Office of the Historian

282. Memorandum From Gordon Chase of the National Security Council Staff to the Presidentʼs Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)1

Washington, August 26, 1964.

SUBJECT

  • Trouble before November—Free World Trade with Cuba
1.
Present statistics indicate that Free World exports to Cuba in 1964 will show an increase of roughly 80% over the 1963 figures. So far the domestic press has not focussed on this issue but there are indicators that our good luck will not hold out much longer. State tells me that there are reporters in town who are beginning to snoop around for current statistics on Free World trade with Cuba, which are unclassified and which are available at Commerce or at the IMF. Eventually, we should probably expect the Republicans to use the figures to point up the Administrationʼs “ineffective isolation policy, etc., etc.” (We may also get some heat on specific trade deals that are consummated—e.g. a UK/Cuba deal for $4.5 million of locomotives is coming down the road which we canʼt stop.)
2.

State continues to work hard on the problem of keeping down trade with Cuba and has several strings left in its bow. First, the Secretary, in the near future, will be calling in the Ambassadors of the trading nations2 to emphasize the results of the recent OAS meeting and to once again request cooperation. Second, State is encouraging other OASʼs to call in the Ambassadors of the trading nations to make a pitch similar to the Secretaryʼs. Third, ARA is pushing ahead with its paper recommending (a) the denial of U.S. Government contracts to firms trading with Cuba, and (b) the enlisting of some OAR cooperation in applying similar measures; this paper will probably hit the Secretaryʼs desk in the next few days.

These measures, if implemented, may or may not be effective in reducing trade with Cuba over the long term. Over the short term (between now and November) they will help only marginally in making the 1964 statistics more tolerable than they now appear to be.

3.
Our public position is important in counteracting a possible Republican charge that “the 1964 trade statistics indicate that the isolation policy is a hoax.” Our reply to such a charge, among other things, might contain the following elements.
(a)
We should try to keep the statistics in the context of Free World trade with Cuba since 1960. They look better that way.
(b)
We should emphasize the positive aspects of our efforts in the isolation dimension (e.g. breaking of diplomatic relations).
(c)
We should make it clear that, while we are not 100% effective, our efforts have obviously been successful and have had a considerable impact on Cubaʼs economy; if we continue our efforts, the prospects for improvement in the Cuban economy are poor. Also, we might background that while our failures are well known (e.g. British bus deal), many of our successes cannot be made public.
(d)
We should make it clear that we and the other OARʼs have not given up and are continuing to exert pressure on the pertinent trading nations. We might point out that the job is not an easy one since we are, of course, dealing with sovereign nations whose interests are often not the same as ours.
GC
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Cuba, Free World Trade, Vol. III, 12/63–5/65. Secret.↩
  2. In an August 27 memorandum to Rusk, Acting Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs Robert W. Adams suggested that the Secretary use the talking papers prepared for each of the countries involved in trading with Cuba in his upcoming talks with the Ambassadors (see Document 285). (National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, ARA/LA Files: Lot 66 D 65, Cuba File)↩