ri - gr- 5 312935 03% 3- x03 s U433 13 April 1963 MEMORANDUM OR Director of Central Intelligence SUBJECT Donovan Cuban Negotiations 1 James B Donovan accompanied by his son John Donovan and Washington attorney John E Nolan on the latest negotiation trip to Cuba 5-9 April secured the release of nine skin divers an American missionary from Cuban prisons and arranged for the release of twenty-two Americans on the 22d of April During the period in Cuba they were treated very well and spent considerable time with Fidel Castro and Dr Vallejo Z In order to better evaluate Donovan's discussions with Castro and Vallejo I have thoroughly discussed the events of the with John Nolan who is a careful observer and commentator He as present at most oi the discussione and is convinced that Donovan's discussions which led to the agreement for the release of the Americans were well thought out and handled very skilfully Donovan time and again made sure that Castro understh his status as a private citizen and in discussini relationships bet reen and the United States tried to draw Castro out to the maximum extent Also Nolan con rms Donovan's observation that Castro is a most intelligent shrewd and relatively stable political leader with a great amounto i drive and dedicated to making Cuba at leading Latin American force In his discusiona with Donovan Castro apparently wanted to determine how relationships could be established with the United States There is also no questiOn that DonoVan kne- this and fostered these discussions in order to obtain the American prisoners' release and because he believed that such discussions were serving the national interest Donovan is very aware of his responsi- bility to his Government and the fact that in terms of political re- lationships with Cuba he is not representing the United States Government In my judgment Donovan has an acute awareness of the 9 ED 12 558 Sec 3 5 DECLASSIFIED NARA Datum 74 Vuh - - limitatiom of his authority His relationship with astro and Vallejo is rm he is trusted and respected even though he has made it abundantly clear that he is not sympathetic nor does he agree with Castro's affairs with the Soviet Union and Communist China nor uith many oi Castro s methods in maintaining power within Cuba 3 Dr Vallejo a physician graduate of Harvard Medical School is described by Donovan and Nolan as a close personal adviser to Castro While he does not have a direct of cial con- nection with the Cuban government he is an aide de camp and is concerned with many oi the administrative details surrounding Castro's movements Donovan and Nolan consider him oriented toward the United States Vallejo translated when necessary 4 in determining haw to attain his objective the release of the American prisoners Donovan decided to talk about the priebners as almost an incidental matter After talking to Dr Vallejo on Saturday about the release of the skin divers the status at the Red Cross shipments and the assurance of the American Red Cross that the food and drugs under the agreement would he delivered no mention of the remaining American prisoners was made until the next day early Sunday morning when Donovan had his first meeting with astro 5 Castro arrived with Vallejo at Donovan's quarters at about 1 ainday the seventh Castro immediately launched into a discussion of the Cuban yers' mistake in firing on the Florida shich led into the discussion 01 the difficulties between the United States and Cuba Donovan talked about recent articles in LIFE and LOOK magazines commenting that they did not appear to be un- favorable to Cuba Donovan then lhOaI-Qd and reed to Castro galley proofs of an article in THE NATION The article is about Donovan's negotiations in Cuba and points out that Donovan does not consider things all bad in Cuba and decries elements among the Cuban exiles urging a return to the good old days In the article Donovan is quoted as saying that this is unrealistic and a look at Cuba today must take into consideration the existence of the Castro government Castro seemed impressed with THE NATION article and said that the article showed gre-It wisdom Castro wondered about the emerging policy in the United States to-uard Cube Donovan said that he had no infor- mation on U S policy toward Cuba emphasizing his private status Eu but he said in his Judgment public sentiment toward Castro may be changing pointing out as indicatime of the United States feeling toward Cuba the limitations being put on the exile groups the Costa Rican statements and the public feeling that the United States should not become involved in a shooting war over Cuba After his return Donovan add that he planned to overstate this public sentiment in order to set the stage for asking for the release oi the Americans 6 in this vein Donovan suggested that American prisoners in Cuba probably were a stumbling block to any possi- bility oi future political relations between the United States and Cuba Castro agreed that the American prisoners in Cuba consti- tuted a minor irritant and talked in terms oi Donovan's and Castro's discussions entering a new phase conceng political relationships between the two countries Castro then said that Vallejo had told him oi the Red Cross documents brought to Havana by Donovan and laid based on these that he was now assured that the deliveries under the Cuban prisoner agreement would be completed He further said that while the American prismers constituted a bargaining point in his favor he was willing to bank on Donovan's prophecies of better relations between the tw countries and the good faith of the Red Cros s so he decided to release the shin divers on 9 April and the remaining twenty-two American prisoners to Donovan On 22 April Donovan pressed him for release oi all the Americans not only the shin divers but Castro said he was unwilling to do this because of his Own public relations Castro said that while the release of nine skin divers would be relatively easy to explain without more Red Cross shipments he felt that there would be too much criticism directed toward him With the schedule of Red Crone shipments indicating at least one more ship docking in Havana before the 22d he felt that under those circumstances the remaining Americans could be released on the 22d That ended the negotiations on the prisoners 1 Castro then continued political discuseions with Donovan explaining that his relations with the Soviet Union had to be uid and adapted to Cuba's needs He said that Cuba did not have an ideal government but he had that hope His ideal government he emphasised was not to be Soviet oriented Castro said that he could not tolerate any thought of war because obviously war was the end of Cuba Later Vallejo told Donovan that Castro wanted it explained to Donovan that there was absolutely no chance that Cuba would bech a Soviet satellite In this cmnection Vallejo said apparently quoting Castro that the building of Cuba economically was the only way to in uence other Latin American countries and that Cuba was not exporting subversion to other Latin American countries 8 Castro ranted Donovan's views on how