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April 3, 1963

From the Journal of A.I. Alekseyev, 'Record of a Conversation with Raul Castro Ruz, Minister of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Cuba, 8 March 1963'

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Top Secret Copy Nº 1

3 April 1963

Outgoing Nº 91

 

from the journal of

A. I. ALEKSEYEV

 

 

RECORD OF A CONVERSATION

 

with Raul CASTRO RUZ, Minister of the Armed

Forces of the Republic of Cuba

 

8 March 1963

 

I accidentally met Raul Castro today in the city. In the course of a short conversation Raul said that Fidel Castro read the 6 February letter of N. S. Khrushchev at a meeting of the ORO National Leadership which was held yesterday. This letter was warmly received by all the participants of the meeting. F. Castro has not made a final decision about the time of [his] departure. Some of the members of the Leadership, including Raul himself, spoke in favor of Castro taking advantage of the invitation of N. S. Khrushchev to vacation with him and to spend at least one week with him. F. Castro did not express his final opinion, but let it be known that he would like to remain in Cuba on 17 April when the 2nd anniversary of the victory at Playa Giron would be celebrated. Raul addressed a request to me to support his, Raul’s, point of view and during the next meeting with Fidel to speak in favor of his trip between the 10th and 19th [v desyatykh chislakh] of April.

 

Raul also said that he showed F. Castro an outline of Gaydar’s article we sent about the withdrawal of the unit of the Soviet military specialists and a rough text of the statement about this question by a representative of the command of the Cuban army. Fidel Castro completely approved of them.

 

USSR AMBASSADOR IN THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA (A. ALEKSEYEV)

 

 

Raul Castro reports that Fidel read one of Khrushchev's letters at an ORO meeting and approved of an article detailing Soviet withdrawal. As well, Raul requests that Alekseyev speak in favor of his trip to the USSR when meeting with Fidel.

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Document Information

Source

AVP RF, f. 0104, op. 19, p. 124, d. 3, l. 107. Obtained by James G. Hershberg and translated by Gary Goldberg.

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Original Uploaded Date

2018-06-27

Type

Memorandum of Conversation

Language

Record ID

177846

Original Classification

Top Secret

Donors

Blavatnik Family Foundation