Former Officials Fault Bush on Handling of Iraq Events

HAVANA — Former U.S. and Russian officials and military officers who met Friday to study the 1962 Cuban missile crisis gave President Bush bad marks for his handling of today’s Iraq events.

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara and other aides to President Kennedy are participating in a three-day conference, also attended by Cuban President Fidel Castro.

McNamara praised Castro, Kennedy and former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev for good judgment and the coolheaded resolution of the crisis. Wayne Smith, the top U.S. diplomat in Havana in the late 1970s, said, “Today’s crisis is not being handled in the same careful, prudent way.”

But White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said Kennedy would have used force if necessary.

The majority of Kennedy’s advisors recommended an attack on Cuba after U-2 spy planes discovered the Soviets were installing missile bases, McNamara said.

McNamara proposed a “quarantine” to stop Soviet freighters from transporting the weapons to Cuba, and the crisis ended when Moscow ordered the missiles’ withdrawal.