gms uooun _ b - - - - l 3 1 L 3-1- UNITED STATES MISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS November 22 1963 MEMORANDUM Dimesm B 0 123% 3a 3 4 TO Gordon Chase mm mat-935' FROM William Attwood Following is an addition to my memorandum to you dated November 8 1963 On November 11 Vallejo called Miss Hogard again to reiterate their appreciation of the needwfor security and to say that Castro would go along with any arrangements we might want to make He specifically suggested that a Cuban plane could come to Key West and pick up the emissary alternatively they would agree to have him come in a which could land at one of several secret airfields near Havana He emphasized that only Castro and himself would be present at the talks and that no one else he specifically mentioned Guevara would be involved Vallejo also reitereated Castro's desire for this talk and hoped to hear our answer soon On November 12 Bundy called me and I reported vallejois message He said this did not affect the White House decision that a preliminary talk with Vallejo at the United Nations should be held in order to find out what Castro wanted to saw as means talk about particularly if he was seriously interested in discussing the points cited in Stevenson's October 7 speech Bundy suggested I transmit our decision to Vallejo stressing the fact that since we are responding to their invitation and are not soliciting a meeting we would like to know more about what is on Castro's mind before commiting ourselves to further talks in Cuba On November 13 I went to Miss Howard's apartment and called Vallejo at home There was no answer She then sent a telegram asking that he call her at his convenience On November 14 Vallejo called her She gave him my message that we would want to talk to him here at the United Nations before accepting an invitation to go to Cuba She said that if he wished to confirm or $iscuss this further with the U S official he could call him Vallejo at home on the evening of November 18 Vallejo said he would be there to receive the call Meanwhile he did not exclude the possibility of his coming to the United Nations and said he would discuss it with Castro On November 18 ies howard reached Vallejo at home and passed the phone to me I told him Miss Howard had kept me informed of her talks with him and that I assumed he knew of saw is usmv -3- - aeane our interest in hearing what Castro had in mind Vallejo said he did and reiterated the invitation to Cuba stressing the fact that security could be guaranteed I replied that we felt a preliminary meeting was essential to make sure there was something useful to talk about and asked if he was able to come to New York vallejo said he could not come at this time However if that's how we felt he said that we would send instructions to Lechuga to propose and discuss with me an agenda for a later meeting with Castro I said I would await Lechuga's call Vallejo's manner was extremely cordial and he called me Sir throughout the conversation On November 19 I called Chase and reported the converse tion 3 3 This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu