NEO-NAZIS FIRST TO SAY OSWALD AMBUSHED WALKER
Did a German neo-Nazi journal in Munich scoop the -world press in a sensational: new turn in the investigation of the assassination of Kennedy? Did Oswald, accused of shooting the President and the Dallas policeman J.D.Tippit, also take a shot at the ultra-rightist Maj.Gen.Edwin A. Walker last April 10? These are the questions that are being asked following an . Associated Press dispatch from Washington December 6 alleging that Mrs, Marina,Oswald, widow of the accused former marine, said her husband came home "on the night of April 10" and "boasted" of having fired at the racist-minded hero of the John Birch Society.
The accusation was first made, “not. by Mrs. Oswald, but by the National Zeitung und Deutsche Soldaten Zeitung of Munich, Germany. Immediately after the assassination of Kennedy, this ultra-nationalist sheet published an interview with Maj.Gen.Walker in which the American racist said that the murder of President Kennedy "did not constitute a surprise."
The general continued: "The assassin is a Marxist, an avowed Commun+ ist. The tragic death of President Kennedy proves in striking fashion that the danger must not be underestimated... It was not as great a surprise as they would like us to believe," OO ae 7
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In reporting the assassination, the National Zeitung und Deutsche © Soldaten Zeitung emphasized that the real name of Jack Ruby, the killer of Oswald, is Rubinstein, that the lawyer whom Oswald sought to represent hin, John F, Abt, is “of the Jewish religion," It also made Abt out to be a Communist: sympathizer.
The Munich paper: then revealed, naturally without advancing any proofs, that Lee Oswald had tried to assassinate General Walker, shooting. at him through a window but missing. According to the National. Zeitung und Deutsche Soldaten Zeitung the investigation of the attempted murder was suspended on orders from Robert Kennedy, brother of the President and head of the Department of Justice.
. The same issue of the paper carried an “interview with Senator Goldwater and another with Austin J, App, “President of the German-Americans,." Goldwater recommended to the Germans "to be vigilant." App said. that Johnson would "find more sympathy among the German-Americans than Kennedy."
The Paris daily Le Monde, in reporting this story [November 30], made the Following editorial Observation:
"These positions taken by an organ which is trying to attract many personalities to its cause and to exploit often insignificant interviews with them are not at all astonishing in themselves, They. stand out under the circumstances as evidence of a maneuver aimed at: exonerating figures of _the American extreme right from any possible involvement in the Dallas crime,
If Le Monde felt no astonishment November 30 at reading the. SCOOp | published by the neo-Nazi newspaper, it expressed utter perplexity at seeing the same news repeated by the Associated Press December 6 with "govern ment sources" in Washington given credit for the "new turn" and Oswald's. widow listed as the ultimate source, Here is how Tacques Ama tric handled it in the week-end issue of Le Monde: -
"Teast astonishing in this new 'turn! is not the fact that the news was. already announced a week ago in the neo-Nazi journal of Munich, the National Zeitung und Deutsche Soldaten Zeitung, as we indicated in our edition dated November. 30, 1963, This journal, which continues—to: exploit -the.crimes of Dallas in an openly Nazi and anti-Semitic spirit, affirmed . at the time that Oswald had certainly tried to assassinate General Walker, It. went even’further and accused Mr. Robert Kennedy, head of the Department of Justice, of having suspended the investigation at the time.
"uthese accusations against the brother of the assassinated President ‘were repeated Friday by General Walker himself (which leaves little doubt about identity of the informer of the National Zeitung und Deutsche eondaten Zeitung). He affirmed in particular: TI would. not be surprised
the man who assassinated President Kennedy tried to ‘assassinate me previously. ' And after telling about the attempt, of which he was the — victim the night of April 10, 1963, when he was 1Pilling out his tax forms,! he criticized: Attorney General Robert Kennedy, because the investigation had not been carried out: tI know that the investigation was abandoned on Robert Kennedy's orders. If it had been followed up, Oswald
would be in prison and President Kennedy would be alive today." Which makes Mr, Robert Kennedy indirectly responsible for the assassination of his brother. a Sas ans
"To prop up this new accusation which would overwhelm Oswald, the American newspapers claim that the name and telephone number of the extrem ist ex-general were found written in his address book, The Washington | Evening Star discloses however that the FBI carried out ballistic tests to try to determine if the bullet from the gun which missed General Walker was fired from the gun presumably used by the assassin of President Kennedy and that these tests were inconclusive, It is known nevertheless that Oswald was already in possession of the arm which he presumably bought under a . false name by correspondence; according to the Dallas police, he would have completed the transaction March 20.
“Another disturbing element in this affair: it appears to have been. . confirmed that the research carried out by the FBI in this new direction | originated with the wife of Oswald himself, whom he married during his stay in the USSR. Marina Oswald, who is of Soviet nationality, is said to have spontaneously declared to the federal agents that on the morning of April ll her husband boasted of having tried to assassinate General Walker, She supposedly even said that her husband was very excited in announcing this news to her. A curious wife from whom has already emanated some overwhelming depositions against her husband! It was she in particular who already certified to the Dallas police that Oswald possessed a gun like the. one used. to kill the President and that this arm had disappeared just before the crime, It was she again who supposedly left lying around, when her husband was already accused of the murder of the President, compromising photos (which no one has yet seen) and. considerable Communist or pro-~ Castroist literature, -
~ -"The sudden idea of General Walker, accusing Oswald, right after the death of President Kennedy, of having tried to assassinate him some months before, is likewise at least astonishing. General Walker actually never offered the least proof of his assertions and at the time of the investiga~ tion of the attempt to assassinate him never even mentioned a suspect: who might have had the name of Oswald,"
-As Le Monde noted when the National Zeitung und Deutsche Soldaten ~ Zeitung first named Oswald as the man who took a shot at General Walker, the objective of the accusation was self-evident. It sought to divert attention from.co=thinkers in Texas, The new "turn" of repeating the neo-Nazi journalts accusation, with nothing less sensational than confirmation from "government sources" and presumably the Russian-speaking widow of Oswald, likewise offers grist to the ultra-rightist mill, It brings General Walker prominently into the news and in the most favorable political light -~- as _ almost a martyr from the same gun used against Kennedy.
If true, the "scoop" offered to its readers by the neo-Nazi journal in Munich will go down as a remarkable instance of clairvoyance, But if. untrue ~~ isntt an intensive investigation called for of General Walker, his connections among "government sources" and the strange use that is being made of Mrs, Oswald? Just who is serving as translator for her? Does she perhaps believe that in "free" America one must make a Moscow-type "“confes~ sion" 9
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