October 24, 1960
Dear Senator Kennedy:
The enclosed letter has come to me and I think it is the way quite a number of people feel.
I thought I understood you to say during the last debate that you did not intend to act unilaterally but with the other American states. Since this is not fully understood, I pass the letter along to you because I think it would be unwise for people to have the impression that you did expect separately to interfere in the internal affairs of Cuba.1
Things at present look as though they are going pretty well. I cannot, of course, ever feel safe till the last week is over because with Mr. Nixon I always have the feeling that he will pull some trick at the last minute. On the whole, things look pretty good, however. In the meantime, good luck!
Very cordially yours,
Eleanor Roosevelt
Index to this Document: Batista, Fulgencio; Castro, Fidel; Cuba: JFK policy on; Nixon and; U.S. policy towards; Kennedy, John F.: Cuba policy of; Kennedy-Nixon debates; Latin America: expansion of communism in; U.S. policy towards; Mutual News; Nixon, Richard: Cuba policy of; Roosevelt, Eleanor: political advice of; on unilateralism in foreign policy; Singiser, Frank; UN Charter; U.S. Government: foreign policy of, towards Cuba;
Recommended citation: Eleanor Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and the Election of 1960: A Project of The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, ed. by Allida Black, June Hopkins, John Sears, Christopher Alhambra, Mary Jo Binker, Christopher Brick, John S. Emrich, Eugenia Gusev, Kristen E. Gwinn, and Bryan D. Peery (Columbia, S.C.: Model Editions Partnership, 2003). Electronic version based on unpublished letters. .
For more information, visit The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers home page at https://erpapers.columbian.gwu.edu/.
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