Babalu Blog

April 17, 1961 (Updated)

The invasion that could have saved Latin America

Introduction
by Val Prieto

My father in law was a member of La Brigada 2506 and fought in the Bay of Pigs in what was called Operation Mongoose by the US Government. He has a million stories to tell, everything from the moment he decided to join La Brigada and fight for the freedom of Cuba, to the training, the embarcation, the invasion, the battle on the beaches, his capture and incarceration and the subsequent torture -- physical and mental -- at the hands of fidel castro, to his release and reunification with his wife and daughter here in the States. My words can do his story no justice, but someday it will be told. Until then, Edgar, Happy Birthday. The following articles are for you and your brothers and sisters in arms to assure you that this generation, our generation, has not and will not forget your sacrifice and love for una Cuba libre.

Today is the 45th Anniversary of the Bay of Pigs Invasion and in honor of those who fought and sacrificed for the freedom of Cuba, Babalú Blog offers the following homages.

***

Tres Banderas

by Val Prieto

My wife and I were invited by her parents to a Brigade 2506 picnic a few years back. I was a bit apprehensive at the thought of attending. Id always seen Los Brigadistas as larger than life. Heroes. Men who risked their lives for Cuba and what they believed in. Men who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter. And their families, who also sacrificed and endured the anguish of not knowing their loved ones fate, the pain of separation and uncertainty. How would I, just an ordinary guy, be recieved within this very special, unique circle?

They took my in and treated me like a son.

It was a bit overwhelming. I met dozens of Brigadistas and their families. Heard so many of their stories. Honored their fallen brothers in arms along there with them. There I was, this guy in his thirties, among a group of white haired men who had given their all for a cause greater than themselves. Most of these men were younger than I was when they put their lives on the line at the Bay of Pigs. I felt like I was among nobilty and was afforded their kindness and immediate kinship.

There were many many moments where I fought to keep the tears from flowing. Whether it was a story being told about a fallen brother or from seeing a man with battle injuries and scars, ones he received as a young man on a beach fighting agaisnt overwhelming odds, carry them in his old age like badges of honor. Having willingly sacrficed eyes, arms, legs and youth for a country they loved beyond love. I mustered every bit of strength to not break down in front of these men.

Yet there came a moment where I could no longer contain the emotion of my experience that day. Under one of the park kiosks where the tables were set, from one of the kiosk beams flew three flags: Old Glory, the Cuban flag and the flag of La Brigada 2506. As the picnic wound down and the decorations and tables were already picked up, the National Anthem of the United States of America and El Himno Nacional de Cuba were played. Old Glory was ceremoniously taken down and meticulously folded with all due honor.

Tears streamed down my face. I could no longer hold them back.

One of the two Brigadistas who was taking down the flags, a gentleman I had met earlier and had spoken with over beer and barbeque, saw me with my tears flowing at the picture of this scene in front of me. He gestured me over and I complied. When I reached him he patted me on the back and through his own watery eyes led me to the two remaining flags.

And there, in complete silence, he gave me the honor of helping him take down and fold two flags: La Bandera Cubana y la Bandera de la Brigada 2506.

That one brief and solemn moment is the reason there is a Babalú Blog today.

* * *

Plausible Deniability
by Henry Gomez

By now we all know that the idea of the Bay of Pigs invasion was born in the Eisenhower administration and that there were many strategic and tactical errors committed in its planning and implementation. We also know that the decision to hold back American air support was a crucial one because without air superiority any invasion was destined to fail. The reason for the decision was ostensibly to keep up the curtain of "plausible deniability." In doing so John F. Kennedy and "the best and the brightest" put secrecy ahead of success when they inherited the operation.

When you look at the invasion and the two goals (success and deniability) we see that there could only have been four outcomes. They are listed here, from most desirable to least desirable.

1. Invasion a success, US deniability maintained.
2. Invasion a success, US deniability not maintained.
3. Invasion a failure, US deniability maintained.
4. Invasion a failure, US deniability not maintained.

