HIS HAND TIED ON CUBA IN '60 DEBATE - NIXON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000300030011-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 24, 2000
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: October 26, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

NEW YORK
HERALD.,TMuNp ,
Approved For Releft0 20609M/23 CIA-R
forces Inside and - outside
. By Jim Lynn .
~
of TFL+ Frernid Tribune Stall . Cuba;".
FOIAb3b
Richard M. Nixon a eves
he 11m.1ght have beaten John candidate goes on, was that
F. Kennedy in the 1960 Presi- ? "Kennedy emerged as the
dentlal election it he had man who was advocating a in was endangering the'?
been free to reveal the 'get-tough policy' toward .security of the whole opera
Eisenhower Administration's Castro. I 'was the man who tion".by calling for a Cuban'
'training program for a Cu- was 'soft' . on Castro-the. exile training program.
exact' opposite of the truth." Mr. Kennedy denied then
1 ban exile invasion: that he had, been told about;
i The former Vice-President ' Mr. Nixon describes his ef-
1 the program, and Mr. Dulles
{says as much in an article forts to learn whether Mr. backed him up, Fred A.
iE
In tho November issues of 'the Kennedy had in fact found Seaton, the Eisenhower- In.-
out about the exile training terior Secretary who made.
Pears to concede, if only tae- ? program, starting from the the call to the 'White House
knowledge that the Demo- for Mr. Nixon, stuck to his
illy, that his Democratic rival` cratic candidate had already story, but refused to name
did not know of the training been briefed twice by Allen the White House source who
lprogram, when 'he'' accused W. Dulles, then 'director of ' told him -Mt. Kennedy had
the Central Intelligence been briefed about the exile '
the, IPepublicons four years Agency. training.
ago of being too soft on Fidel "I immediately had a mem- Mr, Nixon's Reader's Di-
,Castro's Coinmunlst regime ' ber of my staff call the White goat article does 'not shy ex-
!'in Cuba. House on the security line to plicitly that he how accepts
, The Challenge thrown out ask if these briefings covered the Dulles statement. It doe>
CUIr Mr.-Kennedy just before Cuba. A member of the say, '"At-the time of the de-
White House on the security bate, however, and after
Ithe fourth and last of his line to ask if these briefings checking with the ' White
television debates with Mr. covered Cuba. A member of Hose, I had to proceed on the
Nixon "forced me to make the White House staff indi- 'assumption that Kennedy ;
the most difficult and, as it cated they had," the Nixon had been briefed on the ,~
article says. The next sen- secret prograu'i."
"turned out, the most costlytence is in parentheses: ? The former Vice-T'l'esident
decision "of my political ca-, (Several months after the does not explain how his own
icon," Mr. Nixon writes. ..,election Allen Dulles was to position in the TV debate
Mr. Nixon: describes him- state that his briefing of would have been affected by ,
self as .one of the training Kennedy, had included Cuba the alternative assumption: ".'
program's strongest advo- 'but not the training program that Mr. Kennedy did not In,.
catcs, but argues that, "to for Cuban "exiles.)" 'fact know about the exile
protect the security of the The debate in question took i program. Presumably Mr.
program, I had to oppose place on Oct. 21, 1960, Mr..; Nixon would still have been
Kennedy on his' position of Nixon charged in his book; forced to keep eilent about
advocating that the United "Six Crises"-published in,. the program's existence in
States openly aid antl-Castro *rc}i, ,X862-that..Mr._Ken-.,i.tha~.oa$ti asw,e11.,:
Approved for Release 2000/06123 CIA,,-RQP70-00058R000300~030011-3.