New York Times
April 18, 1961.  p. 1.

Rusk Declares Sympathy Of Nation for Castro Foes

By James Reston
Special to The New York Times

        WASHINGTON, April 17--Secretary of State Dean Rusk expressed today the sympathy of the American people for those struck against Castroism in Cuba, but emphasized "there is not and will not be any intervention there by United States forces."
        The Administration did not deny that it was giving material support to the raiding parties, but this aid was undoubtedly on a much smaller scale than originally planned here and the landings in Cuba were much smaller than excited reports of "invasion" suggested.
        No more than 200 to 300 men were involved in the week-end landings on the vast coastline of Cuba, according to reliable information reaching here.
        In fact, the landings of the last forty-eight hours were not designed to get a lot of fighting men on the ground, but to provide supplies for the anti-Castro underground already operating there as a result of at least six other landings that have taken place over the last few months.
Refugees Assume Control
        In the last ten days, the Cuban refugees have assumed control of the operations against Premier Fidel Castro. Accordingly, official Washington could not be sure of the fate of all the small parties that went ashore.
        Secretary Rusk was extremely cautious in his remarks on the situation at his news conference this morning. What happens in Cuba, he said, is for the Cuban people to decide. He added, however, that the Administration was "not indifferent" to the intrusion of the "Communist conspiracy" into this hemisphere and promised to "work together with other governments of this hemisphere to meet efforts by this conspiracy to extend its penetration." [Opening statement, Page 18.]
        On this point, considerable attention was being paid here to reports that several Soviet destroyers were en route to Cuba to be turned over to the Castro regime. Mr. Rusk did not refer to this in his formal statement and he turned aside almost all questions on the Cuban situation.
        "We do not have full information on what is happening on that island," he said. "Much of what we have comes from the Castro regime itself and indicates that serious unrest and disorders are to be found in all parts of the Country.
U.S. Will Not Intervene
        "The American people are entitled to know whether we are intervening in Cuba or intend to do so in the future. The answer to that is no."
        The history of United States sympathy for the anti-Castro refugees helps explain the present situation. Even before this Administration came to power, the refugees appealed to the Eisenhower Administration for assistance in restoring the freedom of Cuba.
        The was considerable support at the time within the Administration for United States air and naval support for the refugees involving members of the United States. For some time the planning went along on that assumption.
        In the last two weeks, however, President Kennedy decided against direct United States involvement in the operation, but it was agreed that the refugees should be free to take whatever action they deemed necessary to try to return to their homeland.
Aid May Be Insufficient
        What disturbs many observers here is that the United States may now find itself in a situation where it is blamed for giving aid to the refugees but not enough aid to bring Premier Castro down.
        The decisive question is the reaction of the mass of the people inside Cuba. The men in the landing parties are betting their lives that their intervention will produce a general uprising against the Castro Government.
        Thus the landing parties are not regarded here as a force strong enough to deal with Premier Castro's large army, but merely as a fuse to ignite a general revolt among the people.
        This is undoubtedly what Secretary Rusk had in mind in his formal statement. "The issue in Cuba," he said, "is not between Cuba and the United States but between the Castro dictatorship and the Cuban people."
        Mr. Rusk declined to answer questions about whether the United States would intervene in Cuba to protect American lives and property; what the United States would do if the Soviet Union came to the assistance of the Castro Government; what contact the Administration was maintaining with the anti-Castro Revolutionary Council; and whether washington would recognize the refugees if they established a solid foothold in Cuba and declared themselves to be the government of the island.
Under Debate at U.N.
        He turned aside all questions about Cuba on the ground that the issue was being debated in the United Nations today and that discussion therefore could not very well go on simultaneously at two different places. [Question 1.]
        The Administration is thus dealing gingerly with an extremely delicate situation. on the one hand it does not feel that it can refuse to provide help to the refugees without assisting the cause of Dr. Castro, but it does not want to get directly involved in such a way as to violate its promises not to use force against any government in the hemisphere.
        For this reason it has felt obliged to state publicly that it will not intervene with United States forces in Cuba. Yet even this has been something of an embarrassment because such a public pronouncement may discourage the general uprising that this week-end's thrusts into Cuba were intended to provoke.
        President Kennedy was criticized by a Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for having stated publicly that the United States would not intervene. Senator Homer Capehart, of Indiana, said that this amounted to "saying to Castro that you've got a free rein now, that the United States is not going to interfere with you so go ahead and do what you please."
        Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, Senator Wayne Morse, Democrat of Oregon, said "there is not a scintilla of evidence that supports Castro's claim that the United States Government is in any way implicated in, or is giving military, financial, or other participating support to the Cuban revolution."