March I 1963 MEMORANDUM FOR MR BUNDY SUBJECT Mr Donovan's Trip to Cuba Bob Hurwitch tells me that Donovan is still waiting to hear from Castro regarding a meeting this weekend in Havana If there is a meeting it will probably be devoted solely to the release of the prisoners there will probably be no talk of U S ICuba relations Optimumly Bob sees two stages in the process The first stage is to release the prisoners while the second stage is to hays Donovan talk to Castro about broa er policy questions it would not be good to take the second stage until the prisoner issue is settled It might indicate to Castro that he can use the prisoners as leverage he has not yet tried to do so Once the prisoner deal is laid on Donovan will be given instructions when he prepares to go down to Cuba for his week-long walk on the beach with Castro While he has not yet cleared such instructions Bob thinks we should Donovan to tell Castro that As far as I understand U S policy only two things are non-negotiable Cuba's ties with the Sine-Soviet Bloc and 2 Cuba' interference with the hemisphere Bob visualizes Donovan's role as primarily a transmitter to the U S Govern- ment of any proposals Castro might make in response to this line Care would be exercised to avoid any connection with this trip and the U S Government There is a slim chance that Castro may force the policy issue this weekend We should know the answer to this wine Castro's man calls Donovan about the appointment If Castro does insist on talking about policy we will have to instruct Donovan carefully Gordon Chase Frey-u I r' g - llfl ii