J. Miller, 'The Danger of Military Aggression against Cuba and a Proposal for Further Measures of Czechoslovak Intelligence in Support of Revolutionary Cuba'

I. Administration of the Ministry of the Interior

Prague, January 6, 1961

Interior Minister

Comrade Rudolf Barák

Subject: The danger of military aggression against Cuba and a proposal for further measures for Czechoslovak intelligence in support of revolutionary Cuba.

The outgoing Eisenhower government is proving to the whole world that it was and will remain an enemy of the freedom of nations and world peace until the last moment.

In the Congo, it openly supports the preservation of colonialism, in Laos it wants to "demonstrate its power" to the world again, and in the Caribbean, it has escalated the situation to a dangerous stage.

1/ The danger of military aggression against Cuba.

The US government severed diplomatic relations with Cuba on January 3, 1961, but in reality, they were severed by the expulsion of the dictator Batista from Cuba two years earlier and only now has this been confirmed de jure. The US used as a pretext for this provocative act the decision of the Cuban government to equalize the number of members of the US Embassy in Havana with the number of members of the Cuban Embassy in Washington, announced by the President of the Cuban Government Fidel Castro in his speech on the occasion of the 2nd anniversary of the victory of the revolution.

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The Cuban government asked Czechoslovakia to represent Cuba's interests in the US. Switzerland will represent US interests in Cuba.

            This provocative action is part of a previous US political campaign against Cuba and follows the State Department's provocative call for US citizens in Cuba to return to the US with their families and the recall of the US ambassador to Cuba.

            Severing diplomatic relations with Cuba is the goal of extensive US diplomatic and economic pressure on the governments of Latin American countries, which intensified especially in December last year. As is known, the dictatorial regimes in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Paraguay, Nicaragua, and Guatemala do not have diplomatic relations with Cuba.

            As a result of US pressure, on December 31, 1960, the government of Peru severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, and according to reports from Montevideo, the US urgently requested that the Uruguayan government sever relations with Cuba under the pretext of "subversive activities" by the Cuban Embassy in Montevideo. The US ambassador to Bolivia is putting pressure on the Bolivian government to cut off diplomatic relations with Cuba under the same pretext, combining the provocation against Cuba with the provocation against Czechoslovakia. It is possible that the US action against Cuba will also be supported by Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, and Colombia, where corrupt pro-American governments are in power. The attitude of the governments of El Salvador, Venezuela, and Brazil is still uncertain, while Mexico and Ecuador will maintain friendly relations with Cuba for the time being.

2/ The goals of the US aggressive plan against Cuba.

            Ever since the victory of the Cuban revolution Eisenhower's monopoly government pursued plans to stifle this revolution and suppress Cuban independence by diplomatic, economic, and military means and to restore monopoly rule and

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an anti-people regime.

            The suspension of diplomatic relations with Cuba should be a US signal to all Latin American countries to follow this example, as the main goal of the US government is

a/ achieve the isolation of Cuba in relations with other Latin American countries, so that it can be attacked militarily with the tacit consent of these countries;

b/ isolate Cuba economically from the rest of the world and bring it to its knees with an economic blockade;

c/ eliminate the Cuban revolution by military intervention.

The severance of US diplomatic relations with Cuba brought the imminent danger of military aggression against Cuba closer. The US is seeking to carry out this aggression with the help or consent of other Latin American countries. Therefore, I speculate, using the Organization of American States and on the basis of the Rio treaty "on common defense against the communist danger," they want to invade Cuba militarily under the pretext of slander that the Soviet Union is building missile bases there.

            In mid-December 1960, the Inter-American Military Committee based in Washington approved a document that was supposed to form a kind of legal basis for the gradual "legalization" of military intervention against Cuba, conducted under the banner of the Organization of American States.

            The outgoing Eisenhower administration, spurred on by the warmongering circles of the Pentagon, wanted to impose its anti-peace and aggressive line on the new administration of President Kennedy with its latest provocative actions against Cuba, Congo, and Laos. However, Kennedy made it clear that he would not be involved in any decision regarding US policy until he assumed the presidency. It is hard to say to what

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extent he approves of cutting off diplomatic relations with Cuba, but during the presidential campaign it seemed that his line would be different from that of Eisenhower.

Later, however, he expressed himself in favor of an even tougher stance against the Castro regime, if he continued his anti-American and pro-communist policy.

3/ Consequences of the aggressive US plan against Cuba.

