455. Editorial Note
As a result of Foreign Minister Roa’s suggestion to Braddock on February 4 (see Document 449) that the remarks made to him that day by Braddock be put in the form of a note verbale, the Embassy in Havana and the Department of State exchanged telegrams regarding the text of such a note. These telegrams are in Department of State, Central File 611.37. The final text, as approved by the Department, was transmitted in telegram 1128 to Havana, February 9. (Ibid., 611.37/2–560) The Embassy delivered the note to the Foreign Ministry on February 10. (Telegram 1956 from Havana, February 10; ibid., 611. 37/2–1060)
On February 18, the Cuban Foreign Ministry sent a note of reply, the following translation of which was transmitted in telegram 2081 from Havana, February 18:
“The Minister of Foreign Relations cordially salutes the Chargé d’ Affaires Ad Interim of the Embassy of the United States of America and has the honor to acknowledge receipt of his note with the written version of the oral statements which he made on February 4 in compliance with instructions from the United States Department of State.
“The views of the revolutionary Government of Cuba in this respect are the following:
“1. Although in fact the Government of Cuba differs from the Government of the United States of America with respect to the genesis and the responsibility for the actual state of relations between the two countries, it is exceedingly pleased by the expressed disposition of your government to negotiate the pending problems within diplomatic norms—initiative taken by the President of the Republic, Dr. Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado, in his reply to the statement of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It is proper to underscore that the Government of Cuba has been, and is, opposed to treating these problems outside the regular channels for relations between friendly governments and peoples. Numerous proofs, oral and written, duly verify this point.
“The Government of Cuba understands that in his televised appearance of January 20, the Prime Minister, Dr. Fidel Castro, in making known a document taken from a person accused of counterrevolutionary activities, did not depart from the proper formalities. The Prime Minister limited himself to reading it, without making personal [Page 791] imputations against the Embassy, and much less allusions of any character against His Excellency Ambassador Philip W. Bonsal. He made it known furthermore, thereafter, that he was placing the document in reference at the disposal of the interested parties. The government which I represent therefore rejects as groundless the presumption that the Prime Minister, Dr. Fidel Castro, made ‘unfounded charges in offensive terms against American officials.’
“On the other hand, the Prime Minister, Dr. Fidel Castro, and likewise most representative figures of the revolutionary government have indeed been victims of groundless and offensive imputations on the part of legislators and high American officials, in the civilian and military fields, who have moreover defended on occasions the use of force of economic reprisals and insinuated, on other occasions, with obvious malevolence, influences or infiltrations incompatible with the nature and purposes of the Cuban revolution. We would have no objection to make with respect to the defamatory and mendacious campaigns of certain American publications and wire services if it were not for the expressed official affirmation of their ‘objectivity and independence’. The Government of Cuba scrupulously respects the freedom of expression and is therefore not a party to the opinions poured out by the Cuban press, not excluding the newspaper Revolucion which is not, as the Department of State seems to assume, the official spokesman of the Government.
“In reply to the question formulated in numbered paragraph two of your memorandum, the Government of Cuba has no accusations to make against His Excellency Ambassador Philip W. Bonsal, nor against officials of the United States Embassy, and has no difficulty in reiterating to the Ambassador the esteem which he has always enjoyed.
“The Govenment of Cuba shares the judgment that the negotiations of the questions pending between the two governments should be carried on in an appropriate atmosphere, with strict observance of international law and of the respective national laws and within the spirit of the traditional friendship between the United States of America and Cuba and of the inter-American solidarity.
“The Minister of Foreign Relations takes the opportunity to renew to the Chargé d’Affaires Ad Interim of the United States of America the testimony of his very distinguished consideration.” (Ibid., 611.37/ 2–1860)