The above ranking assumes that the strategic goal of having the invasion succeed was at least as important to Kennedy and his advisers than the political goal of keeping US involvement secret. But looking back it's obvious, this was not the case, that in Kennedy's mind number 2 and number 3 were swapped. The political goal of keeping US hands "clean" was more important than stopping castro. The men of the 2506 Brigade became political pawns. A failed operation would be acceptable as long as the US could maintain that it wasn't involved.

Of course, in hindsight, we know that ironically Kennedy ended up with number 4, the worst of all possible outcomes. The invasion failed and plausible deniability was blown out of the water. How could "the best and the brightest" have miscalculated and underestimated the media and the intelligence of American people? How could plausible deniability outweigh righting a wrong? 47 years later the Cuban people are still paying for Kennedy's mistakes. Mistakes that may have cost him his life if you are inclined to believe that castro was responsible for Kennedy's assassination.

JFK's cabinet * * *

Bay of Pigs - 45 Years Later
by Robert Molleda

April 17th is the anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. An invasion which cost the lives of many Cubans of Brigade 2506, as well as the possibility for Cuba's freedom. It also helped set the stage for the Cuban Missile Crisis the following year.

Frankly, I don't have a direct connection to anyone who fought in that battle, so I can't provide any personal accounts passed down from a friend or relative who was there. I also never totally understood the true magnitude of that battle and the failure of the United States to provide the necessary air support. Most accounts you hear or read about in the media or learn in school are watered down and lacking in detail. This all changed after I read Humberto Fontova's book Fidel - Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant, particularly the chapter on the invasion.

Much has been said of John F. Kennedy's betrayal of the Brigade forces on the ground in Cuba, but what really gave me the biggest impression regarding the Bay of Pigs were the odds that Brigade 2506 faced, as well as the personal stories of four American pilots who decided to help their Cuban partners.

Fontova mentions that Brigade 2506 was outnumbered by Cuban troops by almost 40 to 1! Two-to-one, or three-to-one are staggering enough odds, but forty-to-one? Nevertheless, it took the Soviet-backed Cuban forces three entire days to defeat a group of 2,000 men, and this was only after they ran out of ammunition. If only Kennedy would have provided the air support as he had promised, there would have been no Missile Crisis, no brutal dictator 90 miles to our south, and no author of this post (my parents met in the U.S.).

Kennedy's decision not to engage angered many of the Navy trainers who worked with the Brigade before the battle. Four of the trainers decided to go anyway. Their names are Thomas "Pete" Ray, Riley Shamburger, Leo Baker and Wade Gray, and they were officers in the Alabama Air Guard. Against steep odds, they decided to stick with their fellow combatants. All four died on their first missions.

Loyalty and determination to do the right thing cost them their lives, but in the minds of many Cuban-Americans and freedom-lovers everywhere, they are immortal.

* * *

Bahia de Cochinos
by George Moneo

"Bahia de Cochinos." "Playa Girón."

It seemed as though my grandfather spat the words out whenever he had to repeat them in a conversation.

I was four-and-one-half years old when the invasion took place. I remember nothing about it. We were living in New York City at the time, my entire family working, some more than one job. Exile was hard. My mother, twenty-nine years old at the time, recounts the joy and optimism that filled their days after they heard the rumors and sketchy news accounts of the invasion. "We'll be back in Cuba in three months," she recalls saying to her mom and dad.

Joy turned into despair on learning of the defeat of the Cuban invasion forces at the hands of fidel's forces. After our arrival in Miami the summer before the Missle Crisis, my family settled in for what had sadly been determined would be a long stay. Resignation. Oh, there was hope that fidel would fall; after all, how could the United States leave a dangerous communist like fidel in power. The news of JFK's betrayal in cancelling the air support for the invasion was a terrible blow for us. That, and his subsequent actions post-Cuban Missle Crisis, pretty much settled the question of whether we would return to Cuba or not.

"Bahia de Cochinos." "Playa Girón." Words that caused so much pain to so many people.

The invasion at the Bay of Pigs was a watershed event of the Twentieth Century. It solidified Soviet control of Cuba, thus ensuring the expansion of that evil, hateful philosophy in the Western Hemisphere. Nicaragua, Venezuela, and now Bolivia are ample proof of that. It also brought an end to the era of the United States unapologetically fighting communism around the world. But for the first wave of Cubans here in the United States, it changed our temporary exile into a permanent one. And we are still angry about it. And we still long for that island in the Caribbean that has died a little death every day since April 17, 1961.

