‘My TK Dearest Fidel’ The untold story of how one journalist’s intimate diplomacy with the Cuban revolutionary changed the course of the .

By PETER KORNBLUH | Illustration by Cristiana Couceiro

isa Howard had been waiting for more than two she answered. “I do.” hours in a suite of the Hotel Riviera, enough time In the early morning hours, Howard asked Vallejo to leave. Finally alone, Castro slipped to bathe, dress and apply makeup, then take it his arms around the American journalist and all off to get ready for bed. But at 11:30 p.m. on the two lay on the bed, where, as Howard recalled in her diary, Castro “kissed and ca- that February night in Havana in 1964, Howard, ressed me … expertly with restrained passion.” an American correspondent with ABC News, “He talked on about wanting to have me,” finally heard a knock at the door. She opened it Howard wrote, but “would not undress or go all the way.” “We like each other very much,” and saw the man she had been waiting for: told her, admitting he was having Castro, the 37-year-old leader of the Cuban revolution and one of trouble finding the words to express his reluc- tance. “You have done much for us, you have ¶ LAmerica’s leading Cold War antagonists. “You may be the prime written a lot, spoken a lot about us. But if we minister, but I’m a very important journalist. How dare you keep me go to bed then it will be complicated and our waiting,” Howard declared with mock anger. She then invited Castro, relationship will be destroyed.” He told her he would see her again—“and accompanied by his top aide, Rene Vallejo, into her room. ¶ Over the that it would come naturally.” Just before the sun rose over Havana, Castro tucked Howard

next few hours, they talked at length about everything from Marxist PREVIOUS PAGE PHOTO: ELLIOTT ERWITT/MAGNUM in, turned out the lights and left. theory to the treatment of ’s political prisoners. Howard and Howard’s trip to Havana in the winter of Castro reminisced about President John F. Kennedy, who had been 1964 was pivotal in advancing one of the most unusual and consequential partnerships assassinated just a few months before. Castro told her about his trip in the history of U.S.-Cuban relations. She be- to Russia the previous spring, and the “personal attention” he had came Castro’s leading American confidant, as received from “brilliant” Soviet Premier . Howard well as his covert interlocuter with the White House —the key link in a top-secret back admonished Castro for the repressive regime he was creating in channel she singlehandedly established be- Cuba. “To make an honorable revolution … you must give up the tween Washington and Havana to explore the possibility of rapprochement in the aftermath notion of wanting to be prime minister for as long as you live.” of the Cuban missile crisis. From mid-1963 to “Lisa,” Castro asked, “you really think I run a police state?” “Yes,” the end of 1964, Howard secretly relayed mes-

86 | POLITICO MAGAZINE Polaroid photos taken with Fidel Castro’s camera at his first meeting with in Havana on April 21, 1963.

sages from Cuba’s revolutionary regime to the fied official documents and, most important, diences on the lecture circuit. “I wanted to talk White House and back again; she also used Howard’s own unpublished diaries and let- to people who were making news. I wanted to her reporting skills and high-profile perch at ters, can the story finally be told of how one be there on the spot when history was being ABC to publicly challenge the Cold War mind- tenacious journalist earned the trust of the written.” So, in 1960, while living in set that Castro was an implacable foe of U.S. legendary leader of the Cuban revolution, and City with her husband, Walter Lowendahl, interests. Her role as peacemaker was built on cajoled two U.S presidents into considering and two daughters, Howard abandoned her a complex, little-understood personal rapport peaceful coexistence with him. acting career, grabbed a tape recorder and be- she managed to forge with Castro himself—a gan scoring exclusive radio interviews as an relationship that was political and personal, *** unpaid volunteer for the Mutual Radio Net- intellectual and intimate. work. She earned access to major political Today, almost no one remembers Lisa isa Howard was born Dorothy Jean figures, including then-Senator John F. Ken- Howard. But in the early 1960s, she was one Guggenheim to a middle-class nedy, former first lady and of the most famous female TV journalists Jewish family in Ohio, but she even President Dwight Eisenhower. But it was in the —a glamorous former was first known to the world as Howard’s lengthy interview with Khrushchev star who reinvented herself as a TV’s “first lady of sin”—a designa- in September 1960—the first the Soviet lead- reporter and then climbed to the top of the Ltion Hollywood bestowed on her for playing er had granted to a reporter from the West— male-monopolized world of television news. temptresses, murderesses and thieves in for- that caught the attention of executives at ABC She became ABC’s first female correspon- gettable TV programs and second-rate movies News. In May 1961, ABC hired Howard, then dent and the first woman to anchor her own in the early 1950s. In 1957, she scored the re- 35, as its first-ever female correspondent; two network news show. Her influential role in curring role of Louise Grimsley in the popu- years later, the network gave her her own the media empowered her efforts on Cuba, lar CBS series “.” But even show—a daily midafternoon broadcast geared even as it worried White House officials who as she gained attention in Hollywood, How- toward housewives called “Lisa Howard and were the targets of her ceaseless pressure to ard signaled far greater ambitions. “Though News with the Woman’s Touch.” change U.S. policy. a looker (5’3; 109 lbs; 35-23-35 from bust to At a time when women in television news In top-secret reports from the era, they hips),” read a cringeworthy 1953 cover story were typically relegated to reporting on fash- speculated about “a physical relationship be- in People Today, “Miss Sin prefers to think of ion, lifestyle and the weather, Howard’s was tween” Howard and Castro and worried she herself as the ‘sensitive-intellectual type’ who the first female face beamed into the living would use her position at ABC News to break is ‘going places.’” rooms of America offering authoritative cov- the story of Washington’s secret talks with the And she was. “I became more and more in- erage of national and international events on Cuban comandante. But both she and Castro terested in politics and world affairs … and less a daily basis. “Six changes of Puccis and six took the secret of their intimate diplomacy and less interested about the fate of Louise politicians in one day are par for the course for

NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE LISA HOWARD COLLECTION HOWARD LISA ARCHIVE SECURITY NATIONAL to their graves. Only now, thanks to declassi- Grimsley,” Howard would later recount to au- Lisa Howard,” read a 1963 McCall’s Magazine

MAY/JUNE 2018 | 87 From Starlet to Star Reporter ma. But U.S. officials soured on his anti-Amer- In just a few years, Lisa Howard transformed from a sultry soap opera star to ican rhetoric and his economic outreach to a leading TV journalist. “I wanted to be there on the spot where history was the communist . In the spring being written,” she later said of her metamorphosis. of 1960, Eisenhower authorized planning for a secret CIA paramilitary intervention to roll back the Cuban revolution and install a more compliant government in Havana, cutting diplomatic relations in January 1961. Kennedy inherited the covert operation, gave it the green light to proceed in April 1961 at the Bay of Pigs, and watched it explode into a major debacle when Castro’s militia de- feated the exile brigade in less than 72 hours. In frustration, he ordered a new program of covert operations against Cuba, known as Operation Mongoose, and a full economic blockade in early 1962—aggressive moves that persuaded Castro, who had recently de- clared Cuba a socialist state, to accept Soviet nuclear missiles as a deterrent to another U.S. invasion, leading to the Cuban missile crisis. For 13 days in October, the world stood on the brink of nuclear Armageddon until Kenne- dy offered Khrushchev a secret deal: pulling U.S. missiles out of Turkey in exchange for removal of the missiles in Cuba. With Castro furious at Khrushchev for removing the weap- ons without consulting him, some Kennedy officials saw the opportunity to entice Castro back into the Western orbit; the CIA, howev- er, was determined to continue efforts to over- throw him. Meanwhile, the Kennedy admin- istration was forced to negotiate with Castro for the release of more than 1,000 members of the CIA-led invasion force taken prisoner at the Bay of Pigs. Cuba was obviously a major news story. But with tensions running high, the embargo in place and no direct travel between the two countries, few establishment reporters could gain access to the country, let alone an inter- view with its fiery leader. Howard had tried, and failed, to obtain an interview with Castro twice in the early 1960s, and after the missile crisis she made another attempt.

After months of her cajoling, the Cuban NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE LISA HOWARD COLLECTION mission in New York finally granted Howard a visa to travel to Havana in early April 1963. Castro ignored her for several weeks as he finished negotiations with New York lawyer cover story about Howard that described her In the early 1960s, the Cuban leader was James Donovan for the release of U.S. prison- as “a dead-serious reporter,” as well as “bright, one of the most dynamic, and for U.S. policy- ers and prepared to take a long trip to Russia buxom, and bumptious.” In another profile makers, alarming, new figures on the interna- for his first summit with Khrushchev. In a bid that same year, Time magazine wrote that the tional political stage. The young, bearded gue- for his attention, Howard wrote Castro a let- pioneering female journalist “has achieved rilla fighter had overthrown the U.S.-backed ter after she arrived—“I beg you to say ‘YES,’” this distinction by scrambling harder than six authoritarian regime of Cuban President Ful- it stated in Spanish. “Give me this interview, monkeys peeling the same banana. … Political gencio Batista on January 1, 1959, installing please”—and passed it on to various interloc- leaders, domestic and foreign, have learned a revolutionary government just 90 miles off utors, among them Donovan, whom she be- that there is no dodging Lisa Howard.” the coast of Florida. Initially, the U.S. govern- seeched to put in a good word for her. “I told Fidel Castro was no exception. ment seemed impressed with Castro’s charis- [Castro] there was a beautiful blonde dish

88 | POLITICO MAGAZINE A Note on Sourcing Peter Kornbluh first what Howard deplored as “the police state L to R: A CIA memo about Howard’s first trip to uncovered the Lisa Howard-Fidel Castro apparatus” under Castro’s rule. Howard was Cuba, marked “Psaw” (president saw); a draft of connection in the mid-1990s, when he impressed by Castro’s breadth of knowledge. Howard’s letter to Castro dated April 27, 1963. discovered a secret file of White House “Never, never have I found a Communist in- contacts with Castro held by the Kennedy terested in the sentiments of Albert Camus,” per: Under what conditions might he support Presidential Library, and filed a request for its Howard later recounted in a letter. “And I cer- a rapprochement with Washington? Castro declassification. Kornbluh then tracked down Howard’s husband in New York, who donated tainly have not found dedicated Communists cited his successful talks with Donovan on the a trove of her personal and professional anxious to discuss the merits of our Constitu- prisoner release as a positive step forward. A papers—including photos, notes, letters and tion and our Bill of Rights. But Fidel enjoyed rapprochement “was possible,” he noted in diaries—to the National Security Archive. the conversation immensely.” halting English, “if the United States govern- Castro enjoyed the conversation so much ment wishes it.” Coming from one of Amer- that he agreed to a formal interview—the ica’s most renowned Cold War enemies, just of a reporter wanting to interview him and first he had granted a U.S. television jour- months after a tense nuclear standoff, Castro’s would he give her some of his time,” Donovan nalist since 1959. In the early hours of April interest in better relations was headline news. recalled. “I went about it by whetting Castro’s 24, with Cuban Communist Party cameras Within hours of the interview, Castro flew natural masculine curiosity and vanity.” rolling at the Riviera, Howard put a series of off to Moscow—but not before he had ar- Whether out of curiosity and vanity, or a forceful questions to the Cuban comandante: ranged for a huge bouquet of flowers to be de- sense that Howard could become a genuinely When had he become a Communist? Did he livered to Howard’s hotel room. In return, the valuable channel to America, Castro relented ask Khrushchev for the nuclear missiles? Why journalist left Castro what she described as “a and met Howard at the nightclub in the Ha- were hundreds of thousands of Cubans flee- little keepsake”—a deeply personal letter she vana Riviera hotel. He arrived at midnight ing to Florida? There were lighter moments, drafted in her room at the Riviera. “I wanted on April 21, and the two talked until almost too. Castro asked Howard whether her bright to give you something to express my gratitude 6 a.m., discussing Kennedy, Howard’s per- blond hair color was natural. “We don’t have for the time you granted me; for the interview; sonal impressions of Khrushchev—“a sly old to answer questions like that in my country,” for the beautiful flowers,” her message began.

