twenty-six, nineteen hundred sixty-four. The Secretary General shall deposit the original of the Final Act in the archives of the Pan American Union, which will transmit the authenticated copies thereof to the governments of the American republics.

Document III-30

"The Ministers Were . . . Determined To Send a Signal to Castro That Now This [Interventionist] Activity Must Stop": REPLY MADE BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE (RUSK) TO A QUESTION ASKED ON THE ABC RADIO AND TELEVISION PROGRAM "ISSUES AND ANSWERS," JULY 26, 1964 74

I think this meeting of the foreign ministers which concluded just a few moments ago was one of the most important ever held in this hemisphere.75 It started, as you know, from Venezuela's complaint against Cuba for shipment of arms and for violent conspiracy against the democracy of Cuba last November,76

Now the foreign ministers looked at this with great sobriety and decided that they must impose mandatory action against Castro under the Rio Treaty. They determined not to maintain diplomatic relations with Cuba. Now this is of some importance because you will recall that Castro's sister, upon her arrival in Mexico, said that these Cuban embassies in the hemisphere are centers of subversion.78 We know this to be the truth, and we know that this applies not just to the host country but to all neighboring countries, and therefore all of us have an interest in this situation.

We had some very eloquent testimony from the Dominican representative, pointing out that when the inter-American Republics decided to break relations with the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic, this was welcomed by the people of the Dominican Republic, that they looked upon this as a source of strength in their effort to regain their freedom."9

Now we believe that the Cuban people, who are a proud people and who do have close traditional ties with the rest of the hemisphere, will, I think, welcome this action as demonstrating that the regime which has now fastened itself upon them is not compatible with the hemisphere and must be resisted.

The foreign ministers also decided to break trade relations between the American Republics and Cuba, except for foodstuffs and medicine

"Department of State Bulletin, Aug. 17, 1964, pp. 231-232.

75 See supra.

10 See American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1963, p. 286.

77

I.e., The Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance. Text in American Foreign Policy, 1950–1955: Basic Documents, vol. I, pp. 789-796.

7 Fidel Castro's sister reportedly had fled from Cuba on June 20. On June 29, in Mexico, she announced in a televised statement that she had defected from Cuba and had asked for asylum in Mexico.

"See American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1960, pp. 257-270; ibid., 1961, pp. 326-338.

and medical equipment. All of us have a real stake in the public health of the Cuban people, both on humanitarian grounds and because public health in this hemisphere is indivisible. We have felt it important to leave that exception. We also decided to interrupt sea transportation between the hemisphere and Cuba, as an additional measure, to make it quite clear that Castro has no future in Cuba or in this hemisphere.

Now I'd like to say that I think the ministers felt some regret that these steps were necessary. We had hoped very much that Castro would have drawn the necessary conclusions from the actions taken at Punta del Este in January 1962, when the Cuban government was denied participation in the hemisphere,80 and would have ceased these steps of intervention. We thought that after the missile crisis of 1962 he would have drawn the necessary conclusions.81 But the ministers were, with the very large majority, determined to send a signal to Castro that now this activity must stop, and it must stop now. And I think this was done with great vigor and with great clarity, and it is quite clear now that the hemisphere has a very, very high degree of unanimity in meeting this threat.

There were one or two or three special cases where it was not possible for the governments to vote yes on the final resolution, but I think the reasons for that were well understood by the foreign ministers. We expect now a consolidated hemisphere in resistance to these subversive activities from Cuba.

Document III-31

Declaration of Santiago de Cuba: ADDRESS BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF CUBA (CASTRO) MARKING THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE ATTACK ON THE MONCADA BARRACKS, SANTIAGO, CUBA, JULY 26, 1964 (EXCERPTS) 8

82

I am going to propose this declaration in reply to the OAS declaration, in the name of the people of Cuba. It goes like this:

Declaration of Santiago de Cuba: The people of Cuba, gathered for the glorious anniversary of 26 July at Santiago de Cuba, declare:

1. The Organization of American States has absolutely no moral basis or right to judge or pass sanctions against Cuba.

2. The United States, in complicity with the governments of Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and other countries, has introduced into Cuba thousands of weapons and tons of explosives to promote subversion and the overthrow of the Revolutionary Government.

