Heres an excerpt from Blue Moon, that expresses the reality in 1963 and still is relevant today: As the year progressed, Castro toned down his inflammatory appeals for violent revolution throughout Latin America, and the administration was starting to realize that time favored Castro, as Cubans and others became accustomed to the idea that he was there to stay. A CIA National Intelligence Estimate on June 14 presented a sober assessment: “It is unlikely that political opposition or economic difficulties will cause the regime to collapse . . . all our evidence points to the complete political predominance of Fidel.”34 The expectation that an internal upheaval would emerge to oust Castro in response to a U.S. plot was central to the planning of the Bay of Pigs invasion and every other effort to change the government in Cuba. Each time, the Cuban populace rallied under the Cuban flag and stood with Castro. Cuban nationalism trumped discontent with the tyrannical Communist government. By mid-September back-channel sources revealed that Castro was unhappy with his dependence on the Soviet bloc and that he would consider discussions with the United States for some kind of accommodation. Informal diplomatic explorations were made to facilitate a secret discussion (even Robert Kennedy was willing to explore a secret meeting). Dr. Carlos Lechuga, Cuba’s chief delegate to the U.N. made a harsh anti-U.S. speech on October 7. In response Ambassador Stevenson said, “If Castro wanted peace with his neighbors, he need only do three things--stop being a Soviet stooge, stop trying to subvert other nations and start carrying out the promises of his revolution regarding constitutional rights.” Behind the scenes Dr. Rene Vallejo Ortiz, Castro’s aide and personal physician, proposed on October 31 a Cuban plane would fly to Mexico to pick up an U.S. official and fly him to a secret airport near Varadero, Cuba, where Castro would talk to him alone.37 This proposal was briefly considered by the Kennedys but declined. There seemed to be some receptiveness to these entreaties to improve relations with Cuba and a series of other attempts were made, but all failed to materialize. Cold War fears of Communism, politics and the growing political power of the Cuban exile community dictated the U.S. government’s stance. Cuban-American unhappy relations seemed destined to remain frozen in time. The Kennedy brothers never seemed to accept William J. Fulbright’s (the Democratic senator from Arkansas and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) admonition: “Cuba is a thorn in our side, not a dagger to our heart.” On November 12, John McCone reported that the Soviets continued to withdraw troops from Cuba and those that remained were mainly manning the SAM sites. He also disclosed that about 25 agents (presumably Cubans working for the CIA) had been killed or captured over the last year due to the increased effectiveness of Castro’s internal security forces. Tragically, on November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas and with him, any chance of appeasement with Cuba also died. In his memoir, Khrushchev expressed his respect for the president:
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 12:40:05 +0000
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