Robert McNamara, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr going to Cuba to Commemorate Missile Crisis

HAVANA (AP) - Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara is among American protagonists expected at a conference in Cuba this month marking the 40th anniversary of the missile crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

Also attending the conference, which will focus on Cuba's role in the crisis, will be Arthur Schlesinger Jr., former special aide to President John F. Kennedy, Cuban organizers said Tuesday.

"This was the most dramatic episode of the Cold War, and perhaps of all contemporary history," said Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Fernandez, a key organizer.

Fernandez said he hoped the academic conference bringing together American, Cuban and former Soviet protagonists would evolve in "a cordial spirit of analysis, without tensions, insults or hatred."

The conference's aim is to shed light on events leading up to the crisis, which peaked when the United States learned there were Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuba - an island just 90 miles from the United States.

Following several tense days of negotiations with Washington, Nikita Khruschev withdrew the weapons without consulting with Havana - a move that enraged Fidel Castro's government.

Former presidential speech writers Richard Goodwin and Ted Sorensen, and then-CIA analyst Dino Brugioni, will also take part, said Fernandez. He said Castro is among the Cuban protagonists invited to participate.

Also taking part in the Oct. 11-13 event will be a number of Soviet military officials, Fernandez said. There will be two days of seminars and a day of visits to sites related to the crisis, including a former missile silo in the western state of Pinar del Rio.

The nonprofit, non-governmental National Security Archive at George Washington University also has been invited. The international affairs research institute maintains an extensive archive on declassified U.S. government documents.

Fernandez said the Cuban government will release a number of formerly classified documents on the crisis in conjunction with the conference.

During a similar conference on the Bay of Pigs last year, Cuban organizers worked with National Security Archive directors to release a wealth of U.S. and Cuban documents on the unsuccessful CIA-backed invasion attempt.

Fernandez, also a key organizer in last year's conference, is a retired military officer who helped lead Cuban troops during the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion the year before the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962.

Robert MacNamara has played the useful idiot for years, first as Lyndon Johnson's Secretary of Defense, crafting an idiot strategy of attrition in an Asian war and now denying culpability for it. Then this clown went to become chief of the World Bank, which idiotically grossly wasted taxpayer dollars on massive construction projects in Third World countries with desperately poor populations that had wonderful side effects like the removal of Indian tribes and the destruction of the rain forest. After that, MacNamara attempted to become an elder statesman and became a most useful idiot to Bill Clinton by writing a book condemning the Vietnam War as worthless (the 58,000 he killed and the 100,000s who served are commemorated with one minor footnote) that Clinton publicly used to justify his draft evasion. Robert MacNamara is truly the most worthless individual ever to hold a high position in the US government; I can't think of anyone more devious, incompetent, stupid or bad intentioned. I guess that explains why MacNamara was a trusted pallbearer at the funeral of Katherine Graham and still serves on the board of directors of The Washington Post.

WORDS AND ACTIONS DIFFER WHEN IT COMES TO CUBA --- RCB

THIS IS INCREDIBLE! DON'T THEY HAVE ANY SENSE OF SHAME?THEY ARE GOING TO CELEBRATE PRESIDENT KENNEDY'S BETRAYAL OF THE MONROE DOCTRINE ALLOWING AND PROTECTING THE MAINTENANCE BY A EUROPEAN COMMUNIST POWER TO KEEP SUPPORTING A TERRORIST BASE ONLY 90 MILES FROM OUR SHORES.

Excerpts from UN and OCHA pages: http://www.reliefweb.int/ocha_ol/civilians/the_media/index.html

"As human beings, we cannot be neutral, or at least have no right to be, when other human beings are suffering. Each of us...must do what he or she can to help those in need, even though it would be much safer and more comfortable to do nothing."
- Kofi Annan
UN Secretary-General

THE MEDIA
The misuse of information can have deadly consequences in armed conflicts, just as information correctly employed can save lives.
If the first casualty of war is the truth, the next victims are those who are unable to draw attention to their need for protection. They are all too often rendered speechless and faceless by war, reduced to crude statistics in the news. Giving these victims a voice can be vital for mobilizing the support necessary to protect human life. Informed public opinion can act as a brake on human rights abuses, by countering the culture of impunity and urging respect for international law.

Informed public opinion can act as a brake on human rights abuses, by countering the culture of impunity and urging respect for international law.

October 7, 2002

UNITED NATIONS

Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

inquiries@un.org

http://www.un.org/News/dh/latest/contactuspage.shtml

http://www.unhchr.ch/html/hchr.htm

http://www.un.org/english/

Dear Sir or Madam:

SUBJECT: BEATINGS, MUTILATIONS, PERSECUTION * IS THIS ADMISABLE?

It is with utmost regard for your work that I place emphasis on several issues that urgently need a prompt resolution.

Information Missing from ALL MUZZLED MEDIA.

Misleading information is blocking Cubans for their many attempts for liberalization. -- Obstruction of justice ---

CNN Lucila Newman and others in Havana are chumming with Castro and do not report incidents and important meetings involving the many dissidents and actual Opposition in Cuba. By concealing the facts they are empowering the oppressor.

It is alarming that readers of influential journals would fall so easily for the savage PR campaign against people who are passionate about freedom. Cubans have a great love for democracy and a deep dislike for abusive totalitarian regimes.

Human Rights Violations in Cuba for over 43 years.

Some political prisoners awaiting trial for over two years are mutilating themselves in despair because of brutal treatment. Direct contacts inform us that hunger is a daily reality. Citizens are persecuted for expressing their ideas; either they are thrown in jail, or if lucky, just beaten.

Will the United Nations ever stand up to condemn these acts in a public forum for the rest of the world to understand the affliction of the Cuban people in the island and abroad?

Some Cuban Americans in United States are ex-patriots who escaped Castro’s bloody hand. Almost all have relatives who were either jailed, tortured or killed by Fidel Castro in order to keep his miserable vision of Socialism alive. America offered a safe haven to preserve their culture, waiting for the chance to return to a free homeland.

We thank you for your last private and sympathetic response, but public acknowledgement is what the writer in distress needs.

There is a massacre going on and you are turning the other way. This deplorable attitude must stop.

Cuba needs someone in the UN to come out in defense of the oppressed people of Cuba, and for this official to take a vigorous and drastic stand against the Dictator Castro, violator of human rights.

Thank you for your consideration.

Respectfully,

Rosa C. Bengochea

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.

FOR FREEDOM & JUSTICE GROUP
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ForFreedomandJustice

CC: Office of the High Commissioner

For Human Rights

OHCHR-UNOG

8-14 Avenue de la Paix

1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

webadmin.hchr@unog.ch

CC: UN News Centre newscentre@un.org

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