Oswald and the CIA

by John M. Newman

From the acclaimed author of JFK and Vietnam comes a book that uncovers the government's role in the Kennedy assassination more clearly than any previous inquiry. What was the extent of the CIA's involvement with Lee Harvey Oswald? Why was Oswald's file tampered with before the assassination of John F. Kennedy? And why did significant documents from that file mysteriously disappear? Oswald and the CIA answers these questions, not with theories, but with information from the primary sources themselves—ex-agents, officials, and secret records. To look at the Oswald file is to look at the most sensitive CIA operation of the Cold War. The story is as alarming as it is tragic; the lies and manipulations it reveals led directly to Kennedy's murder. Oswald and the CIA is a gripping journey to the darkest corners of the CIA.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, True Crime, Audiobook, Conspiracy Theories, Politics, Biography

669 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1995

About the author

John M. Newman is an American author and retired major in the United States Army. He served on the faculty at the University of Maryland from 1995 to 2012, and has been a Political Science professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia since January 2013.

Reviews

[Davy Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Update Nov 15, 2025.
I am on page 199, the beginning of Chapter 12 of 20. There are also numerous copies of pertinent documents at the end, some partially redacted.

I am going to set this one aside for awhile.
I like the book, but it is sort of a chronological diary of events, really in this case, just CIA documents and happenings. It reminds me of the Mark North book calling J Edgar Hoover a traitor in the diary/chronological style format. North is too heavily skewed towards the Mafia having a bigger role than I feel that they did.

Newman doesn’t make wild claims or anything, but it is clearer to me now that he is not an uninterested party just laying down the facts, though he does do that, and in great detail. He believes there was a conspiracy in the JFK Assassination. In my opinion, anybody that studies it a little can't really help but come to this conclusion. I just need a break from the grind. A lot of the juicy parts are yet to come, so I do plan to go back to this.




Origanal review:

I just received this book from Amazon, used, and at a very reasonable price.

I already believe LHO was involved with the CIA (and ONI).

Newman's book JFK and VietNam was great, one of the best I have read.

At first glance, this book looks really good, too.

10.30.2025
I am halfway through Chapter 5.
If you want great detail about government files on Oswald as Newman understood them in 1995, then this is your book. This is a 2008 update of that book, but mainly just updated with a preface from 2008.

Reading this book can guarantee a 25% improvement in your JFK Dirty Business elevator speech. Attention spans are short these days, so get your facts straight.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not about proving whether or not Lee Oswald murdered the president. This book is about proving that Lee Oswald was a secret agent for the CIA during his time in Russia and also at the time Kennedy was murdered. It does not accuse or exonerate Lee Oswald of the crime. It simply looks at the evidence that shows he was a contract agent for the CIA. Nothing more. I respect this book because of its dedication to its thesis topic. A must read to understand what happened leading up to the days, months and years before President Kennedy's tragic death.

[Pete daPixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr John Newman wrote this book, going on for twenty years ago, (published in 1995). An Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, at the time of writing this book Newman had spent twenty years as a military intelligence officer. As a result of the documents released by the JFK Records Act of 1992, the learned professor waded in to untangle the web of intelligence files that trace the bizarre doings of Lee Harvey Oswald. The result is 'Oswald and the CIA', a vast and deep volume, that does not make for easy reading or can be recommended to the faint-hearted.
The author has clearly been meticulous with his research and is surely not responsible for the cryptonyms and acronyms that pepper the text. The reader must be vigilant to follow the spaghetti from F.B.I. to State to O.N.I. to O.S.I. and into the vast caverns of C.I.A., into SR/6 (Soviet Realities branch of Soviet Russia Division) or SR10 (Legal Travellers branch of the Soviet Russia Division) perhaps for the attention of SAC/WFO (Special Agent in Charge of the Washington field office) or CI/SIG (Counterintelligence Special Investigations Group). Also there are the GOLIATH operational cryptonyms such as AMSPELL for the Cuban Student Directorate (D.R.E.) not to be confused with AMBUD which dealt with the Cuban Revolutionary Council (C.R.C.) which all became entangled with the F.P.C.C. caper. Is it any wonder the W.C. and H.S.C.A. gave it up. Three cheers for the A.R.R.B.
With text, documents, notes and index there are over six hundred pages here. Not a biography of Oswald, but just what documents were written up on the subject by the U.S. government agencies. For instance there is no file that mentions Oswald's 'suicide' attempt in Moscow or the 'tourist' liason in Minsk, or Clinton revelations. However, the picture of Oswald is the one produced by these files, and not the author. He does write "the foregoing is only a first look at the internal record of Oswald since the government began releasing files in accordance with the JFK Assassination Records Act. Of the many riddles we have attempted to solve in this book, the Dealey Plaza puzzle is not among them. The author lacks the requisite skills in ballistics, forensic pathology, photo and imagery interpretation, and criminal psychology, to name but a few." Come on Dr.John, that's never stopped me! Yet Newman can also write, "had the CIA shared all it knew about Oswald in Mexico City with the F.B.I., John Kennedy might be alive today."

