WORLD : State Dept. Calls New Soviet MIGs Sent to Cuba ‘Intolerable’
The State Department said today that Cuba has received a new shipment of high-performance Soviet fighter planes that the United States “simply cannot tolerate.”
Under questioning, department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler denied that the statement constituted a threat to Cuba. She referred reporters to recent testimony before a Soviet legislative committee by Secretary of State James A. Baker III in which he said Cuba posed no threat to the United States.
Tutwiler confirmed the delivery of new MIG-29 jet fighters but did not say how many had been shipped. The Washington Times, which reported the shipment in today’s editions, put the number at six.
The report said Cuba now has more than 300 MIGs, most of them older models.
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