The U.S. and Castro's Cuba, 1950-1970: The Paterson Collection
The declassified records that comprise the Paterson collection provide a detailed account of the diplomatic, economic, military, and cultural relationship between the United States and Cuba in the era of Fidel Castro.
Included are extensive official records gathered from presidential libraries, government archives, the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of State (DOS). The records contain:
- memoranda,
- letters,
- telegrams
- diary entries
- intelligence and military reports
- transcripts and minutes of meetings
- speeches
Other types of records include:
- chronologies
- biographical sketches of key leaders
- trade and export control statistics
- The Cuban Report, published by the Cuban Student Directorate (an anti-Castro exile group)
- Accounts of trips to Cuba by government officials, politicians, journalists, and others. Especially useful in following events are the weekly reports from the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba, to the U.S. DOS. Most of these records are in English.
The domestic politics surrounding the controversial U.S.-Cuba relationship are detailed in the papers of U.S. politicians, especially senators, and of interest groups and publicists in labor unions, the business community, pro-Castro organizations, and anti-Castro exile committees.
Particularly noteworthy for comparative purposes are the annual reports for the late 1950s and early 1960s by the British and Canadian ambassadors to Havana and the U.N. Secretary General�s accounts of his meetings with Fidel Castro and others during the Cuban missile crisis.
Number of rolls: 22