Cryptonym: REDSKIN
Peter Kross, The JFK Files: What the Government Has Kept Secret for Decades (2019), p. 304
Is it possible that Oswald was used by the US government as an unwitting false defector to see how much the Soviets would debrief him and what information Oswald could As has been noted in a previous chapter, it is very possible that Oswald was part of the REDSKIN program. The State Department listed Oswald as a " tourist " when he made out his application to go to Russia.
104-10173-10145: REQUEST FOR INVESTIGATION AND APPROVAL RE PRISCILLA JOHNSON
4/28/58 Request for Investigation and Approval: This note asks the CI/Operational Approval and Support Division to OK the use of Priscilla Johnson "legal traveler" as a "REDSKIN traveler and informant". (Her CIA application was ultimately disapproved for security reasons.)
104-10310-10192: MEMORANDUM:OPERATIONS AGAINST SOVIET TARGETS
9/2/59 memo of DDP Richard Bissell. "Operations directed against the USSR proper, whether our own or liaison assets are involved, requiring the specialized knowledge and accumulated experience of the SR Division...(this includes) CI operations designed to place or recruit sources inside the USSR, legal travel operations into the USSR using nationals of third countries or US citizens, and operations based on the use of Soviets traveling legally from the USSR into the Free World. The various types of legal travel operations into and out of the USSR are considered to constitute an integrated program (REDSKIN)."
1993.07.20.16:23:41:500270: LIST OF AMERICAN DEFECTORS
10/25/60 letter from Hugh S. Cuming at the State Department, Director of Intelligence and Research to DDP Richard Bissell: "...there does not appear to be a complete listing of those Americans now living in Bloc countries who might be called 'defectors'. Using the definitions of DCID 4/2, these persons might be described as those who have either been capable of providing useful intelligence to the Bloc or those whose desire to resettle in Bloc countries has been significantly exploited for communist propaganda purposes..." Lee Harvey Oswald, Robert Edward Webster, and Libero Ricciardelli are three of the twelve on this 'list of American defectors', all described as 'tourists' - a common cover for Redskinners.
104-10120-10377: COVER SUPPORT FOR AE PSYCHOLOGISTS PARTICIPATING IN SR/10 RECRUITMENT PROGRAM
2/8/61 memo from James B. Lau, Chief, Assessment and Evaluation staff, for Chief, Central Cover Group, Nonofficial Cover, Attention: Thomas K. Strange: "An A&E (assessment and evaluation) assessment psychologist...will contact an unwitting candidate for the SR/10 REDSKIN program by telephone or correspondence...Dr. Kenneth BRADT will be the psychologist on the A&E staff who will make the first assessments under this cover...In addition to his Agency duties he is a psychological consultant for the Applied Psychological Corporation, Arlington, VA."
2/28/61, Memorandum for the Record, from Ervan E. Kuhnke, Jr., Chief, SB/2 Desk: After discussion between Howard Osborne (Deputy Chief, SR Division) and Jack Southard, Chief, CCG/NC (Central Cover Group, Nonofficial Cover), it was decided that the training of most of the 30-35 REDSKIN trainees for that year would take place at a "SR safe house in New York".
180-10143-10227: 180-10143-10227
Re early 60s: "Thomas B. Casasin (chief of SR/6) identified the REDSKIN cryptonym as the legal travellers program. It involved using persons to give information about the Soviet Union who had a 'very legitimate' presence in the Soviet Union, such as scientists, etc."
FBI 62-109060 JFK HQ File, Section 16
11/29/63 memo from SAC, Boston to Director, re: Approximately 30 year old female American tourist of interest to KGB for possible recruitment: The Washington field office had been doing a background check on Priscilla Johnson between late October 1963 and November 1963 in the days before 11/22/63. Looking at her relationship with Harvard University. (This may have been related to Oswald's Mexico City trip and the subsequent investigation of him by the FBI).
104-10007-10336: INFO RE WARREN HARSHMAN FORMER REDSKINNER
The document recounts a former "Redskinner" for the Agency's Soviet Russia Division named Warren Harshman who was a bus tour guide using a route from Helsinki to Warsaw and back. He made five visits to Minsk, Russia and stayed at the Hotel Minsk. He was later debriefed and used the cryptonym AEHOLLY 152 or 52 according to the file. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10007-10336.pdf