1961-1975 

January 20, 1961 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th President of The United States. 


April 9, 1961 - A federal grand jury in Miami indicts Rolando Masferrer for an abortive invasion of Cuba on October 4, 1960. This alleged attack on Cuba is in violation of the Neutrality Act which forbids the launching of any military expedition from U.S. territory against any nation with which the United States is at peace. The Kennedy Administration is on record of opposing pro-Batista exiles like Masferrer while encouraging other anti-Castro groups. The New York Times reports that this indictment raises the question of whether the Neutrality Act may be selectively enforced. 


April 16, 1961 - Prime Minister Castro, for the first time, defines the 1959 Cuban Revolution as socialist by saying that "...we have made a revolution, a socialist revolution, right here under the very nose of the United States." 


April 17, 1961 - The CIA backed Bay of Pigs invasion commences with 1200 Cuban exiles landing on the southwest shore of the island. After 72 hours of fighting the Cuban forces defeat the exiles. The battle results in 80 exiles being killed and 1122 being captured. Several of the captured exiles are accused of crimes of brutality while working for the Batista government, and are soon executed. The remaining exiles are imprisoned until most are released in December 1962. Many of the exiles engaged in the fighting had owned property in Cuba prior to the 1959 Revolution. Their holdings included 914,859 acres of land, 9,666 houses, 70 factories, 5 mines, 2 banks, and 10 sugar mills. 


December 2, 1961 - Prime Minister Castro states that "I am a Marxist-Leninist and I shall be a Marxist-Leninist to the end of my life." 


February 7, 1962 - President Kennedy expands the Cuban embargo to a total embargo except for the non-subsidized sale of food and medicines. 


March 23, 1962 - The US extends the trade embargo to include all imports of all goods made from Cuban materials or containing any Cuban materials, even if made in other countries. 


October 22, 1962 - President Kennedy announces to the world that the Soviet Union has deployed nuclear missiles in Cuba. This incident brings the world to the brink of nuclear war. Five days later the Cuban Missile Crisis is resolved with the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba and the US agreeing not to invade Cuba and to remove US missiles from Turkey. However the incident results in cementing a relationship between the Soviet Union and Cuba that lasts nearly 30 years and injects over $100 billion of Soviet aid and loans into Cuba. 


December 24, 1962 - The U.S. exchanges $53 million of medicines and baby food for 1113 exiles captured in the "Bay of Pigs" invasion. Several exiles remain imprisoned in Cuba until the last prisoner is released in 1986. 


November 17, 1963 - Five days before he is assassinated President Kennedy has a meeting with the French journalist, Jean Daniel, who he asks to tell Fidel Castro that he is now ready to negotiate normal relations and drop the embargo. According to former Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, "If Kennedy had lived I am confident that he would have negotiated that agreement and dropped the embargo because he was upset with the way the Soviet Union was playing a strong role in Cuba and Latin America. Cuba would be a different country now and Castro would not be in power any more." 


November 22, 1963 - President John F. Kennedy is assassinated and Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the 36th President of The United States. 


September 28, 1965 - Cuba announces that all Cubans who wish to leave the island for the United States can depart from the port of Camarioca. During the 8 year exodus over 200,000 Cubans come to the United States. 


May 5, 1966 - The U.S. expands the embargo as Congress passes the Food For Peace Act which outlaws food shipments to any country that sells or ships strategic or non-strategic goods to Cuba except for certain circumstances in which the President may allow shipments of medical supplies and non-strategic goods. 


November 2, 1966 - President Johnson signs into law the Cuban Adjustment Act which exempts Cubans from general U.S. migration laws. The Act permits any Cuban who has reached U.S. territory since January 1, 1959 to be eligible for permanent residency after residing in the United States for two years. This enables 123,000 Cubans to immediately apply for permanent resident status. 


November 12, 1966 - President Johnson signs the Food For Peace Act but says that there are provisions in the Act that cause him concern especially the preclusion of food aid to countries that trade with Cuba and North Vietnam. He states that he opposes trade with either country but believes that the President should have the "flexibility to use food aid to further the full range of our important national objectives." 


January 9, 1969 - Richard M. Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th President of the United States. 


July 18, 1974 - A secret message is transmitted between Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Prime Minister Fidel Castro to determine if there is any climate for change in the relations between the United States and Cuba. 


August 9, 1974 - Richard M. Nixon resigns and Gerald R. Ford is sworn in as the 38th president of The United States. 


September 28, 1974 - Senators Jacob Javits, (R-New York), and Claiborne Pell, (D-Rhode Island), become the first elected officials of the United States government to visit Cuba since the United States severed diplomatic relations in 1961. As a result of their request Cuba releases four political prisoners within a week of the Senators departure. 


October 2, 1974 - President Ford explores the possibility of improving relations with Cuba as a second secret message from Secretary of State Kissinger is delivered to Prime Minister Castro regarding arrangements for secret discussions. 


January 11, 1975 - Lawrence Eagleburger, a top aide of Secretary of State Kissinger, meets secretly with Ramon Sanchez Parodi, Prime Minister Castro's special emissary from the America's Department of the Communist Party, to discuss U.S.-CUBA relations. 


January 24, 1975 - Another secret message from Secretary of State Kissinger to Prime Minister Castro is delivered in Havana calling the January 11 meeting "useful" and suggesting another meeting. 


January 27, 1975 - The U.S. Senate establishes a bipartisan Select Intelligence Committee to investigate all aspects of the CIA's foreign and domestic operations. Included in the investigation will be the domestic operations of the FBI and other government intelligence units. 


June 21, 1975 - UN diplomat Nestor Garcia meets with Lawrence Eagleburger and William Rogers and they agree to another secret meeting. 


July 9, 1975 - Ramon Sanchez Parodi, Nestor Garcia, Lawrence Eagleburger and William Rogers meet again in secret. 


November 1975 - Responding to Washington's request for Cuba to permit Cuban exiles to visit their families, Prime Minister Castro sends a message that Cuba will consider a limited number of such visits for humanitarian reasons. 


November 20, 1975 - The Senate Select Intelligence Committee releases its 347 page interim report on the involvement of the CIA in assassination plots against foreign leaders. The report identifies at least eight attempted plots to kill Prime Minister Castro between 1960 and 1965 and additional CIA plans that targeted other Cuban leaders for assassination. 


December 20, 1975 - President Ford announces that Cuban involvement in Angola will preclude any possibility of restoring full diplomatic relations with Cuba in the near future. 


December 22, 1975 - At Cuba's First Party Congress, attended by 3,000 delegates, a new Socialist Constitution is drafted and Osvaldo Dorticos steps aside as Cuba's President. No successor is named as the Congress redefines the position under the new constitution which will be submitted to a popular referendum. The Congress also approves the establishment of People's Power throughout the country, a new system of government that provides for the election of delegates to regional bodies that represent their interests at the Party Congress.