[PEN-L:509] Kissinger, Eagleburger urge "objective analysis" of Cuba

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

October 13, 1998

Ex-U.S. Officials Speak Out on Cuba

Filed at 1:54 p.m. EDT

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and Lawrence
Eagleburger, citing a need for ``an objective analysis'' of U.S. policy
toward Cuba, are urging President Clinton to authorize the creation of a
bipartisan commission.

Joining Kissinger and Eagleburger in the effort are former Defense
Secretary Frank Carlucci and former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker,
among others.

In a letter sent on behalf of the group, Eagleburger said the commission
should be patterned after the National Bipartisan Commission on Central
America, which was created in 1983 when much of that region was engulfed in
ideological warfare. That commission was chaired by Kissinger.

Eagleburger sent the letter to Sen. John Warner, R-Va., who is spearheading
a drive in the Senate to create a commission on Cuba. Warner told Clinton
in a letter dated Tuesday that a comprehensive study of Cuba policy is
needed because there has been none since 1960, when the United States first
began restricting trade ties with Cuba.

Warner's letter recommended that the proposed commission study such issues
as the national security risk of Cuba to the United States, compensation of
U.S. business people whose properties were confiscated in Cuba and the
domestic and international impact of the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba.

The embargo has been the centerpiece of U.S. policy toward Cuba for decades.

Three Cuban-American members of Congress, Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart,
R-Fla., Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., all
recommended to Clinton that he reject the Warner proposal, calling it an
``attempt to subvert the will of the American people and the intent of
Congress.''

The Cuban-American National Foundation, a Miami-based opposed to Cuban
leader Fidel Castro, also rejected the proposal on grounds that a strong
bipartisan consensus already exists on Cuba in the administration and in
the Congress.

The foundation's Washington representative, Jose Cardenas, said the
proposal was a clear attempt to ease U.S. policy toward Cuba although that
goal was not stated explicitly in either the Warner or the Eagleburger
letter.

``National public opinion polls indicate there exists no desire for the
U.S. to indulge Fidel Castro,'' Cardenas said.

Warner took part in a failed effort earlier this year to ease restrictions
on the sale of food and medicine to Cuba. Congress has shown little
inclination to promote any softening of U.S.-Cuba policy.

As secretary of state in the mid-1970s, Kissinger authorized a series of
secret contacts with Cuban officials to determine if there was a
possibility for an accommodation. The discussions made no headway and were
broken off.

The State Department official assigned to meet with the Cubans was William
D. Rogers, who eventually became an undersecretary of state. He was one of
the signatories to the Eagleburger letter.

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company


Louis Proyect

(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)