(404-10179-10441} Tame cae meme ne gine enema nT tt ene TEA A OA sah bMS aa ee RNNSY Hee entire iitte te Kinetic tte “©, @h-wens aiid _~ ws. wpe x. ’ satan & . etn SLR i tse hte wn Ee: a mat Ee. WEXGHANSE OF CORTERSATICN SUB PCT a Meeting with or, Femuel "Manolo" RAY ra 1. Hrior te departing from Washington o Ly anuary 1961, 1 was ingsructe. be Tresy Barnes to contert os. RAY in Kiemi, I wag ingstrusted ts segue RAY “9 ‘ ‘ * A, Thed "ea? ‘persenally hold }Sm in high regerd ani thet wile “ve are not baetizg any individual or peep is the political sense. we do have sympathy with tis program and his ains. B, Thst "we" are prepared to reater him whatever material agsixtancs ha nosds ani om fsasibly ues. That ville the aecheniam of the Frente would heve to be used for thea ieslivery of such materis’s, sines no ther mechaniss . for thig purpose presently existe, thig did not mean _ thet Or. RAY need be beholides to the Frente. €, Th-t we welerstood Ia is plaxing to return to Cuba, Be feel] that this would be 2 «ise nove, and eseejently urge hin to da a In this sonneetica we sma prepared to offer bis a comnmicator and other eimiier aesistence go thet be can maintain contact with Ris people, 2, I hed plamned to eee RAT on his rescore from Puerto Rieo on the afternesa of 3 Januery 1961, bet she inninensy of a break of diplocatie reletiona between the Tndted States an] Cuba compelled we to reters ic Eavena on the roraing of 3 Janusry 1961, Consequently. ry nesting with RAT was rostponed mmtil last evening vhen an anpeistzent was made throuph <“SSCNGER to moet, with him . a&% the latter's apertaent. 3. Cor neating Sested approximately thrse hours - roughly fron 7 to 10 Pole We covere!t a wile range of subjects, <e highlighta of whieh I ahall trr te cower in sucoseding paragraphs, we
14-00000 ee ee sanetispnteh den GR Dn nap opt MA ER stp . a eal H * 4 HIS THI? TO SAN CUAN, Ne made only passing refereness to hie trip to Puerte Ries, Ue rentioned that he haj a wery “ine talk with ’ Gov. 'UN0Z Marin-for wham he expressed rreat admiration, Several times during the evening's session te indie:tad that he vould like ; to ese the future Cuba follow tho path of Inmerto Aico end .ost Germany in ite econanis develojzent, Ue aleo srid that he had emferred with ex-President of Costa Rica. Dr, Jose FIGUZTLS, vhom ' he found very praoocuvied with zasreat to future developments in ‘ Latin Amoricay the influones which CASTRO still exerts on the minds of great mumbera of peorle. RAY commented that while almost all of the governtant now see C’STRo for what he is. a cynical dictator, there are many. rany people who still view hin as @ porular leader who 4e trying to help his people. l'uch more in tho propagenda lines ig neosasary be said to praesent Ghomic to the paorle in a truer light. in this oonnestion he said that the {hi hores within che next ¢hreas weeks or so to acpiire bronicasting facilitics in Costa Rica, VYenesusia, and perhaps aoquire a ship from wien proparanda could be disseninated, §. ATTITUI!. TOUARD TS FRENTE, RAY feels thet the Frente has little to offer the people of Cube for the future. For oxesrie. he seid, there is great discontent fin the Cuban Rebel Arwy vhich could be exploited if thess dissident olenents could have some assurancs that they wore laying down their lives for a worthy lle canss, AY does not feel that the action eni composition of the FRD ins, jres . auch confidence. He did not mention any names epecifleally arong the FRD which would represent a "return to the past‘ bet he lid aey that ona of the Executive Fembora (head of a department, I believe ia how he put it) had been a big time contractor during RATISTA's regime and that vhen RAY took over the Mintetry of ublie Vorka unier President URRUTIA, he learned that thie same sontractor had previously presented o bill and eallectad 300,000 pegos for a public worke project vhich was never wiertaken, Instead of having the man jailed, RAY eaid that he ae 'iniater of Publia “orks serely ineisted that the job be done. le commented that he (RAY) would now probably “have to pay for thie.” I presuse he Reant that this - particular person will eventually eeek sone typs- ot personal revenge, RAY aleo sald that “one of the five" -axnbera of the FH) eonfided to him that he ia rot happy but there ig little he oan do about it because. the is there.” RAY repeated soma of the usiel- critictms of the FRD--- “high living,’ petty polities, “evoryboly receiving a salary." end the ®obvious fret” that the 0,5, Government is riebing up the “tab, frie he said wag fine vith the ‘2h because it vas causing Jiall‘usioned Cuhans within ani vithout Cuba to turn to the ‘RP as the only hope. Ne vag julte frank in st: ting that while he ig willing to "eccperate®™ with the Fronte, he did not vant the }2r te baceme identiMed in the Guban nind with the Frente. and thua iteelf bao me disereiited through “association, \
14-00000 nen ep ean 3. PUCHS “ES 37:5 7ROPS, ‘hen Iteold RAY that ve vere crepared to provide hin material suprert ani thet wile much of thig raterial eupport would have to be delivered by tre Frente xethanian this would not necessarily make him beholden or ; acs hin under oblirgstion to the Frente, he azited ani sali that this is what i say, but this is not the way it works. fhinking he was referring to some incident in the past, and sot the immediate present, I said that I was sure he would now fimi thet thie fg how it works. [Ne then told me thet he hed been negotiating for an air drop to a croup in the Eseambrays, that Mr. 8. hal eome dowm and he thought their difforonesa had been pretty much resolved, and ir, 5, hed toki he, }CEV590 that there had been a mosting of minis, at cetera, and with everything all set for the drop, he is ~ at the eleventh hour (he sald "three days sgo*) tald that the exns nust bear the sticker of the Frente, otherwise "no arme.” Ee sald that t'4e vee absolutely unacceptable to hin. Ke gaid he i123 not insist or partioularly ask that the erma be identified with "“RP* atickere, so therefere he could not gee any justifieation for insisting that the arna bear the FD lubel. Ke said that his croup has dose «ll the operational -plamiing for the drop, ‘eourlers have gone back and forth betwen Eavana and the Escanbrars, maps have been drawn up, DE's have been arrenged, and now he is told that the equipment which he had been told vas being supp’ ied to hia rproup must bear the labs! of the rival *F7D," I¢ is obvious that while we say that ve look ucea the Frente as a non-political grouping of various opposition croups, RAY looks uron the Frente as the politieal organization of Tony V:RC#A ani I personally do not feel sanguine that any amount of explanation will change his thinking in this regard. “ere. and eleevhere during our conversat’on, I noted a certain a.ou:t of intrengigenee and lack of toleranes on tie part of RAY which dess sot bode wel! for the future, unless he ean be made to realize that his eroup and fellowing are not the sole repository o7 wirtus. honesty, eoxpetenes ani -oal intentions. SAY is on idealist. He Jdretas of a cenoorctic Cuba, free of sorrurtica, ruled by ~en woo are selflessly iedie-ted to the promotion of the g@-nerel velfare. When I said to SAY that Tony VARONA and other leaders of the FRO would say that they too stand for thees tings. he agein galled and said: "The curious thing is that they Jo not ecme out and say unequivocally (at ther stand for theee things. Ingtead they eay ve ars Cuhena « ve sre not Englishmen, we are not Americans, we are not Germans = ve are Cubang.* ‘What: they nean to. gay, he went on fis that selfis'ness, soce corruption. of cetera, ts part of the Cuban maze’ up and that tis being the ease it is unrealistic and impractioal to think that Cuveane can dscire to a jemocracy — based on intecrity and fiscal honesty such ag we have in the United : States. or Engiand. or other -ore civanced de-oer'cles of Vestern na Europe. He feala that the pescle of Cuba yearn for such a denocraay ani they do not ses the chanes cf fulfil izant in the composition af tha Frente, Therefore ho wishes to scbaly in the ERP those mon vtose
14-00000 ee ei manent ee OLAS CROMER A ‘ 7. a nseteigtteatitynet ometllintancerilonl Sitandi2 ye lbeFce Bi ci Bedi «tints Paes CENT eA «tm ROARS A Rael Sao cme as “otis hae GEE: 7 reputations ere clean — he kept referring to lalipe Faszos, as an example - and thus bold out to the Cubans ‘n Cuba a hope of better days to coms - ani to provile them a cause for wieh to fight, Without a will to fight cn the part of the peevie cf Cuba, he said, CAS"RG will newer be overtirowm. The will to figtt does not exist on the scale that is needed to achieve sucoggss. The Frente is pletely ineapable of providing the inspiration from which gush a will can sten. Consequentely. it ia un to the }P to inspire the confidence of the people by bringing topsther thegs persons and elements whom the people trust and who ere not identified with the corrupt : past. The people of Cuba, he said, canmot atand another disappol tment, Their hopes must not be raised again, only to suffer another betrayal, PROVISIONAL GOVERIGENT, I broucht up the subject of-a provisional fovernnent. & government in exile. but prefaced cy remarks by saying that I was only ezpreasing my personal views I saidi "Don't you feel that the problem of whose sticker goes cn “he air drops, and who gets credit for this or that. vould be resolved if an Assembly of Opposition Groups were to mest and to democratically eleet a provisional goverment, composed of honest, compatent man of uminpeachable record, which would represent all the diverss oppoaition groups and which would . reise the hopes aml provias the will to fight to the Cubang in Cuba who are uncortain and confused with reapict to the future?" He said he was opposed te a coalition rovernrent rade up of represontatives of vorious politicnl parties as a provisions! povernnent because he was sure such a governvent would uot be able to previde the united, honest, non-partisan type of leadera!ip which will be required following. the fall of C:STRO. He would prefer a governrent of *integration® rather than a government of “coalition.” | By that he asafd he meant | that the best qualified nen would be asked to serve their country in an apolitical capacity. That these men would be measured by their experience, co:petenesa, reputation, ete,, and little or no concern ahould be given an to their po itical affiliations, A goverment composed of such ren would quickly win the respect of the Cuban por} ations. these men could get on with ‘he job of rec natructing the comtry, gonpletely subordinuting partisan politieal considerations, since such men wou'd not be po'itically: ambitious. . Moreover, a governnent | compoasd of such, outstanding ren would win the acnfidencs of foreign comtries which would be ore disrosed to grant Ioana viigh. will be an urgent nesessity fran the very stexyt, So for as the sovernment itself 4e senoorned, it would be apolitical, The veriéus polities) parties’ and their ‘sealers vould bs free to prerare for the coring elections - whether they ba ta 6, 12 or 18 vonths at which tins the Cuban people in free elections could decide which po’itiea! party it vented to, govern the country. 7 I asked RAY wero would select theses son And at whet jumeture of the atrugrle against C.S"RO wuld a provisional rovernse:nt appear, He wae a little fuasy - rrobably intentionally - on thiga point. Ue clearly indiented that some work bal alreaiy boon neeoaplished on the mattor |