CIA MEMO: NATIONAL SECURITY FILES, JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY; HOWARD LETTER: NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE LISA HOWARD COLLECTION HOWARD LISA ARCHIVE SECURITY LETTER: NATIONAL HOWARD LIBRARY; PRESIDENTIAL KENNEDY JOHN F. FILES, SECURITY CIA MEMO: NATIONAL fox” who “would cut you off like a twig”—and she shot back. And then came the showstop- “I have decided to give you the most valuable

MAY/JUNE 2018 | 89 ‘There Is No Dodging Lisa Howard’ Howard was known for her interviews with high-profile subjects, from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. At right, Howard is pictured with then-Senator John F. Kennedy at the 1960 Democratic National Convention. At far right, Howard interviews in Havana in February 1964. After the cameras were turned off, Guevara confided to her that Castro had instructed him to do the interview—more proof for Howard that Castro was “the maximum leader and in the final analysis everyone must take his orders,” as she wrote in her diary.

possession I have to offer. Namely: my faith most untrammeled way the goodness that is declared . “Castro Would in your honor. My faith in the form of a let- your substance and can be your salvation.” Like Talk With Kennedy,” announced the ter, which, if revealed, could destroy me in the “I feel deeply that you must be permitted to Cleveland Plain Dealer. “The interview was a United States.” play out your role,” Howard continued, pledg- great success, front page of nearly every pa- Howard described her four-page letter, the ing to do what she could to ensure his survival per in the country,” Howard wrote in a private drafts of which she saved along with other and bring the U.S. and Cuba together. “I am note for Castro. “The entire interview is now records from her trip, as “a tribute, a poem going to talk to certain people when I return being discussed on the highest levels.” to you—the man.” It mixed intense criticism to the States,” she wrote. “I do not overesti- That was only the public part of the message with sincere praise. “I do not want you de- mate my influence. But I shall try to help.” she delivered. Behind the scenes, as she had stroyed. … You possess what George Bernard One draft of her message, typed on Hotel promised, Howard met with CIA and State Shaw called ‘that spark of divine fire,’” How- Riviera letterhead, ended “on a personal note.” Department officials to personally convey NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE LISA HOWARD COLLECTION; ELLIOTT ERWITT/MAGNUM ard wrote. “You are not the ruthless, cynical “We met and came together and, I know, felt Castro’s interest in a dialogue with the United tyrant [your critics] have depicted. … I do something for one another that could not go States. She used the positive news coverage of not believe you have meant to hurt people, further. I am who I am and you are Fidel Cas- her ABC interview to argue that public opin- though, in all candor, I am both saddened and tro and for us, at this moment in history, noth- ion was not opposed to better relations with outraged that you have destroyed thousands ing personal could be realized. No matter … Cuba, and even presented a list of potential and harmed many more without just cause.” our personal desires are not important.” intermediaries who could facilitate talks with Howard beseeched Castro to find his “way Howard crossed out that paragraph during Castro—including herself. “Liza [sic] Howard back”—to become the transformational his- a revision, big blue Xs cutting through the definitely wants to impress the U.S. Govern- torical figure she believed to be his destiny. type. “Perhaps we shall never see one anoth- ment with two facts: Castro is ready to dis- “What you have to offer the world that is er again,” the letter concluded instead. “But I cuss rapprochement and she herself is ready meaningful and universally applicable is not shall treasure with all my heart for as long as to discuss it with him if asked to do so by the some capricious brand of tropical Marxism I live my trip to Cuba in April of 1963 and my U.S. Government,” stated a secret CIA report (the world scarcely needs that), but your hu- meetings with you, my dearest Fidel.” delivered to the White House. manity; your compassion; your deep knowl- Howard also typed out a 10-page brief to edge and sense of justice; your genuine con- *** Kennedy himself, elaborating on what Cas- cern for the poor; the sick; the oppressed; the tro had told her during their conversations in defenseless; the lost; the despairing. … And hen “Fidel Castro: Self Havana and attempting to obtain a meeting. your sacred duty, your solemn obligation to Portrait” aired on ABC on “I wanted to see you personally,” she wrote, mankind is to make that quality ever stronger, May 10, 1963, it dominated “to impress upon you how strongly I feel that to make it a reality for your people—all your the news cycle. “Castro ap- Fidel’s alliance with the Communists is a people, every class and sector. Let flow in the W plauds U.S. ‘Peace Steps,’” precarious one … [and] that we might prof- I AM WHO I AM AND YOU ARE FIDEL CASTRO AND FOR US, AT THIS MOMENT IN HISTORY, NOTHING PERSONAL COULD BE REALIZED. … OUR PERSONAL DESIRES ARE NOT IMPORTANT.

