U.S. Was Ready To Invade Cuba

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30094, 30 March 1963, Page 11

U.S. Was Ready To Invade Cuba

IN Z.P.A -Reuter —Copyright)

WASHINGTON, Mar. 29. The United States had been ready to invade Cuba with 200,000 men if the Soviet Union failed to remove its offensive weapons from the Caribbean island last autumn, the Secretary of Defence (Mr McNamara) said in testimony released today.

Mr McNamara, discussing the Cuban crisis with the House of Representatives Appropriations Sub-committee, deinied suggestions that the Soviet Prime Minister (Mr Khrushchev) had removed missiles and jet bombers under a secret agreement reached with President Kennedy Told by a Congressman that it was unrealistic for Mr Khrushchev to reverse his attitude unless there was something he expected from the President, Mr McNamara commented: “If that is so, the American people failed to understand what happened . . They failed to understand that we had a force of several hundred thousand men ready to invade Cuba,” he said. “They failed to understand that had we mvaded Cuba, we would have been confronted with the Soviets That had we been confronted with the Soviets we would have killed thousands of them. That had we killed thousands

of them the Soviets would probably have had to respond “That they might have had nuclear delivery weapons there which might have been operational and they might have been launched. And that in any event Khrushchev knew without any question whatsoever that he faced the full military power of the United States, including its nuclear weapons “That may be difficult to understand for some, but it is not difficult for me to understand, because we faced that night the possibility of launching nuclear weapons and Khrushchev knew it and that is the reason, and the only reason, why he withdrew those weapons.”