Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Cuba, Volume VI

140. Letter From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Snow) to the Ambassador in Cuba (Smith)¹

Washington, September 29, 1958.

Dear Earl: I was sorry not to have been able to give you on the telephone² a fill-in on some of the background surrounding the drafting of the proposed public statement included in our telegram 175³ but the considerations are quite delicate and I thought it best to give you that background in this form so that we would not have to revert to double-talk which would have made it difficult to make the points clearly.

There are three primary reasons why we thought it best to make a general statement in which we refer both to the demands of the rebels and to contributions to political parties rather than dealing only with the matter of rebel demands.

• First, the United States Government position on any type of such contributions during electoral campaigns or on tribute, which can be a form of the same thing, is that we do not believe that such payments should be made by U.S. nationals since making them would not be consistent with our policy of non-involvement in the internal affairs of other countries. We take this position with respect to American firms which receive requests from any political parties during election campaigns abroad and as a matter of fact we sent out a message to this effect to Tegucigalpa⁴ prior to the elections in Honduras which took place just a year ago.
• Secondly, while we stated in the proposed announcement that the United States Government disapproves of contributions, we did not feel that we could go further than expressing this general disapproval since, in fact, we have very little control over whether payments are exacted and made, or retribution taken if payments are not made. The rebel forces in most areas of Oriente obviously have the capability of taking reprisals if payments are not made, and there is little more we can do other than express our disapproval. If, for instance, we went further and gave any direct or indirect advice to American firms that they not make these payments, we might later be in a difficult position with these companies if the rebels later took retaliatory action. These companies might fall back on the fact that they refused to make payments on the advice of their Government (and might later attempt to obtain indemnification on such basis). Accordingly, since the United States is limited in what it can do so far as rebel demands are concerned, the Department considered it wise to let the question of payments to rebels rest on the broader base.
• Finally, we thought that a public statement dealing with application of the principle would offer a face-saving opportunity for the rebels to withdraw their demands on the American companies, if they are of a mind to do so.

These are considerations we had in mind in preparing the proposed statement. We certainly understand your reasons for believing that the issue of the rebel demands should be met head-on, but hope that you will now agree that it was best to prepare the statement as we did.

Sincerely yours,

William P. Snow⁵

1. Source: Department of State, CCA Files: Lot 70 D 149, Cuba July–Dec. 1958. Confidential; Official–Informal. Drafted by Little and cleared with Whiteman, who also contributed to the draft.
2. No record of this telephone conversation has been found, but in telegram 324 from Havana, September 29 (sent at 11 a.m.), Smith wrote that after his telephone conversation with Snow, he was now recommending that the Embassy make no public statement. (ibid., Central Files, 737.00/9–2958)
3. Document 138.
4. Not further identified.
5. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.