J. Walter Yeagley Oral History Interview –RFK #2, 12/17/1970 Administrative Information
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J. Walter Yeagley Oral History Interview –RFK #2, 12/17/1970 Administrative Information Creator: J. Walter Yeagley Interviewer: James A. Oesterle Date of Interview: December 17, 1970 Place of Interview: Washington, D.C. Length: 32 pp. Biographical Note Yeagley, J. Walter; Deputy Assistant Attorney General, 1953-1959, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, 1959-1970; Chairman, Personnel Security Advisory Board, 1958-1961. Yeagley discusses his work with Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] regarding espionage cases, his responsibilities with the Internal Security Division, and the communication issues that existed across departments regarding internal security, among other issues. Access Restrictions No restrictions. Usage Restrictions Copyright of these materials have passed to the United States Government upon the death of the interviewee. Users of these materials are advised to determine the copyright status of any document from which they wish to publish. 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Transcript of Oral History Interview These electronic documents were created from transcripts available in the research room of the John F. Kennedy Library. The transcripts were scanned using optical character recognition and the resulting text files were proofread against the original transcripts. Some formatting changes were made. Page numbers are noted where they would have occurred at the bottoms of the pages of the original transcripts. If researchers have any concerns about accuracy, they are encouraged to visit the library and consult the transcripts and the interview recordings. Suggested Citation J. Walter Yeagley, recorded interview by James A. Oesterle, December 17, 1970, (page number), Robert F. Kennedy Oral History Program. Oral History Interview Of J. Walter Yeagley Although a legal agreement was not signed during the lifetime of J. Walter Yeagley, upon his death, ownership of the recording and transcript of his interview for the Oral History Program passed to the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library. The following terms and conditions apply: 1. The transcript is available for use by researchers. 2. The tape recording shall be made available to those researchers who have access to the transcript. 3. Copyright to the interview transcript and tape is assigned to the United States Government. 4. Copies of the transcript and the tape recording may be provided by the Library to researchers upon request for a fee. 5. Copies of the transcript and tape recording may be deposited in or loaned to institutions other than the John F. Kennedy Library. J. Walter Yeagley – RFK #2 Table of Contents Page Topic 44 Robert F. Kennedy’s [RFK] early years with the Department of Justice 46 John Francis Reilly’s work with the Internal Security Division and the Criminal Division, including his resignation over the Otto F. Otepka case 50, 59 Yeagley’s work, and RFK’s involvement, with espionage cases 50, 53 Dr. Robert Soblen and Jack Soble espionage case 51 Igor Melekh and Willie Hirsch case 55 Rudolf Ivanovitch Abel exchange for Francis Gary Powers 59, 66 Yeagley’s responsibilities within the Internal Security Division 63, 66 RFK’s involvement with foreign intelligence matters 65 Formation and weakening of Interdepartmental Committee on Internal Security [ICIS] 66 Issues surrounding National Security Memorandum Number 161 71 Changes in the attorney general’s responsibilities after RFK left the Department of Justice 72 Nation Security Council civil defense drills and emergency planning _,. ' .. .. ~ -- ~~J!f?"~~ . :;- ~ :.~ ::::-- ;,·.. - -,,- . -- . -- - Second Oral History Interview with J. WALTER YEAGLEY December l7. l970 Washington, D. C. By James A. Oesterle For the Robert F. Kennedy Oral Hist ory Program of the Kennedy Library YEAGLEY: Since the last interview, I saw a friend who still works in the Justice Department: [John H.] Jack Davitt; and I recalled that Jack had told me at one time that he had been the office mate of [Robert F.] Bobby Kennedy when Bobby first came to the depart- ment as a young lawyer just having graduated from the law school of the University of Virginia. I would t hink this would be about 195l. The assistant attorney general in charge of the Criminal Division I believe at that time was James Mcinerny [James A. Mcinerny] who had known Joseph Kennedy [Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.]. I don't know in what manner. I know one means would be political. But they had been good friends, and I know in later years af'ter Jim lef't the department he did considerable legal work for him and the family. In any event Bobby came to work as a lawyer --- assigned to the internal security section--then of the Criminal Division--and his office was the same as Jack Davitt's . I don't know how long that lasted, but probably a matter of months. I mentioned these interviews to Jack. He said he recalled talking to Bobby many , many times--or rather Bobby talking to him, perhaps--about what he should do for a career: what direc- tion he should aim for; whether it should be in government, whether or not it even should be l egal, or whether it might be in business. And of course not having money problems, he seemed to have quite a potential choice. Jack couldn' t remember that he ever discussed entering politics seriously. He said he may have, but he just doesn't recall it at all. As a matter of fact, he said to his knowledge Bobby never came to a decision during these months as to just what he really wanted to do in the long term for a career. He recalled he was a delightful person to work with and to be officed with, that he was very informal around the office. As a matter of fact, he mentioned that he frequently went and took his shoes off and wor ked in his stocking feet. And they often spent their noon hours together, too, at lunch or shopping. He didn't recall what kind of cases or work Bobby got into, but I don' t think he was here long enough to have gotten into anything particularly interesting or that would be of interest today. There are quite a few lawyers though over there now who were there at that time and knew Bobby . I can remember when he crune back as att orney general, he, as far as I ever noticed, he remembered and recognized each one of them, as he first encountered them back in 1961. That's all of the information I have on that point. I was not here, of course, in the department at that time. OESTERLE: I think last time, off the record, we mentioned John Francis Reilly as opposed to John Richard Reilly. YEAGLEY: Right. OESTERLE: And he had been in your division. YEAGLEY: That's right. OESTERLE: And, of course, he became involved in the [Otto F.] Otepka case. I wonder if you might fill me in on that background to some degree. YEAGLEY: Well, I don't know how much information I have on that. I have some. When they were looking for someone to fill that position at the State Department--I've forgotten the title of it; it was in the Office of Security and Consular Affairs, but it was the position that Reilly eventually took--it seems to me I had a call from someone and I believe it was [And.red F.] Andy Oehmann who was the executive assistant to Bobby, the attorney general. This was in general terms, as I recall, about possible candidates or available candidates for the job or what kind of a person it might be. I don't know that anything ever came of that conversa- tion, but not long af'ter that he called to ask me about Jack Reilly and whether he would be interested and what kind of a job I thought he would do. -w .:..: --.. At that time Jack was in the Interna:i Security Division. He'd been there long before my day. As a matter of fact he probably came in about 1951, about the same time Bobby did the first time. At the time of this call--this would be in 1 61-- he was then and had been for some time, working on espionage cases. I believe I considered him our top man in espionage at that time. He also was doing some liaison work or work with other agencies, particularly State Department, and he had assign- ments on the planning board of the National Security Council. But the legal work that I recall he, was involved in was espionage. We had a very high opinion of Jack as a lawyer. He'd been a good law student when he was in school in Boston. He was a good worker and had a good mind and I recommended him. I recommended him quite highly to Andy at that time although, of' course, he had not been in security work which really was what the State Depart- ment was apparently looking for.