Cold War

Cuba: U.S. Department of State Pamphlet, April 1961

Released two weeks before the Bay of Pigs invasion, the April 1961 U.S. State Department ‘White Paper’ outlined the official case against Fidel Castro, arguing that he betrayed the 1959 revolution’s democratic goals, aligned Cuba with the Sino-Soviet bloc, and sought to subvert neighboring Latin American democracies. Originally drafted by the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, the 36-page document was extensively revised in the White House by presidential aides Arthur Schlesinger and Richard Goodwin.