90 | POLITICO MAGAZINE no qualms or second thoughts or reluctance matic turning to operate.” point in her pro- Getting no traction at the White House, tracted efforts to con- Howard redrafted her letter to the president nect Washington and into an article, “Castro’s Overture,” which ap- Havana: “‘D’ Day for the peared as a cover story in the September 1963 telephone appointment. … We issue of the liberal journal War/Peace Report. put through the call. No Vallejo. Castro had been “emphatic about his desire Placed at least seven calls. … Read for negotiations” in their conversations, she Camus out loud. … Me on the bed in reported. She called on Kennedy to “send an a lacey peignoir—Bill sipping bourbon and American government official on a quiet mis- shy but dying to slip into bed with me. And sion to Havana to see what Castro has to say.” there was that white phone—mute—tense … At the United Nations, a U.S. official named our link to our secret and oh-so-longed for read Howard’s article. As mission. We do have a deep common bond. a former senior editor of Look magazine, An exorable conviction that this can be an Attwood had interviewed Castro in 1959 and honorable rapprochement between Cuba and shared Howard’s view that coexistence with the U.S.” the Cuban regime was both possible and pref- Around 3 a.m., Howard managed to reach erable. On September 12, he called her, and Vallejo and put Attwood on the line to dis- together they set in motion a plan of action. cuss arrangements for the two to meet clan- First, Attwood approached U.N. Ambassador destinely. This was the moment Howard had Adlai Stevenson to get a green light from Ken- long awaited. “At last! At last! That first halt- nedy to make “discreet contact” with Cuba’s ing step. Contact has been established!” she ambassador to the United Nations, Carlos rejoiced in her diary. “I feel strongly this is Lechuga. Then, Howard approached Lechuga only the beginning. A long, frustrating, ten- itably fish in those troubled waters.” Castro in the U.N. lounge and told him that Attwood sion-filled, but exciting experience lies ahead.” was “now ready to discuss everything: the urgently wanted to talk to him. A cocktail par- withdrawal of [Soviet] troops; an end to the ty at her East 74th Street town house would *** exporting of his revolution” to end the block- serve as cover for the two diplomats to meet. ade and resume diplomatic relations with the On September 23, as members of the New hree days later, Howard found United States, she reported. “And not just York literati munched on finger foods and herself covering the shocking ready, Sir, but positively eager.” sipped drinks in Howard’s house, the United story of Kennedy’s assassination “He was most interested in you, Mr. Pres- States and Cuba held their first, albeit infor- for ABC. Howard, Castro and ident,” Howard continued. “He kept saying mal, bilateral meeting since the Eisenhower a handful of U.S. officials knew to me ‘What is President Kennedy like, what administration. Off in a corner of the living Tthe assassin’s bullet had terminated not only does he want … what does he want of us?’” room, Attwood and Lechuga discussed how JFK’s life, but also his secret efforts to find She beseeched Kennedy to actually “sit down negotiations between their two hostile coun- common ground with Cuba. “The events of and negotiate with Fidel.” tries might be initiated. Lechuga “hinted that November 22 would appear to make an ac- Unbeknownst to Howard, however, the CIA Castro was indeed in the mood to talk,” Att- commodation with Castro an even more vigorously opposed her message of potential wood reported back to the White House, add- doubtful issue than it was,” wrote National reconciliation—and lobbied Kennedy to ig- ing that “there was a good chance I might be Security Council aide Gordon Chase in a Top nore it. In a secret memo to the White House, invited to Cuba.” Secret/Eyes Only White House assessment. dated May 2, CIA Director John McCone Over the next two months, Howard’s home “In addition, the fact that Lee Oswald has recommended that “the Lisa Howard report became the hub for secret communications been heralded as a pro-Castro type may make be handled in the most limited and sensitive between the U.S. and Cuba. Howard placed rapprochement with Cuba more difficult.” manner” and “that no active steps be taken on a series of calls to Castro’s office conveying Howard would not give up. She persuad- the rapprochement matter at this time.” How- U.S. interest in setting up a meeting, and ed her superiors at ABC to let her return to ard’s initial efforts went nowhere. passed on Castro’s responses to Attwood. Cuba to do another TV special—this time on But she would not be ignored, nor denied. Finally, Howard set up a time for Attwood to life after the revolution. When she informed As McCall’s wrote about Howard that year, talk directly with Castro’s top aide, Vallejo. the new administration about her trip, White “Her massive drive is so uncomplicated and When Attwood arrived at midnight on the House staff responded that they would be in- single-minded that it usually carries the day.” evening of November 18 for the call, Howard terested in what Castro had to say. “The key to understanding Lisa,” her husband greeted him wearing a lavish dressing gown. Howard and her entourage arrived at Jose told the magazine, “is to think of her as a sort As she dialed Cuba again and again, attempt- Marti International Airport on February 1, of mutation. She simply doesn’t have the inhi- ing to track down Vallejo, they listened to jazz, 1964. Castro had sent Vallejo to meet her, and bitions other people have. When she goes af- drank bourbon and discussed French philoso- “I was taken through customs like a diplo- ter something, she’s completely overt, she has phers. In her diary, Howard recorded this dra- mat,” she recalled. She was a diplomat—albeit

I AM WHO I AM AND YOU ARE FIDEL CASTRO AND FOR US, AT THIS MOMENT IN HISTORY, NOTHING PERSONAL COULD BE REALIZED. … OUR PERSONAL DESIRES ARE NOT IMPORTANT.

