408. Memorandum of Discussion at the 428th Meeting of the National Security Council, Washington, December 10, 19591
[Here follows discussion of matters unrelated to Cuba.]
The Vice President asked what was the Communist line toward Cuba? He gathered that the Russians did not object to a tough line on the part of Cuba. Mr. Bissell said the Soviets encouraged a tough anti-US line in Cuba under the guise of nationalism. Mikoyan had not [Page 699] stopped off in Cuba on his recent trip because he did not wish to give additional credence to the view that the people around Castro had Communist affiliations.
[Here follows discussion of matters unrelated to Cuba.]
The Vice President felt that Congress at the next session would make a massive assault on our Latin American policy as a result of incidents in Panama and Cuba. The general line will be that the U.S. is not paying sufficient attention to Latin America. Secretary Herter said he was much concerned about the situation in Panama, where Left-Wingers were using the U.S. as a whipping-boy to get at the government. He was also concerned about the Quito Conference, which is now scheduled to begin February 1 but which might be postponed to February 15. Moreover, Cuba was a first-class headache with Castro going in the same direction as Kassem. The Vice President said it was his impression that Cuba was being driven toward Communism more and more. Mr. Bissell reported that only one top official now in the Cuban Government was without some sort of Communist affiliation. Secretary Anderson asked whether the popularity of Castro had been evaluated recently. Mr. Bissell replied that in the Gallup Poll sense, Castro probably enjoyed enormous popularity, especially in the countryside, although his popularity was not as great in the cities due to the urban unemployment caused by some of his policies. The Vice President inquired whether some of Castro’s early supporters among the opinion-making class in Cuba had now deserted him. He wondered whether there had been a significant loss of support for Castro among the newspapers and the universities. Mr. Bissell said there had been a tremendous loss of following in these groups, although censorship over the press had tended to conceal these defections to some extent. Mr. Gates seemed to recall that our Ambassador had said [5 lines not declassified]. Recently he [Castro] spoke before a Catholic meeting in Havana and after a cool reception felt it necessary to call another meeting of his followers immediately in order to recover the feeling that he had tremendous popular support. The Vice President then inquired about the sugar subsidy and Secretary Herter indicated his belief that this problem would be the subject of a battle royal in the next session of Congress. He hoped, however, that Congress will allow the Administration to make policy on a flexible basis rather than establishing a rigid policy in the law. At present we were paying $180 million in the subsidy. The Vice President wondered whether it would not be worthwhile to call in members of Congress particularly interested in the sugar subsidy problem and discuss it with them off the record. He asked whether he correctly understood that Secretary Herter feels the State Department must have some control over the subsidy. Secretary Herter answered in the affirmative. Secretary Anderson asked whether State now had the authority to take whatever action it [Page 700] wanted to take with respect to the sugar problem. Secretary Herter said the Department of State did not now have the authority and would have to go to Congress to obtain it. The Vice President believed the State Department should have discretion in this field, even though the problems were difficult. At present Castro knows that the U.S. cannot move against him. Secretary Herter remarked that Castro was now selling sugar to the Russians at about half the price paid by the U.S.
[Here follows discussion of matters unrelated to Cuba.]
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, NSC Records. Top Secret; Eyes Only. Prepared by Boggs. The Vice President presided at the meeting. The President had left Washington on December 3 for a goodwill mission to Rome, Ankara, Karachi, Kabul, New Delhi, Tehran, Athens, Tunis, Toulon, Paris, Madrid, and Casablanca. He returned to Washington on December 22.↩