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ROBERT J MORRIS TIMELINE PART 2: 1946-1953

1946-1949
After separating from active duty with ONI on Dec 29, 1945, Morris practiced law at the offices of Bill Martin, 30 Broad St NY.(1) In November 1946, he formed the law firm of Hochwald, Morris and Richmond at 40 Exchange Pl.(2) His main client here was Senator Coudert, who had rehired Morris for committee work on Communist subversion.(3)

Morris was in an "organised" (active) Reserves Unit during this period, and carried out Reserve work from his private law office.(4)

In 1948, he underwent training at Jacksonville Fla and the Key West Submarine Base. In 1949, he trained in New Orleans, where he also gave a lecture on Soviet espionage in the Third Naval District.(5)

1949
State legislatures convened, resulting in the largest output of state laws against subversive movements in any year with the exception of 1919. By the following year, Maine was the only state without a law specifically designed to "repress or combat subversive organizations or individuals." Laws of this nature had come in spurts in reaction to historical events such as the McKinley assassination, the activities of the IWW, and the deepening Cold War.(6)

1950
Assistant counsel to the Subcommittee on the Investigation of Loyalty of State Department Employees aka The Tydings Committee.

Morris was hired by the subcommittee in April, 1950, at the insistence of Senator Hickenlooper.(7) The subcommittee was tasked with investigating the claims by McCarthy that he had a list of State Department employees who were members of the Communist Party. Those claims were proved to be false.(8) Morris' real job appears to have been to wreak as much havoc upon the Democrat dominated committee as possible. Tydings was probably aware of this purpose when he barred Morris from examining witnesses, and from attending executive sessions.(9)

1951-1953
Chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Internal Security(10)aka The Jenner Committee.(11)

"The subjects of its investigations during the 1950s include the formulation of U S foreign policy in the Far East; the scope of Soviet activity in the United States; subversion in the Federal Government, particularly in the Departments of States and Defense; immigration; the United Nations; youth organizations; the television, radio, and entertainment industry; the telegraph industry; the defense industry; labor unions; and educational organizations."(12)

During this period, Morris was working with Saul Moskoff in running a network of student informants.(13) Moskoff was counsel for the New York City School Board(14) on a "take no prisoners" mission with Schools Superintendant, William Jansen, against the Teacher's Union.(15)

Private spy networks feeding governments had been around for a long time by the 1950s. The idea (and practice) may have originated with Ralph H Van Deman, the so-called "father of modern American military intelligence".(16) In 1929, Deman established the "San Diego Research Library" which kept files on religious, labor, civil rights and other activists. It operated with the support of the Californian government, the army, and private donors, and exchanged data with state and federal agencies on a regular basis. One source of information was volunteer informants.(17)

August, 1952
Lee Harvey Oswald and his mother, Marguerite, move to New York and live with John Pic and his wife. Lee is just shy of his 13th birthday.(18) Pic takes one or two weeks leave from the Port Securirty Unit (PSU) at Ellis Island to show Lee around the city.(19)

The PSU, at the outbreak of the Korean War, was tasked with eliminating "risks from suspected communist merchant seamen and waterfront workers." It did so by working with the FBI and ONI, as well as their existing networks of informants. The numbers of those who lost their jobs due to this program was "probably greater than the toll of victims in any other loyalty or security program of the day."(20)

September, 1952
Lee Harvey Oswald and Marguerite move to private accommodation in the Bronx. Lee is enrolled at PS 117 and thereafter becomes a truant.(21)

1953
The Army is tasked with evaluating the problem of Korean POWs who defected or collaborated with the enemy. One aim of this study was to establish a profile among 13 to 17 year olds most at risk of defecting in the future.(22) In charge of this study was Army Psychologist, Major William Mayer.(23) Mayer found that American youth susceptible to the techniques employed in Korea were emotionally weak and unable to withstand any form of physical or mental stress.(24) Morris became involved in this study through the Jenner Committee, which also conducted investigations into the problem.(25) But the Chinese and Koreans had also been taking notes. They found early in the conflict that those from the southern states who had an unstable home life, and who, moreover, were raised in a female-dominated house, had high IQs, a thirst for information and an aversion to authority, should be made prime targets for Communist Party recruitment.(26) Oswald's partially falsified background, Youth House reports and truancy record [see following entries] thus made him a perfect candidate for both recruitment by the Communist Party, and as an infiltrator of such actions on behalf of the Morris-Moskoff student spy network.

