248. Memorandum for the Record0
SUBJECT
- U.S. Government Relations with Cuban Revolutionary Council
The Cuban Task Force had agreed that the President should be advised to meet at an early date with Dr. Miro Cardona and tell him, in essence, that U.S. Government support of the Cuban Revolutionary Council would be phased down and possibly out, unless the CRC could produce evidence of broader-based support than it now appears to have.
General Taylor felt that this was such an important matter, and one so closely allied to Cuban covert operations, that the President should have the benefit of consideration of this projected advice, by the Special Group. Accordingly, I suggested to Richard Goodwin that any such action be deferred, if possible, until after the Special Group meeting of July 20th. He intimated that this was not an entirely controllable situation but undertook to try to hold off such a meeting if possible.
In checking with him on July 17th, Goodwin said that Miro Cardona was in town, that the President had previously agreed to see him any time he wanted to, and it might be impossible to avoid such a meeting in the next day or so. General Taylor then took the position that if such a meeting were unavoidable, he would agree to exclude the problem from the Special Group agenda provided that State (Assistant Secretary Woodward) agreed with the Task Force line. General Taylor recognized that this is essentially an overt political decision and, thus, primarily the responsibility of State.
[Page 628]I explained the situation to Mr. Woodward on July 18th, in the presence of his Special Assistant, Mr. Wollum. Mr. Woodward had not been aware of the discussions in the Task Force, which took place before he assumed his present position. Pending a discussion he proposed to have with Goodwin—he saw no particular objection to the proposed line. He did feel that it might be unwise for exile leaders to have continuing access to the President. I pointed out that this particular connection was probably unique, since it grew out of the Presidentʼs meetings with CRC leaders immediately after the collapse of the invasion.
Mr. Goodwin informed me on July 19th that on the previous day the President had telephoned him at 10:00 a.m., directing that an appointment be arranged with Miro Cardona at 11:30. Before this meeting, Goodwin gave the President the Task Force line. In the course of the actual meeting, however, the President told Miro Cardona the U.S. would support the CRC and that he hoped it could be so reorganized as to become a useful body. The President also said that he wanted to continue payments to the dependents of members of the strike force who were either killed or captured; no specific duration for this was mentioned, but he said that another look should be taken at some future time.
The President did not precisely say to Miro Cardona (as he had been advised to do by Goodwin) that the U.S. might have to support exile groups other than the CRC.
Mr. Goodwin proposes to see Miro Cardona on July 19th as a follow-up. He will attempt to make sure that the CRC leader does not go away with inflated ideas of what the President told him. On the other hand, Goodwin recognizes that he cannot go as far as he would have liked (specifically on the matter of support to others) so long as the President did not deal specifically with this.