The chronicle., 1963-12-23
By LYLE c. WILSON
United Press International

1t is about time that there be
q suspension Of the malicious
andor Uniformed speculation
about the assassination of Pres
ident Kennedy. 1t may be too
much to expect Europeans to
suspend judgment, to reject ru-
morS, to repudiate scandal
mongering. But it should not
be too much to expect Ameri-
cans to await In good faith the
report of the Presidents COM
mission.
First off there was the at
tempt to make the Rookie right
wingers appear to be respon-
Sib,e. That folded under the
weight of the fact that Lee OS-
wald was a ro-Commie Marx
list. 1t did not seem reasonable
to believe that the impassioned
rightieS had been able to re-
cruit an irnpassioned lefty to do
q job of assassination for them.
Thereafter the United States
Secret Service (SS) came I'M
der fire Of accusation. SIS
agents were reported drinking
in a Fort Worth night club the
night before JFK was shot and
therefore unable to properly
discharge their duties the fol-
lowing day. The facts disclosed
by the simplest of investiga-
tons disclosed that there was
no such sequence of events
bearing on the protection of the
President
Johnson Sc0tcheS RumOrS
indictment Of the Secret Serv-
ice collapsed utterly when
President johnson personally
decorated members of the SIS
for valorous conduct on Nov.
q. U. E. Baughman, former
SIS chief, was sharply critical
of the conduct of the organiza-
ton from which he retired
about two years ago. Baugh-
mans complaints, however, ap-
pear not to have been taken
seriously by the administration.
The amateur public prosecu-
tors are turning from the
Secret Service to the FBI. The
public is being asked to believe
that the FBI was derelict and
that it has a great responsible
ty for the tragic circumstances
under which the President was
murdered on Nov. q.
To this end, it Is charged that
the FBI knew about Oswald
prior to the assassination and
that the FBI permitted Oswald.
10 remain unmatched and unre-
ported to the Secret Service.
This seems to be an example of
selecting the facts to justify a
pre- : conceived conclusion that
the FBI was at fault.
There has been public knowl-
edge from the beginning that
the FBI had been investigating
Oswald. The purpose was to
learn whether Oswald was en-
gagged in any Subversive activi-
ty in behalf of the Soviet Union.
This was an espionage investi-
ga.ion by the FBI. Nothing had
been developed in it that would
have warranted the FBI in
alerting the So and the Dallas
police to the fact that Oswald
was in Texas.
Bureau Investigates Many
The FBI can demonstrate
that the hard fact of the mat
ter is that the bureau knows of
so many hooks, crankS, nuts
and such scattered around the
United States that it would i'm
possible for all law enforce
ment agencies combined to
watch all Of them. There must
be a choice-a logical choice
regarding those who can be
wa .ched. The choice must go
obviously to those who have
shown some previous capacity
for violence.
Oswald had shown no indica-
ton that he was capable Of as
sassination. To suggest that the
FBI should have had pre-
knowledge of how OSwald's
mind would work is to demand
more Of that agency than
is reasonable. The FBI does not