[James Mc Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you had a U-2, you could see it too. This is a powerful "image" to see in the Rabbit Hole of Discovery. Remember WMD photos?

This publication has the power to carry 10 stars. Subject: Documented discovery regarding Oswald's military service in connection to the U2, his "defection" and the CIA's attempt to cover it up! Most strongly recommend for waking up and to hold the leadership of my country accountable for State Crimes. This publication by John Newman is one of the most astonishing historical treasures regarding my country I've found in the rabbit hole of discovery and I most strongly approve this incredible work in the most passionate way possible. There's a differences between thinking you might know, compared to knowing the factual history. There's no question for me personally now that the CIA, or elements of the CIA control this country.

This eventually became a cool pub to read because it fills the justification/mission on why I read this kind of material the first place. Initially it started off fast but I had to slow way down after a while and even go back and reread previous pages more than a few times because of the exceptionally painful details required a level of concentration in that it's not the easiest work I've read but by far, one of the most rewarding. I most strongly recommend this publication. Regardless of what you or I might think personally about Lee Harvey Oswald, the government paperwork, how it was created, what justified it and where the possible failures/modifications does reveal some pretty astonishing factual info and not something to excuse.

I like the way John Newman starts right up front in the introduction where he details the intent for this work in that the "CIA had a keen operational interest in Lee Harvey Oswald resulting in two different conclusions. One is that the Agency used sensitive sources and methods to acquire intell on Oswald from the time he defected to whether witting or not, Oswald became involved in CIA operations". To validate this, the publication reviews all the known information using government documents that have nothing to do with the specific regarding the assassination of JFK, nor is there anything about Dealey Plaza, but just the known paper trail about Oswald.

This is important for me because so many publications work "By focusing on the issue of conspiracy, the conspiracy-theory label posited that the most important question about the Kennedy assassination was how many people were involved, and typically this was interpreted to mean how many shooters. It did not matter which side of this issue people were on. Whether they were conspiracy believers or conspiracy deniers, they had swallowed the premise that the number of shooters was the decisive issue. This became the central question in investigations of the Kennedy assassination by the government as well as by the government's critics." (Lance de-haven Smith) The point is that the author structures the thesis in a way that uses all the known message traffic or various files created about Lee Harvey Oswald by U.S. government departments in that the traditional details of various possible mechanics and/or tactical review of what happened that day in Dallas is not applicable to this work. For a direct, historical first person perspective of a young woman's adventures with Lee Harvey Oswald the man, I recommend the author, Judyth Vary Baker. Rather than me attempting to explain more about what I think about this work, I've selected the most critical passages I found that just can't be put back into the box and forgotten, regardless of what you've assumed previously.

"The story that a marine who defected and threatened to give military secrets to the enemy was judged to be of only "relatively low national security interest" is dubious. The fact that the HSCA was misled to adds a dramatic and tragic perspective to this cover-up, and impresses one with the lengths to which the CIA was prepared to go to protect the secrets that lay in Oswald's files. Spinning tales is not done for sport, but rather to protect secrets. Oswald's early files are astonishing to read. They establish beyond any doubt that the CIA had a keen interest in him from the very day of his defection."

