US PRESIDENT Richard Nixon was deeply concerned about Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's efforts to spread Soviet-backed Communist insurrection throughout the Caribbean and South America when he met British Prime Minister Edward Heath in Bermuda for a "Big Two" summit in December, 1971.

Nixon and his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger told the British leader that the US, working through its South American ally Brazil, had "rigged" recent elections in Uruguay to frustrate a Castro-supported leftist movement that had seemed likely to top the polls.

In a now-declassified secret memorandum prepared by Dr. Kissinger following the December 20, 1971 Government House talks, Nixon voiced fears that the Bahamas ? due to go Independent in 1973 ? would quickly fall into Castro's orbit if "things go wrong" after the UK's departure.

He also said Cuban strongman Castro was using socialist Chilean President Salvador Allende to spearhead a new effort to drive South America into the Soviet Union's sphere of influence.

"Castro is still bent on Hemispheric subversion," said Nixon.

"The Prime Minister asked whether there were any signs of Cuba's attempting to come to terms (with the US)," recorded Dr. Kissinger in his memorandum. "None whatever, the President replied. Castro was still extremely belligerent. Dr. Kissinger agreed."

Cold War politics dominated the two days of Bermuda talks between Nixon and Heath. The just-concluded war between Soviet-backed India and US-supported India ? which resulted in a Pakistani route and the dismemberment of that country ? was viewed by Nixon as a major embarrassment for the West, one that would disenchant American allies around the globe.

Prime Minister Heath was more fatalistic, suggesting that "we are moving more and more into a state of world affairs in which effective action is no longer possible".

His statement appears to have been interpreted as defeatist by Nixon. The American President insisted that the outcome of the India-Pakistan war should add steel to the West's backbone, renewing its resolve to contain aggressive Soviet expansionism.

"The Soviets have tested us to see if they could control events (in the Indian sub-continent)," said Nixon. "Of course, you have to consider the much bigger stakes in the Middle East and Europe.

"Part of the reason for conducting our Vietnam withdrawal so slowly is to give some message that we are not prepared to pay any price for ending a war . . .

"This is not the time to weaken," Nixon went on to tell Heath. ". . . These fellows (the Soviets) haven't changed . . . Their degree of toleration of us is in direct proportion to their fears."

In a lengthy aside, Nixon chastised the liberal-dominated American political and intellectual Establishments for wanting the US to withdraw from involvement in international affairs in the wake of the Vietnam War and the leftist counter-culture revolution this had prompted in the late 1960s / early 1970s.

'The Establishment has a guilt complex," said the President. "They can't stand the fact that I, their political opponent, am rectifying their mistakes" (an apparent reference to the fact US military forces entered Vietnam on the watch of Democratic President John F. Kennedy and the South East Asian war escalated under his successor Lyndon B. Johnson).

"In addition, the Establishment has this growing obsession with domestic problems. The intellectual establishment is confused and frustrated by their own role and by the United States' role.

"They have never believed that there was any real danger from (the Soviets). They are turning inward. They have made it a problem whether we are going to continue our involvement in the world.

"The point of this too-long discourse is this: I know the issue. I'll see it through. We will have a world role."

On the evening of December 20, Nixon and Heath dined together aboard the British guided missile destroyer HMS which was moored in Hamilton Harbour.

Following the dinner, Nixon remarked that Bermuda was the perfect venue for such summit meetings.

"I think we will all agree that we could not have selected a better place in which to meet, as far as its historical significance," said Nixon in a post-dinner toast. "The Prime Minister has some marvellous anecdotes with regard to Bermuda. I think the best one that our staff was able to think up was one from Mark Twain. Mark Twain once visited Bermuda and he said to a friend at the conclusion of his visit: 'You may want to go to heaven but I would rather stay here'. So the closest thing to heaven, certainly on this earth and this hemisphere, on such an occasion as this is Bermuda."

Nixon served as United States Vice-President under Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. He was first elected to the White House in 1968 and was re-elected in a landslide in 1972. He resigned the Presidency in 1974 as a result of the Watergate scandal. Nixon died in 1995.

Edward Heath served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. He was ousted in an acrimonious leadership battle led by Margaret Thatcher. Heath died last July at the age of 89.