Washington, D.C., May 15 – The National Security Archive at
George Washington University today posted on the Web a declassified Presidential
Directive, signed by Jimmy Carter, which stated: “I have concluded that
we should attempt to achieve normalization of our relations with Cuba.”
The directive, dated March 15, 1977, shortly after Carter took office,
is believed to represent the only time a President has ordered normalization
of U.S. relations with Castro’s Cuba to be an explicit foreign policy goal
of the United States.
On May 12, 2002, Carter became the first U.S. President, current or
former, to visit Cuba since Castro’s revolution in 1959. His five-day
visit unofficially continues a dialogue that was officially started with
the distribution of this two-page document, Presidential Directive/NSC-6,
in 1977. Carter’s effort to “set in motion a process which will lead
to the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the United States
and Cuba” eventually was aborted over Cold War issues such as Cuba’s involvement
in Africa.
While the Carter administration’s attempts to improve relations with
Cuba are well known, U.S. government documentation recording that effort
remains largely classified, noted Peter Kornbluh who directs the Archive’s
Cuba Project. Kornbluh called the presidential directive “a pivotal
piece of documentation in the hidden history of U.S. efforts to seek a
rapprochement with Cuba.”
In the context of today's war on terrorism, it is interesting to note
the Carter directive's assumption that U.S.-based exile groups were conducting
terror attacks against Cuba. “The Attorney General should take all
necessary steps permitted by law to prevent terrorist or any illegal actions
launched from within the United States against Cuba,” the directive concluded.
The document is posted below. Other declassified documents relating
to secret efforts to improve relations with Cuba, dating from the Kennedy
era, can also be found on this website under the news,
Electronic
Briefing Books, and Publications
sections.