3. On the territory of the United States and in the U.S. Army itself, and on the territory of Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and other countries of the Caribbean basin, thousands of mercenaries have been organized and trained, and have engaged and still engage in acts of aggression against Cuba.

5. The U.S. Government's Central Intelligence Agency has introduced into our territory hundreds of specially trained agents to carry out sabotage and other vandalic acts . . . .

"See ibid., 1962, pp. 320–331.

"See ibid., pp. 399 ff.

Department of State files. The abortive attack on the Moncada Barracks occurred on July 26, 1953. It was launched by Fidel Castro and his followers, who thereafter called themselves "the 26th of July movement."

"Ante, doc. III-29.

7. U.S. military planes have for almost two years been violating the sovereign skies over Cuba in flagrant violation of the most elementary rules of international law.

8. It is a cynical, unprecedented act for the aggressors to set themselves up as judges to try to impose sanctions on the victimized country.

9. The people of Cuba reject as cynical, shameless, and unjust the sanctions imposed.

10. The people of Cuba reject with equal indignation the [OAS] declaration constituting a shameless appeal to counterrevolution, drawn up at that meeting. 11. The people of Cuba warn, furthermore, that unless there is an end to the pirate attacks made from U.S. territory and other countries of the Caribbean basin, and the training of mercenaries for acts of sabotage against the Cuban Revolution, and the sending of agents, arms, and explosives to Cuban territory, the people of Cuba will feel they have an equal right to help, with all resources available to them, the revolutionary movements in all countries that practice such interference in our country's domestic affairs.

Document III-32

"The Inter-American System Demonstrated Once Again This Week Its Effectiveness and Vitality by Dealing Resolutely With Cuban Aggression Against Venezuela": STATEMENT READ BY THE PRESIDENT (JOHNSON) AT A NEWS CONFERENCE, JULY 30, 1964 94

Document III-33

"Communism Has... Lowered Rather Than Raised the Standard of Living of the Cuban People": ADDRESS BY THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INTER-AMERICAN AFFAIRS (MANN) BEFORE THE DALLAS COUNCIL ON WORLD AFFAIRS, DALLAS, TEXAS, SEPTEMBER 21, 1964 (EXCERPT) 85

Communism is indeed a danger to freedom in the Western_Hemisphere. It threatens the independence of every American Republic in the same way it threatens the nations of Africa, Asia, and throughout the world. It is as true now as it was in our revolutionary days that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."

But I should like today to bring you a message of faith in the vitality and strength of the forces of freedom in the Western Hemisphere a message of confidence in the certain triumph of our cause.

One reason we have for confidence is that Castro's experiment has proved before the entire hemisphere that while Communist doctrine promises a utopia for the masses, communism has in practice lowered rather than raised the standard of living of the Cuban people.

84

Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-64, vol. II, p. 909.

85

Department of State Bulletin, Oct. 19, 1964, pp. 549-552.

In the 51⁄2 years which have transpired since January 1959, Cuba's gross national product has declined about 15 percent and per capita income by over 20 percent. Cuba's main export crop, sugar, was produced at the rate of 6.8 million tons in 1961; in 1963 it was only 3.8 million tons. For the first time in their history the Cuban people must queue up to receive meager rations of food and clothing.

When Castro seized power, per capita income in Cuba was about 13 percent higher than in the rest of the Caribbean basin. By contrast, today the per capita income of the free peoples who live in the basin is 13 percent higher than that of the Cubans.

We continue to work for a better and wider understanding by our friends and allies that the Castro regime should not be rescued by free-world trade and credits. We cannot accept that an affluent Castro regime will spend less to finance subversion in the hemisphere than would a bankrupt regime.