April 13, 1953
By the time the Korean War and the investigation of POWs was underway, "the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Psychological Warfare Division, and the CIA [and its fore-runner, OSS] had all attempted to develop methods of interrogation and de-brainwashing. On 10 April 1953, Secretary of State Dulles publicly noted that the UNC [United Nations Command] refused to torture captured soldiers and so possessed no human guinea pigs on which to experiment. Just three days later, however, [Allen] Dulles acted on aide Richard Helms's suggestion to form MKULTRA, a top-secret project to investigate whether and how it was possible to modify an individual's behavior by covert means."(27)

April 16-May 7, 1953
Lee Harvey Oswald is remanded to Youth House for psychiatric study as a result of his truancy.(28) Both Lee and Marguerite provide false information on family background to staff at the Youth House, and to Parole Officer, John Carro.(29) This misinformation gave the impression Lee grew up without male role models.(30) The truth of the matter was however, quite different. He had two older brothers he admired and looked up to, a step-father for a period, who by all reports, had a good relationship with young Lee, male workers in the orphanage, and a coterie of older male relatives, not the least being Uncle Dutz, with whom he spent considerable time. The "lack of male role models" scenario was further reinforced by the alleged falling out between Lee and John Pic, which conveniently preceded the path to the making of Lee's "troubled" profile.(31)

May 1, 1953
Youth House Senior Psychiatrist, Dr Renatus Hartogs, writes a report on Oswald. The New York Post of Nov 30, 1963 quoted this report as stating that Oswald had "schizophrenic tendencies" and that he was "potentially dangerous". In his Warren Commission testimony, Hartogs recognised the terms as being ones he used, and he believed that the New York Post had quoted from his report. The report supplied to the Warren Commission however, contained no such language.

May 7, 1953
The Family Court orders Lee to return to school,(32) despite Hartogs extant report noting that Lee had "personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and passive aggressive tendencies." This ruling, given Hartogs' report, was unusual in that, by law, "a person whose mental or physical condition is such that his attendance [at school] upon instruction under the provisions of part one of this article would endanger the health or safety of himself or of others shall not be permitted to attend." Under the same law, Hartogs' report was insufficient in itself to stop Lee's attendence. What it should have done was trigger the Superintendent of Schools to organise another psychiatric examination to determine Lee's fitness to continue in school.(33) Recall that the Superintendent was William Jansen, and that during this very period, Jansen was involved with Saul Moskoff in a Communist witch hunt of the Teacher's Union. Recall also that Moskoff and Morris were running a student spy network supplying information on teachers to both Jansen and the Jenner Committee. But not only did Jansen fail to order such an examination, as the law required, Oswald's New York School records do not even contain one scrap of information concerning his psychological profile sketched in Youth House.(34)

Oct 21, 1953
PS 44 reports to Carro that Oswald's behaviour is unsatisfactory, that he had been refusing to salute the flag, and that offers of help had been met with belligerence.(35) During the height of McCarthyism and loyalty oaths, the failure to investigate whether the flag salute refusals had political overtones should be noted.

Nov 19, 1953
PS 44 reports to Carro that, following a visit to the school by Mrs Oswald, Lee is no longer presenting as a problem student.(36)

(1) "No Wonder We Are Losing" by Robert Morris.

(2) Ibid.

(3) Ibid.

(4) Ibid.

(5) Ibid.

(6) "State Legislature and Communism: The Current Scene" by William B Prendergast of the US Naval Academy, and published in the American Political Science Review, vol 44, No 3, Sep, 1950.

