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Re: declassification of Cuban documents



Check out the following.
Greg
______________

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 21, 2001, 1 p.m.

FORMER ADVERSARIES MEET TO DISCUSS BAY OF PIGS

HISTORIC DIALOGUE ON FAMOUS FAILED INVASION SET TO BEGIN

Cuban Government Declassifies 480 pages of Documents in Unprecedented Release

<http://www.nsarchive.org/bayofpigs>

Havana, Cuba: On the eve of an historic meeting in Havana, former combatants,
covert operatives, policy makers and Cuban government officials gathered to
discuss one of the most infamous episodes in the Cold War―the April 1961
invasion at the Bay of Pigs.  The three-day international conference, "Bay of
Pigs: 40 Years After," which includes former officials from the Kennedy
Administration, the CIA, and Brigade 2506 members, and their counterparts in
the Cuban military and government of Fidel Castro, opens tomorrow, March 22.
George Washington University's National Security Archive, which is
co-sponsoring the event along with the University of Havana and several Cuban
government agencies, today announced the members of the U.S. delegation.  They
include Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Richard Goodwin, two former advisors to
President John F. Kennedy; two retired CIA covert operatives, Robert Reynolds,
chief of the Miami station in 1960-61 and Samuel Halpern, the executive
officer on Operation Mongoose; and five members of the 2506 Brigade, including
two former presidents of the Brigade's Veterans Association, Alfredo Duran and
Robert Carballo.

Peter Kornbluh, the Archive's Cuba specialist who organized the U.S.
delegation for the conference, called the meeting "an historical, and
historic, event."  Kornbluh promised that the conference "would produce new
documents, details, and interpretations" of events before, during and after
the 3-day battle at the Bay of Pigs.  The Archive is posting key documents on
its website―www.nsarchive.org―during the conference.

In an unprecedented official declassification, the Cuban government has
declassified dozens of secret records relating to the invasion, amounting to
some 480 pages.  The Cuban documents include intelligence reports on U.S.
preparations, and Fidel Castro's directives during the fighting -- records
that "shed substantial light on Cuba's ability to repel the invasion," said
Kornbluh.

The conference, which addresses the most bitter and still controversial U.S.
effort to overthrow Castro's revolution, is being held "in the spirit of
historical exploration," according to Thomas Blanton, executive director of
the National Security Archive.   Given the continuing tension in U.S.-Cuban
relations, he noted, "it is imperative to learn the lessons of this conflict
so as not to repeat the past, and this kind of serious scholarly
discussion―with actors, witnesses, experts and declassified evidence―gets us
beyond rancor to dialogue."

<http://www.nsarchive.org/bayofpigs>
_______________________________________________
THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental research
institute and library located at The George Washington University in
Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents
acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public
charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is
supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and
individuals.
___________________________________________________________________
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