Cold War Adversaries Gather in Cuba By ANITA SNOW .c The Associated Press HAVANA (AP) - President Fidel Castro sat alongside ex-CIA operatives, advisers to President Kennedy and members of the exile team that attacked his country four decades ago as former Cold War adversaries examined the disastrous Bay of Pigs landing Thursday. Dressed in his traditional olive green uniform, Castro arrived in the morning as the protagonists sat down to discuss the 1961 invasion of Cuba by CIA-trained exiles that shaped four decades of U.S.-Cuba politics. The Cuban president personally greeted former Kennedy aide and American historian Arthur Schlesinger, but made no public statement. Participants at the meeting - which was closed the media - said Castro was still with the group at mid-afternoon. Thomas Blanton of the National Security Archive at George Washington University called the three-day conference that began Thursday ``a victory over a bitter history.'' Participants went behind closed doors to discuss their roles and examine newly declassified documents about the April 17-19, 1961, event. In one document released Thursday in connection with the conference, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev warned Kennedy in a letter sent the day after the invasion began that the ``little war'' in Cuba ``could touch off a chain reaction in all parts of the globe.'' Khrushchev issued an ``urgent call'' to Kennedy to end ``the aggression'' against Cuba and said his country was prepared to provide Cuba with ``all necessary help'' to repel the attack. Trained by the CIA in Guatemala, the 2506 Brigade was comprised of about 1,500 exiles determined to overthrow Castro's government, which had seized power 28 months before. The three-day invasion failed. Without U.S. air support and running short of ammunition, more than 1,000 invaders were captured. Another 100 invaders and 151 defenders died. Other key American figures attending were Robert Reynolds, the CIA station chief in Miami during the invasion; Wayne Smith, then a U.S. diplomat stationed in Havana; and Richard Goodwin, another Kennedy assistant, who with Schlesinger considered the invasion ill-advised. On the Cuban government's side were Vice President Jose Ramon Fernandez, a retired general who led defending troops on the beach known here as Playa Giron, and a host of other retired military men. The group will visit the Bay of Pigs on the island's south-central coast on Saturday.
