CURRENT COMMENT RANSOM OR DEBIT?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000200010059-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 16, 1999
• Sequence Number: 59
• Publication Date: October 13, 1962
• Content Type: NSPR

y`w -Z el,
p t d.For Release 9SM107 : CIA-RD
tin isuii'iG' 0'14 , Phi.
OBSERVER
_ : nlllidG 14,688
urrent Comme
RANSOM OR DEBT?
CPYRGHTChicago Daily Tribune.',
. looks as i the United States go t5rhini0tt has-,
:agreed to provide up to $13 million Ilarc to help
purchase the release of 1,113, Bay Pigs prisn-
ners who are still held in Cubs,
There has been no cpn furr.ation, fro#ri the
White House, but there an e"tany stns of the ad-
ministration's direct interest in tip pegotiations
between Castro and James . B. Donovan. He is
nominally the agent of the Cuban Faiilili~s com-
mittee but represented the C>nce f
agency in negotiating the release of the U-2 pilot,
+Mzir.s Gary Powers.
It was almost inevitable'that, sooner or later,
the chicken hatched at the Bay of Pigs would
come home to roost on Mr. Kennedy's lap, There
is no easy way for him,td dispose of it. The ad-
ministration's moral obligations to the prisoners
and their families is clear, It was on the assur-
ance of our air support. that the rel4s undertook
to invade Cuba in April. 1961, and it was Mr.
Kenedy's last minute change of heart that led to
the invasion's collapse.
Several members of Congress have already de.
nounced the proposed payment as ransom, which
it surely is. To say that the government's share
of the payment will be disguised as food and med-
icine does not alter the fact that it is ransom and
that it is being put lip by the United States gov-
ernment - even tho the President declared in
May, 1961, ,when urging Americans to contribute
to the private fund headed by Mrs.,Roosevelt and
Dr. Milton- Eisenhower, that "the United' States
government has nat`been and., cannot. be a party
to these negotiations."
Here is a sgd precedent indeed to set before
other twi bit di~tatars wlbe, having milked up
for whatever they c -legitimately, may want
to increase their,;take.,t.
What m s the pieC dent even worse is the
success wi llich CastUO has managed to keep
raising his price, First it was 500 tractors, When
the Roosevelt-Eisenhower committee seemed
about to produce these, it became 500 tractors
worth 28 million dollars. When Castro subse-
quently began talking in terms of 1,000 tractors,
the comuitee disbanded. Now. we are told, the
agreement reached between Mr. Donovan and
Castro calls for a total pa rmentt of about 62
million dollars,
Before public money is 'coninhitted to bail the
administration out of a moral predicament which
it brought on itself, we are entitled to the assur-
ance that every private source which has an in-
terest. in the matter (among which we might nnen)
tion the Kennedy family) has given its full share
FOIAb3b
Approved For Release 1999/09/07 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000200010059-1