MEMORANDUM 2 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON - July 7 1964 MEMORANDUM FOR MR BUNDY 3 9 133% 566 14 SUBJECT Adlai Stevenson and Lisa Howard 35 55 isyagagtmmu iiu awgn a Here are some thoughts on the above subject I 1 I think we should be clear that the latest developments add at least two new factors to the situation which make Lisa Howard s participation even scarier than it was before 9E for the first time during the Johnson Administration Lisa has been used to carry a message from the U S to Cuba Before this the Johnson Administration had relatively little to fear from Lisa since essentially we were just listening to her reports on and from Castro M Lisa's contact on the U S side is far sexier now Stevenson than at any time in the past Attwood and then Chase 2 While I'm in favor of having a channel to Castro I would feel somewhat safer if we could find a way to remove Lisa from direct participation in the business of passing messages a view which I have held for some time e g see attached memo Accordingly you might want to consider the desirability of calling Stevenson to make such points as the following Lisa Howard's participation in the U S Cuba channel understandably makes us nervous -- the more so now since communications are passing and may pass in the future from the U S to Cuba Also the name of Lisa's new American contact Adlai Stevenson is not an unsexy one from a public media point of View We would appreciate it if you would give some thought to ways and means of retaining a channel to Castro but remov1ng Lisa from direct participation One possibility might be to shift the channel to Lechuga the channel which had been set up just before President Kennedy died With Bill Attwood gone perhaps you could have Sid Yates Attwood's nominee pass Lechuga in the corridor periodically to exchange whatever messages may need to be exchanged We doubt that Castro would object to a change in channels In your memo of June 2 6 you note that for want of anything better he Castro assumed that he could call her and she call me and I would advise you We recognize that it won't be easy to extricate Lisa from the operation One way to do it might be to simply tell her that we have nothing further to say COPY LBJ L I BRARY MEMORANDUM THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON at the same time we could indicate to Castro that we prefer to communicate on the Le chuga channel and that we would appreciate his cooperation in keeping from Lisa news of this switch in channels Another possibility is to level with Lisa and tell her that we are very chary of the security aspects of her phone conversations between the U S and Havana 2 that we have decided to use the Lechuga channel for any further mes sages which Lisa effectively set up and 3 Lisa should relax stay quiet and stand at the ready we may want to use her influence with Castro in the future Gor don Chas COPY LBJ L I use This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu