Cuban leader tried to warm up to U.S. in 1964
WASHINGTON -- (AP) -- Less than three months after President Kennedy's
death, Cuban leader Fidel Castro told President Lyndon Johnson
he was eager for
Johnson to prevail in the 1964 election -- and even invited him
to take ``hostile
action'' against Cuba if it would be to his political benefit,
newly published
documents show.
Castro also invited Johnson to continue a U.S.-Cuban dialogue
that Kennedy had
initiated in the months before his assassination.
Castro's comments are contained in a series of once-secret 1960s
documents on
U.S.-Cuban relations that were obtained by Peter Kornbluh, a
senior analyst at
the National Security Archive, a research group at George Washington
University.
Kornbluh wrote an article based on the documents in the current
edition of Cigar
Aficionado.
The Castro message, dated Feb. 12, 1964, was given verbally by
Castro to Lisa
Howard of ABC News in Havana for delivery to Johnson.
Castro, who then held the title of prime minister, asked Howard
to ``Please tell
President Johnson that I earnestly desire his election to the
presidency in
November ... though that appears assured. .... Seriously, I have
observed how
Republicans use Cuba as a weapon against the Democrats. So tell
President
Johnson to let me know what I can do.''
He suggested that his offer remain secret lest it become useful
to the
Republicans. It was a time when the conservative wing of the
party was poised to
seize power after long years of dominance by moderates. That
summer, the GOP
nominated one of those conservative rebels, Sen. Barry Goldwater
of Arizona, to
run against Johnson in the 1964 presidential election.
Castro continued: ``If the president feels it necessary during
the campaign to
make bellicose statements about Cuba or even to take hostile
action, if he will
inform me unofficially that a specific action is required because
of domestic
political considerations, I shall understand and not take any
serious retaliatory
action.''
How Johnson responded to Castro's letter is not known. Four months
after his
message to Johnson, Castro proposed in an interview ``extensive
discussions of
the issues dividing'' Cuba and the United States. There were
subsequent contacts
but the initiative begun by Kennedy fizzled out by the end of
1964.
As the documents show, Kennedy placed high priority on a normal
relationship
with Cuba.
Rejecting a State Department recommendation that Cuba loosen its
ties with the
Soviet Union and China as the price for normal ties, a White
House memo dated
March 4, 1963, said, ``We don't want to present Castro with a
condition that he
obviously cannot fulfill.
``We should start thinking along more flexible lines. The president,
himself, is very
interested in this one.''
The documents highlight Kennedy's previously reported interest
in abandoning his
policy of unremitting hostility toward Cuba in exchange for a
more moderate
course. For his part Castro seemed interested.
In mid-November 1963, Castro was preparing to send instructions
to his U.N.
ambassador on a proposed agenda for official talks between Castro
and a U.S.
emissary. Kennedy sent word to top aides that he was prepared
to decide on
next steps once the agenda was received. The date was Nov. 19,
1963, three
days before Kennedy's assassination.
As Kornbluh notes, Kennedy seemed the most unlikely of presidents
to seek an
accommodation with Castro.
He gave the green light to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, imposed
a trade
embargo, authorized CIA-Mafia assassination attempts against
Castro and other
efforts to destabilize the regime.
Kornbluh says that for the Kennedy White House, there was nothing
incongruous
about the switch to the olive branch during his last year in
office.
According to Kornbluh, then-national security adviser McGeorge
Bundy explained
the rationale in a 1996 interview. ``We wanted to make a reality
check on what
could or could not be done with Castro,'' Bundy said. He added
that Kennedy
``clearly thought this was an exploration worth making because
it might lead to
something.''