Doc ID: 6878908
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JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM
IDENTIFICATION FORM
DATE: 03/26/97
PAGE: 1
AGENCY INFORMATION
AGENCY: NSA
RECORD NUMBER: 144-10001-10093
RECORDS SERIES :
AGENCY FILE NUMBER :
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
ORIGINATOR: NSA
FROM: NSA
TO : HCF
TITLE
[R]
3/0/POD/T1463-63 PORTUGUESE COMMENT ON CASTRO'S REACTION TO DEATH OF
DATE 12/05/63
12/05/63
PAGES : 2
SUBJECTS :
PORTUGAL, DIPLOMATIC ACTIVITY
CUBA, REACTION TO ASSASSINATION
DOCUMENT TYPE: REPORT
CLASSIFICATION : T
RESTRICTIONS : 1B
CURRENT STATUS : ✗
DATE OF LAST REVIEW : 08/10/93
OPENING CRITERIA
ORIGINATING AGENCY'S DETERMINATION REQUIRED
COMMENTS:
CONTAINS SENSITIVE COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION
[R]
[R]
[R]
-
ITEM IS RESTRICTED
[R]
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Released pursuant to Executive Order 14176, DECLASS. OF RECORDS CONC. THE ASSASSINATIONS OF PRES. JFK,
RFK, AND THE REV. DR. MLK, JR.
SEN.
Doc ID: 6878908
Doc Ref ID: A4268721
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Portuguese
PODH
WS 9776
3/0/POD/T1463-63
IS 05 Dec 2155Z P
Dist: HCF
ST 300
PORTUGUESE COMMENT ON CASTRO'S REACTION TO DEATH OF KENNEDY
FR Havana: [M]
TO
Lisbon: Foreign Ministry
Msg Nr: 17
27 Nov 63
--
Late Friday afternoon and through the night a large movement
of troops began here. They were sent to take up positions
and reinforce strategic positions around Havana and the northern
coast of the island because of the assassination of President
KENNEDY. Saturday evening FIDEL CASTRO appeared on television
and spoke about the death of KENNEDY and tried to refute charges
which had already appeared in the United States that the assassin
was a Marxist and a Communist Castroite. Although it was only
the third time that I had witnessed a speech by FIDEL, I got the
immediate impression that on this occasion he was frightened, if
not terrified. Other chiefs of mission, however, confirmed that
impression and indicated surprise at this hasty jump into
the arena to denouce insinuations which were merely from
news and nongovernmental agencies. In fact, it is the general
opinion in diplomatic circles that CASTRO feared that the
assassination would be the spring which would unleash passions
and violent and blind hysteria of the American people against
Cuba and Russia and provide the excuse which up to now was
lacking to justify internationally an invasion of Cuba. There
is talk again about the coincidence of rumors concerning a
crisis at the end of the year (my letter Nr. 224).
FIDEL, emotional and uneasy, tried through the same
telegrams of the American news agencies to refute the accusa-
tions which were then appearing and to twist them so that the
assassination would appear as the work of the Ultra Reaction,
of the extreme racists of the Pentagon,, who are fanatical
supporters of war against Cuba and the Soviet Union.
Portuguese
3/0/POD/T1463-63
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Released pursuant to Executive Order 14176, DECLASS. OF RECORDS CONC. THE ASSASSINATIONS OF PRES. JFK, SEN.
RFK, AND THE REV. DR. MLK, JR.
Doc ID: 6878908
Doc Ref ID: A4268721
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3/0/POD/T1463-63
He (B val sketched) the life of LEE OSWALD and showed
with these telegrams that after his trip to Russia OSWALD
seemed to be supported by forces of the Right and that even
counterrevolutionary circles suspected that he was an agent
of the CIA or the FBI. This caused CASTRO to wonder whether
the assassin was not the mere instrument of a monstrous plot
of American militarists who, by eliminating KENNEDY, would
put JOHNSON in a postion from which there would be only one
way out:
to drain off anti-Cuba hysteria by an action of
declared war.
Be that as it may, CASTRO tried to bring forward any
possible formal accusations against Cuba, clamoring that all
people should demand that the death of KENNEDY should be
clarified and harping on the theme that KENNEDY was being
ferociously attacked because of his weak policy against Cuba
and Russia and therefore, his death could not be the work
of Leftists, since it would only benefit the intentions of the
Ultra Reaction and the Rightists.
I must inform you that the assassination did not cause
a great deal of consternation in counterrevolutionary circles
in the interior, disillusioned as they were with the
"weakness" of KENNEDY, especially after his speech in Miami,
from which they expected measures or decisions to intervene
in Cuba which would presage the forthcoming end of the
Communist regime of FIDEL CASTRO.
MS 974
CN ILC
TI
-2-
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Released pursuant to Executive Order 14176, DECLASS. OF RECORDS CONC. THE ASSASSINATIONS OF PRES. JFK, SEN.
RFK, AND THE REV. DR. MLK, JR.
י