Battling over the Brigade

Gruff talk by the U.S. over Soviet troops in Cuba

What to do about the Soviet troops in Cuba? Laying the groundwork for an answer to that question has been the task before Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and Soviet Ambassador Anatoli Dobrynin in two weeks of meetings at the State Department. Last week they huddled twice. There was no movement on the issue, at least none that was made public. It seemed likely that any significant shifts in both countries' positions would have to await Vance's meeting this week with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko at the U.N.

For both sides, the difficulty is resolving the problem without giving the impression of backing down. At the White House, President Carter told congressional leaders only that the negotiations over the 2,600 to 2,800 Soviet troops had reached a delicate phase during which major decisions would have to be made by both sides. An Administration official later said that the Kremlin would have to take steps "to relieve, to alter the situation in a way favorable to the U.S." Just what Carter is willing to accept as "favorable" was a tightly kept secret.

The official indicated that the Soviets have ruled out withdrawing the unit, which they say has been in Cuba since the early 1960s. But he insisted that Carter is determined to avoid a "cosmetic solution." The feeling within the Administration, said the official, was that the "Soviets are not going to do what is satisfactory to resolve the situation." To prepare for that possibility, Carter asked the National Security Council to draw up a list of possible unilateral moves by the U.S. These stop short of military action, which the President has ruled out.

Carter's expression of urgency came none too soon for congressional leaders. G.O.P. Presidential Hopeful How ard Baker told Carter that the whole matter "should have been dealt with by now." Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Frank Church declared that "the Senate will require a certification by the President that Soviet combat forces are no longer deployed in Cuba, if the way is to be cleared for consideration of SALT." New York Senator Jacob Javits, senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, was calmer. Said he: "I don't believe this issue ought to be blown up into some major national crisis."

The Kremlin, meanwhile, may be seriously confounded by the entire is sue. A Soviet with considerable experience in American affairs said last week that the furor in the U.S. over the brigade puzzled Soviet leaders and was forcing them to question the "stability and sanity" of the U.S. Government. He asked, "Must we always accept a moratorium on rational dealings every four years while your political system goes crazy?" He left open the possibility that the Kremlin might be willing to make some small adjustments in the brigade's status, such as pulling out its light tanks or tinkering with its deployment. But he said that Soviet leaders are not willing to make major changes in the unit, in part because it has been in Cuba so long. At the same time, the Soviet sounded a sharp warning: "I don't know where our leadership will draw the line--maybe on this issue, more likely on the next one. But they will draw it somewhere, and they will draw it soon. You will hear our leaders asking, as some of yours ask now, 'Is SALT really worth all this nonsense?' " There is concern in Moscow that if the Kremlin makes any concessions on the brigade, as one Soviet put it, "there will be a lot of crowing over how the Soviets backed down."

A minor diplomatic issue involving Cuba was resolved last week when Havana released four Americans from its prisons. For four years Fidel Castro had said that they would be freed if the U.S. released four Puerto Rican nationalists who were in prison for trying to assassinate President Truman and House leaders in the 1950s. Carter granted them clemency two weeks ago. Nonetheless, State Department officials denied that any deal had been made with Havana.

On arrival in Miami, one of the former prisoners in Cuba, Lawrence Lunt, 56, of Saratoga, Wyo., readily admitted that he had been spying for the CIA from his ranch in Pinar del Rio province before his arrest in 1965. Juan Tur, 62, of Tampa would only shrug his shoulders when asked by reporters for an explanation of his antigovernment activities in Cuba. The third prisoner, Everett Jackson, 39, of Los Angeles, insisted that he had been operating as a freelance journalist when he parachuted from a plane into Cuba in an attempt to photograph Soviet missile silos in 1967.

Said Jackson: "I ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time." He acknowledged, however, that he had collaborated with the CIA in the past. The fourth, Puerto Rican-born Claudio Rodriguez Morales, 49, was jailed in 1966 for trying to smuggle Cubans out of the country.

Only Lunt spoke at length about his prison experiences. Looking fatigued and gaunt, he said conditions had been "very bad" during the early years. He was held at Havana's La Cabana prison, where scores of prisoners were shot every month. Later he was transferred to the notorious Isle of Pines, where he said a guard bayoneted him in the stomach while he was working in a rock quarry.

Of the four, only Everett Jackson was not overjoyed at being free. Said he: "I was deported. I refused to be exchanged for any citizen who made an armed attack on the U.S. President."

The release was a minor diplomatic milestone: the four were the last U.S. citizens without any claim to dual nationality being held in Cuban prisons on political charges.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.