Some of the reports preceding Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Cuba have noted that this is the first visit to the island of an official in his post in 70 years, but there are not many details of that previous visit. It turns out it was Edward R. Stettinius Jr., who was in Havana from March 9th to 10th, 1945.
OnCuba used this information to dig through the Cuban newspapers of those years and found a few articles that we have used to reconstruct Edward Stettinius Jr.’s visit to Cuba.
Like Kerry, Secretary Stettinius arrived in Cuba on a Friday, only that not in the morning, but at 3:00 p.m. in a U.S. military plane –which was “impressive,” according to the description of a journalist– coming from Mexico, where he had just taken part in the Inter-American Conference on Problems of War and Peace.
He arrived at the Gen. Batista Airport, in San Antonio de los Banos, a military airport which was farther away from Havana’s downtown than the Jose Marti International Airport where Secretary Kerry will be arriving on Friday morning.
Mr. Stettinius was welcomed by a large group of officials: congressmen, members of the Armed Forces and diplomats.
According to the daily Noticias de Hoy, when Mr. Stettinius emerged from the plane, he was approached by a welcoming party that included Prime Minister Felix Lancis, the U.S. Ambassador to Cuba, Spruille Braden; the Chargé d´Affairs of the Soviet Union, several congressmen and the Chief of Police.
Secretary Stettinius “kindly corresponded the salute he was paid,” and left the airport in a caravan escorted by police motorbikes, down the Rancho Boyeros Highway, passing by Vedado, to a destination in the Yacht Club in Marianao Beach, where “the visitors had the opportunity to rest briefly.”
The Secretary stayed in Cuba for two days. His agenda included a press conference at the Hotel Nacional, the same place where Mr. Kerry will be offering his in the afternoon on Friday. The newspapers from those years note that the participants spoke in English at the conference, with the exception of Nelson Rockefeller, Assistant Secretary of State for American Republic Affairs, who did so in Spanish.
The American Ambassador to Cuba made the opening remarks at the press conference, and introduced Secretary Stettinius.
“The distinguished guest started expressing the extraordinary pleasure it was for him to be in Cuba,” a local newspaper read, “a country with so many links to the United States”.
Immediately after, the Secretary read a written speech he had prepared, of which we reproduce a few highlights below:
“I am immensely pleased to have accepted the invitation His Excellency, Mr. Ramon Grau San Martin, President of the Republic of Cuba extended to me to pay this official visit to Havana on my way back to Washington from the conferences in Crimea and Mexico City.
“Not long ago, your president honoured our country with his visit, and now I am bringing him and all of you the regards of the President of the United States.
“The Republic of Cuba and the United States are bond by strong ties of friendship and mutual respect. We have made common cause in two world wars to preserve our freedom and we have worked in close collaboration in peacetime.
“I am convinced that the Conference of Mexico City is a solid base for American Republics to make great strides in political and social cooperation, as well as for the economic development of this Hemisphere, for the benefit of the peoples.”
An awkward question by an unidentified journalist
Towards the end of the press conference, when the Secretary invited the audience to ask any other questions they might have, an unidentified “graphic reporter” asked a question that, judging for the description of the episode seems to have been perceived as inappropriate by his colleagues.
“In a stuttering voice,” the person asked a question that was not of the concern of the Secretary of State, but touched one of the most controversial issues of the local public opinion at the time: the role played by the delegation that had represented Cuba at the Mexico City Conference, and that had been way below the expectations of the public.
Concretely, the question asked the Secretary was why Cuba hadn’t presented a motion to break relations with Spain and Argentina.
This is the way Noticias de Hoy reported the answer given by Mr. Stettinius:
“Well… well…” the Secretary cleared his throat and added, “In Mexico, everybody had the freedom to say as they pleased… Also, I´m not here to judge the work of other delegations…”
Then he said that he regretted not having more time to continue to exchange with the press, and then left.
At the end of his brief visit to Havana, Mr. Stettinius was bid farewell by the Cuban Secretary of State, Mr. Gustavo Cuervo Rubio, at the same airport through which he had arrived. He left in “a special plane.”
His visit had been preceded by that of his predecessor in his post, Cordelll Hull, who had attended a Pan-American Conference in Havana in 1940.
Stettinius resigned only three months after his trip to Cuba, in June 1945, to become the first U.S. Ambassador to the UN.
He died at 49, four years after his historic trip to Cuba.
