Morris Udall
Morris Udall
Cuba recognition drive
In 1972, a coalition of congressmen, radical activists and some communists spearheaded a drive to relax relations with Fidel Castro's Cuba.
Under, the auspices of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D.- Mass.) and Sen. Harold Hughes (D.-Iowa), a two day conference of liberal scholars assembled in April, in the New Senate Office Building to thrash out a fresh U.S. policy on Cùba.
Among congressional sponsors of the seminar were Sen. J. William Fulbright (D.-Ark.) and Sen. Jacob K. Javits (R.-N.Y.), both influential members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Sen. George McGovern (D.-S.D.), Rep. Bella Abzug (D~-N.Y.) and Rep. Ron Dellums (D.-Calif.).
Other sponsors included Senators Alan Cranston (D-CA), Mike Gravel (D - Alaska), Fred Harris (D - OK), Philip Hart (D - MI) and Frank Moss (D - UT)
Congressmen Joseph Addabo (D - NY), Herman Badillo ( D - NY), Alphonzo Bell (R -CA), Jonathan Bingham (D - NY), John Brademas (D -Indiana), Donald Fraser (D - Minn.), Seymour Halpern (R - NY), Lee Hamilton (D - Ind.), Michael J. Harrington (D - MA), Patsy Mink (D -HI), Parren Mitchell (D - MD), Charles Rangel (D - NY), Thomas Rees (D - CA), William Fitts Ryan (D - NY), Ogden Reid (D - NY), Benjamin Rosenthal ( D - NY), Morris Udall ( D - AZ).
Secretary of the New York State Communist Party USA, Michael Myerson was among the observers.
One panelist, John M. Cates, Jr., director of the , Center for Inter-American Relations, matter of factly remarked during the discussions: "So why are we here'? We're here so Sen. Kennedy can have a rationale to get our country to recognize Cuba."
The conference was financed by a New York-based organization called the Fund for the New Priorities in America, a coalition of groups clearly sympathetic to many pro-Communist causes.
The Fund was virtually the same group as the Committee for Peace and New Priorities, a pro-Hanoi group which bought an ad in November 1971 in the New York Times demanding Nixon set a Viet Nam withdrawal date. Both the Fund for the New Priorities and the Committee for Peace, were located at the same address in New York.[1]
Voted against support for "Contras"
The Congressional Record of February 3, 1988 shows that the following leading Democratic Party Congressmen voted against aid to the Nicaraguan Freedom Fighters - the "Contras"- then fighting against the Marxist-Leninist Sandinista government of Nicaragua:
- Les Aspin
- Les AuCoin
- Ed Boland
- David Bonior
- Don Bonker
- Barbara Boxer
- George Brown
- John Conyers
- George Crockett
- Ron Dellums
- Tom Downey
- Mervyn Dymally
- Don Edwards
- Mike Espy
- Barney Frank
- Sam Gejdenson
- Richard Gephardt
- William Gray
- Lee Hamilton
- Charles Hayes
- Robert Kastenmeier
- Joseph Kennedy
- Pete Kostmayer
- Jim Leach
- Ed Markey
- Nancy Pelosi
- J. J. Pickle
- Charles Rangel
- Peter Rodino
- Dan Rostenkowski
- Gus Savage
- Patricia Schroeder
- Steven Solarz
- Gerry Studds
- Morris Udall
- Ted Weiss
- Howard Wolpe
- Sidney Yates
References
- ↑ Human Events, April 29, 1972, page 3