War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Jean Daniel, 1986
Description:
Jean Daniel is a French journalist and founder of Le Nouvel Observateur. In the interview he mainly recalls the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, from the vantage point of his meetings with President Kennedy and Fidel Castro in October 1963. Kennedy admitted to him his sense of guilt at American colonial attitudes toward Cuba under Batista and its subsequent failure to communicate to the Cuban population its approval of their revolution (i.e. their release from Battista, not the Communist character of the uprising). He recounts Kennedy's request that he convey two points to Fidel Castro, whom Mr. Daniel was about to interview: that he was not worried about Castro's Communism, only his alliance with the USSR; and that he wanted to know whether Cuba might be willing to enter into a new settlement with the United States. Mr. Daniel goes on to relate Castro's comments in response, but notes that he refused to talk about aspects of the crisis. Castro's remarks indicated that his feelings were not entirely negative toward Kennedy. Mr. Daniel was with the Cuban leader when he heard the news about Kennedy's assassination, pronouncing it "very bad news." In Mr. Daniel's view, the assassination frightened Castro into radicalizing his attitude. He relates the lessons the two leaders learned from the crisis.
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