Page 177 - Gobierno ivisible

Date: 4/5/2011 Page: 177 of 237

head of Merck, Sharp & Dohme, another friend of Donovan. The executives of the two drug companies offered to
donate medicines to help Donovan get the men out.

The CIA separately approached the drug industry trade association, to explore the chances of large- scale
donations by manufacturers.

In the meantime, Donovan had entered the political arena. On September 18, shortly after his return from Cuba,
Donovan won the Democratic nomination for United States Senate. His opponent was the Republican incumbent,
Senator Jacob K. Javits.

On October 2, the drug-company pledges in his pocket, Donovan returned to Havana, confident he could reach
agreement with Castro. The Pfizer Company quietly began moving $2,000,000 worth of drugs in refrigerator cars
to Idlewild International Airport. The United States Government began making preparations to receive the influx
of prisoners in Miami.

It was on this second trip that Castro agreed to trade the men for baby foods and medicines. All was going well
except for a painful attack of bursitis in Donovan's right shoulder that forced him to fly to Miami briefly for
treatment.

He returned to Havana to continue his talks with Castro, but back in the United States there were charges that
Donovan was seeking to make political capital out of his role as Cuban negotiator. And some members of
Congress said that the United States ought not to be dickering with Castro at a time when it was asking other
countries to cut off trade.

The White House refused to say whether any government funds would be used to ransom the men. It insisted
Donovan was acting as a private attorney but said he was keeping President Kennedy advised of his activities.
Donovan returned from Cuba on October 11.

Three days later a U-2 plane flying secretly over western Cuba took a photograph of a Soviet mobile medium-
range missile site.

The Cuban missile crisis was on. The world moved close to nuclear war during the latter half of October. Against
this background of tension it looked as though Donovan's chances of reaching an agreement to free the men had
been shattered. He suffered a personal, although not unexpected, blow when he lost the election on November 6 to
Senator Javits.

By late November the situation was this:

Donovan still had Castro's general agreement to a swap. But now in the wake of the missile crisis, the drug
industry was unwilling to take the risk of donating medicines to Castro unless the Kennedy Administration made
it publicly clear that the deal was in the national interest. The drug firms, already hit hard by the Senate
investigation of their high prices, had no desire to bring a new wave of public disapproval down upon themselves.

On November 30 a meeting was held at the Justice Department of top aides to Robert Kennedy and officials of
the Internal Revenue Service, the State Department and the CIA (including Lawrence R. Houston, the general
counsel of the CIA, Donovan's CIA contact in the Powers-Abel trade). Deputy Attorney General Nicholas
Katzenbach and Assistant Attorney General Louis F. Oberdorfer represented the Justice Department. Robert
Hurwitch spoke for the State Department.