MAY/JUNE 2018 | 91 a self-appointed one. While filming the new suading himself of his mistakes about Cuba,” When Howard announced she wanted to “get TV special, she’d also be strategizing with Castro responded in stilted English. “We had into something comfortable,” he made a futile Castro about how to renew his delicate diplo- some evidence that some change was taking attempt to keep her fully clothed. “He made macy with President Lyndon B. Johnson. place in the mind of the government of the a great fuss about my not changing my dress There was another reason she was eager to United States ... I do not want to speak about because it was so pretty and he wanted to be in Havana. “When will I see him?” Howard n o w.” look at it,” she wrote. And when she emerged asked Vallejo upon her arrival. “He has been It was well after midnight when the inter- from the bathroom in a nightgown and pa- crazy to know when you’re arriving,” the aide view finished, and Castro, Howard and Valle- jamas, he chastised her for disobeying him. replied. “He’s been asking about you all day.” jo adjourned to the bedroom of Howard’s “You don’t understand me,” he complained in She didn’t see Castro until the next evening, suite. “We were in a wonderful mood,” How- a flourish of machismo. “You just want to do February 2, 1964, when he arrived at her ho- ard wrote in her diary. The Cuban leader lay what you want to do. Why can’t you treat me tel close to midnight and the two stayed up down on the sofa and put his head in her lap. like a man?” until dawn before he tucked her in and left. “[Secretary of State] Dean Rusk should see Once again, Castro turned the conversation Over the next two weeks, Howard and her us now,” Howard joked, as Castro roared with to their complicated relationship. Nights ear- crew traipsed around Cuba with the energetic laughter. Lounging on the couch, they strat- lier, Castro had confided that he used to sleep Castro, filming him playing baseball, visiting egized about how to entice Johnson to finish with many women, but not anymore—“that a cattle farm and interacting with peasants. the dialogue Kennedy had started. Castro now that he is the leader all the women want As much as Howard believed Castro was a said he wanted to “discuss a trade” with the to go to bed with him, but he thought it dictator, the overwhelming public adoration new administration: The United States would wasn’t him they wanted but to sleep with the he generated impressed her. “They mob stop backing sabotage raids into Cuba led leader. This seemed to trouble him,” Howard him, they scream ‘Fidel, Fidel,’ children kiss by Cuban exiles in Florida and halt its effort recounted. As Castro explained why he was him, mothers touch him,” she wrote. “They to roll back the Cuban revolution. In return, reluctant to sleep with her, he asked Howard: are awed, thrilled … ecstatic, but mostly pas- Cuba would end its efforts to export revolu- “What do you want, Lisa? Do you want my sionate. There is no doubt in my mind that tion to other areas of Latin America. Castro body?” the emotion Fidel inspires in all women is also said he would do what he could to en- Tonight, he was still conflicted. “He said he sheer undiluted sexual desire. He is the most sure Johnson was elected in November 1964, wanted me very much but the conditions had physical animal man I have ever known.” The rather than face the prospect of a hard-line to be right and we had to be away somewhere attraction between them was undeniable. “I Republican such as Senator where they could forget everything,” Howard sat and stood beside him for five hours and I as president. If the Johnson administration wrote. Nevertheless, “we did get to bed and nearly went out of my mind,” she recounted. “feels they must take some hostile action he made love to me quite expertly and it was, One night, Howard returned to of course, thrilling and ecstatic—as her suite and burst into tears, torn much as anything I have ever expe- between her feelings for the man rienced.” and her distaste for his revolution. “Lisa, you are not simple,” Cas- “This revolution isn’t at all what tro told Howard just before he left. he thinks it is,” she wrote in her “With you and me it is not simple. diary. “How can I tell this to Fidel. But that is more interesting.” And why do I feel that I must? Yet They would engage in one more I guess what keeps me involved is conversation on that trip, an emo- that down deep I believe that if I tional tête-à-tête as Howard readied could convince him of the truth … to leave two mornings later. Castro of the despair and agony and chaos arrived at Howard’s hotel suite at he has brought to this Island … he 5:30 a.m. to ensure she made her would change.” flight, and found her drugged from Certainly, she believed, ending a sleeping pill, unable to wake up. the existential threat that Wash- While she, half asleep, entreated ington’s hostility posed to Cas- Castro to delay her flight—a request tro would contribute to that goal. Howard’s second interview with Castro on February 13, 1964. he refused, telling her “that would During their formal ABC interview in be arbitrary”—he managed to rouse the wee hours of February 13, Howard posed for domestic political consumption,” Castro her. “I dressed in front of Fidel like he was a question to which she already knew the an- said he would even understand. “If he was a schoolroom mate,” Howard recalled. Then, ELLIOTT ERWITT/MAGNUM swer: “You said at one point after President informed, ex-officio, that this was a political “he pulled me over and asked me to sit on his Kennedy’s death that you believed that under action,” he would refrain from retaliating. lap, and then spoke to me very gently, and Kennedy it was going to be possible to nor- At 3:30 in the morning, Howard decided it said, ‘Lisa, you are very dangerous for me. I malize relations between Cuba and the Unit- was time for Vallejo to give them some priva- could love a girl like you very deeply. You’re ed States. What leads you to believe that?” cy, which made Castro nervous. “I can’t be very sweet, very pretty, very intelligent, very “My opinion is that he was in the way of per- alone with you without my lawyer,” he joked. sensitive.” If they were together, he suggest-

“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND ME,” HE COMPLAINED IN A FLOURISH OF MACHISMO. “YOU JUST WANT TO DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. WHY CAN’T YOU TREAT ME LIKE A MAN?”

92 | POLITICO MAGAZINE ed, “we would have many fights, a hundred nce back in New York, Howard security adviser, McGeorge Bundy. Bundy, fights, two hundred fights, but in the end it typed up a six-paragraph memo however, was dubious of Howard’s dual role would be all right.” He said: “You can teach to Johnson from Castro, titled as a secret go-between and a prominent jour- me very much.” “Verbal Message given to Miss nalist. “She is an extraordinarily determined Howard told Castro he “had touched her Lisa Howard of ABC News on and self-important creature and will undoubt- deeply.” But, she confessed to being “over- OFebruary 12, 1964 in Havana, Cuba.” In the edly knock at every door we have at least five whelmed by sadness” watching him intermin- missive, Howard relayed what she and Cas- times,” he warned other White House officials. gle with Cuban citizens because “he had such tro had discussed in her suite—from Castro’s “It is quite impossible that she can see Castro a genuine belief in the revolution and in what offer to weather a U.S. provocation during the and the president without writing about her he was doing [when] in fact so much of what campaign to his hope to continue the dialogue peacemaking efforts at some stage, and I see he was doing was truly evil.” He could not see Kennedy had started. He recognized the need nothing whatever to be gained by letting her it, “and I was not capable of making him see for “absolute secrecy,” and suggested that play this game with us.” it,” she tearfully explained. “Castro said he Howard could be trusted as an intermediary. Chase, however, pressed Bundy for permis- understood part of what I was trying to say, With the memorandum in hand, Howard sion to debrief Howard and try to “pump out” and that I must return again and we must talk placed a call to Gordon Chase at the NSC, Castro’s message. As “a shrewd, aggressive, and talk and talk for many, many hours and now her contact in the new administration, good-looking gal,” he argued, “she probably days,” she wrote. He promised to take English and told him she had a confidential message gets a lot closer to Fidel than most (pure lessons so that they could “undertand each for Johnson. “Lisa Howard wants very much speculation) and may be able to give us some other better.” to give her message from Fidel to the Pres- insights about Castro’s intentions.”