"At least one member of the Warren Commission knew all about the U-2 program, as he might also have known what steps, if any, the agency took after Oswald's defection. Allen Dulles had been CIA director at the time of Oswald's marine service, and he remained director until Kennedy fired him at the end of 1961"

"In 1959, Nixon and Dulles had cooperated to defeat the State Department recommendations to recognize the Castro regime. "Castro's actions when he returned to Cuba," Nixon wrote twenty years later, "convinced me he was indeed a Communist, and I sided strongly with Allen Dulles in presenting this view in NSC and other meetings."2; The Vice President's performance at the next NSC meeting was memorable, even though it did not mention the ongoing discussion about assassinating Castro. As we have seen, Nixon chose this moment to articulate a new American policy toward Cuba, as recorded in the minutes of the December 16, 1959, NSC meeting"

"Oswald had been an aviation electronics operator and "may have had access to confidential info." Actually, Oswald had access, at a minimum, to secret information while stationed at Atsugi as a consequence of his radar duties there. This much could have been ascertained by no more than a simple phone call to Oswald's former commander at Atsugi, John E. Donovan. "He [Oswald] must have had [a] secret clearance to work in the radar center," Donovan testified to the Warren Commission in 1964, "because that was a minimum requirement for all of us."

"Oswald and his marine companions had walked patrol to guard a supersecret espionage weapon hidden in an airplane hanger. As a radar operator, he had also tracked this dark object with advanced height-finding radar equipment. This particular espionage weapon was then the single most important intelligence asset available to the United States. It was the one that produced the most critical intelligence on the Soviet ballistic missile program at the height of the missile bluff (1957-1960) crisis with Khrushchev: the U-2."

"The U-2 program was TOP SECRET and more, but it was no secret to the marines in Oswald's unit. They saw the planes, they tracked them, and they even communicated with them. That is, until Oswald defected to the Soviet Union, which was the target of the U-2s' espionage mission. The ballistic missile information these dark planes from Atsugi collected as they overflew the Communist giant was vital intelligence for U.S. estimates of the Soviet Union's ability to wage nuclear wars What Oswald knew of the U-2 program before his defection is therefore a matter that deserves close attention."

The other astonishing piece of information that I came across and I think is one of the most important is this::

"By early 1960 a national intelligence estimate predicted that the Soviet Union would deploy thirty-five ICBMs by mid-1960, and 140 to 200 by 1961. In the end they deployed only four by 1961."

This work gets a big thumbs up from the 9/11 magical mystery tour through the rabbit hole of discovery.

Edited: "Newman's work will stand as a beacon to other academic historians..." and, I would add, for emotionally mature adults looking for validation and comprehensive information on what the hell is going on in my government. And, I think more Americans have started to understand that responsible government requires a well informed population

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could say I liked this book more. But at 12,000,350 pages, author John Newman manages to come up short on convincing me of much. Are there unanswered questions about Oswald's relationship with at least 3 separate intelligence services of 3 separate countries? Definitely. Is it proven that CIA killed JFK? Not by a long shot. What Newman fails to point out is that after JFK was killed, CIA and FBI were in a rush to cover their asses. Many of Newman's assumptions can easily be countered with that single fact. Obviously, CIA's reaction to the assassination has had an influence on the conspiracy theories that popped up. However, most of the urban legends of CIA's involvement can be traced back to documents supposedly linking Oswald to a covert CIA group, documents that have been proven to be forgeries by Soviet defectors. And it is kind of obvious, if you think about it. (What's that saying about a razor?) It helps the KGB a lot if Americans think CIA killed JFK, and there's a lot of evidence to prove the KGB were actively pushing this idea using forged documents that supposedly linked Oswald to the CIA. There are obvious curiosities about Oswald that seem to imply more than coincidence. His strange behavior - was he a communist or an anti-communist? - obviously springs to mind, as does the interest taken in him by FBI and CIA. But Oswald and the CIA does not answer these riddles nor does it prove conclusively that Oswald ever acted on CIA orders. At best, it furthers the fact that these questions are valid. It just doesn't settle much. It's a fun read, though, and it would probably make a good movie. Let's just hope that when Oliver Stone tackles it, he leaves L. Fletcher Prouty out of the picture.

NC

[Cheri Vause · Rating 4 out of 5]

A frustrating read for someone who lived through that era. Just as the government lies to us today, they lied then, setting up a man who would ultimately take the fall for a conspiracy to take down a sitting president. Everyone should be terrified that it is happening again, that an out of control CIA plots against the people of the United States.

For those of you who believe in the lone gunman theory, you are duped. Just as a rabid congress and CIA and State Department to day conspire to take down a president through innuendo, lies, and fabricated hyperbole now, we should be outraged now matter what political party you belong to. This is what happens when you have a people who believe whatever the government says without questioning their motives, or if there is a truth they are hiding.

