Telegram from Polish Embassy in Havana (Jeleń), 27 October 1962

Ciphergram No. 15909

From Havana dispatched on 10.27.1962 at 18:00

Received on 10.27 [28?].1962 at 13:35

Came into the Deciphering Department on 10.27 [28?].1962 at 16:00

To: KRAJEWSKI, Urgent, EYES ONLY

From: [Ambassador Boleslaw] JELEN¹

(27.10 at 22 GMT)

We only have some fragmentary information regarding Khrushchev’s propositions (Cuba-Turkey). This would result in actual recognition of the change in the status quo of the deployment of strategic weapons. We don’t have the Cuban reaction as of yet. There are signs of much confusion and anxiety. They are taking, quite seriously, the possibility of the bombings of military facilities. Some of our colleagues from the socialist countries (I did not see [Soviet Ambassador to Cuba Aleksandr] Alekseyev) think so, too. They also think that the point of the Chinese proposition was to demand the guarantees of recognizing the actual status of Cuba in exchange for disassembling new military installations. The overall opinion, however, is that the decision [on how to solve the crisis] is currently beyond that of Cuba and therefore there is much anticipation as to the Cuban reaction related to this issue.

The significant development is today’s communique about “unidentified” planes that entered the Cuban airspace but which were “chased out” by the Cuban air force. We do not have any details. Our information has not been verified about an alleged shooting down of a U-2 plane in a different region of Cuba.

The Hungarian ambassador [János Beck] is relaying the following based on his conversation with [Carlos Rafael] Rodriguez on the 24th (after Fidel’s speech) in which Rodriguez expressed the position of a possible acceptance of UN inspections and disassembling some of the military installations under the condition of obtaining a guarantee for Cuba provided by both the United States and the Soviet Union. Rodriguez also told the Hungarian ambassador that the Cuban ambassador in Beijing [Pino Santos] received a copy of the PRC’s note to the USSR in which it was stated that not giving access to nuclear weapons to the allies was contrary to the spirit of [communist] internationalism.

[1] Poland’s ambassador to Cuba (1961-1965).