Report: Castro fond of missiles

PARIS (AP) - Fidel Castro spoke of ``an incredible love'' for the nuclear missiles that brought on America's Cuban missile crisis, and wanted to keep them even after the Soviets agreed to remove them, according to documents published Friday.

In a speech to the Central Committee of Cuba's Communist Party in 1968, six years after the missile crisis, Castro admitted to laughing with his advisers even as the possibility of nuclear war loomed, the documents published by the French daily Le Monde also showed.

Le Monde said Castro's account of the crisis just 90 miles from U.S. shores was provided to the newspaper by Vincent Touze, a French academic and expert on the missile crisis.

The missile crisis became public Oct. 22, 1962, when President Kennedy revealed to the American people that the Soviet Union had secretly deployed nuclear missiles in Cuba.

Six days later, after the crisis brought the two superpowers nearer to a nuclear confrontation than at any other time during the Cold War, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the weapons.

Castro, who had little control over the situation, said he dearly wanted to keep the missiles, which he saw as a super weapon for any battle with the United States, Le Monde said.

``We defended these missiles with affection, with an incredible love. We were fighting for the first time almost on equal terms with an enemy that had threatened and provoked us unceasingly,'' Castro said in his report to the Central Committee.

When Soviet advisers came to Cuba in summer 1962 to discuss the deployment, Castro suggested that the Kremlin deploy 1,000 missiles and was chagrined when told that only about 40 would be installed, according to Le Monde's account of Cuban documents.

As the tension mounted and it appeared the Soviets would capitulate, Castro argued that a nuclear strike should be launched if the United States attacked Cuba.

According to the documents, Castro said the country was calm and he admitted to laughing even as the possibility of nuclear war loomed.

``We didn't envisage lightly the idea we could disappear. ...It was a very interesting fact because we were in the antechamber of the holocaust and we were telling jokes,'' the documents quoted Castro as saying.

``Evidently, we knew that we were going to be made to play the role of death, but we were determined to play it,'' Castro told the Central Committee.

Castro said Cuba had placed great faith in the Soviets but soon lost confidence in its ally. He said the Kremlin had botched the situation, which he called a ``disaster.''

Castro said he had wanted to inform the United States about the missiles before reconnaissance planes spotted them but was overruled by Khrushchev. He also professed to be shocked they were not camouflaged and suggested the Soviets had overlooked that on purpose.

However, Castro admitted his government had been naive, confessing that nobody in the Cuban leadership even knew what the nuclear missiles looked like although the weapons were accepted ``without hesitation.''

AP-NY-08-15-97 1618EDT