The papers, amounting to more than 2,700 pages, will be made
available to researchers at the Kennedy Library in Dorchester
on Thursday and will be posted on line.
The decision coincides with the 50th anniversary of the
Cuban missile crisis, in which the president’s younger brother played a
prominent role in defusing the most dangerous flashpoint of the Cold War, when Russia Caribbean
island, just 90 miles from American shores.
“Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy played a crucial role in
the peaceful resolution of the crisis, and researchers and the public are
keenly interested in the information and insights contained in these
documents,” said David Ferriero, head of the National Archives and Records
Administration, which oversees the presidential library.
The papers, part of a larger collection of RFK’s personal
and government papers that remain hidden more than four decades after his
assassination, could also shed light on covert government efforts to overthrow
Cuban leader Fidel Castro – activities overseen for a time by RFK.
In a statement, the National Archives described the
forthcoming files as “documents accumulated by Robert F. Kennedy in his
capacity as both attorney general and adviser to President Kennedy. The files
relate chiefly to matters that ordinarily do not come under the jurisdiction of
the attorney general or the Justice Department, and include memos,
correspondence, reports, notes from Executive Committee meetings, as well as CIA
and State Department telegrams and cables chiefly related to the United States
relationship with Cuba during the years 1961 to 1963 – a time which included
the Cuban missile crisis and the Bay of Pigs invasion.”
It added: “While the majority of these materials will be
opened in full, some will remain restricted because of classified material: no
documents are closed due to restrictions related to personal privacy concerns.”
The Boston Globe, in a series of articles in the past few
years, has reported on the growing frustration of historians and researchers
eager to study what they contend is a key missing chapter of the Kennedy
administration and the Cold War. But until now RFK’s widow, Ethel Skakel
Kennedy, and their children have been reluctant to grant permission to
declassify the documents – totaling as many as 62 boxes -- and make them
public.
At issue has been an unusual agreement reached decades ago
between the National Archives and the Kennedy family, granting them authority
to release the files. But as the Globe reported earlier this year, an index of
the remaining RFK papers shows that many of the unreleased files are government
documents, as opposed to personal materials, that the family should never have
been given control over.
In a statement Wednesday, the Kennedy family maintained it
is committed to making additional papers available, insisting that it is the
declassification process that has been responsible for the delay, not their
foot-dragging.
“The Robert F. Kennedy Family is committed to ensuring the
public’s continued access to the RFK Collection,” the statement said.
But library officials and internal correspondence with the
family over the years highlight the library’s difficulty in getting the
family’s go-ahead to process the papers for release.
In the statement, the family also acknowledged that of the
remaining 55 boxes, some information could still be withheld. “At the
conclusion of the process of federal review of the remaining 55 boxes, those 55
boxes will also be made available to the public, subject only to national
security and personal privacy considerations.”
Reached by phone, Tom Putnam, the director of the JFK
Library, declined to comment on the family’s statement, saying he is pleased
that the library is making progress after years of seeking to make the RFK
collection fully available.
Asked about the family’s contention that it has not been
responsible for the delay on processing, Putnam declined to comment.
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