Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

So, John Newman claims that the Mexico City affair was a CIA operation, all the way, through and through, from beginning to end, and it doesn't matter whether the real Oswald was there or not.

Oh, it matters alright. Because: if it involved the real Oswald going down there, then how did the CIA get him to do it? If it was their operation and not his, then how did they get him to do it? How did they get him to go along? How did they explain it to him? How did the conversation go?

With that thought in mind, here's a hypothetical conversation about it between David Atlee Phillips and Lee Harvey Oswald:

DAP: Listen, Lee. The Agency has got another assignment for you. They want you to go down to Mexico City and apply for a visa at the Soviet Embassy and also at the Cuban Consulate.

LHO: What for?

DAP: Oh, you know. It's just like before when you did the leafletting outside the Trade Mart- to make you look like a Castro supporter. They just want to establish your credentials as a gung-ho Communist, that you'll do anything for Communism. 

LHO: And, are they going to expect me to actually go to Russia again or to Cuba? 

DAP: No, no, no. They've got other plans for you. Believe me; you've got no worries that way. I can tell you- with certainty- that you are definitely not going to Russia or Cuba. 

LHO: Yeah, but I don't understand. What do they expect to accomplish by having me go down there and do that? What, are they going to put it on the Evening News? 

DAP: Something like that. But, listen Man: You know as well as I do that the CIA is a "need to know" organization. The left hand doesn't always know what the right hand is doing. They just told me to get your butt down to Mexico City to apply for Soviet and Cuban visas. That's it. It's the next step in the program. That's all I know. That's all I can tell you. 

LHO: Listen, David, or Maurice, or whatever the hell your name is, I've got to ask you something. You get paid by the Agency, right?

DAP: Of course. 

LHO: That's a nice paycheck that's convertible into green dollars?

DAP: Yes. Naturally. What are you getting at?

LHO: What I'm getting at is that I haven't been paid. They are treating me like an agent, a CIA agent. They're sending me here and there on assignments. They're having me do stuff for them. But, I haven't gotten paid, and nobody has talked to me about paying me. And do you know what the result of it is? My wife and I have had to depend on the largess of the White Russian community in Dallas. And right now, my wife has gone off to live with Ruth Paine in Irving, along with my daughter. And, it's all because I can't support them because I keep doing all this shit for you people for nothing.  

DAP: Now listen, Man, that is not my department. I have nothing to do with that. But, if you want, I can put in a word. I'll see what I can find out. I'll tell you what: if you do the assignment for me: get yourself down to Mexico City and waltz into those Embassies and make a fuss about wanting visas, and meanwhile, I'll see what I can find out about your paycheck. 

LHO: Hmm. You will, huh? Hmmm..... OK, I'll do it, but this is the last time. Either I start getting paid or my spying days are over. I'm tired of being your volunteer intelligence agent. Everybody gets paid around here except me. Look how thin I am. Why do you think that is? When you're dirt poor, you tend to skip meals. 

DAP: I'd be happy to buy you lunch. Hey, we'll go to that all-you-can-eat place. And after you're stuffed, we'll head to the bus station to get you down to Old Meh-he-co. What do you say, amigo?  

LHO: The life and times of an uncompensated CIA agent. It's not what it's cracked up to be.