ELLIOTT ERWITT/MAGNUM ELLIOTT *** ident only,” Chase reported to the national On March 7, Chase traveled to New York to

“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND ME,” HE COMPLAINED IN A FLOURISH OF MACHISMO. “YOU JUST WANT TO DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. WHY CAN’T YOU TREAT ME LIKE A MAN?”

MAY/JUNE 2018 | 93 A Brief History of U.S.-Cuba Cold War Ties

January 1959: Fidel Castro leads the Cuban revolution to power.

January 1961: President Dwight Eisenhower severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.

April 1961: President John F. Kennedy authorizes the CIA-led paramilitary invasion at the Bay of Pigs.

February 1962: Kennedy declares a broad economic embargo against Cuba, prohibiting all trade.

October 1962: The United States and USSR confront the prospect of nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis.

April 1963: Lisa Howard travels to Havana and interviews Castro, the first interview he has granted to a U.S. TV journalist since 1959.

November 1963: The Kennedy administration secretly pursues talks with Castro, up to the day of the president’s assassination in .

February 1964: Howard returns to Cuba to film another ABC A Look Inside Castro’s Cuba News special. In February 1964, Howard traveled to Havana to film an ABC special, “Cuba and Castro Today.” “It’s impossible to film [Castro] properly, he won’t ever hold still,” Howard wrote June 1964: Howard in her diary. She was struck by how much the Cuban people adored their leader. “They travels to Cuba a mob him, they scream ‘Fidel, Fidel,’ children kiss him, mothers touch him.” third time, as a secret emissary, to advance a dialogue between Castro and the Johnson White House.

94 | POLITICO MAGAZINE The Journalist and the Revolutionary During filming, Castro and Howard spent many hours together, talking about everything from love and death to the workings of U.S. politics. “I like to talk to Lisa,” Castro remarked. “She is very wise.” One day, as they toured the countryside, Castro told Howard about his decision to cut off the water supply to Guantanamo Bay. “The U.S. might attack you,” she warned. Renowned photographer Elliott Erwitt, who traveled with Howard and her film crew to photograph the trip, captured these more intimate moments as well.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; ELLIOTT ERWITT/MAGNUM (8)

MAY/JUNE 2018 | 95 receive a briefing on Howard’s trip. As they between the U.S. and Cuba. Third, she prob- L to R: Chase’s memo to Bundy after Howard’s pored over photographs and the transcripts ably is a sincere, anti-communist, libertarian second trip to Cuba; Stevenson’s memo to of her interviews, they agreed on a common democrat who regards the Cuban scene as a Johnson after Howard’s third trip; Chase’s memo mission “to get Fidel to end his Soviet tie and tragedy and who wants to see the island living about Che Guevara’s visit to New York. end exporting the Rev[olution] and announce in the Western tradition and at peace with the elections in exchange for a guarantee of U.S. (To go out on a dangerous limb, my own her message from Fidel to the President as a American aid, trade, and official recognition.” estimate is that as long as she can feel useful, joke. I assured her we didn’t.” Howard offered her services as an “effective the last two motives control the first.)” Stymied at the White House, Howard turned

emissary” and affirmed her discretion. “So Chase transmitted Howard’s assertion that again to U.N. Ambassador Stevenson. Late in NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE LISA HOWARD COLLECTION the young man will make his report to Bundy she had “a rapport with Castro which a man the evening on June 5, 1964, she went to see and we shall see,” she wrote. will not easily duplicate. I am not certain that Stevenson at his room in the Waldorf Astoria. In his comprehensive Top Secret/Eyes Only there is a physical relationship between them,” The two discussed how to persuade Johnson report on their meeting—titled “Mrs. Lisa he informed Bundy, “but regard it as likely.” to continue dialogue with Cuba. She gave him Howard”—Chase advanced Howard’s mes- Sensing she now had a strong ally inside the Castro’s “verbal message” and entrusted him sage “that we should be communicating with White House, Howard began placing evening to personally transmit it to the president. Castro” about normalized relations. “I regard calls to Chase at his home, seeking his help True to his word, on June 16, Stevenson sent Mrs. Howard’s motives as mixed,” he advised: to obtain a meeting with Johnson so that she LBJ a top-secret memorandum, with Castro’s “First, she is a newspaper woman and proba- might deliver Castro’s message. Each time, secret communique—one of the most com- bly knows she is sniffing at a highly readable Chase gently put her off and tried to persuade pelling Castro ever sent to a U.S. president— story. Second, because of her influence with her to entrust the message to him, which she attached. Stevenson advised the president of Fidel, she probably regards herself, some- declined to do. In a top-secret memo on these the secret dialogue Kennedy and Castro were what romantically, as fated to play a historical conversations, Chase reported, “She roundly pursuing at the time of the assassination and role in helping to bring about an agreement scolded me and the White House for taking recommended that “if it could be resumed on

THREE DAYS LATER, HOWARD TRAVELED TO CUBA FOR THE THIRD TIME—THIS TIME NOT AS AN ABC JOURNALIST BUT AS A SECRET EMISSARY.