Equally important in the decline of the Cuban economy is the incredibly bad management of the Castro regime. When communism destroyed incentives on the part of the Cuban people to work and to produce, the people chose to work less and to produce less. The Cuban experiment in communism underscores once again a basic error in the Marxist economic theory that the individual will sacrifice the welfare of his family to theoretical concepts about the general welfare. It proves once again that personal incentive is an indispensable element of economic progress-that the rate of economic growth is related to the degree of human effort which people are willing to put into their jobs-that communism is, in economic terms, impracticable because it cannot provide this incentive.

The enormity of Castro's economic failure also reveals another basic flaw in Marxist economic doctrine by proving once again that a Communist-type bureaucracy simply cannot efficiently manage even a relatively simple economy such as Cuba has. Even if the Communist bureaucrats were capable of making the many decisions which each farm or factory requires on a day-to-day basis-and they are notpolitics and graft and bureaucratic fear of mistakes would still prevent the system from becoming efficient.

Not only have Castro's policies led to economic failure-they have destroyed Cuba's economic independence. Cuba used to be free to trade as it wished and to borrow, when it needed to borrow, from whichever country it preferred. Now it is almost totally dependent on the Sino-Soviet bloc for both trade and aid. Castro has received over a billion dollars from the bloc in a futile effort to shore up his economy.

And what political price have the Cuban people had to pay for the privilege of enduring these economic failures? Untold numbers have been shot for wanting freedom. Nearly 350,000 Cubans have fled into exile. Many thousands of others pass their days in Castro's prisons for alleged "political" crimes. Aside from those who live relatively well because they have found favor with Castro-and who, as in all Communist countries, constitute the new privileged class of socialismCubans still on the island live in fear and dread of the familiar Com

munist intelligence system organized on a block-by-block basis as a vast network to spy on the Cuban people.

The fear, the terror, the brutality, the loss of individual political liberty, the loss of political and economic independence, the destruction root and branch of democratic institutions are there for all to see.

But there is more than economic failure and political tyranny. The whole hemisphere can see today in Cuba what Eastern Europe and Asia had seen earlier at close hand: a new kind of total tyranny over the mind of man. As Djilas 86 correctly said:

.. the stifling of every divergent thought, the exclusive monopoly over thinking for the purpose of defending their personal interests, will nail the communists to a cross of shame in history.

But there is more. Without Castro's favor one loses the right to work for the Communist state, now virtually the only employer, nor may he obtain lodging or ration cards to enable him to have shelter and food. This is the meaning of totalitarianism: It is total dependence on the favor of the tyrant for even the necessities of everyday life and, indeed, for life itself.

All of this is the result of nearly 5 years' effort to make Cuba the "showcase of communism" in this hemisphere.

[Program for Peace and International Cooperation: DECLARATION ADOPTED BY THE SECOND CONFERENCE OF HEADS OF STATE OR GOVERNMENT OF NONALIGNED COUNTRIES, CAIRO, OCTOBER 5-10, 1964 (ExCERPTS)-Post, Doc. VII-9]

Document III-34

Third Regular Meeting of the Special Consultative Committee on Security, November 16-December 11, 1964: REPORT ON THE WORK DONE, DECEMBER 11, 1964 (EXCERPTS) 87

III. ACTIVITIES

A. Meeting with the Chiefs of Central American Security Agencies

Since part of the Third Regular Meeting was held in San José, Costa Rica, the Committee was able to establish personal contact with some of the chiefs of Central American security agencies.

The discussions were held in accordance with the following agenda : -Activities of international communism in each Central American country; -Measures of coordination taken by the Central American countries and Panama and their effectiveness;

-Influence of the Sino-Soviet conflict on communist activity in each country; --Other problems related to communism presented by the chiefs of security agencies.

88

Milovan Djilas, a former Yugoslav Government and Communist party leader. 87 OAS doc. OEA/Ser.L/X/II.7. The Committee met in San José, Costa Rica, from Nov. 16-Nov. 27 and then at its permanent headquarters in Washington.