[Shaun Appleby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would have to be the most definitive account of the paper trail surrounding Lee Harvey Oswald's involvement with the security establishment in the US and elsewhere. Interestingly the author's background suggests that his access to records may have been discreetly facilitated by those in the intelligence community who wanted some aspects of the story to be revealed; setting to rest some of the wilder accusations of conspiracy theorists. Nonetheless the conclusions inevitably drawn from the evidence presented in this authoritative exegesis of Oswald's files are compelling and provocative in themselves.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading several other books surrounding the JFK assassination, it was interesting to read on that focuses solely on Lee Harvey Oswald. What drew me in was the fact it wasn’t exclusively about his ties to JFK, rather the history of his CIA record(s) and his time in Russia and New Orleans. I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who has no interest in this historical period as it’s not ‘edge of your seat’ exciting, but it’s certainly fascinating and though provoking when you have prior interest/knowledge.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. If you read one book about the JFK assassination this should be it. The author is a former US Army intelligence officer.

[Sea Plan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished my first book of 2021 boys and girls. "Oswald and the CIA" documents Oswald 'the file' not 'the man' and makes no claim to prove/disprove the theory of Oswald 'the assassin.'

The book was an interminable slog and very tedious to read, but meticulously sourced. No new revelations here, but it did a great job along these lines:

1. Demonstrating the multifarious nature of such intelligence agency files. Truly a gnarled web of paperwork -- file cabinets might just be the instruments of the Devil himself.

2. Making note of the unorthodox treatment and confounding nature of Oswald's files by the CIA, indicating either enormous incompetence or intentional obfuscation, which I'm partial to the latter naturally.

3. The undeniable fact the Oswald mixed with A LOT of intelligence agency assets in his adventures. Like really man, Lee fraternized with FBI and CIA informants all over the world, engaging in a milieu full of spooks and monsters.

Would not recommend the book for pleasure reading. It will serve my purposes since I occasionally find reason to get uppity about the JFK assassination and its good to know my stuff.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not an easy read due to the nature of Newman's research. Essentially, this book is an analysis of CIA, FBI, ONI, and State Department documents related to Lee Harvey Oswald and his activities during and after his defection to the USSR. Because the intelligence files on Oswald are so scattered, it is hard to make sense of it all, but Newman does a pretty good job. This book proves one of two things: the CIA in particular is incompetent and unorganized OR they intentionally hid and scattered files on Oswald for a specific purpose. Either way it doesn't look good for the CIA. This book comes close to implicating the KGB in the assassination, but falls short of making any clear assumptions. Newman does a good job of presenting information without jumping to too many far-reaching conclusions.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will cross your eyes after a while. It is well written, but it is so meticulous and detailed in tracing the fate of documents related to the "Oswald file" over several years, many readers might have difficult staying with it. Stay with it! It is a magnificent work all told. Not even the credulous supporters of the Warren Commission's report deny that the CIA has always concealed the full extent of its relationship with and knowledge of Lee Harvey Oswald, always branded the "lone nut assassin" in the "official version" of the murder of JFK. This book does more than any other to not only shed light on that relationship but also to identify the historical culprits within the CIA itself. Brilliant.

[Dennis Kocik · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exhaustive and thorough review of Lee Harvey Oswald and the files compiled over the years by the FBI and CIA, among other agencies and what they knew about him and his activities..and what has not been yet disclosed. I would like to see how the most recent release of documentation further enhances what we know - or dont.

[Peter Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

So long ago and still a mystery.Perhaps Trump declassifying more / all of the files will sort it out.This is a long and heavy book showing Oswald’s links to the CIA without IMO proving a plot existed.Best to read the conclusion without wading through all the book.

[Matthew Ousley · Rating 2 out of 5]

It had good information for what was available at the time, but was incredibly repetitive and could have been less than half the length with the same info. Entire chapters could have been condensed into bullet-point lists or timelines.

[Tracy Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what I was expecting, after hearing a segment on the book. It was written well-just not what I had thought it would be.

[Davy Bennett]

There are 20 reviews on the duplicate version of this book on GR.

John M. Newman = John Newman.

