Washington, October 1 (RHC)-- Declassified documents by the Gerald Ford Presidential Library have revealed that former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger drew up secret plans to launch air raids against Cuba back in 1976.

According to The New York Times, the documents were declassified at the request of a group of researchers with the National Security Archives.

The documents explain that Kissinger called high-ranking U.S. officials to take reprisals against Cuba for having deployed a military contingent in Angola at the request of the Angolan government.

The 'reprisals' included air raids against harbors and military facilities on the island and the deployment of U.S. Marine battalions at the U.S. naval base in the occupied Cuban territory of Guantanamo.

But the officials warned that the United States could run the risk of losing the naval base in Cuba, which was vulnerable to a counterattack by Cuban forces.

Kissinger also drew up a possible military blockade of Cuban coasts, despite warnings that such an action could lead to a conflict with the former Soviet Union.

The former U.S. secretary of state, who is now 91 years old, declined to comment on the recently declassified documents, according to The New York Times, which explains that Kissinger’s plans were not carried out by Ford and discarded after the presidential victory of Democrat Jimmy Carter in November 1976.

The documents appear in the book entitled “Back Channel to Cuba” by U.S. researchers William M. Leogrande and Peter Kornbluh.