I had entered the assassination labyrinth by choosing the topic of the Warren Commission for my master's thesis in Government at Cornell. Andrew Hacker, my supervising professor, wanted me to ascertain how the government goes about searching for such an elusive quarry as the truth. The Warren Commission had been appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to perform such a task just 3 weeks after John F. Kennedy was shot to death on November 22, 1963. Ten months later, after operating in complete secrecy, it issued its report, establishing that one man, Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, was responsible for the assassination. How had the seven members of the Commission--Chief Justice Earl Warren, Former Central Intelligence Director Allen W. Dulles, John J. McCloy, the Chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, Senator Richard B. Russell, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Senator John Sherman Cooper, the former Ambassador to India, Hale Boggs, the House Whip and Gerald R. Ford, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives -- organized their investigation, narrowed down their list of possible suspects to a single assassin, separated true from false allegations in their report, and, most importantly, during their secret meetings, insulated themselves from political pressures.

Up until this point, the Warren Commissioners had steadfastly refused to discuss their deliberations with outsiders, and the Chief Justice had invoked an aura of secrecy by pointing out that remaining elements of the case may not be known "in our lifetime." But, risking only postage, I wrote each of them a brief letter in which I said I was a I was a student at Cornell University preparing to write a master's thesis on the problem of organizing a secret investigation and my case study was to be the Warren Commission. To my shock, all seven of these men, wrote me back a personal latter. Except for the Chief Justice (who suggested I interview the Commission's general counsel, J. Lee Rankin in his place), they all agreed to be interviewed for my thesis.

I met Ford in Room 230, the office of the House Minority Leader. He was taller than I expected, with somewhat unruly patches of flaming red hair. He had an article Andrew Hacker had written in the New York Times conspicuously on his desk, as if to show me he had done his homework on my professor. He then turned on his office tape recorder for, he said, his record.

The interview, according to my notes went as follows:

Q. What role did the Commission play in selecting, its staff?

A. We agreed on J. Lee Rankin--as it turns out a good choice--then Rankin submitted staff and biographies, and we approved. We, more or less, took his word. I didn't know any one of them. We approved purely on Rankin's say so.

Q. Did the Commission act as a sort of Board Of Directors?

A. I didn't. I had my own independent investigation. I had [Gerald] Stiles, and Ex-Congressman Ray, and a Harvard lawyer, Frank Fallon, on my payroll, and they evaluated testimony. I kept these people from the Commission because I wanted to be sure they were independently there.

Q. Was there disagreement on the bullet that hit Governor Connally?

A. There was a wide spectrum of opinion among the Commisssion. I was closest to the staff position that Connally was hit by same bullet that hit Kennedy. Senator Russell was at the opposite extreme. He believed that Connally was hit by a separate bullet. The other members ranged in between us.

Q. Were there other areas of disagreement.

A. Yes. I can note two. I) On point 9 (WR, p2l) At first, it categorically stated there was "no conspiracy." But after objections was changed to "no evidence was found" and the passage of proving negatives. On the point about Oswald's motivation, I added 'Marxism.'

Q. How was it determined when to wind up?

A. The deadline was pushed back, there was some pressure but we all felt we finished. The latest date was September 28, because we wanted to finish the report before the election. Otherwise, it might be an issue.

Q. Who actually wrote the report?

A. Norman Redlich had a substantial role, but we all -- McCloy, Dulles, Cooper, Warren, and myself -- made contributions. Boggs played a lesser role.

He ended the interview, by saying, "By all means, write your thesis. I'm writing a book. This is no secrecy at all." It took about one hour. I had learned there were some conflicts between the staff and the Commissioners, and the Commissioners themselves.