An unanswered question looms over the recently declassified files surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Why did American intelligence agency officials say a plot to kill the President was bogus but then repeatedly fought to stop the documents from being released?
An April 2, 1968 memorandum to Richard Helms, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency reads as follows:
Mr. Peter Michelmore, an Australian newspaper representative, has requested that we declassify CD971. This consists of a memorandum from you to Mr. Rankin dated 22 May 1964 and an attachment dated 29 November 1963. Both relate to ‘crank’ calls received by the U.S. Naval Attache in Canberra on 15 October 1962 and 23 November 1963. CIA first was told about these calls on 24 November 1963 by the Department of the Navy – after the assassination of President Kennedy.
Helms indicated that at some point, the CIA station in Canberra consulted someone whose name is redacted, as well as “Australian authorities” about the plot against the President.
“In the opinion of the Australian Authorities, the caller was a crank. In any event, they were not able to identify any Polish employee of the Soviet Embassy, the automobile described by the caller as the one he drove, or the license plate number given by him. No further information on this call has been received,” per the memo.
Helms then gave a caveat.
“Available evidence would tend to show that the caller was some type of crank. This conclusion, however, can not be confirmed.”
Over a year later, on November 23, 1963, the day after Kennedy was killed, a figure who appears to be the same man calls again, the memorandum stated. He offered more details on the alleged Soviet plot to kill Kennedy, claiming that an Australian man had participated in the plot and had received a victory reception from Soviet officials after he returned from (presumably) Dallas to the Land Down Under.
A teletype message labeled top secret from the following day shows that the American ambassador in Australia is concerned:
“WHILE SOME ASPECTS INDICATE INDIVIDUAL A CRANK OTHERS SEEM MORE AUTHENTIC. ALL PARTIES, INCLUDING AMBASSADOR, FEEL MATTER SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED UNTIL ADDITIONAL FACTS ARE DEVELOPED OR EXISTING LEADS HAVE BEEN EXHAUSTED. [Caps in original.]”
The end of the teletype says that a transcript is being prepared. However, it is not provided in the documents reviewed by The Dallas Express, and no files seen by the outlet indicate that the recommendation for an investigation was acted upon.
Despite the CIA’s, Naval Attache’s, and Australian authorities’ apparent skepticism of these tips, Helm resisted CD971’s declassification.
By April 1968, Michelmore was attempting to obtain CD971, and Helms had been promoted to CIA Director. An internal memorandum to Helms indicated that agency staff recommended against giving the file to the newsman.
There was a flurry of communications throughout 1968, and it is unclear how many people wanted to obtain CD971 or whether Michelmore had sustained his efforts to obtain the file.
In November 1968, someone apparently attempted to obtain CD971 again. A letter from Helms to Charles Spry, the Director of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, assured the Aussie counterpart that the documents about the tip on the alleged Soviet plot, which had by this time become part of the Warren Commission’s files, would not be released to the public.
“Thank you for letter of October 15 recommending against declassification of the Warren Commission document CD-971,” Helms’ letter reads. “I might mention that our inquiry to you in August (1968) was in anticipation of further pressure for the release of the Warren commission papers, a pressure which has not materialized. Accordingly, there is not, at the present time, any intention to release CD 971.”
The letter concluded by indicating that the CIA had plans for handling any possible pressure to release the files: “Should the question be raised at some future time, the points made by you in your letter provide every reason to keep the document out of the public domain.”
A stamp on Helms’ letter indicates that it was reviewed for release pursuant to a request under the Freedom of Information Act in September 1976. However, it was apparently not released.
The Australian intelligence chief’s letter is not included in the various memorandums seen by The Dallas Express, and it has yet to be uncovered in the outlet’s research through the approximately 80,000 files recently declassified by the Trump administration.