U.S. VIEW OF CUBA

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29713, 5 January 1962, Page 9

U.S. VIEW OF CUBA

“Imperialism Bridgehead”

(N.Z J’.A.-Rtut <r—Copyright) WASHINGTON, January 4.

The United States State Department has denounced Cuba as “a bridgehead of Sino-Soviet imperialism.” The department said the Government of Dr. Fidel Castro posed a serious threat to the individual and collective security of the nations of the free world.

In a document prepared for the Organisation of American States (0.A.5.), the department said that since the Castro Government had come to power on January 1, 1959, it had "deliberately tried to undermine established governments in Latin America and destroy the inter-American system.” The State Department said Cuba had" received 60 million to 100 million dollars in Soviet bloc military aid, giving it the second largest ground force in the hemisphere, next to the United States.

Eighty per cent, of Cuba’s trade was now w th the Communist world. The Castro Government "is now so firmly committed in word and deed to the SinoSoviet bloc that it would find it difficult to extricate itself even in the unlikely event that it wanted to do so,” said the department.