[Daniel Lang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oswald and the CIA by John M. Newman delves into the intricate connections between Lee Harvey Oswald and the CIA, shedding light on the agency's involvement in the events surrounding the Kennedy assassination. Newman draws from a vast array of documents, including 250,000 pages from various intelligence agencies, to construct his narrative. This extensive research provides a detailed backdrop to Oswald's life and actions leading up to the assassination, offering readers a comprehensive understanding of the context in which these events unfolded.

One of the book's compelling aspects is its thesis that the CIA had a significant operational interest in Oswald from his defection to the Soviet Union in 1959 until his death. This perspective challenges conventional narratives that portray Oswald as a lone actor, suggesting instead that he was entangled in a web of intelligence operations. Newman's arguments are provocative and invite readers to reconsider established beliefs about the assassination and its aftermath.

However, while the depth of information is commendable, some readers may find Newman's writing style overly dense and occasionally unfocused, making it a challenging read. The book's complexity can sometimes obscure its central arguments, potentially alienating those who are less familiar with the intricacies of intelligence operations or the historical context.

Newman's conclusions about potential CIA cover-ups regarding Oswald's activities are particularly controversial. They rely heavily on inference drawn from discrepancies in paperwork, which may leave some readers questioning the validity of his claims. Overall, while Oswald and the CIA offers valuable insights into a pivotal moment in American history, its complexity and heavy reliance on documentation may not appeal to all readers, yet it remains an important contribution to discussions surrounding one of the most debated events in U.S. history.

[Jeff Russo · Rating 4 out of 5]

You better already have an investment in this subject matter before wading in. After months of Youtube videos, mp3 files, and message boards, I was finally ready to wade into a book.

Mr Newman is quite clear in his Introduction on what this book is about - reviewing the paper trail on Oswald through the various intelligence and investigative agencies in the 1959-1964 time frame. It's not a speculation on the geometries of Dealey Plaza, etc... it's a parsing of what paperwork existed, what existed and should not have, what didn't exist and should have, why things were in File A when they should have been in File B, why was a file created on date X when it should have been created on date Y, on and on. You in?

It's a challenging read, a slow read, some topics in my opinion (e.g. Gerry Hemming) are covered in more detail than needed, good stuff throughout the book but the true white meat is at the end, starting with the Mexico City chapter (ch. 18) onward.

I will probably give the last part of the book (ch. 18 onward, and the 2008 Epilogue) another reading or two. The first edition of this book was published in 1995 (when the ARRB was only halfway done), and I was wondering why Mr Newman did not give the book a full re-write in 2008, but he notes this in the Introduction and in fact done this way works, the 1995 texts has a somewhat dispassionate tone and then the 2008 Epilogue has a certain passion about it.

There is a minor blunder or two of note, amazingly Mr Newman misspells Clyde Tolson's name (in 1995 text and index but not in 2008 section). That's weird. Who edits these things? Sad, but not Mr Newman's fault, is his reference to David Lifton's book on Oswald on the brink of being published in 1995; Mr Lifton's new book is the Duke Nukem Forever of assassination research, except that Duke Nukem Forever was in fact eventually released.

[David Steece, Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intense. Newman literally goes through and compares hundreds of declassified memos, reports, letters, transcripts, meeting-minutes and more, picking them apart line-by-line for discrepancies, discontinuities, idiosyncrasies, and lies, and then he follows the questions raised by these tiny details to larger and larger questions as he slowly works his way through CIA, FBI, ONI, and State Department files on Oswald from between the period of his October 1959 defection to the USSR to *dun dun dun* November '63 baby.

At first you're like, well that's prolly a coinkydink and that's a mistake probs and then that's a mistake and that's a coincidence and a coincidence and then a mistake...and another mistake and then another coincidence and finally you're like yah nah bruh wassup no no

Takeaway: CIA had a "keen operational interest" in Oswald, and lied to the Warren Commission and congress to cover it up, lol *shrugz* Mostly rules out a top-down conspiracy, but renders the "renegade element" hypothesis plausible to a degree that no other JFK-assassination explanation has been.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really loaded with information from declassified CIA files on Lee Harvey Oswald, showing that the agency had been tracking Oswald for years, not only during the couple of years he was in the Soviet Union, but before and after that, up until the JFK assassination. Although it was certainly proven that there was a thick file on Oswald, it didn't really prove to me that Oswald actually was ever an employee of the agency, nor really shed any definitive light on whether Oswald was the sole assassin or if he was even one of the assassins at all.

**#44 of 120 books pledged to read during 2017**