ARNOLD Meeting in San Juan, P.R., 3-5 May 1964

SUBJECT: The Nature of the American Commitment

1. Alluding to certain charges levelled against CIA in a recent publication on the Bay of Pigs affair, whose substance was that the Cuban military leadership had been assured of the erroneous tactical estimates by their CIA advisors, I voiced the strong hope that the U.S. team servicing ARNOLD will never be subjected to similar onus (without implying justification for charges made in the instance of the Bay of Pigs). I reiterated that it was our strong desire to remain especially forthright with our Cuban counterparts, especially in admitting that our target intelligence had by its very nature to be limited and selective, especially when it came to predicting the extent and nature of Cuban defense measures. As an example, we readily admit that the structure is highly vulnerable to one detail raid; but that this estimate might not necessarily be borne out if put to the test of an actual operation.

2. In the general context of posts fulfilled, I once more pointed out to ARNOLD that the American commitment to Cuba is what we make of it and that I would never be able to guarantee that the U.S. Government intentions vis-a-vis the program as a whole can be deduced from the views of one particular day. As an example, official ARNOLD reactions to the continuing representations of a limited ARNOLD located in a Latin American country were initially strongly negative. In a recent meeting, however, I indicated fully cognizant of the assurances that ARNOLD was rendered totally compliant and in some respects I had realized that their sense of urgency in the matter was in some part a reflection of the urgency in turn experienced by the official American posture in respect to Cuba.

Ezra D. Kochher
4/May/64/mr

cc: COS, STANVE
File: Operations
A-1

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