ABC'S LISA HOWARD IS BACK-CHANNEL CONTACT WITH CASTRO
Havana, Cuba (JFK+50) On February 16, 1959, Fidel Castro was sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba after the successful overthrow of dictator Fulgencio Batista. This is certainly not "breaking news." What is not so well-known is a "secret liason" between Fidel and ABC news reporter Lisa Howard*.
Peter Kornbluh writes that Lisa was "the key link in a top-secret back channel...between Washington and Havana to explore the possibility of rapproachement** in the aftermath of the Cuban missile crisis."
After an eight hour interview with the Cuban dictator, Howard drafted a long letter to President Kennedy. The declassified draft, available on the National Security Archive, reads...
"He (Fidel) was most interested in you. He kept saying...'What is President Kennedy like? What does he say about me privately? What does he want of us?'"
Lisa Howard was convinced that Castro was ready to talk. She wrote...
"I genuinely believe Dr. Castro is now ready to discuss everything...not just ready...but positively eagar."
Howard wanted to meet personally with JFK in order to convince him of Castro's sincerity in wanting a more peaceful relationship with the United States.
*Lisa Howard, a.k.a. Dorothy Jean Guggenheim (1926-1965) was born in Cambridge, Ohio & attended Miami University before a career in television & motion pictures. LH was hired as ABC's first female reporter. She was given her own show but was fired because of her partisan support of Kenneth Keating in the NY Senate race.
**rapproachement is the establishment or resumption of harmonious relations
SOURCES
"Lisa Howard, Draft Letter to John F. Kennedy, May 1963," National Security Archive, www.nsarchive2.gwu.edu/
"'My Dearest Fidel': An ABC Journalist's Secret Liason With Fidel Castro," by Peter Kornbluh, May/June 2018, Politico Magazine, www.politico.com
Lisa Howard (1950s)
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
