306. Telegram 303698/Tosec 250038 From the Department of State to Secretary of State Kissinger in Ocho Rios1
303698. Tosec 250038. Subject: Family Visits to Cuba. For the Secretary from Eagleburger and Rogers. Code room: Please deliver in sealed envelope to Mr. Barbian for Secretary Kissinger. Destroy tapes.
1. We have revised the talking points for the meeting with the Cubans along the lines you suggested Christmas Day, as follows:
2. —Mr. Kirby Jones has told us that when he was in Havana in November he was advised that Cuba might be willing to permit a limited number of family visits on a humanitarian basis. When he asked for further details, he was told, we understand, that the United States might pursue the matter, if it wished to do so, through our established special channel. We have asked for this meeting in response to that message.
3. —In our meeting on July 9, we suggested such an exchange of family visits, as an element in a process of reciprocal improvement of relations between Cuba and the United States. We therefore appreciate this indication that Cuba would look favorably on a humanitarian exchange of visits between family members. We would like clarification of the message and elaboration of the plan which Mr. Jones has told us about.
4. —How many Cuban family members in the United States would Cuba be prepared to admit?
5. —During what period?
[Page 821]6. —For how long?
7. —Would Cuba also permit family members in Cuba to visit relatives in the United States for short periods?
8. —If so, how many?
9. —We said during our July 9 meeting that hostility to Cuba is not a permanent and organic element of the foreign policy of the U.S. But we also emphasized that any improvement in relations between Cuba and the United States—and with other nations as well, we believe—must depend in major part on whether Cuba is prepared now to manifest the respect and mutual regard which are essential to relations between states.
10. —Therefore, though we welcome word through Mr. Jones that Cuba will consider humanitarian family visits between our two countries, it must be clear, from what the President and the Secretary of State have said recently, that no fundamental improvement in relations between Cuba and the United States is possible under present conditions. We are ready to respond to Cuba’s message in this instance, and we will consider a limited plan for family visits between our two countries when we receive clarification from you on the details of what you have in mind. But Cuba’s dispatch of combat troops to take part in an internal conflict between Africans in Angola makes it impossible for us to contemplate any far-reaching effort to resolve the basic issues between us at this time.
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Summary: In talking points prepared for a meeting with Cuban officials, the Department expressed its willingness to consider allowing family visits to Cuba but added that Cuban intervention in Angola made normalization of relations impossible.
Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, N750006–0699. Secret; Immediate; Cherokee; Nodis. Drafted by Rogers and approved by Eagleburger. Kissinger was vacationing in Jamaica. Kirby Jones, who carried a message from Castro to the U.S. Government in November 1975, was the former press secretary for the Presidential campaign of George McGovern and an advocate of improved U.S.-Cuban relations. In telegram Secto 25007 from Ocho Rios, December 30, Kissinger, approved the talking points with slight changes to paragraph 10; he struck the word “limited” from the phrase, “limited plan for family visits,” and revised the final sentence to read: “But Cuba’s dispatch of combat troops to take part in an internal conflict between Africans in Angola is a fundamental obstacle to any far-reaching effort to resolve the basic issues between us at this time.” (Ibid., N750006–0711) Ford had stated in a December 20 press conference that he had ended efforts to improve relations with Cuba in light of Cuban interference in Puerto Rico and Angola. (Kissinger, Years of Renewal, p. 784) Rogers held an inconclusive meeting with García at Washington National Airport on January 12, 1976. (Ibid.)
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