political re- lationships could be developed between ube end the United States Donovan was vague on this but eaid that at a minimum he thought there must be adequate assurances that the revolutionary govern- ment would be dedicated to the betterment of the Cuban people and that Cuba would respect governments in other Latin American countries that is would foment no internal con icts in other Latin American countries 9 Castro wanted Donovan's opinion on how political relationships between the two countries could be inaugurated Donovan was noncommittal but made it clear that thin could not happen quickly if at all He said that this would have to be done very carefully and eventually on a diplomatic level between the countries In this connection later Donovan emphasised again to Castro that he was only a private citisen and with the release of the American prisoners he felt that he could not continue political discussions with Castro as a private citizen He mentioned legal barriers to this Apparently there was discussed the possibility that Donovan could have some status with the Department of State which would enable him to continue these discussions in Havana 10 In discussing the policy of the United States Government toward Cuba Castro mentioned that it the people oi the United States felt that Cuba could not continue to be a thorn in the United States' side and a peaceful means of settling differences were established the Kennedy administration being close and sensitive to the American people would formulate Government policy Cuba which would include better political relations 11 The first discussion with Castro lasted until about 6 30 a n1 Sunday and as he left Castro invited Donovan his son and Nolan to Varadero later in the day After some mixup in com- munications Donovan his son and Nolan arrived at Varadero at 12 30 a m Monday They were greeted by Castro and after a short discus sion everybody retired and were awakened at 5 30 a m Es From then until 12 30 a m the next morning Castro Vallejo Donovan Donovan's son and Nolan went fishing skin diving and touring during a very complete day They drove from Varedero across the island through Matsneas Province to the Bay of Pigs They fished in the Bay oi Pigs and Castro gave an esp-site explanation of the Bay at Pigs invasion 12 During discussions Castro suggested that he was impressed with Red China and Emma asked whether he had discussed this recently with the Indian Ambassador the sig- nificence ad which Castro understood 1 Castro said that there were about 15 000 to 20 000 people who had waivers to leave Cuba or the united States and that he had no objection to their leaving He recognized the difficulties facing the United States with the arrival of large numbers of Cubans particularly in Miami He mentioned that in his opinion the United States ought not put these people on the dole but rather break up the Cuban colony in Miami so they could find work in other areas Donovan mentioned that on some ed the ights there appeared to be an overly large number of mental and physical disability eases Castro had no knowledge oi this but did say that many of these people that were sent were ill but that these people did go to the United States at the request of relatives who felt that they could get better treatment in the United States 14 Donovan raised the question of allowing other Cubans to leave saying that he had received a great many requests from people describing the plight of their relatives Donovan said that while he understood that not everybody should be given permission to leave he felt that some of these cases may have some merit Castro said that he was agreeable to allowing people out if Donovan could furnish a list with reasons for their wanting to leave 15 Donovan and Nolan observed that during their trip through Mataneas Province Castro appeared to have more body- nerds than usual As they traveled the convoy consisted of astro's personal car a late 1950 s model Oldsmobile always driven bet-ween two cars full of naiiormed and armed bodyguards At one point in discussing Fidel's whereabouts Vallejo mention that he keeps in constant touch with Fidel by mobile micro cave telephone n lb In debriefing Donovan I attempted to get any ideas on Soviet troops and equipment and the use by Cubans of Soviet missiles Donovan had no knowledge on these subjects In his discussions with Castro Donovan's plan was not to get too in- volved in military intelligence feeling that this would not be con- sistent with his mission at seeking the release of the Americans and the extremely friendly tone of the discus sions bet vesn Donovan and Centre On Donovan's next trip to Havana probably on the 19th oi April Donovan could attempt to obtain such iniornmtion A steady conversation between Donovan and Castro took place over several hours in Castro s car during the return trip from the Bay oi Pigs to Havana Nolan and Vallejo listened Nolan con rms that Donovan gave long explanations oi American history and constitutional philosophy including an explanation of the role of the military in the United States and the reasons for the military establishment having a civilian head Castro made a great deal of the inability oi the formal military mind to cope with present day crises giving as an example the an 0 guerrilla warfare in his movement He said that the CIA made the mistake oi being too concerned with technique and no understanding the value of political beliefs Castro said that he had acquired CIA manuals which he thinks are excellent for their techniques All Castro's thouth eventually came around to the great task of making Cuba a viable economy impng the lot of his people and a country which would be respected in Latin America 18 In his talks Donovan believes that the most important point was made to him by Vallejo when the rest of the party had geese fishing According to Donovan Vallejo wished this for Donovan alone and cautioned him not to even suggest to Fidel that this conversation had taken place In effect Vallejo said that Fidel underath the necessity of relations with the United States-win contest diplomatic as well as economic- -and wanted to of cially establish ouch relationships Vallejo then said that the establishmont of relations between the United States and Cuba could be worked out by Donovan and Castro even though certain Communist of cials in the Cuban government were unalterably opposed Donovan gave this to me inuprivate and asked that I give it only to you He speci cally asked that it not be given to the State Department Nolan knmu nothing oi this conversation with me and was not present when the conversation tool place between Vallejo and Donovan 19 In slanting Donovan's with intro I believe an mutt hop in mind the let that Donovan has achioved the result asked of him-41 relu of the Cuban prllonarl and at least an agreement on the relaau of tho twenty-no Ame deans-- and an Noun oblorvos Donovan may emboth but he never oval-unto tha facts M C MISKOVSKY Couan Attachmentl Galley Proof 0 NATION Article oi Dobrle ng of Donovan Apr 631 Orig 8 - Addressee g ubject - Cuban File MGM Signer