(7) Ray Tucker's syndicated column, "National Whirligig", May 9, 1950.

(8) Tydings Committee Wikipedia entry.

(9) Ray Tucker's syndicated column, "National Whirligig", May 9, 1950.

(10)New York Times Obituary, Jan 2, 1997.

(11)Sarah Lawrence College Archives.

(12)Guide to the Records of the US Senate at the National Achives (record group 46) Ch 13: Records of the Committee on the Judiciary and Related Committees, 1816-1968.

(13)Alt.assassination.jfk newsgoup post by Jim Olmstead, Sep 25, 2000.

(14)"Unrepentant Leftist: A Lawyer's Memoir" by Victor Rabinowitz p 149.

(15)"In Calmer Times: The Supreme Court and Red Monday" by Arthur J Sabin p 91.

(16)American Intelligence Journal 1987, vol 8, no. 3.

(17)"The Surveillance-Industrial Complex: How the American Government is Conscripting Businesses and Individuals in the Construction of a Surveillance Society" by Jay Stanley for the ACLU.

(18)Warren Commission Report ch 7 p 378.

(19)Warren Commission testimony of John Edward Pic vol 11, p 37.

(20)"Security Isn't Free" by Commander C Douglas Kroll, Naval History Magazine, February, 2002.

(21)Warren Commission Report ch 7, p 379.

(22)Alt.assassination.jfk newsgroup post by Jim Olmstead, Sep 25, 2001.

(23)"The 21 Turncoat GIs: Nonrepatriations and the Political Culture of the Korean War" by Adam J Zweiback, The Historian Magazine, Winter, 1998.

(24)"The Making of the Cold War Enemy: Culture and Politics in the Military-Intellectual Complex" by Ron Theodore Robin, p 164.

(25)"An American Editor in Early Revolutionary China: John William Powell and the China Weekly/Monthy Review" by Neil L O'Brien p 264

(26)Alt.assassination.jfk newsgroup post by Jim Olmstead, Sep 25, 2000

(27)"The 21 Turncoat GIs: Nonrepatriations and the Political Culture of the Korean War" by Adam J Zweiback, The Historian Magazine, Winter, 1998.

(28)Warren Commission Carro Exhibit No. 1

(29)Ibid.

(30)Ibid.

(31)For information on Oswald's relationships with "father figures" and his falling out with John Pic, see Warren Commission testimonies of Marguerite Oswald vol 1, Robert Oswald vol 1, Charles Murret vol 8, and John Edward Pic vol 11 of the Warren Commission Hearings.

(32)Warren Commission Carro Exhibit No. 1

(33)New York State Consolidated Laws: Education. Part 1: Compulsory Education; Section
3208: Attendence; proper mental and physical condition (this being the current provision in 1953).

(34)Warren Commission Exhibit 1384.

(35)Warren Commission Carro Exhibit No. 1

(36)Ibid.

The Army is tasked with evaluating the problem of Korean POWs who defected or collaborated with the enemy. One aim of this study was to establish a profile among 13 to 17 year olds most at risk of defecting in the future.(18) In charge of this study was Army Psychologist, Major William Mayer.(19) Mayer found that American youth susceptible to the techniques employed in Korea were emotionally weak and unable to withstand any form of physical or mental stress.(20) Morris became involved in this study through the Jenner Committee, which also conducted investigations into the problem. (Greg Parker)

Terrific stuff, Greg. Very interesting.

Do you know anything about a tape William Mayer made? It was concerning brainwashing techniques and was played at a meeting of the Dallas Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1837?

Also, do you have any information on what Mayer was doing at the American Embassy at the Scandinavian Alliance Mission in Kalgan?

Interesting to note that in late 1962, the Austin YAF group held a symposium with speakers Robert Morris, William Mayer, Russell Kirk and former J. Edgar Hoover assistant W. Cleon Skousen. That would have been one not to miss.

