THE WHITE HOUSE WW WASHINGTON December 15 1964 FOR MR BUNDY SUBJECT Che Guevara and Lisa Howard 1 I have talked to John Crimmins about the Che Guevera approach He and Tom Mann are very interested to hear what Guevera wants to say to us if in fact he does want to say something to us I told State that I thought that this could be a Lisa-generated operation but that the odds are probably 7 5 that Guevera in fact would like to talk to us whether he would say anything to us that we don't already know is another matter 2 The mechanics of talking to Guevera is the tough part He is a real center of attention'in New York g police crowds and it would be extremely awkward to try to get together with him privately In addition my own very strong view is that we should keep Lisa Howard out of it as a middleman among many other considerations Lisa is so subjectively wound up in rapprochement that one would never know what Guevera is saying and what Lisa is interpreting 3 John and I agreed tentatively on the following outline If Lisa Howard calls me back I will simply tell her that I'have nothing to tell her and will let her know if and when I do John will explore with selected people in State the possibility and desirability of having a USUN type maybe Yost ''fall in front of Tabio who is the Cuban ambassador to the UN and say 1 that we understand from a newspaper 'source that Che wants to say something to us and 2 is this true If the answer is affirmative we can then - decide what to do The main problem is to as certain the truth - e g whether Che really has something to say to us or whether this is Lisa Howard building bridges Somewhere along the line our man would also indicate that if it is true that the Cubans want to talk to us we prefer not to talk through unofficial third parties DECLASSIFIED 5 0 12356 Sec 3 4 NU 36-180 at 83 2% NARA narcia iefo Gordon Chase 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