Kissinger Wanted to Attack Cuba in 1976

HAVANA TIMES — In what would no doubt have changed the course of history, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger considered plans in 1976 to attack Cuba to punish it for its intervention in the Angolan civil war, according to a new book released today, reported dpa.

Kissinger, who was secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 in the administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, considered air strikes and the mining of Cuban ports to “hit” the government of Fidel Castro, according to documents declassified accessed by the authors of the book “Back Channel to Cuba.”

“If we decide to use military force we must succeed. It can’t be halfway measures,” said Kissinger during a meeting with military officers on March 24, 1976, which was also attended by then Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.

“I think we’ll have to hit Castro,” Kissinger told President Ford, who accepted the proposal. The plans called for the possible attacks in 1977, after the presidential elections. That scenario was ruled out due to the victory of Jimmy Carter.

According to the authors of the book cited by the The New York Times, Kissinger was furious that Castro gave support to Angola and other African movements during the years of the Cold War.

Cuba provided decisive military support for the victory of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in 1975.

The former Secretary of State had supposedly wanted to boost efforts to improve relations between Washington and Havana, damaged after the triumph of Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959. The two countries have no formal diplomatic relations since the 60s.

Declassified Documents on the Internet: http://dpaq.de/oIEoK