WASHINGTON -- U.S. travelers today would be free to vacation in Cuba if Robert F. Kennedy had his way back in the 1960s.
Newly released documents from the National Security Archive indicate that when Kennedy was attorney general, he attempted to lift the travel ban to Cuba.
In a memo dated Dec. 12, 1963, to Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Kennedy recommended the U.S. “withdraw the existing regulation” prohibiting leisure trips to Cuba.
Kennedy went on to write that freedom to travel to Cuba “is more consistent with our views as a free society and would contrast with such things as the Berlin Wall and Communist controls on such travel.”
The memo, which apparently was written after the Cuban missile crisis, can be read at www.nsarchive.org. The memo was highlighted by the Latin America Working Group, a long-time advocate for eliminating the 40-year-old travel ban.
To contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Michael Milligan at mmilligan@ntmllc.com
http://www.travelweekly.com/articles.aspx?articleid=47347
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