Evening star., 1961-04-13
KENNEDY NEWS PARLEY
!. We Live With Donqer'

sary of the death Of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt. 1t is
also The anniversary of the an
nouneement of the vaccine
which has been discovered to
prevent paralytic polio.
Today over 80 million Amer
leans have been vaccinated
with the Salk vaccine. Over 80
million remain unvaccinated.
Almost 4.8 million children
have not been vaccinated. The
majority of these are under S
years of age.
hope that the renewed drive
this spring and summer to pro-
vide vaccination for all Amer
leans. and particularly those
who are young, will have the
wholehearted support of every
parent in America. hope that
they will. knowing some Of the
long range suffering which
comes from an attack of polio,
with this miraculous drug, I
hope everyone takes advantage
Of It.
Stand on Cuba
q. Mr.. President, has a deci-
sion been reached on how far
this country will be willing to
go, in helping an anti-Castro
uprising or invasion of Cuba?
What would you say with re-
spect to recent developments as
far as the anti-Castro move
ments in Cuba are concerned?
A. First, I want to say that
there will not be under any
conditions, be an intervention
in Cuba by the United States
armed forces. This Government
will do everything it possibly
can, and think it can meet
its responsibilities, to make sure
that there are no Americans in
volved in any actions inside
Cuba.
Secondly, the Justice Depart
nent's recent indictment of
Mr.. Masferrer of Florida on the
grounds that he was plotting
an invasion Of Cuba, from Flor
ida, in order to establish a
Bastista-like regime should in
dicate the feelings of this coun-
try toward those who wish to
re-establish that kind of an ad-
ninistration inside Cuba.
) Third. we do not intend to
take any action with respect to
the property or other economic
interests which American citi-
zsns formerly held in Cuba,
other than formal and normal
negotiations with a free and
independent Cuba.
The basic issue in Cuba is not
one between the United States
and Cuba; it is between the
Cubans. themselves. I intend
to see that we adhere to that
principle. AS I understand it,
this administrations attitude
is so understood and shared by
the anti-Castro exiles from
Ouba in this country.
Soviet Space Feat
q. Mr.. President, could you
give US your views, sir, about
the Soviet achievement Of put
ting a man in orbit and what
it would mean to our space pro-
gram. as such?
A. Well, it is a most impress
sIve scientific achievement, and
also I think that we, all of us
as members Of the race, have
the greatest admiration for the
Russians who participated in
this extraordinary feat. I have
already sentucongratulations to
Mr.. Khrushchev, and I send
congratulations to the man who
was involved.
In idicated that the task
force which we set up on space
way back last January-Janu-
airy 12th-indicated that be-
CAUSE Of the Soviet progress in
the field of boosters-where
they have been ahead of us
that we expected that they
would be first in space, in or
biting a man in space.
OF course, that has taken
place. We are carrying out our
program. We expect to-hope
to make progress in this area
this year ourselves.
View of Castro
q. Mr.. President, your white
paper last year-last week-re-
ferred in very diplomatic Ian
guage to the takeover by COM
munism in Cuba. Is it your
view that Fidel Castro is per-
sonally Communist?
A. Well, he has indicated his
admiration on many occasions
for the Communist revolution.
He has appointed a great many
Communists to high positions.
A great many of those, I think,
in the white paper-well,
rather, the state paper-he in
.dicated that two-thirds of
those who had been members of
his first government had fled
Cuba, people who had a strong
feeling for the revolution, but
who did not propose to see it
come under the domination of
the Communists.
So I would not want to
characterize Mr.. Castro except
to say that by his own words
he has indicated his hostility
tb democratic rule in this hemi-
sphere, to democratic liberal
leaders in many of the coun-
tries of the hemisphere who
are attempting to improve the
life of their people, and has as
sociated himself most inti-
nnately with the Sino-Soviet
bloc, and has indicated his de-
sire to spread the influence of
that bloc throughout this hemi-
sphere.
Red China and U. N.