : . . OSWALD, LEE; RUSSIAN PERIOD; RETURN TO U.S. OSWALD, LEE HARVEY; RUSSIAN PERIOD; DEFECTION TO RUSSIA DOCUMENT TYPE: SUMMARY CLASSIFICATION : — Unclassified RESTRICTIONS: 3 CURRENT STATUS: =Redact DATE OF LASTREVIEW: 10/16/1996 OPENING CRITERIA : COMMENTS : Box 143. 1 2 ~ . , v9.1 . 1 IW#: 50 - 32 2 HW NES QerdracoT028? ogid 2 32246272 Agency Information /
JFK Routing Slip (007488. NO. . oo DATE 4 tbe Def Jocument T.D. INVESTIGAgIVE INTERVIEW SCHEDULE INDEX ° COPY AO . i Robert Blakey DRM A - Weekes kh Gary Cornwell -_ Kenneth Klein Charlie Mathews Me _ Jin Wolf (Vi pese Akad (ATh ihe Tiny Hutton Jackie Hess C1lif£ Fenton Besse WI tcotan. arch rise fsirs 2 Hesagate, Bad Tear 2 _ _ Team $3 28 ee Team #4 Q| & pecial Instruc tions: Seen. #2 /NWH: 50955 DocId: 232246272 HW 56329 DBocld:322702384 Page
KENNEDY 097488 INVESTIGATION INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 1, Identifying Information: IR, Name Richard E. Snyder Date 4-14-78. Address 7919 Bolling Drive — | Place SCA Office City/State Alexandria, Va. telephone Date of Birth 12-10-19 Mor $ Social Security 153-03- 2996 _ Spouse . Children ;2- physical Description: ! | Height . | Color Eyes , Hair Weight _ Special Characteristics oe Ethnic Group rR i A . - r) 3, Personal History: a. Present. Employment: Worked for CTA 1949-1950. Entered State Dept. Foreign Service 1in- 1950, retired in 1970. In Military . Address . i since 1946. Telephone b. Criminal Record 1. Arrests 2. Convictions nel 4. Additional Personal Information: jc a ea oi SNe ACTON ee a. Relative(s): Name Address _ |. b. Area frequented: —_ : c. Remarks: ee Investigator Robert Genzman, Harold Leap ani feeth Lichtenfels i pate 4-14-78 Form #4-B NW#: 50955 DocId: 32246272 HW 56329 DBocld: 322702784 Page 4
oh, KENNEDY SELECT COMMITTEE ON ASSASSINATIONS Name Richard E. Snyder ; Date 4-14-78 Time 11 am Address 7919 Bolling Drive Place SCA Office Alexandria, Virginia Interview:. Robert Genzman, Harold Leap, and Beth Lichtenfels interviewed Richard E. Snyder, retired Foreign Service Officer, on April 14, 1978, at the Committee offices. The interview yielded the following information: Snyder was born on December 10, 1919. He served in the Army from 1940 to 1946, and then attended Yale University, where he received a degree and completed a year of graduate work. He took the Foreign Service exam during his senior year of college, passed the exam, and was placed. on the waiting list for Foreign Service assignments. He did not know anyone who took the Foreign Service exam when he did, and he did not know anyone else on the Foreign Service waiting list. : In October 1949, Snyder was contacted by the Central In- 7 telligence Agency and was asked whether he desired employment with the Agency. He was told that the State Department had cir- culated its Foreign Service waiting list to the CIA. Although he thought: he would be called for State Department employment within a year or so, and although he knew he would accept such Po Interviewer Signature PbS Cenymanr Typed Signature Robert Genzman, Harold Leap and Beth Lichtenfels - . Date transcribed Rife 4-25-78 By? Form #4in NWH: 50955. Docld: 32246272 / AW 56829 Docld:32270284 Page 5
Interview with Richard E. Snyder Page 2. employment, he applied to the CIA primarily for financial rea- sons, was accepted, and served from 1949 to 1950. Most of his CIA service consisted of training; he did little substan- tive work for the Agency. ‘snyder completely terminated his CIA employment and en- tered the Foreign Service in 1950. He cannot recall any contact with the CIA since 1950, aside from a letter which he-sent to the Agency after he retired from the State Department circa 1970 to inquire about contract work possibilities. The CIA's response was negative. Snyder has been in Military Intelligence and Military Intelligence Reserve since the time of his active Army duty (1940-1946), although there has never been any connection be- tween his State Department employment and his military posi-~ tions. He is currently in inactive Military Intelligence Re- serve. Snyder served as a consular officer at the American Em- bassy in Moscow from July 1959 to July 1961. When shown lists of State Department personnel inMoscow for the years 1959 and 1960, he said he could recognize no CIA personnel. He did not know who had been the CIA's Chief of Station in Moscow when he served there. He said that the military attache people at the Embassy may have been CIA employees, and that the travel officer and the security officer named L'Angeli (phonetic) may Z have been CIA employees. L'Angeli was once approached by the NWH: 50955 DocId: 32246272 HW 456629 Docld: 3227702784 Page 6
