A 1973 US diplomatic cable recounts how then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham summoned the US Ambassador to his Belfield, East Coast Demerara residence for a chat during which he defended plans to journey to a non-aligned conference with Cuban President Fidel Castro and argued that this would also help him to undercut opposition leader Dr Cheddi Jagan.
In the September 4 cable to Washington by then Ambassador Spencer Matthews King, among a batch released by whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Burnham was also reported as siding with the Arabs over the seizure of lands by Israel in the context of concerns that Venezuela could be encouraged in the same direction.
According to King’s cable, Burnham also disparaged several East European countries as tools of the Soviets. Both the US and the
