More on U.S.-Cuban Negotiations
DRAPER, THEODORE
FOR THE RECORD More on U. S.—Cuban Negotiations In the last issue of The New Leader, I presented a letter from Dr. Rufo López-Fresquet, the former Cuban Minister of the Treasury, in which he...
...Curiously, in the hundreds of thousands of words which he has uttered and the dozens of interviews which he has granted, Castro himself has never even alleged that he had wanted and sought U.S...
...Already the gains have been considerable...
...López-Fresquet's letter, I commented: "LopezFresquet's account is obviously a partial one...
...Amoedo and the State Department apparently differ on the exact terms of the approach...
...López-Fresquet, he was asked by Dr...
...But whether or not the U.S...
...López-Fresquet, an unsuccessful approach was made to Fidel Castro in March 1960 to ease U.S.-Cuban tensions...
...Lazo and Dr...
...López-Fresquet on one aspect of the March 1960 incident...
...intransigence" in 1959 in his book, Cuba: Socialisme et Développement...
...and Cuban governments...
...Lazo has informed The New Leader that Dr...
...aid...
...Lazo, in behalf of the United States, to find out how Fidel Castro would react to an offer of "the newest military planes and the technical assistance to operate them" as a way of ending the quarrelling between the two countries...
...This propaganda line has been assiduously cultivated by his foreign sympathizers—most recently by one of his French agricultural advisers, René Dumont, who has resurrected the canard about U.S...
...López-Fresquet and Dr...
...After presenting Dr...
...This incident was finally confirmed by a State Department spokesman, Robert J. McCloskey, on April 14 of this year...
...López-Fresquet's account was partially based on a misunderstanding...
...It is clear that these incidents will come out piecemeal for some time, perhaps a long time, owing to the secrecy maintained by both the U.S...
...It is still hard to understand why the United States took so long to confirm Assistant Secretary Rubottom's initiative in April 1959, why the State Department spokesman bothered to deny a single word in my original reference to the Amoedo incident but has relapsed into silence in the face of Dr...
...Mario Lazo, senior partner of the former leading legal firm in Cuba and a well-known unofficial adviser to the U.S...
...Lazo intended to go to the United States to seek support for his proposal as a way of persuading Castro not to turn to the Soviets for arms...
...Three years ago, Dr...
...Lazo and Dr...
...As long as the governments persist in their reticence, this duty is not an easy one to fulfill...
...He made the following points: He is a Cuban, not an American, though his excellent knowledge of English and education in this country had led many to assume that he was an American...
...Rufo López-Fresquet, the former Cuban Minister of the Treasury, in which he related his role in a March 1960 approach to Fidel Castro, initiated by Dr...
...As for the idea of military assistance, it was wholly his own and he had never discussed it with anyone before broaching it to Dr...
...I have again been assured by Dr...
...According to Dr...
...Theodore Draper...
...López-Fresquet that in making this subsequent proposal to Castro he kept to an agreement with Lazo and did not mention the latter's name, but referred to him as a "person whom he [López-Fresquet] had reason to believe had the power to make this offer...
...and that the present explanation by Dr...
...Another intriguing episode, the January 1960 encounter with Castro involving the former Argentine Ambassador in Havana, Julio A. Amoedo, has been disclosed in an exclusive firstperson report in these pages ("Negotiating with Fidel Castro," NL, April 27), though Dr...
...Interestingly, too, both men read the same meaning into Castro's rejection...
...Lazo of his own role does not therefore alter the significance of Castro's refusal...
...Felipe Pazos, former President of the National Bank of Cuba, told of the unsuccessful effort made by former Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Roy Rubottom to elicit a statement of Cuban needs and wants in April 1959...
...A similar divergence seems to have arisen between Dr...
...We can only present the evidence as it comes to light from those in a direct position to give it...
...Amoedo's affirmation of my information, and why in general the State Department should make it so onerous for others to do what it should be doing itself...
...Embassy in Havana...
...that both he and Castro discussed the offer on the assumption that it would be backed up by the U.S...
...Later, I added: "It is the duty of a free press to cast some light on this issue, so zealously exploited by pro-Castro propaganda...
...inspired it, according to both Dr...
...If Castro had replied favorably, Dr...
...Lazo learned that Castro had turned the idea down, he regarded the rejection as the first definite indication that Castro was irrevocably in the Communist camp...
...When Dr...
Vol. 47 • May 1964 • No. 10
