ON LAYING BLAME FOR CUBA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67-00318R000100790043-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 29, 2013
• Sequence Number: 43
• Publication Date: May 11, 1961
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Rar Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/29: CIA-RDP67-00318R000100790043-5
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NORFOLK, VA.
LEDGER-DISPATCH &
PORTSLIOTJTH STAR.
I EVENING 95,942
MAY 11.1.96i
0 ?
On Laying Blame
Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt lett
here yesterday and among theivti?
ters she discussed in An intuatitw
was the Cuban sity.atii;.,
-IF-A Pk ? .
Our Mli\larV,ale \if reporteEl.
t ? ,rper
in the ?collut*Of this newspaper.
that Mrs. elt lamed, fo
President EiittiliovAl.ri our trouble's.
A quote:.
"We inherited a Sr nin 02
which the Presider-it% .,?-Kennedy)
was told he must: .would 'hate
to think we Democtits should be
blamed for the tro 'n
Well, so far as
atrypie
seems to know, Mr. Eiftiow?:
tell Mr. Kennedy what he had td do
about Cuba. MK, Zigjagehlar_lipew
about Cuba, exclataLciaalLt_he
. .
. of the CIA to have rebel exiles retake
it, lorirrrore he was sworn in. He
even debated Cuba with his opponent,
Vice President Nixon.
Further, there is .not very much
that one president ca'n'begin, so far
as plans go to help refugees regain
their countr y, that his successor
couldn't stop. Even President Ken-
nedy took pains to halt suggestions
that Mr. Eisenhower was somehow to
blame.
But let us go on. Further along in
her talk to reporters, Mrs. Roosevelt
said that "our dealings" with Batista
' were largely to blame for what hap-
! penesija_czba. This country, she said,
had aligned itself for -..too long with
the Batista regime.
--Veil, let, us look at the record, as
,
anothVemocrat used to say. The
'?r r-
t-tbS. --ows Batista came to power
of staff tp,Carlos Mendieta
in 1933 and ruled through -a succes-
sion aftpr *de s tmtii.1940, when he
' esittelit himself and
. That _year Grau San
ted president, and he
was succeede4, y Carlos Prio Socar-
ros in 1948. Sooarros led the country
leftwar olititally, and Batista re-
turned Eo power in i bloodless coup
'141 1952,.,held elections in 1954, and
'left thSvr:t,ountry just before Fidel
Castro itOumed power in January,
:1959. -
'Thus, a anyone who can add can
ascertain, Batista was in power twice
in Cuba.----once or 11 years and once
for about six years. Once during
Democratic administrations and once
during Rerlublican administrations.
Now nobody would be so unfair as
to suggest that the late President
Roosevelt -ought to be blamed be-
cause Batista was in power during
the Roosevelt years. Fpr the. fact is
that "we Democrats" are as much to
blame for ? Batista as "we Republi-
cans" are.
At least Mr. Kennedy knows that
to be true, for he klipws Cuba tb be
a national problem, inherited: not just
from Mr. Eisenhower.
- ?
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/29: CIA-RDP67-00318R000100790043-5