104. "WE CANNOT RECOGNIZE ANY U.S. RIGHTS TO DECIDE THE FATE OF OTHER COUNTRIES, INCLUDING THE LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES": Message From the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R. (Khrushchev) to the President of the United States (Kennedy), April 22, 1961 (Excerpts)

88

MR. PRESIDENT: I received your reply of 18 April. You write that the United States does not intend to carry out a military intervention in Cuba.

As for the Soviet Union, I have said many times and I affirm again: Our Government does not seek any advantages or privileges in Cuba. . . . We have no bases in Cuba and do not intend to establish any..

I would like to take this opportunity, Mr. President, to express my opinion as to your declarations, and the declarations of some other U.S. statesmen, that rockets and other armaments might be placed on Cuban territory and used against the United States.

From this a conclusion is drawn as if the United States had a right to attack Cuba―either directly or through the enemies of the Cuban people whom you arm with your weapons, train on your territory, maintain with the money of U.S. taxpayers, transport by the transport units of your armed forces, at the same time striving to mask the fact that they are fighting the Cuban people and its legal government.

You also refer to some duty of the United States "to defend the Western Hemisphere against external aggression." But what kind of duty can it be in this case? No one has a duty to defend rebels against the legal government in a sovereign state, which Cuba is.

Mr. President, you are taking a very dangerous path. Think about it. You speak about your rights and obligations. Certainly, everyone can have pretensions to these rights or those rights, but then you must also permit other states to base their acts in analogous instances on the same kind of reasons and considerations.

You declare that Cuba is allegedly able to use its territory for acts against the United States. This is your assumption, and it is not based on any facts. We however, on our side, are able now to refer to concrete facts and not to assumptions: In some countries bordering directly on the Soviet Union by land and by sea there are now governments which conduct a far from wise policy, governments which have concluded military agreements with the United States and have put their territory at its disposal to accommodate American military bases there. In addition, your military people openly declare that these bases are directed toward the Soviet Union. Even so, this is clear to all: If you consider yourself to be in the right to implement such measures against Cuba which have lately been taken by the United States of America, you must admit that other countries, also, do not have lesser reason to act in a similar manner in relation to states on whose territories preparations are actually being made which represent a threat against the security of the Soviet Union. If you do not wish to sin against elementary logic, you evidently must admit such a right to other states. We, on our side, do not adhere to such views.

We consider that the reasonings voiced on this subject in the United States are not only a highly free interpretation of international law, but, speaking frankly, a blunt preaching of perfidious policy.

Certainly, a strong state always can, if it wishes, find an excuse to attack a weaker country and then justify the attack, alleging that this country was a potential threat.

88 Department of State Bulletin, May 8, 1961, pp. 664-667.

89

Ante, doc. 98.

If such methods prevailed in relations between states then there would be no room for law, and instead of it lawlessness and arbitrariness would take its place. Thus, Mr. President, your sympathies are one thing, and actions against the security and independence of other nations, undertaken on the strength of those sympathies, is quite another matter. Naturally you can express your sympathies toward the imperialist and colonialist countries and this does not astonish anyone. You, for instance, cast your vote with them in the United Nations. This is a question of your morality. But what was done against Cuba-this is not morality. This is warlike action.

I wish to stress that if the United Nations is destined to attain true strength and fulfill the functions for which it was created-at the present time this Organization, unfortunately, represents an organism that is contaminated with the germs of colonialism and imperialism-then the United Nations must resolutely condemn the warlike actions against Cuba.

The question here is not only one of condemning the United States. It is important that the condemnation of aggression should become a precedent, a lesson which should also be learned by other countries with a view to stopping the repetition of aggression. Because if one starts to approve, or even to condone, the morality of aggressors, this can be taken as a guide by other states, and this will inevitably lead to war conflicts, any one of which may suddenly lead to World War III.

