652. Memorandum from Schlesinger to the President, April 131

[Facsimile Page 1]

SUBJECT

  • Miro Cardona Statement

I hope that our public comment on the Miro Cardona statement will be on the restrained side. A possible line to take, it would seem to me, would be to say that Miro Cardona is naturally interested in Cuba and Cuba alone, while the United States Government must take into account the problems of an entire world; that, as a natural consequence of seeing only the Cuba problem, Miro is impatient, dissatisfied and frustrated; and that this understandable emotional concern has led him to recall and enlarge only the encouraging words in his conversations with American officials, and to repress and forget the many words of caution and restraint.

I would favor this approach rather than one of castigation and contempt

1) because Miro Cardona has not told all he knows, and, if driven into a corner, could do us a lot more damage (you will note his statement in his account of the interview of April 10, 1962, “The interview, it is obvious, also included other matters which I am not in a position to reveal”); if goaded into it, Miro could give a hopelessly squalid picture of our covert dealings with the exiles; and

2) because Miro Cardona is basically a high-minded and decent man, who has behaved fairly well for two years, who has been sorely tried and under great pressure, and who is still, I believe, genuinely doing what he thinks best for his country. We may disagree with [Facsimile Page 2] his policy, but I do not think it would be right to impeach his motives or character.

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Most of my talks with Miro took place before the Bay of Pigs and are not referred to in Miro’s statement. However, I have sent Gordon Chase of Bundy’s office notes of conversations which Dick and I had with him on September 9 and October 24, 1961.

Arthur Schlesinger, jr.
  1. Miro Cardona statement. Confidential. 2 pp. Kennedy Library, Schlesinger Papers, Cuba II.