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

340. Memorandum of the President’s Briefing Before His Press Conference, July 22, 1959¹

July 22, 1959

[Here follows discussion of unrelated matters.]

Cuba. Castro’s “resignation” and firing of the former President. No comment should be made by President. The President laughed and said he might say that “The President (of Cuba)’s job is not a very steady one.”

Batista. His application for admission to this country has now been received here. Mrs. Batista wrote Mrs. Eisenhower asking her to intervene. The President had not known this and said [asked] in no uncertain terms why had he not been told. Also a telegram has come in from Batista’s young son begging the President to intervene.² The President said this whole matter was something that he ought to know about and said he would talk to Dillon about it later. In talking about the matter, the President said “There is one thing we cannot afford—that is, to be known as a haven for displaced dictators who have robbed their countries. We refused to let Peron in.” He also said that personally Batista was a “nice guy” and that the President liked him, but went on to say that he did not, at this moment, believe we should let him into this country, that he did not think the character of Castro had anything to do with letting Batista in or not. “You just can’t make a policy of bringing them (dictators) into this country.“³

[Here follows the remainder of the briefing.]

1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, DDE Diaries. Confidential. The time of the briefing and those present is not indicated on the source text, but it probably took place from 9:55 to 10:28 a.m. immediately preceding the 10:30 press conference. Attending this meeting with the President, were, among others, Persons, Hagerty, Gerald Morgan, Merriam, John Eisenhower, Goodpaster, and Harlow. No drafting or clearance information is given on the source text. (ibid., President’s Appointment Book)
2. References are to a July 20 letter from Martha de Batista to Mamie Eisenhower and a July 21 telegram from Roberto Batista to President Eisenhower. (Eisenhower Library, Central Files, OF–116B)
3. The subject of Cuba, as well as the question of asylum for Batista, did not come up at the President’s press conference. For the transcript, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1959, pp. 536–546.