PICTURES, NO WORDS: AVEDON LOOKS at HIS LIFE ALSO in THIS ISSUE El
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BOOKS AND BOOKPEOPLE FROM RANDOM HOUSE • FALL 1 9 9 3 ALL PICTURES, NO WORDS: AVEDON LOOKS AT HIS LIFE ALSO IN THIS ISSUE El. Doctorow • Naomi Wolf • William Styron • Mavis Gallant • Ron Chernow THE MAN WHO KILLED KENNEDY BY CARSTEN FRIES he thirtieth anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas, will be commemorated in a fitting way this November: by laying to rest the myriad of doubts that have tormented the American peo- Tple since 1963 about who killed him and why. It was not the KGB. It was not Castro. It was not the Mafia. It was not the sinister cabal of military and intelligence officials suggested by Oliver Stone's movie JFK. It was Lee Har- vey Oswald—but it was not the Oswald portrayed in hundreds of books and articles. Gerald Posner, the author of Case Closed (Random House, September) and of this judgment, originally set out to reexamine all the evidence. He interviewed almost two hundred individuals connected to the case, some of whom had never before revealed what they knew. In going back to primary sources and witnesses, he made discoveries, such as the undisclosed files of New Orleans attorney Jim Garrison, that will resolve many controver- sies. He found flaws in the Warren Commission report. He created his own index to the report and concluded that the only other one, prepared by Sylvia Meagher, reflected her bias that Oswald was innocent. He spent PI/TELEPHOTO PI/TELEPHOTO many hours discussing Oswald with his Russian-born U 12 • •..:t••• wife, Marina. And he had a unique interview with Gerald Posner is a lawyer whose interest in the Yuriy Nosenko, the KGB officer who was first assassination reaches back to his time as an under- responsible for Oswald after he defected to the Sovi- graduate at Berkeley in the early 19705. By that time et union (see following excerpt). Nosenko has been the Warren Commission's conclusion that Oswald in hiding in the U.S. since his own defection. was the lone assassin had been under steady assault" But most of all Posner came to the conclusion he says. "I read many of the leading conspiracy that the character and role of Oswald were drasti- books and later, in law school, closely followed the cally misunderstood and purposefully ignored. investigation of the House Select Committee on "While it's important to understand every aspect of Assassinations." He began by cross-referencing the the case, including possible conspiracies, the ques- leading conspiracy accounts and investigating their tion of why John Kennedy was killed is only theories "as if preparing for a legal case." answered by studying Oswald's life in detail," he Reaction to Case Closed is likely to be intense. says. From childhood neglect to his less-than-dis- Posner expects to be the target of personal attacks tinguished career in the Marine Corps to his start- and of charges that he is part of a continuing cover- ling defection to the Soviet Union and disaffected up. "'The [conspiracy] buffs hold on to their beliefs return to the United States, Oswald is shown in with an almost religious fervor, oblivious to contrary Case Closed as a sociopathic, often violent individual evidence. It seems to me that what threatens them whose day-to-day existence was punctuated by most is the truth. Many recoil from it, wanting bizarre fantasies. "Oswald felt he lived in a world of instead to believe anything that raises doubts. The intellectual inferiors, and that no one appreciated real Oswald is the same disturbed archetype who has his intelligence and great worth," explains Posner. figured as the shooter in eight assassinations—or ■ "Writers who describe him as a pawn of dark forces attempted assassinations—of American presidents." have no understanding of the man. He was not weak, but a determined personality who knew what Carsten Fries is a production editor at Random he wanted and went after it." House and the managing editor off At Random. An edited excerpt from Case Closed by Gerald Posner THE ORDEAL OF OSWALD'S KEEPER uriy Nosenko sought gence kept Oswald under surveil- lishment. Is Nosenko a bona fide permanent asylum in lance, it viewed him as mentally defector, and is his information the U.S. in January unfit, had not debriefed him, and about Oswald reliable? 