Interview with Richard E. Snyder Page 3. ‘Soviets for defection. . 7 Snyder said Minister Counselor Edward L. Freers (de- ceased) was not a CIA employee. He did not know whether John A. McVickar, his colleague in the consular office, was a CIA employee. McVickar, who arrived in Moscow before Snyder and departed after Snyder, worked with Snyder throughout his two- ‘year tour of duty in Moscow. Like L'Angeli, McVickar was once approached by the Soviets for defection. Snyder said he never told McVickar, whom he first met in 1959, that he (Snyder) had once been a CIA employee. Snyder said that when asked by Dan Rather of CBS if he (Snyder) had been with the CIA, he replied that in the Soviet Union he had been nothing other than what he claimed to be. Snyder said that when he testified before the Warren Com- mission, he was not asked whether he had ever been a CIA employee. After he testified, he told Alien Dulles that he had once worked for the Agency. Dulles did not show much interest. Snyder remembers that during his tour of duty in Moscow, there came to his attention three defector cases--Robert Edward — Webster, Nicholas Petrulli, and then Lee Harvey Oswald. On October 28, 1959, just before Oswald defected, Snyder sent a let- ter (C.E. 914) to the State Department requesting advice on hand- ling cases of defection. Snyder said that this request was not directed at any particular case. Snyder first became aware of Lee Harvey Oswald when Oswald came to the embassy on October 31, 1959, to renounce his American NW#: 50955 DociId: 32246272 Va HW 56329 DBocld:32270284 Page 7
Interview with Richard E. Snyder Page 6. Snyder has had contact with McMillan concerning her book Marina and Lee as it pertains to Snyder. Snyder remembers that some time after Oswald's visit to the embassy Oswald sent two letters to the embassy from Minsk. | Snyder had two meetings with Oswald upon his return from Minsk in 1961. Snyder has no independent recollection of the first. of these meetings, but he said that records show that such a meeting occurred on a Saturday. The meeting must have been brief. Oswald probably said that he wanted to return to the United States, and Snyder probably told Oswald to come back to the embassy later. McVickar and Snyder's secretary Verna Deane Brown probably had contact with Oswald during this visit and during Oswald's subsequent visit. When Oswald returned to the embassy he seemed "meek." He probably admitted that he had "learned a hard lesson the hard way," and. he expressed a concern that he might be prosecuted. Snyder asked him about his various activities in the Soviet Union. Oswald stated that he had not given any information to the Soviets. | Snyder did not expedite Oswald's actual return to the United States, which transpired after Snyder had left the Soviet Union. Snyder did not expedite Oswald's application to renew his passport; instead, he gave it "no great priority" as a "petty way of getting even" with Oswald, whom he did not like. NW#: 50955 Doel d: 32246272 HW 56329 DoclId: 3227702684 Page 10
le or rer’ ‘been naturalized as a citizen of a foreign state,' interview with Richard E. Snyder Page 7. McVickar handled’ Marina Oswald's visa application. Snyder does not recall ever meeting Marina Oswald, and he was not aware that her uncle was a Soviet MVD officer. | Snyder did not know why two applications for passport renewal (C.E. 938; C.E. 947) were made out for Oswald. when asked why one application (C.E. 938) had been marked, "I have etc., Snyder thought this was a typographical error. NW#: 50955 Docid:32246272 HW 56329 DBocld: 32270284 Page 11