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UPI Archives
Saturday, April 22, 1961
Khrushchev warns U.S. against Cuban invasion
By HENRY SHAPIRO
MOSCOW, April 22, 1961 (UPI) - Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev warned President Kennedy today that an American attack on Cuba might force a Soviet attack against U.S. foreign bases which he said threaten Russia's security.
He said the United States was following a "slippery and dangerous road which can lead ... to a new world war."
Khrushchev said he had incontrovertible proof that the United States prepared the invasion of Cuba and said "Mr. President, you are adopting a very dangerous path. Ponder that."
He said Kennedy had displayed a morality of gangsters toward Cuba. He said he had proof the United States prepared, financed, armed and transported the "mercenary bands" which invaded Cuba.
(The White House had no immediate comment on the Khrushchev message.)
He said the colonial system is crumbling and becoming a thing of the past and "for its part, the Soviet Union is doing everything to expedite the process.
"And of that we are proud!" Khrushchev said.
Khrushchev said the U.S. started on the road to plunder when it seized Formosa and that now the U.S. threatens war in case (Communist) China takes steps for a reunion with Taiwan (Formosa).
"This is being done by a nation which has officially recognized that Taiwan belongs to China," Khrushchev said.
He referred to Kennedy's views that Soviet rocket bases might be established on Cuban soil and said Kennedy had implied the U.S. had the right to attack Cuba under some kind of obligation to defend the Western Hemisphere from "external aggression."
"We for our part do not hold such views," he said.
Khrushchev's statement was made in a note handed today to U.S. Charge D'affaires E.L. Freers in Moscow in reply to a Kennedy letter of Apr. 18. The text was released by the Tass news agency.
Khrushchev said the attack on Cuba was "a crime which has revolted the entire world."
"This is a case of an attempt on the part of the United States Government to re-establish in Cuba such a kind of 'freedom' under which the country would dance to the tune of its more powerful neighbor and foreign monopolies would again be able to plunder the natural wealth of Cuba, to fatten on the sweat and blood of the Cuban people," he said.
"Our government seeks no advantages or privileges in Cuba," Khrushchev said. "We have no bases in Cuba, nor do we intend to establish them."
He said the colonial system was crumbling and referred to the American support of Chinese Nationalist President Chiang Kai-Shek.
He said the United Nations must strongly denounce the bandit actions against Cuba - "a crime which has revolted the entire world."
Copyright 2007 by United Press International.
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