Too bad that no U.S. president had the balls to attack Cuba and end the communist regime of Fidel Castro and his ass-sniffing cronies, including his gay brother Raul Castro. That cockroach has totally obliterated what was once a proud people and prosperous nation and turned it into a third-world cesspool. TGO
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger ordered contingency plans drawn up nearly 40 years ago to attack Cuba, incensed over the small island’s deployment of troops to Angola, according to declassified government documents posted online Wednesday.
In several White House meetings, Kissinger advocated for strong action to stop Castro, fearful that his incursion in Africa was making the U.S. look weak. He argued that Cuba’s actions were driving fears around the world of a wider race war that could spill over into Latin America and even destabilize the Middle East.
In a series of contingency plans that followed, options ranged from a military blockade to airstrikes and mining of Cuban ports. But the documents also warned of heavy risks, including a wider conflict with the Soviet Union and a ground war to defend the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
“I think we are going to have to smash Castro. I don’t think we can do it before the election,” Kissinger told President Gerald R. Ford, according to a transcript of a Feb. 25, 1976 meeting in the Oval Office. Ford replied, “I agree.”
Jimmy Carter ultimately won the 1976 presidential election.
Kissinger, who had returned from a trip to Latin America, and told Ford that leaders in the region “are scared to death about Cuba. They are afraid of a race war.”
The documents were declassified by the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library at the request of the National Security Archive, which published them online Wednesday. An account of the episode is being published in a new book, “Back Channel to Cuba,” written by William M. LeoGrande, a professor at American University, and Peter Kornbluh, director of the Cuban Documentation Project at the National Security Archive.
At another Oval Office meeting on March 15, 1976, Kissinger said “even the Iranians are worried about the Cubans getting into the Middle East countries. I think we have to humiliate them. If they move into Namibia or Rhodesia, I would be in favor of clobbering them.”
Nine days later, Kissinger chaired a high-level “Special Actions Group Meeting” at the White House Situation Room to discuss options.
“If there is a perception overseas that we are so weakened by our internal debate so that it looks like we can’t do anything about a country of 8 million people, then in three or four years we are going to have a real crisis,” Kissinger said.
The contingency plans outlined military options from blocking outgoing Cuban ships carrying troops and war material to airstrikes against Cuban bases and airfields. The documents discussed risks, including the possibility that the Soviet Union would thwart a blockade by seizing or sinking ships. “Escalation to general war could result,” one document said.
The contingency plans sounded a cautious note about what sort of Cuban provocation would trigger a U.S. military response. They stated that while the “threshold” should be low if Cuba moves against U.S. territories, it should be “highest” for Africa.
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Online:
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB487/
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I do know who is full of shit, if you asked me. I was born in New York City in ’56 to Cuban parents who had left Gilligan’s Island a year earlier and live in Miami, and have lived here since the age of 12 when my parents dragged me down here as part of a conspiracy to ruin my life. Obviously Castro was not the reason the left…simply put, they left because Cuba was a Banana Republic. None of this dollar equality, sugar, rum, cigars, copper, and nickel meant crap. Hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism annually??? Puhhlease…one could have bought the whole island for that kinda money back then. People had FREEDOM there? Everything I see about the Cuban culture is that they have always worried about what the neighbors taught when it came to their actions, behaviors, what they said, and even what they thought – if you want true freedom, learn to say, “Judge me, see if I give a fuck” and you’ll be free even there. I should know for we are in the year 2014, not 1956, and anyone of my contemporaries…if they are honest enough…will tell you that I am presently living (using the theory of relativity) in a Banana Republic right now at this present moment, and surely you can’t tell me the Little Havana of the 50s was a more advanced setting than the Little Havana of modern times here in the USA. Both turned the surroundings into a Banana Republic with the exception that one rotted away and the other is so ripe it should be disposed of before it smells up the place. -GhostRider Wisdom…that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
You are full of crap– prior to the revolution Cuba was not a prosperous nation as you state. I was there during Batista’s dictatorship and utter poverty was the norm for most of the population. That is why Castro’s overthrow of Batista was supported initially by the people. The long embargo by the US punishes the ordinary Cuban citizen. With all its faults– health, longevity, education, and general standard of living has improved even with the strangling effect of the US embargo. Canadians and Europeans openly trade with Cuba– and they all benefit.
You are ignorant. For one thing, the Cuban dollar was equal to the American dollar. Cuba was the largest exporter of sugar, rum and cigars in the world. It also exported copper and nickel. In addition, it’s tourism brought in hundreds of millions of dollars annually. But more important of all, people had FREEDOM! You’re an ignorant fool.
Edward…I did pour over “Cuba” stuff on the net and you are right that the island’s health, longevity, education, and general standard of living is greater than it was at any time thru-out it’s history prior to 1960. And it isn’t just the Canadians or a couple of other nations that trade with Cuba… it’s also Russia, the Netherlands, Spain, China including Hong Kong, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy and Venezuela, and they all benefit.
The proponents of the embargo argue that Cuba has not met the US conditions for lifting the embargo, including transitioning to democracy and improving human rights. They say that backing down without getting concessions from the Castro regime will make the United States appear weak, and that only the Cuban elite would benefit from open trade.
WHAT A CROCK! In China, the government remains an authoritarian one-party state. It places arbitrary curbs on expression, association, assembly, and religion; prohibits independent labor unions and human rights organizations; and maintains Party control over all judicial institutions…..my own daughter was been in China twice as the firm she is with buys all it’s wares from China, who with trade big with and no big deal about human rights.
Not that I am about to leave the USA but I tell ya this with absolute certainty. If I was being deported tomorrow to either Cuba or China and had a choice… I will be uttering, “VIVA LA REVOLUCION” as soon as the plane touches down on José Martí International Airport. Being that I am a social animal, I have started conversations with dozens upon dozens of Cubans that have left Cuba in the past decade and it seems that not surprising so, we get a lot of propaganda from our politicians here to sway our own thoughts to keep everything exactly the way it is – conservative way always hated and feared change
As for my friend, TGO, he has wonderful childhood memories of a Cuba…a Cuba which he lived in, with parents who were not experiencing the utter poverty that many did. It is like kids who lived in Miami during the Andrew Hurricane. The kids who came out of bathrooms while huddling with the parents, to a completely demolished house around them, will forevermore have horrible memories. While kids just a few blocks who came out of their homes to a few uprooted bushes, will always think, “Bring It On” when hearing of a hurricane advisory. Our perspectives are created by our experiences and as you wrote, you were there during Batista’s dictatorship. -Ghostrider Wisdom…pure logic and rationale.
Read more: http://cuba-embargo.procon.org/#background