Telegram from Polish Embassy in Washington (Drozniak), 18 October 1962

Ciphergram No. 15383

Dispatched from Washington, D.C., on 10.18.1962 at 15:00 and received on 10.19.1962 at 2:00

Came to the Decoding Department on 10.19.1962 at 2:30

To: [Foreign Ministry Director Eugeniusz] MILNIKIEL¹

From: [Ambassador Edward] DROŻNIAK²

Our [cable] 786.

[US Secretary of State Dean] Rusk focused on [discussing] the history of Soviet-American relations over the past years…They [the United States] are not going to cause bloodshed in Cuba. Undertaking a [military] invasion against Cuba, without an open act of aggression on the Cuban side, would mean that the United States could find itself isolated among its allies…When asked about the rumors regarding the possibility of the alleged mediation between the United States and Cuba [to be carried out by the Algerian revolutionary leader Ahmed] Ben Bella, he stated that it was not an option.³ They will wait for a change in the Cuban government and for Cuba to break political and military ties with the USSR. He denied rumors that there was ever a connection made between Berlin and Cuba in his conversation with [Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei] Gromyko.⁴ Cuba cannot be bargained for either for Berlin or for the [military] bases in Turkey.

[1] Eugeniusz Milnikiel (1905 -1969), former Polish ambassador to Great Britain (1953 -1956).

[2] Edward Drożniak (1902 – 1966), Poland’s ambassador to the United States (1961-1966).

[3] [Ben Bella had just visited Washington, where he met with President Kennedy, and had gone on to Havana—ed.]

[4] [Gromyko, who was in the United States to attend the UN General Assembly session in New York, had come to Washington on October 18 to meet with President Kennedy and Secretary of State Rusk—ed.]