U.S. SHIPS PATROL CARIBBEAN

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29366, 19 November 1960, Page 13

U.S. SHIPS PATROL CARIBBEAN

Two States Seek Protection (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) PALM BEACH (Florida), November 18. The President-elect, Mr John Kennedy, who is at his father’s holiday home at Palm Beach, will confer this morning with the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mr Allen Dulles, on the menacing situation in Central America. Last night Mt Kennedy would not comment on President Eisenhower’s order to the United States Navy to patrol Central American waters and shoot if necessary to prevent any invasion of Guatemala or Nicaragua by Communist-directed elements. But Mr Kennedy has asked Mr Dulles for a full report on the situation in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

The Navy is already carrying out the patrol \order, but State Department officials have said there would be no action in international waters.

The White House press secretary. Mr James Hagerty, said the President acted after requests to the Secretary of State by Guatemala and Nicaragua. President Eisenhower gave the order from the vacation White House in Georgia. Amid mounting tension in the Caribbean after Guatemala and Nicaragua fought off anti-Government revolts. Both charged the Cuban regime of Dr. Fidel Castro with helping the rebels.

United States warships often carry marines aboard. But Mr Hagerty said the warships sent to help Guatemala and Nicaragua did not have any marine infantry units with them, so far as he knew.

The White House statement issued on Wednesday and released yesterday said: “In response to the request of the Governments of Guatemala and Nicaragua, surface and air units of the United States Navy are in a position in which they could assist these Governments, should it become necessary, to seek out and prevent intervention on the part of Communist-directed elements in the internal affairs of Guatemala and Nicaragua through the landing of armed forces or supplies from abroad.” Mr Hagerty was asked whether “abroad" meant Cuba. He replied: “Abroad could mean Cuba or any other place abroad.” He would not discuss what “outside elements” were involved in the attempted anti-Govern-ment revolts in the two Central American republics. The 42,000-ton aircraft carrier Shangri-La and four destroyers early today were patrolling Caribbean waters south-west of Cuba and patrol bombers were keeping watch on the Guatemalan and Nicaraguan coastlines. United Press International reported that Guatemala and Nicaragua were yesterday mopping up the last traces of the recent invasion attempts.

Guatemala reported that the remnants of rebel forces, bombed out of Puerto Barrios, were fleeing across swamp lands northeast towards neighbouring Honduras.

Nicaragua reported that 60 more rebels had surrendered on Government guarantees of a safeconduct to Managua and a fair trial. In Havana, the Cuban Government charged today that the

United States naval patrols in the Caribbean were an intervention in Latin American affairs, a grave threat to world peace and a smokescreen for an attack on Cuba. Radio announcers on Government stations charged that President Eisenhower, by posting an invasion guard on the eastern approaches to Guatemala and Nicaragua, was “trying to crush the fight for freedom going on in those countries.”

At Augusta. Georgia, today. President Eisenhower studied coded reports from the United States warships patrolling the Caribbean. The 'President, starting the ninth day of his golfing vacation, made the decision to keep the Navy on standby duty from his headquarters at the Augusta National Golf Club. In Washington, United States officials said the deployment of United States warships and planes in the Caribbean was designed to alert the Castro regime and its sympathisers that the United States was ready to move swiftly to counter any aggression.

They hoped that it would make any Central American rebels who might seek to start invasions with the help of Dr. Castro think twice

before starting trouble, U.P.I. reported. The actual deployment of vessels began last week-end, as Guatemala and Nicaragua were battling local revolutions and both Governments told the United States they feared Castro forces were about to aid the local rebels. United States officials could not verify this through Intelligence information, but the Administration felt it could not take the risk that Dr. Castro would send reinforcements, U P.I. said. The State Department at first hoped the Navy could simply begin quiet reconnaissanc. patrols without any announcement of ship movements. But Guatemala made public its request for United States assistance. The decision to announce the policy and use it as a diplomatic weapon was made at the Summer White House in Augusta yesterday with the Secretary of State (Mr Herter) and the Defence Secretary (Mr Gates) present. By this time both Guatemala and Nicaragua had more or less crushed their revolutions. The Administration apparently did not now expect a Cuban invasion of either country, but it was not sure of this when the Navy units were first dispatched, U.P.I. said.