96 | POLITICO MAGAZINE a low enough level to avoid any possible em- at the base. He wonders if it is part of a delib- mended passing barrassment, it might be worth considering.” erate plan of provocation or an isolated act.” to her. “We may Howard immediately called Stevenson. She want to use her influ- *** told him what Castro had said about recon- ence with Castro in the naissance planes and asked for an answer on future.” hree days later, Howard trav- the shooting. He assured her “there was no It is unknown whether that eled to Cuba for the third time— plan whatsoever of deliberate provocation at message was ever delivered, but this time not as an ABC journal- the Guantanamo Base.” She then relayed the after July 1964, the Johnson admin- ist but as a secret emissary. Her report to Vallejo. “Fidel was glad to get my istration appears to have cut Howard mission was to report to Cas- message,” Howard wrote in her diary the next out of the loop. There are no more memos Ttro that she had finally gotten his message day. “I guess he feels our channel of commu- about contacts between Howard and Cas- into Johnson’s hands. But she also carried nications has been established.” tro—and no more diary entries about com- a high-level warning from the White House: Indeed, the back channel—known as the munications with the White House. As for The U.S. government was concerned about “Castro / Lisa Howard / Stevenson / Presi- official communications with Cuba, U.S. offi- threats Castro had made to shoot down U.S. dent line” in top-secret White House docu- cials turned a deaf ear to Castro’s public call reconnaissance planes that continued to ments—between the White House and the for “extensive discussions” with Washington, overfly Cuba in the wake of the missile crisis. Cuban leadership was now open, and active. and to Raúl Castro’s offer to meet with U.S. Castro arranged for Howard to stay in one In a top-secret memo to Johnson written after negotiators “any place to discuss improving of the confiscated mansions that now served the phone call, Stevenson reported Castro’s relations, even the moon.” as a protocol house. The house came with message that “there will be no crisis until af- Deeply frustrated, in December 1964, How- a Cadillac and chauffeur, a butler and cook, ter the November elections; that nothing will ard seized on the visit of Che Guevara, the Ar- air-conditioned bedrooms and a sunken bath- happen to our [reconnaissance] planes, and gentine revolutionary who had helped usher tub. She had come a “long way from ‘Edge of that we do not need to send him any warn- in the Cuban revolution, to the United Nations Night’ to guest of the Cuban government,” ings. He will use utmost restraint and we can to renew her attempts to bridge the Cold War Howard confided in her diary. relax.” Stevenson also conveyed Castro’s be- gap across the Florida straits. She shepherd- Far less luxurious was their one evening lief that “all of our crises could be avoided if ed Guevara around town—together they at- spent together on Castro’s “yacht” in the Bay there was some way to communicate; that for tended a premiere of a new documentary film of Pigs, which Howard described as a small, want of anything better, [Castro] assumed commemorating the life of Kennedy—and battered boat with a broken shower that slept that he could call [Howard] and she call me organized a soiree for him at her New York two. They stayed up till 5:30 a.m. talking and I would advise you.” apartment. “Che Guevara has something to about “politics, life, love, freedom, peace, say” to the White House, she told Chase on hope, despair, my family, all of it,” Howard *** the phone, in hopes of once again using cock- remembered. They also discussed the U.S. tail diplomacy as a cover for the two sides to warning to refrain from shooting at any U.S. oward had almost single-hand- confer. “I asked her point blank whether this reconnaissance planes. Castro promised to edly built an unprecedented was her idea or Che’s,” Chase reported to his restrain himself during the 1964 election sea- bridge between Castro and superiors. “She would not answer me directly son. “You are right, Fidel,” she later confided the Oval Office. But the White and kept repeating that she was ‘in a position to him about their night on the boat. “Our House wasted no time cutting to arrange a meeting.’” “Stevenson was all hot intellectual relationship is the essential one. Hher out of the loop. In a July 7, 1964, memo to to go on this,” according to a top-secret White Though the other one is rather pleasant too … Bundy, Chase warned that the newly estab- House memo, after Howard invited the U.N. the frosting on the cake.” lished communications “make Lisa Howard’s ambassador to talk with Guevara. But State Before she left Havana, they talked over how participation even scarier than it was before. Department officials refused to authorize a their back channel would work: To prevent … Before this, the Johnson Administration Stevenson-Guevara meeting for fear it would future incidents between the United States had relatively little to fear from Lisa since, quickly leak to the press. in Cuba, Castro would rely on Howard to get essentially, we were just listening to her re- Howard did manage to persuade the pro- messages to Stevenson and would count on ports on or from Castro.” Chase also warned gressive senator from Minnesota, Eugene his response, passed through her. Stevenson’s involvement would mean more McCarthy, to come to her cocktail party and Less than two days after she returned to the media attention if news of the back channel talk to Guevara off in a corner. “The purpose states, Castro used this channel to address a leaked. “Lisa’s contact on the U.S. side is far of the meeting was to express Cuban inter- crisis at Guantanamo, where a U.S. Marine sexier now (Stevenson), than at any time in est in trade with the U.S. and U.S. recognition had reportedly shot a Cuban soldier. On June the past (Attwood and then Chase).” of the Cuban regime,” McCarthy reported to 26, Vallejo placed an urgent call to Howard Extricating Howard from these secret oper- the State Department the next day. But after and shared his leader’s message: “Please call ations without offending her and risking pub- debriefing him, U.S. officials concluded that Governor Stevenson and tell him about the lic exposure of U.S.-Cuba communications, “the conversation was entirely Lisa-generated shooting, that the Cuban is in the hospital Chase understood, would be a delicate opera- and that Che really had nothing to tell us.” and Castro thinks he is going to die, that this tion. “Lisa should relax, stay quiet, and stand is the second time there has been a shooting at the ready,” was the message Chase recom- ***

THREE DAYS LATER, HOWARD TRAVELED TO CUBA FOR THE THIRD TIME—THIS TIME NOT AS AN ABC JOURNALIST BUT AS A SECRET EMISSARY.

