I confess that I have meditated many times on the dramatic history of John F. Kennedy. It so happened that I experienced the period during which he was the greatest and most dangerous adversary of the Revolution. That was something which was not within his calculations. He saw himself as the representative pf a new generation of Americans confronting the old and dirty politics of men in the mold of Nixon and had defeated him with a feast of political talent.
He was endorsed by his history as a combatant in the Pacific and his agile pen. He was bound by his predecessors to the Bay of Pigs adventure by trusting too much, given that he did not doubt their experience and professional capacity. His failure was bitter and unexpected, barely three months after his investiture. Although he was at the point of attacking the island with his country’s powerful and sophisticated weapons, on that occasion he did not do what Nixon would have done: deploy hunter bombers and send in the Marines. Rivers of blood would have run in our homeland, where hundreds of thousands of combatants were prepared to die. He controlled himself and came out with an immortal phrase that is not easy to forget: "Victory has many fathers, defeat is an orphan."
His life continued to be dramatic, like a shadow that constantly accompanied him. Wounded pride won out and once again he was dragged into the idea of invading us. This brought the October [Missile] Crisis and the gravest risk of a thermonuclear war that the world has known to date. He emerged as an authority from that test thanks to the errors of his principal adversary. He wanted to talk seriously with Cuba and decided to do just that. He sent Jean Daniel to talk with me and return to Washington. He was fulfilling that mission at the moment when the news arrived of the assassination of President Kennedy. His death and the strange form in which it was programmed and executed was genuinely sad.
Later, I met close family members of his who visited Cuba. I never commented on the disagreeable aspects of his policy against our country, nor made any allusion whatsoever to attempts to take my life. I met his own son, as an adult, who was a little boy when his father was president of the United States. We conversed like friends. He died too, in a sad and tragic accident. Kennedy’s own brother was also assassinated, thus multiplying the dramatic quality which accompanied that family.
So many years later, news has arrived of a gesture that is impressive.
In these days during which so much has been said about the prolonged and unjust blockade of Cuba in the elevated spheres of the countries of the continent, I read a piece of news in La Jornada of Mexico: "At the end of 1963, the then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy sought to repeal the ban on travel to Cuba and now his daughter, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, has stated that President Barack Obama should take that into account and support initiatives to allow all U.S. citizens free transit to the island.
"In documents declassified by the National Security Archive’s research center, it is recorded that on December 12, 1963, less than one month after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy sent a communiqué to Secretary of State Dean Rusk urging that regulations prohibiting travel by U.S. citizens to Cuba should be withdrawn…
"Robert Kennedy argued that the ban violated American liberties. According to the document, he affirmed that the existing restrictions on travel are inconsistent with traditional American liberties.
"…That position did not win the argument within the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, and the State Department stated that suspending the restrictions would be perceived as a weakening of the policy toward Cuba and that they were part pf a joint effort on the part of the United States and other American republics to isolate Cuba.
"In an opinion piece by Kathleen Kennedy published today in the Washington Post, Robert’s daughter expressed her desire that her father’s position be adopted by the Barack Obama government, and that this should be the position promoted by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., while the Obama government considers its next step with Cuba, which should be to move beyond only allowing Cuban Americans to travel freely to the island and to address the rights of all U.S. citizens, the majority of whom do not have the freedom to go there. "Kathleen Kennedy writes that, as Obama learnt in last weekend’s summit, Latin American leaders have adopted a coordinated message on Cuba: this is the moment to normalize relations with Havana… In continuing to trying to isolate Cuba, they essentially told Obama, Washington has only succeeded in isolating itself.
"Thus, the niece of the president who attempted to invade and defeat the revolutionary Cuban government and impose the blockade, has now joined the constantly expanding chorus in favor of reversing those policies established half a century ago."

An honorable article from Kathleen Kennedy!