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Background: Adlai E. Stevenson, U.S. Delegates to the U.N., told the Political Committee, in a late evening session April 20, that it was "a melancholy fact" that the "blow for freedom" struck by anti-Castro rebels in Cuba had not yet succeeded. He said this was proof of the falsity of Soviet charges that the United States had committed aggression against Cuba.

"How long do you think Cuba, a small, almost defenseless island, could resist the military power of the United States? Mr Stevenson asked.

"If the United States had been in charge," he added, I submit that fighting would hardly have broken out on the day debates was to start in the United Nations."
Dr Raul Roa, Foreign Minister of Cuba, said he would not be surprised if Washington now recognized the Cuban Revolutionary Council as "the puppet government."
Dr Roa charged that the rebel landing force had been escorted to Cuba by United States naval craft. He said the force numbered 2500 but that not a single member of the Cuban population joined it.