James

James, I know Mayer wrote some articles on the subject, but haven't come across any reference to a tape. I also hadn't been able to put Mayer and Morris together, so thanks for that info.

As for being at the US Embassy at the Scandinavian Alliance Mission in Kalgan... depends what time-frame you're talking about. He was a Military Attache to the Embassy in China prior to WWII. This particular path leads to Pearl Harbor and the US entry into the war.

I now have the info on Morris for the 46-49 period, so edit/update coming.

Your work in compiling this timeline illustrates the very "high bar" of historical analysis that is, more than necessary if the myriad of theories, hypothesis and intertwining connections is translated into a definitive historical record of "what happened" with regard to 11/22/63.

I also have a question, concerning a somewhat unexplored area of the whole miasma of 6 Degrees of Separation. Are you aware of any encounters or interaction between Robert Morris and the Office of Security, particularly with reference to Otto Otepka?
The book "The Ordeal of Otto Otepka" is a very hard read for JFK Researchers in the sense that the author displays such a "anti-Democrat/Kennedy" bias that it makes IMO any factual assertions suspect. Nevertheless, the documentation of the problems re "security clearance's" for Walt Rostow, [and other individuals circa 1955-63] makes at the very least knowledge of the controversial nature of this issue a required area of study. Otepka's removal as THE individual who got the job done [at least as far the conservative's in the US Gov't were concerned] re the issuance of such security clearances is very much related to the assassination in the sense that Lee Harvey Oswald was a name familiar to the long ago abolished Office of Security, as well as peripheral areas concerning the Eastland Committee.

My own view re the assertions of the author, that [at least as far as allegations Walt Rostow was a Communist] was a purely political smear which is in hindsight, laughable but was by no means such in 1963.

Robert

Greg

Nice work.

Perhaps this will be of interest to you as well.

You wrote:

"1953
The Army is tasked with evaluating the problem of Korean POWs who defected or collaborated with the enemy. One aim of this study was to establish a profile among 13 to 17 year olds most at risk of defecting in the future.(22) In charge of this study was Army Psychologist, Major William Mayer.(23) Mayer found that American youth susceptible to the techniques employed in Korea were emotionally weak and unable to withstand any form of physical or mental stress.(24) Morris became involved in this study through the Jenner Committee, which also conducted investigations into the problem.(25) But the Chinese and Koreans had also been taking notes. They found early in the conflict that those from the southern states who had an unstable home life, and who, moreover, were raised in a female-dominated house, had high IQs, a thirst for information and an aversion to authority, should be made prime targets for Communist Party recruitment.(26) Oswald's partially falsified background, Youth House reports and truancy record [see following entries] thus made him a perfect candidate for both recruitment by the Communist Party, and as an infiltrator of such actions on behalf of the Morris-Moskoff student spy network.

April 13, 1953
By the time the Korean War and the investigation of POWs was underway, "the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Psychological Warfare Division, and the CIA [and its fore-runner, OSS] had all attempted to develop methods of interrogation and de-brainwashing. On 10 April 1953, Secretary of State Dulles publicly noted that the UNC [United Nations Command] refused to torture captured soldiers and so possessed no human guinea pigs on which to experiment. Just three days later, however, [Allen] Dulles acted on aide Richard Helms's suggestion to form MKULTRA, a top-secret project to investigate whether and how it was possible to modify an individual's behavior by covert means."(27)"

You might want to add this little tidbit to your files:

In 1952/53 Edwin Anderson Walker held the position of Deputy Chief of Staff for Prisoners of War Affairs, 8th Army.

By the way it was not the first time that Walker found himself in the position of processing large numbers of human beings for the Army.

Jim Root

Robert, during his first stint with the Senate Subcommittee, it investigated the administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws. That would have caused considerable interaction with the Office of Security. Both Dennis Bartholemew and David Boylan have published articles which include significant information on the strong ties between Morris and Otepka.

Jim, thanks. I'm trying to update the timeline as new relevant info is found/received. This, to my mind, belongs in the timeline.