            Eisenhower administration is stepping up political, economic, and military pressure on Cuba before it leaves.

a/ Possible aggression against Cuba under the pretext of liquidating the "hotbed of communism" in Latin America would mean the suffocation of the Cuban revolution and the cancellation of all the progressive amenities of the people, the return of the US monopoly in the Cuban economy and the restoration of a reactionary government regime.

            b/ The US will intensify the pressure on the servile governments in Latin American countries to adjust the numerical status of the embassies of the socialist countries according to the status they have in people’s democratic states [LDS].

            c/ The US is intensifying pressure on the governments of Latin American countries to cut off diplomatic relations with Cuba under the pretext of "subversive activities" by Cuban embassies in Latin American countries, in order to put Cuba in complete isolation and finally to condemn it in the Organization of American States as a "disturber of peace" in the Caribbean region. It can be expected that an extraordinary session of the Organization of American States, whose regular session is to be held on March 1, 1961, will be called after that.

            d/ The USA will force the implementation of an economic blockade of Cuba in the Organization of American States and, in connection with it, will demand that Latin American states put up obstacles and limit economic relations with the countries of the socialist camp and prevent them from providing aid to Cuba.

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e/ For the USA and its subordinate governments in Latin America, there will be the possibility of new attacks against Cuba, given that it allows the CSSR to defend its interests and not some Latin American country.

            4/ Further measures of Czechoslovak intelligence in support of revolutionary Cuba.

            In the current situation, which is characterized by a sharp aggravation of the relationship between Cuba and the USA as a result of the interruption of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the effort of the USA to force others, especially Latin American countries, to follow the same procedure towards Cuba and achieve their tacit consent to a possible military intervention against revolutionary Cuba, they will residencies in Latin American countries to focus all their efforts on supporting Cuba and discrediting the aggressive policy of the US.

            In reporting activities, rezidenturas in Latin America will focus on revealing US preparations for military intervention, investigating the development of US efforts after the total isolation of Cuba, especially in Latin America, and ascertaining the positions of the governments of individual Latin American countries on the issue of breaking diplomatic and possibly economic relations with Cuba.

            All our residencies in Latin America will also urgently implement several active measures with the aim of denouncing the US action in connection with the severance of diplomatic relations with Cuba to the Latin American public, exposing the pressure of the US government on the governments of Latin American countries to sever diplomatic relations with Cuba, exposing the treasonous role of the governments of Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru and Nicaragua, which cut ties and to clarify the Eisenhower government's new decision on permanent North American control of the coast of the entire American continent.

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            In order to achieve this goal, several articles will be published in influential press in Mexico, interviews will be conducted with leading officials of the senate and parliament, who have recently expressed positive opinions about the Cuban revolution, and their statements will then be further popularized in the press. They will also print campaign leaflets and spread them around the capital through students. Representatives of the left-wing bourgeois movement, Cardenism, will be influenced by the agency route /the movement is headed by former nationalist-oriented Mexican president Cardenas/, to carry out public actions in support of revolutionary Cuba. The well-known left-wing politician and trade union leader VL Toledano will also hold a press conference on the Cuban issue. Through the contacts of the rezidentura, a campaign of sending protest telegrams to the US embassy in Mexico, the UN Security Council, the Mexican government and parliament, and approving telegrams to the Cuban government will be developed in Mexico.

            The rezidentura in Argentina will make interpolations in favor of Cuba in the Parliament, and through other agents, its content will be published and popularized. If the United States imposes sanctions on the basic reactionary Rio Pact, the agent of the rezidentura, who co-authored it, will write an article showing that the measures are against the spirit of the pact and arrange for it to be published in several Latin American magazines. Prominent political and public officials will be sent leaflets denouncing America's aggressive policy towards Cuba. 

            Also, the residentura in Brazil will arrange through an agency the implementation of interpolation in the parliament, organize a signature event in support of the Cuban revolution and against US policy. The resolution and the signatures of prominent Brazilian scientists, writers and artists will be published in the press and its content will be sent to the embassies of Latin American countries in Brazil,

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the United Nations, and the revolutionary government of Cuba. Despite the ties of the residency in the nationalist organization of Brazilian officers, the organization declared that the Brazilian army would not oppose the Cuban revolution. Furthermore, active measures will be taken, consisting of the publication of a series of articles in the Brazilian press, which will emphasize the fact of the economic and political independence of Cuba and its independence from the USA. The rezidentura will contribute to the organization of a Brazilian committee in support of revolutionary Cuba.

            I am sending the message, Comrade Minister, for your information.

Chief of the First Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs:

Col. Jer. Miller

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