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JFK
backed secret meeting with Castro 17 days
before his assassination
Yahoo! News.
WASHINGTON, 25 (AFP) - US President John
F. Kennedy backed an American intermediary
holding a secret meeting with Cuban President
Fidel Castro just 17 days before his assassination
in Dallas 40 years ago, according to a recently
declassified audio tape.
Kennedy and his national security adviser,
McGeorge Bundy, are heard discussing the
possibility of a top-secret meeting with
Castro in Havana, according to the tape
released on Monday by the US National Security
Archive.
The tape reveals Bundy briefed Kennedy
on Castro's invitation to a US official
at the UN, William Attwood, to come to Havana
for secret talks that could have sparked
improved relations with Washington.
The tape shows the ill-fated Kennedy's
approval of the meeting, if official US
involvement could be plausibly denied.
"The documents show that JFK clearly
wanted to change the framework of hostile
US relations with Cuba," said National
Security Archive analyst Peter Kornbluh.
"His assassination, at the very moment
this initiative was coming to fruition,
leaves a major 'what if' in the ensuing
history of the US conflict with Cuba,"
Kornbluh said.
The Washington-based archive and research
institute collects declassified public documents.
Related:
Kennedy
Sought Dialogue with Cuba / The National
Security Archive
The
saga of Rolando Cubela / keysnews.com
After President Lyndon B. Johnson reviewed
the report, he told a reporter, in confidence
at the time: "Kennedy was trying to
kill Castro. Castro got him first."
'Kennedy
& Castro' spins preposterous and inaccurate
yarn / Glenn Garvin / The Miami Herald
''Kennedy is a
cretin,'' he told an American reporter.
''If U.S. leaders are aiding terrorist plans
to eliminate Cuban leaders, they themselves
will not be safe. Let Kennedy and his brother
Robert take care of themselves since they,
too, can be the victims of an attempt which
will cause their death.''
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