Foreign Relations: Back to a Boil?

The Cuba crisis stayed at the top of the world’s agenda. Restless and annoyed after days of Russian doubletalk and Castro bombast. President Kennedy held a long meeting with the National Security Council, called the Joint Chiefs of Staff into session. Messages sped back and forth between Washington and Moscow—but outside the innermost circles of the U.S. and Soviet governments, no one knew what John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev were saying, and perhaps promising, to each other.

Had the nation given up the cold war initiative seized so recently? Was a Communist doublecross in the making? Washington “guidance” veered between optimism and pessimism, but the picture that emerged was one that hardly indicated a quick settlement on terms that the U.S. could accept.

In the Caves. After two weeks of palaver with Castro, Russia’s Anastas Mikoyan kept delaying his departure; the world could have no notion about what mischief the two might have cooked up, but in his infrequent public pronouncements, Mikoyan echoed only the intransigent Castro line. The U.S. naval blockade of Cuba continued, but it seemed mostly a matter of form: so far. the U.S. has passed 48 of the 49 foreign ships that entered the blockade area on to Cuba without boarding. Government spokesmen said they were satisfied that Russia’s “offensive” missiles have indeed been removed from Cuba. But from the very beginning, the U.S. had insisted that the fact of removal could not be determined without on-site inspection—which Castro was still refusing to authorize.

For that matter, some U.S. officials were now admitting that some missiles were indeed being hidden in Cuba’s caves—but these, they said, were “defensive” rockets with ranges of only 25 miles. Yet the Miami News, which has a remarkably high record for accuracy in reporting developments within Cuba, said flatly that the White House had “hard” intelligence of cave-stored missiles that could carry nuclear destruction to U.S. cities.

Aside from missiles, the U.S. still considers the continuing presence of at least 70 Soviet Il-28 (“Beagles”) bombers in Cuba a distinct offensive threat, and President Kennedy told the Russians last week that their removal is a matter of extreme urgency. Most of the Il-28s are still in crates, but about 20 are in various stages of unpacking and assembly. Though they are obsolescent planes by U.S. standards, the “Beagles” have a nuclear capability and a range of 1,500 miles. In any attack on the U.S., they could be used as a manned one-way kamikaze system to strike at U.S. cities, freeing Soviet ICBMs to zero in on other U.S. targets. Moreover, they could also raise all sorts of hell south of the border.

Sole U.S. Death. There were plenty of other signs that the Soviet Union is playing with fire in Cuba. The Soviets are maintaining a significant military presence in Cuba, and the 9,000 or so Russian “technicians” are still there. Last week there were also indications, leaked by Polish Communist sources, that the Chinese have moved into Cuba in force, are manning antiaircraft batteries, and may have been responsible for the only American death so far in the Cuban crisis—that of Major Rudolph Anderson Jr., 35, who was shot down in a U-2 over Cuba.

The Communists are making a determined effort to disperse MIGs around Cuba in small groups in what appears to be a plan to conceal their numbers. Vast amounts of equipment sent into Cuba to protect the missile sites, such as tanks, are still there; so is a lot of rocket equipment, including missile erectors. Furthermore, the U.S. is concerned over “trawler bases” being built in Cuba, warned last week that it intends to keep a close eye on them after reconnaissance photos showed that they can accommodate subchasers and patrol torpedo boats.

Arrogant Tirade. As if all this were not enough, Castro picked last week to launch an arrogant tirade against the U.S. In a defiant letter to Acting U.N. Secretary-General U Thant, he rashly threatened to shoot down U.S. reconnaissance planes that have been keeping a daily watch on Cuba, fiercely attacked the U.S. for “typically Hitlerite methods.” and restated his refusal to allow any “national or international” group to inspect Cuban territory.

Castro’s threats came close to being the last straw. The U.S. Government announced that not only would it continue its aerial reconnaissance flights until it had proof that a military buildup had stopped, but that it would defend the flights if necessary. If Castro shoots down a U.S. aircraft, the U.S. is prepared to 1) bomb certain Cuban antiaircraft installations already targeted for U.S. air strikes, and 2) bomb the Il-28s now crated or semiassembled at San Julian airfield in western Cuba.

There could be little argument about the renewed explosiveness of the Cuban crisis. Meeting in Washington to talk over its significance. West Germany’s Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and President

Kennedy, who often do not see eye to eye, firmly agreed on one thing:’ until the Cuban crisis is removed, the solution of other international problems, in Berlin and elsewhere, would simply have to wait.