The Soviet Government has always consequently defended the freedom and independence of all nations. It is obvious, then, that we cannot recognize any U.S. rights to decide the fate of other countries, including the Latin American countries. We regard any interference by one government in the affairs of another-and armed interference, especially-as a breach of all international laws, and of the principles of peaceful coexistence which the Soviet Union has been unfailingly advocating since the first days of its establishment. If it is a duty of all states and their leaders, in our times more than ever before, to refrain from acts which might threaten universal peace, it concerns even more the leaders of great powers. This is my appeal to you, Mr. President.

The Soviet Government's position in international affairs remains unchanged. We wish to build up our relations with the United States in such a manner that the Soviet Union and the United States, as the two most powerful states in the world, would stop sabre-rattling and bringing forward their military or economic advantage, because this will not result in improvement of the international situation, but in its deterioration. We sincerely wish to reach an agreement with you and other countries of the world on disarmament, as well as other problems the solution of which would facilitate peaceful coexistence, recognition of the people's right to the social and political system which they themselves have established in their countries, and would also facilitate true respect for the people's will and noninterference in their internal affairs.

Only under such conditions is it actually possible to speak about coexistence, as coexistence is only possible if states with different social systems submit to international law, and recognize as their highest aim the insuring of peace in the entire world. Only under such circumstances will peace rest on a sound basis.

"THE PRESIDENT WILL NOT BE DRAWN INTO AN EXTENDED PUBLIC DEBATE WITH THE CHAIRMAN [OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF THE U.S.S.R.] ON THE BASIS OF THIS LATEST ... COMMUNIST DISTORTION OF THE BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN": Statement Read to Correspondents by the Director of the Office of News (White), Department of State, April 22, 1961 9o

"Department of State Bulletin, May 8, 1961, pp. 663–664.

105. PROHIBITION OF CUBAN ACCESS TO CLASSIFIED SESSIONS AND DOCUMENTS OF THE INTER-AMERICAN DEFENSE BOARD: Resolution Adopted by the Council of Delegates of the Inter-American Defense Board, April 26, 1961 91

WHEREAS:

1. Subparagraph (c) of Article 33 of the Regulations of the InterAmerican Defense Board (IADB Document C-388) in defining secret sessions of the Council of Delegates, establishes that matters of a secret nature which are discussed "must be known only by the members of the Board who, on the initiative of the Chairman and in the opinion of the Council, must know such information, and by the military and civilian personnel rigorously qualified and assigned for that purpose";

2. The recent actions and declarations of the Revolutionary Government of Cuba prove that the participation of the Delegate of Cuba in the planning for the defense is highly prejudicial to the work of the Board and the security of the Western Hemisphere;

Therefore, the Council of Delegates

RESOLVES:

To deny the Cuban delegation access to classified sessions and classified documents of the Inter-American Defense Board, as a temporary measure, while the present and evident military alliance exists between Cuba and the Soviet bloc.

106. UNITED STATES REACTION TO THE CUBAN PRIME MINISTER'S ANNOUNCEMENT THAT "CUBA IS A SOCIALIST REGIME": Statement Issued by the Director of the Office of News (White), Department of State, May 2, 1961 (Excerpts) "

92

Prime Minister Castro has been headed toward open embrace of the Sino-Soviet bloc for some time.

Prime Minister Castro says several times in his speech 93 that there has been a socialist revolution in Cuba and that Cuba is a socialist regime. He talks about initiating a socialist constitution.

Let there be no confusion regarding Castro's use of the word "socialist" instead of "communist".

None of the members of the Communist bloc calls itself communist. They say they are socialist, and they are merely working toward communism.

In fact, only the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia are called socialist republics. The others, including Communist China, are called people's

91 Text as printed in OAS doc. OEA/Ser.D/III.13 (English), p. 12. This resolution, introduced by the Representative of the United States, was adopted by a vote of 12 to 1 (Cuba), with 4 abstentions (Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Venezuela) and one vote reserved (Brazil).

02 Files of the Office of News, Department of State. 93 Before a May Day rally in Habana May 1, 1961.

republics, by which they presumably mean that they do not consider themselves to have reached even the socialist stage yet. It would therefore appear that Castro considers Cuba further along the communist road than some other countries in the bloc.

