The way I read the election returns of November 1972, George McGovern was decisively defeated. He carried only one out of 50 states. It is a puzzlement, therefore, why McGovern seems to be making U.S. policy toward Castro.
Last fall, President Ford appointed William D. Rogers as Assist ant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs. Mr. Rogers served on candidate McGovern’s 1972 Latin Task Force, which recommended that we “reorder Cuban relations, and specifically … lift the trade embargo [on] Cuba.” This spring, Senator McGovern visited Havana, returning with the recommendation that we normalize relationships with Cuba.
What Castro wants is for the Organization of American States to lift its diplomatic and trade embargo against Cuba. His strategy is to persuade the OAS to amend the Rio treaty at its July 15 meeting to eliminate the rule requiring a two-thirds majority to rein state Cuba to good standing.
If that procedural change is made, Castro believes the OAS embargo will then be terminated, the United States will end its own embargo, and Cuba will be able to get direct shipments of U.S. goods on credit, just like the Soviet and Eastern European Communists.
The Ford-Kissinger policy is to allow the OAS t-o lift its embargo as though this were inevitable, but not our fault, while making noises to indicate U.S. reluctance. to end our mm embargo. This policy is designed to avoid ruffling the American public, but it will not prevent Castro from achieving his goals. The fact is that this scenario is not inevitable, and if it does happen, it will be the fault of the Ford-Kissinger-McGovern policy of passive pro Castroism.
There are numerous reasons why Cuba is not worthy of normal relations with the United States and with the OAS. Castro has acknowledged that he fosters revolution wherever he can.. 11H ave we aided revolutionaries as much as we have been able to?” he asked himself. “Yes, we have. Has the influence of the Cuban Revolution been felt in the revolutions of other countries? Yes.” He added later: “I would say that armed struggle is necessary. Arms are necessary to carry out revolution. Otherwise, you cannot effect social change.”
Paul F. Wallner, an analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency, recently told the House Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs that estimates of those·who want to leave Cuba “could go into the hundreds of thousands, really.” He told of inhuman prison camps which were off limits to all human rights groups. He noted that “the Church is still persecuted and held down very strongly,” and said that “no organized opposition” to the government is permitted.
The United States could and should exert the leadership necessary in the Organization of American States to continue the embargo against Castro — at least until Cuba settles the claims for Ameri can property it has confiscated, expels all Soviet military and intelligence agents now stationed in Cuba, stops fostering revolution in other Latin American countries, and permits the Red Cross or the United Nations to visit Cuban prison camps.