1964, only two months had no relationship with him. If after the Kennedy that was true, it meant the KGB NOSENKO FIRST MADE CONTACT assassination.y His story stunned and the Soviet Union were with an American diplomat in the CIA. He claimed to be a lieu- absolved of any complicity in 1962, at the Geneva Arms Con- tenant colonel responsible for JFK's murder. If it was false, ference. The CIA dispatched compromising Americans visiting Nosenko could be a phony defec- thirty-seven-year-old Tennant Moscow. That meant Oswald was tor, intended, among other "Pete" Bagley and an agent flu- under his jurisdiction when the things, to deflect the Warren ent in Russian, George Kiseval- ex-Marine first defected to the Commission from focusing on ter, to meet Nosenko four times Soviet Union. After the assassi- evidence of the real Soviet role at a safe house near Geneva's nation, he was temporarily with Oswald. The overall ques- center. assigned to investigate whether tion of whether he was a bona CIA transcripts reveal that at there was ever any KGB-Oswald fide defector or a KGB plant those meetings, Nosenko provid- relationship. According to become the most divisive issue ed critical leads on a number of Nosenko, although Soviet intelli- within the agency since its estab- intelligence cases. Among other 4 AT RANDOM • the disclosures, he exposed KGB spies asked if there was a KGB mole in uncover his treachery. Five days er- in the U.S. embassy in Moscow, the CIA, he said no. Told of his later, in the final meeting, me the British admiralty, and in the reply, Golitsyn reached an instant Nosenko announced he had ald U.S. Army; revealed new Soviet conclusion: "This is disinforma- received a cable ordering him lt" surveillance technologies; pin- tion. The KGB wants me to appear home immediately. He feared the .cy pointed the location of hidden bad to you. This is going.to dam- KGB had unmasked him and his he microphones in the U.S. embassy; age my leads." Bagley, too, was return meant arrest and execu- on and startled his CIA contacts by soon convinced Nosenko was a tion. The story of the cable left he claiming that both Canadian plant. the CIA with little choice since the ambassador John Watkins and Completely unaware the CIA Agency feared the repercussions cir prominent U.S. newspaper thought he was a double agent, of losing an agent who might columnist Joe Alsop were homo- Nosenko prepared for his eventu- have information about Oswald. ie. sexuals who were compromised al goal, defection. For the remain- Headquarters authorized his ks by the KGB. der of 1962 and all of 1963, he defection, and within days he r- Bagley was ecstatic passed through Germany fs with the information, and was in the U.S. and not only considered In 1964, the CIA drafted Nosenko's statement Inrn Nosenko bona fide but about the recall cable has tg the most important 130 questions it intended to been used to contest his to Soviet agent ever credibility. There was no recruited by the CIA. ask Nosenko about Oswald cable. Confronted with this )r However, Bagley was fact, Nosenko explained he shocked when he but never did. Gerald Posner fabricated the story because returned to CIA head- he feared that otherwise a quarters because the put these questions to Bagley would not allow him chief of counterintelli- Nosenko and the substance to defect. The story about gence, James Jesus the cable accomplished its Angleton, was con- of his answers are purpose, forcing the CIA to vinced that no matter spirit him to the West. "To what Nosenko said, he included in Case Closed this day, I do not regret was a KGB plant. making that false state- The reason for ment," he says. "Without Angleton's distrust was another committed to memory the details that "cable,' they would have defector, Anatoliy Golitsyn, who of more than three hundred new brushed me off" If he had been a had arrived in America six leads and almost two thousand plant, the KGB would almost have months earlier. Golitsyn had told names for the Agency. In January certainly provided him with a the extremely cynical Angleton 1964 in Geneva he used his pre- cable to keep his cover story that the CIA was penetrated by a arranged signal to call a meeting intact. high-ranking KGB agent code- with the CIA. The same two When Nosenko first arrived in named Sasha. The possibility that agents who had met him in 1962, the U.S., he was placed in a safe the CIA was compromised, as Bagley and Kisevalter, flew in house. He did not know that his British intelligence had been by from Washington. CIA debriefers were interested Kim Philby, was Angleton's worst Nosenko first surprised the only in exposing him as a liar. fear. Accepting Golitsyn's revela- agents by announcing, "Gentle- However, when J. Edgar Hoover tions without hesitation, he men, I am not going back, so how learned about him, he immediate- embarked the CIA on a twenty- about that?" Bagley, convinced ly obtained access for the FBI. A year hunt for a phantom mole Nosenko was a fake, tried to dis- deep-cover FBI informant at the that destroyed careers of good suade him from defecting, Soviet mission to the United officers and split the Agency.