[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

that he was “hysterical” when discussing the FBI, and that “they’ll kill me.” 248 Oswald
added ominously, “if they don’t leave me alone, I’m going to defend myself.” 249
All of this, of course, must be read skeptically, since Nechiporenko frequently
tries to score points against his former Cold War adversaries. “During the Cold war
period,” he wrote, “the assassination was used for psychological advantage by both
superpowers.” 250 He claimed that the KGB has released all its information on Oswald,
including his book, and that now it is time for the U.S. secret services to follow suit. He
also included a denial that Valery Kostikov, who also met with Oswald in Mexico City,
was the KGB officer in charge sabotage and subversion in the Western Hemisphere.
Kostikov told Nechiporenko with a chuckle in April 1993 that he “would have retired a
colonel-general, not as a colonel” if that had been his position in 1963. 251 However,
former FBI agent William Hosty wrote that Kostikov was “the KGB’s chief assassination
expert for the Western Hemisphere” when he met with Oswald, and declassified
government documents show the CIA thought so too at the time. 252
Nechiporenko did give a remarkable view inside the KGB mentality, however.
When he saw Oswald on television after the assassination and recognized him as the
strange visitor to the embassy, the KGB officer and Kostikov rushed up to their superior
with the news. With a chuckle (KGB officers apparently had an odd sense of humor), the
248 Nechiporenko, 77.
249 Nechiporenko, 80.
250 Nechiporenko, vii.
251 Nechiporenko, 138.
252 James P. Hosty, Jr. with Thomas Hosty, Assignment: Oswald, (New York: Arcade
Publish, 1996), 215.
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