HW 54653 cute the application form referred to above before the consular . Consular Services (SCS) in the Bureau of Security and Consular - . Affairs (SCA), The Department may authorize a loan in advance of receipt of the executed application form, as in the Oswald case, - ‘and determine whether’ funds are avatlable from any other, sources, from the U.S.S.R, o¢ Bloc countries, clearance by the political . Affairs supported the grant’ of a loan. CONFIDENTIAL age . ° . . > ‘ ee applicant is destitute and will not -be furnished a passport until his loan is.repaid, (7 FAM 423 .5=2) i: Each recipient of a-.repatriation loan is required to sign a “| promissory noté by which he promises to repay without interest, to the Treasurer of the United States, upon demand, the amount of his repatriation loan. The note also states; a "I further understand and agree that after my repatriation Iwill not be. furnished.a pssport for travel abroad until my obligation to reimburse the Treasurer of the United States is liquidated." (7 FAM 423,6-5) , my . required to be stamped as valid only for return to the United — States. (7 FAM 423.7-1) | All passports of persons receiving repatriation loans are c) General Procedures. United States nationals such as Oswald who xaquxesk request repatriation assistance abroad apply for such aglstance to cone sular officers at American Embassies or Consulates, A consular officer interviews éach applicant to insure that the applicant is a United States citizen and is destitute. The applicant must exe-= officer, The original application is then norma Lly forwarded to the Department by pouch and is Processed by the Office of Special when the facts-are already known to the Department ; Each case is reviewed in the Protection and Welfare Division of SCS to insure compliance with the regulations referred to above such as relatives, friends, employers, or other interested organi~ zations, 0 FE, - oo oe In cases in which political questions are involved, such as when a foreign government has requested the removal of the appii- cant, and in all cases such as Oswald's which involve repatriation desk involved is obtained, * n the Oswald case, the Office of Soviet If funds are not available from other sources, the. Depatment acts on the application for the repatriation loan, and informs’ any other ‘agency which may ‘be concerned or have evidenced insterest..’. In the Oswald case, the Department informed the FRI on March 27, -.. 1962, that Oswald ‘had applied .for A repatriation loan and that. the loan had been authorized,, © 9° 1 se neg , eS CONFIDENTIAL Pod ety ate AE Docld: 3227127672 Page 16
HW 54653 : - CONFIDENTIAL re When a post receives approval of a loan, it ebtains a promise ‘Sory note from the applicant in the form referred to above and ; makes the funds or transportation tickets available;-: The promisssory note is sent by the post to the Department for collection. The Department's Office of Finance thereafter undertakes to obtain repayment of the loan. These procedures were followed in the’ Oswald case, oo 7 3 7 d) Changes Since the Oswald Case So.far as the dissemination of information on. the issuance ‘of a repatriation loan is concerned, the procedures currently being observed by SCA are described in Part I of this memorandum. 7 circumstances repatriation loans to "disaffected" or "previous ly disaffected" Americans should be granted, the regulations quoted | above from 7 FAM 4231-2 and 423.2-1 remain in effect, That is, a loan may be granted. only ‘if the recipient is unquestionably loyal © With respect to the policy question of whether and under what to the United States. or "is in or is the cause of a. situation which . is damaging to the prestige of the United: States Government or)" which constitutes a compelling reason for extending assistance to’ effect his return," - These. regulations, of course, only authorize the granting of a loan when the specified conditions are met; they ‘do not require it. Thus the question of whether to grant the’ loan - in a particular case remains, , Se mo, ‘ The Department, through SCA, has recently taken two steps in /. ‘the direction of a stricter policy on repatriation loans to de= fectors and the like, of at‘least in the direction of a more care-- ful examination of each case, Even before the assassination, in August of 1963, the. Administrator of SCA decided, with the approval of the Secretary, that the. Department would not grant repatriation - loans to any turncoats coming out of. Communist China, The policy is still undetermined, however, with respect ,to persons other:than turncoats who have voluntarily resided in Communist China or in - other Communist-dominated areas to which travel of United States citizens is restricted, and with respect to persons like Oswald, who have defected to Communist-dominated countries or. have other- wise evidenced disaffection with the United States, In June of 1964, the Administrator of SCA directed that no repatriation loans were to be made to any individual being repatriated from any Communist-dominated country without the express approval of the Administrator .of ‘Deputy Administrator, of SCA, SCA has considered whether the policy on repatrfation loans: should be laid out more explicitly than it is at present. SCA. believes, however, that it ia better towait for a specific case to arise, and perhaps even then to decide the case on an ad hoc | basis, than Jit would be to. formulate {n the abstract a policy: CONFIDENTIAL ~ ae Docld: 3227127672 Page i7
NTRS SOTTO DERE ETT ORE Tt So SET RD PEE ETE TS we. eal RE ee ere, aa HOLA LS -CONFIDENTIAL =a Seat tect arce '- designed to determine any case that might come up. 2. Other Means of Encouragement or Discouragement The granting or denying of a repatriation loan is not the only | means of encouraging or. discouraging a disaffected American to’ return to this country, The Department might direct its consular officials to attempt oral persuasion one way or the other, and it. might, in order to encourage. the person's return, give him some sort SO SO of guarantee that he would not be prosecuted in this country for oo any crimes that he may have committed by his defection or other _ - fo conduct. Such a guarantee could presumably be implemented by. ask- ' ing the Justice Department not to prosecute, Oswald in fact asked ot for such assurance from the consular officer in Moscow, but did © fap not receive it. ee i: ne comes Paes ets aaa so far as this aspect’ ef the problem is concerned, Consular officers at present have no authority to promise immunity froin prosecution, — and they should have none.” A defector who is willing to return -to this country only if given such a guarantee is probably not one whose return the Department wants to encourage; moreover, it does not appear that the. Department has a sound legal basis. for offering Such guarantees, and furthermore they would, as 4 matter of policy, » SCA believes that the status quoc should be left undisturbed | ‘ have the undesirablé effect of possibly encouraging defection.. In’ general, SCA believes that consular officers should not be instructed either to encourage or discourage the return of disaffected persons, except by such authorized means as the. granting or denial of repatria- tion loans, oe . = i C. Re atriation of Persons Who Have | Their American Citizenship ot , A final. palicy question that might arise concerns the case of ee me a "disaffected" person whe has renounced or otherwise lost hie . American citizenship but who wishes to return to this country as an . alien, Such a person would not be entitled toa repatriation loan, | and his admissibility would be govérned by the alien-exclusion pro- ; —_ visions of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, His former 7 Communist inclination might well make him ineligible for admission under sec, 212(a) (28) of the Act, and the Department could then decide whether to recommend to the Attorney General that ‘such ineligibility be O waived ‘under sec, 212(d)(3)._ In any event, he could be excluded on the basis of 4 finding that his presence here "would be prejucicial. to the. public interest, or endanger the welfare, safety, or security of the United States," under -212(a) (27), or that he would: probabl y engage in espionage or: other subversive activities, under 212(a) (29). Renounced or Otherwi e Lost i . ' . ‘ .f¢ °°" CONFIDENTIAL © > HW 54653 DBocld:32217672 Page 13