◆ SpookStack

, ~ SECRET At 3:40 on the afternoon of 31 December 1958, there was another high "level meeting attended by Messrs. Herter, Murphy, and Rubottom, Department of State; Irwin, Department of Defense; Admiral Burke, the CNO; General Cabell, DOCI; and Gordon Gray at which the Cuban situation was again discussed. Even as the "meeting was in progress, Batista was preparing , to flee Cuba; and possible US action, including ~irect"_""" intervention by US Marines, was among the topics that were discussed. There also was some suggestion that the US take the responsibility for naming members to a junta to succeed Batista, rather than permitting Fidel Castro and his followers to take over the Cuban Government. 25/ With some benefit of hindsight, Eisenhower re- called this period in the following manner: During the rush of these last events in the final days of 1958, the Central Intelligence Agency suggested for the first time that a Castro victory might not be in the best interests of the United States. (Earlier reports which I had re- ceived of Castro's possible Communism were suspect because they originated with people who favored Batista.) "Communists and other extreme radicals appear to have penetrated the Castro move- ment," Allen Dulles said. "If Castro - 16 TOIi 3f!CRi!'f"