Office of the Historian

268. Letter From the Chief of Naval Operations (Burke) to the Commander in Chief, Atlantic and U.S. Atlantic Fleet (Wright)1

Washington, March 30, 1959.

Dear Jerry: I thank you very much for your letter of 26 March enclosing your correspondence with Mike Fenno2 in regard to the Naval Base at Guantanamo. Such data helps us a great deal in our business because with this kind of background we can deal effectively with the problems before they get too serious, perhaps.

I think some of the people in the State Department are also a little bit disenchanted with the Castro boys. As you know, just before Fidel Castro took over, they had a meeting in State3 which I attended and in which I made a very brash statement that I thought Castro would take over. There would be a blood bath. We would find Castro even worse than Batista and there would be a lot of American businessmen who would lose their businesses. And that it was just a question of time before there was another revolution to get rid of Castro. This revolution would come fast because Castro and his followers were not in the business for the good of Cuba, but for Castro.

There was great objection to this brash statement which ended finally in a bet between Bob Murphy and myself. I don’t think it will be long before I collect a very excellent lunch from Bob Murphy.

However, with the new system in operation in Washington, I would not now be privy to a meeting such as occurred then. Instead, there would be some Department of Defense representative there. Hence, it is more important than ever that we be as informed as possible in order that the best interests of the United States be looked after as well as we can do it.

With warmest personal regards.

Sincerely yours,

Arleigh Burke4
  1. Source: Naval Historical Center, Burke Papers, Personal File (Wright). Confidential; Personal.↩
  2. None of this correspondence, including Admiral Fenno’s letter of March 24 to Wright and Wright’s reply of March 26, is printed. Fenno had written, among other things, that the general situation in Cuba had not changed much: “Fidel Castro is still making speeches to the masses and it looks as if the more intelligent and upper class are getting disgusted with the lack of progress.” Wright had remarked to Fenno that it seemed to him “the Castro brothers have bitten off considerably more than they can chew and we could only hope that the controlling regime will keep itself clean of Communist domination.” (ibid.)↩
  3. Apparently a reference to the meeting described in Document 201.↩
  4. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