Castro also said that there is no need for elections in Cuba, which he repeatedly promised in the past. He said that meetings such as yesterday's are the only elections he plans.

Once again he seems to have gone the other members of the Communist bloc one better, 'for even the Soviet Union holds elections, though there is no real choice among candidates.

107. "THE THING TO DO NOW IS TO DRAW A DEEP BREATH AND LOOK OVER THE SITUATION VERY CAREFULLY": Replies Made by the Secretary of State (Rusk) to Questions Asked at a News Conference, May 4, 1961 (Excerpts) 94

.. I think in Latin America there has been a considerable crystallization of concern and anxiety about the penetration of this hemisphere by now, in his own terms, a declared member of the SinoSoviet bloc.95 This was a question which has been discussed and talked about in the hemisphere, but I think the recent episode has underlined this question as an urgent question.

Abroad, you get a variety of reaction to the situation. And there are many who are concerned about what seems to them to be a further extension of the Sino-Soviet influence. There are those who are concerned because they realize that this cannot help but have an impact upon American opinion and American attitudes toward problems in other parts of the world.

I don't think it would be possible to generalize the reaction on it. But the thing to do now, it seems to me in the face of this setback which this group suffered there, and which we suffered-the thing to do now is to draw a deep breath and look over the situation very carefully and consider a wide range of problems involved and possible actions which ought to be taken; and, most of all, to stay on the main road of hemispheric development and hemispheric solidarity. That is the object of the exercise at present. And, of course, that will be somewhat complicated by the special issues involved in the Cuban question. But a great deal of the Cuban question arises because it is a hemispheric question and the hemisphere is the great concern. And we must turn our attention to the unity and solidarity and strengthening of the hemisphere. And that involves a lot of thingssome small, some large.

"The replies printed here are taken from p. 762 of the Department of State Bulletin, May 22, 1961 (reprint of Department of State press release No. 287).

See supra.

One of the problems about the shape of events in Cuba is that they took over from an earlier situation in Cuba which invited revolution in that country. And we all acknowledge, of course, that in the early days of the Castro revolution, when it was looked upon as an economic and social revolution against intolerable conditions and represented a broad appeal of the peoples for improvement in the situation, it had great sympathy all over the hemisphere and in this country.

Now the revolutionary movement, based upon the revolution of rising expectations, based upon an attempt to reduce the gap between the privileged and the nonprivileged-these are real factors which ought not be confused with the penetration of this hemisphere by the Sino-Soviet bloc. They are factors which open the way for such penetration. But unless they are dealt with, and unless we work at them along the Alliance for Progress and along the other means that are there for our disposal, then the hemisphere is weakened.

108. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PRESIDENT'S FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE ADVISORY BOARD: Announcement Issued by the White House, May 4, 1961 96

The President on May 4 issued an Executive order establishing the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board."7

The order reactivates, under broadened terms of reference, the President's Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities, which was established by President Eisenhower in 1956,98 following a recommendation of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government. New appointments are being made to the Board because the resignations of the members of the prior Board of Consultants were submitted to and accepted by President Eisenhower before he left office.

Composed of able and experienced individuals from outside the Government, the reactivated Board will be responsible for conducting an objective, independent review of the foreign intelligence and related activities of the Government and for reporting periodically to the President with respect to its assessment of the objectives and performance of those activities by the Central Intelligence Agency and the several additional civilian and military agencies engaged therein. The responsibilities assigned to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board are of a continuing nature and encompass the total U.S. foreign intelligence effort. They are to be distinguished from the ad hoc and much more limited study that is presently being made by Gen. Maxwell Taylor.99

96 'White House press release dated May 4, 1961 (text as printed in the Department of State Bulletin, May 22, 1961, pp. 773–774).

97

V Executive Order No. 10938; 26 Fed. Reg. 3951.

98 See Executive Order No. 10656 of Feb. 6, 1956; 21 Fed. Reg. 859 (also the Department of State Bulletin, Feb. 27, 1956, pp. 340-341).

00 Begun Apr. 22, 1961, or shortly thereafter.