MAY/JUNE 2018 | 97 s Howard lost her Cuba cachet with the Johnson administra- tion, she also lost her position at ABC News. In late Septem- ber, as the 1964 election ap- Aproached, the network summarily suspend- ed her, citing her public participation in “Democrats for Keating”—a committee of prominent New York liberals who opposed Robert Kennedy’s bid to become a senator from their state. After the election, ABC fired her. When Howard moved to sue ABC for vi- olating her constitutional rights to express her political beliefs, ABC executives let it be known that “her actions regarding the Cuba show” were among their reasons for termi- nating her contract. Indeed, Howard’s internal struggle to control the tone and content of her April 1964 TV special, “Cuba and Castro Today,” marked the beginning of her downfall at ABC. According to Howard, she had waged “a titanic battle” with network executives to keep the broadcast from adopting a conven- tional Cold War approach to the complex issue of the Cuban revolution. “We fought over every inch of the show,” she recorded in her diary. ABC higher-ups—in particular the executive director of news, Jesse Zous- mer—wanted “to present just one more in- dictment of Fidel Castro and his revolution,” she wrote. “I could not do that. I would not do that.” When the program finally aired, Howard believed she had “won all the major points.” The broadcast was “not an indict- ment of Fidel—and he comes off fairly well,” she wrote. Most important, “I think it will help U.S.-Cuban relations.” Howard might have won the battle over her TV special, but in the ensuing weeks and months, she lost the war. Within the news division, Zousmer became a powerful, and in Howard’s mind, “brutally vindictive” foe. In mid-April, as the special was being finalized, Howard twice failed to appear for her daily show, and Zousmer circulated a memo stat- ing that he planned “to take definitive action” if she failed to honor her contractual obliga- tions. “You have tried to bully me, insult me and humiliate me,” Howard responded in a blunt memo to her boss. “I strongly advise you not to threaten me again.” According to Howard, Zousmer began chipping away at bying party leaders not to support RFK’s Never one to compromise her principles, her job. During the July 1964 Republican Na- Senate bid. During the convention, ABC re- Howard escalated her public efforts against tional Convention in San Francisco, she re- ceived two calls from the White House press Kennedy’s candidacy. “I can assure you that ceived few assignments, and the interviews secretary, Pierre Salinger, complaining that I am acting in my capacity as a United States she did were not used on the evening news. Howard was creating “quite a stir” by speak- citizen and my television broadcasts will in By the time of the Democratic National ing out against Kennedy. ABC dispatched an no way reflect my personal involvement,” she Convention in late August, Howard had ini- executive to the convention in Atlantic City, wrote her superiors in defense of her politi- tiated Democrats for Keating and was lob- New Jersey, to tell her to cease and desist. cal activities on September 16, 1964. With-

98 | POLITICO MAGAZINE the Hamptons, Howard altered a prescription for 10 barbiturates and ob- tained a bottle of 100 tab- lets at a local pharmacy; she consumed the pills in the park- ing lot and died of the overdose. She was 39 years old. The FBI would soon launch a bizarre inquiry to determine whether her death was somehow tied to Guevara’s disappear- ance following his visit to New York. (Un- beknownst to the U.S. intelligence commu- nity, Guevara had gone underground to lead guerrilla fighters in the Congo.) FBI agents interviewed Howard’s former colleagues at ABC about her Cuba work, her relations with Castro and Guevara, and why she might take her own life. The FBI also reviewed her case with members of the NYPD to ascer- tain whether Howard’s was “a legitimate sui- cide”—or sinister foul play tied, presumably, to her work on Cuba. “I was an integral part of this fledgling new look at Cuba,” Howard once confid- ed. Her efforts might not have fully paid off during her short lifetime, but they created the historical foundation for the back-channel diplomacy that led to the breakthrough in relations achieved by the Obama administration 50 years later. As Fi- del’s brother, Cuban President Raúl Castro, steps down from power in April, and as U.S. policy makers revisit relations with Cuba in a post-Castro era, Howard must be remem- bered as an essential player in the original efforts to bring about what, in her diary, she called “an honorable rapprochement.” “She showed us by her extraordinary sac- rifice what moral strength means,” Senator William Proxmire said in his eulogy at How- ard’s memorial service, without even know- ing the extraordinary role she had played be- hind the scenes. “To live by the truth as she saw it; to dig out more of what she regarded as the truth than the establishment can com- fortably permit. And to speak that truth loud and clear.” Castro recognized her fearlessness too— and knew what it had been able to accom- plish. “You know no one could come down out warning, two weeks later, ABC suspend- reputation and career was dismissed by the here and do what you did—with your will and ed Howard from her daily show. Less than a New York Supreme Court in early 1965. persuasiveness,” he told her during one of month later, she was fired. Her efforts to get And then came the personal tragedy. In their late-night phone conversations between ABC to reconsider failed, as did her attempts the late spring of 1965, Howard suffered a Havana and New York in 1964. “No one.” to get a job at another network. One ABC ex- miscarriage. Her ensuing depression result- ecutive informed her “she had been marked ed in a period of hospitalization that, sadly, Peter Kornbluh directs the Cuba as ‘lousy.’” A civil suit Howard filed against failed to relieve her despondence. On July 4, Documentation Project at the National

ELLIOTT ERWITT/MAGNUM ELLIOTT ABC seeking $2 million in damages to her 1965, while spending the holiday weekend in Security Archive in Washington.

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