WASHINGTON (AP) -- Less than three months after President Kennedy's death, Cuban leader Fidel Castro told President Lyndon Johnson he was eager for Johnson to prevail in the 1964 election -- and even invited him to take "hostile action" against Cuba if it would be to his political benefit, newly published documents show.
Castro also invited Johnson to continue a U.S.-Cuban dialogue that Kennedy had initiated in the months before his assassination.
Castro's comments are contained in a series of once-secret 1960s documents on U.S.-Cuban relations that were obtained by Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National Security Archive, a research group at George Washington University.
Kornbluh wrote an article based on the documents in the current edition of Cigar Aficionado.
The Castro message, dated Feb. 12, 1964, was given verbally by Castro to Lisa Howard of ABC News in Havana for delivery to Johnson.
Castro, who then held the title of prime minister, asked Howard to "Please tell President Johnson that I earnestly desire his election to the presidency in November ... though that appears assured. .... Seriously, I have observed how Republicans use Cuba as a weapon against the Democrats. So tell President Johnson to let me know what I can do."
He suggested that his offer remain secret lest it become useful to the Republicans. It was a time when the conservative wing of the party was poised to seize power after long years of dominance by moderates. That summer, the GOP nominated one of those conservative rebels, Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona, to run against Johnson in the 1964 presidential election.
Castro continued: "If the president feels it necessary during the campaign to make bellicose statements about Cuba or even to take hostile action, if he will inform me unofficially that a specific action is required because of domestic political considerations, I shall understand and not take any serious retaliatory action."
How Johnson responded to Castro's letter is not known. Four months after his message to Johnson, Castro proposed in an interview "extensive discussions of the issues dividing" Cuba and the United States. There were subsequent contacts but the initiative begun by Kennedy fizzled out by the end of 1964.
As the documents show, Kennedy placed high priority on a normal relationship with Cuba.
Rejecting a State Department recommendation that Cuba loosen its ties with the Soviet Union and China as the price for normal ties, a White House memo dated March 4, 1963, said, "We don't want to present Castro with a condition that he obviously cannot fulfill.
"We should start thinking along more flexible lines. The president, himself, is very interested in this one."
The documents highlight Kennedy's previously reported interest in abandoning his policy of unremitting hostility toward Cuba in exchange for a more moderate course. For his part Castro seemed interested.
In mid-November 1963, Castro was preparing to send instructions to his U.N. ambassador on a proposed agenda for official talks between Castro and a U.S. emissary. Kennedy sent word to top aides that he was prepared to decide on next steps once the agenda was received. The date was Nov. 19, 1963, three days before Kennedy's assassination.
As Kornbluh notes, Kennedy seemed the most unlikely of presidents to seek an accommodation with Castro.
He gave the green light to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, imposed a trade embargo, authorized CIA-Mafia assassination attempts against Castro and other efforts to destabilize the regime.
Kornbluh says that for the Kennedy White House, there was nothing incongruous about the switch to the olive branch during his last year in office.
According to Kornbluh, then-national security adviser McGeorge Bundy explained the rationale in a 1996 interview. "We wanted to make a reality check on what could or could not be done with Castro," Bundy said. He added that Kennedy "clearly thought this was an exploration worth making because it might lead to something."
Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.
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