President Kennedy receives the Brigade 2506 flag from Manuel Artime and Erneido Oliva at the Orange Bowl in Miami on December 29, 1962 and declares, "I promise to return this flag in a free Havana." (Photo courtesy Latinamericanstudies.org.) * * *

I remember Jim Quesada
by A.M. Mora y Leon

He was a fearless Nicaraguan friend who fought as a non-official-cover CIA officer, risking his own freedom to fight alongside Cuba's freedom fighters at Bay of Pigs. I became friends with him after he retired from his incredible life, and he was always a great and dear friend to me.

Jim died in the sad summer of 1998, so I am afraid some details might be hazy. But I will do my best to remember, because as best as I can do, Jim deserves to be remembered.

Jim came from an unusual background. He was born in the U.S. of Nicaraguan extraction but had family in Mexico. Some of them were Trotskyites and Jim said he got into the CIA from the U.S. Army Special Forces because quite simply he was always honest with them during background checks, forthrightly explaining who his family was. His family life with them, and his later work with the CIA, never intersected. Jim was already known to the intelligence community because of his courage. He'd been awarded a battlefield commission for bravery and leadership during the Korean War and retired out of that service as an officer. He later became a CIA covert operations officer.

Jim didn't have a snobbish or insufferable bone in his body. I remember him as unusually humble, yet alert. And he was an avid listener to others, no matter how stupid and ignorant. Despite a massive wall full of medals, never discussed them with anyone and I got most of my information about Jim's distinguished service record from the whisperings of his friends, but I later confirmed with his wife that all of these whisperings were perfectly true. It's just that Jim never wanted anyone to know of that stuff. He just presented himself as he was, at that moment.

Jim knew the terrain of Nicaragua and its jungles, and could get along with all kinds of people. On the east coast of Nicaragua, there were poor black, English and Indian communities. Some of them, Jim once observed, "had the pirate mentality" due to their proximity to the Caribbean. Jim made friends with them, and got their cooperation for jungle training camps ahead of the invasion. He said it was totally dangerous. Once, a panther leaped in front of him during the maneuver, and Jim, like lightening, responded to the beast's challenge by saying to himself: "maybe he already ate." The creature walked away, almost as if out of respect for Jim's calm response.

He participated in the invasion, and details are hazy, but it was personally disastrous. He only explained to me: "that's when I got all broke up." Again, friends told me that he was a fearless fighter and did time in castro's dungeons before eventually being returned to the states. Jim was secretive about actual operations and I do not know how he eventually made it back to the states, but I know it was in enough time to fight the Vietnam War afterward. That too was something he did with distinction, always motivated by a deep caring for the lives and freedoms of people who losing theirs to communism.

I remember Jim. I will always remember Jim.

* * *

"We are involved!"
by Ziva

It was an American backed plan. La Brigada de Asalto 2506, would invade Cuba and liberate their fellow countrymen from the living nightmare that castro had made of Cuba.

The operation was not successful. Without warning, President Kennedy withdrew air support and abandoned the stranded Cubans.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Arleigh Burke knew the stakes in Cuba at the time. And he came damn near a mutiny. He wouldn't let up. "Two planes, Mr. President," he pleaded with JFK, fighting to keep his composure. "That's all they need."

"Burke!" replied Kennedy. "We can't become involved in this." The fighting admiral almost lost it. "Hell, Mr. President!" he barked, inches from the young president's face. "We ARE involved!"

They fought valiantly for three days before they ran out of ammunition and were overrun by castro´s Soviet supported troops. The survivors were taken prisoner and held for ransom, which America paid. Most of them were released in December 1962. The last surviving Bay of Pigs prisoner was released in 1986 after 25 years in castro's Gulag. Those were the lucky ones.

The Cuban Archive hosts a list of the Brigada members, read the names, view the photos, think of all the executions, the broken families, forty-seven years of hell, the nightmare would have ended in 1961 if not for Kennedy's betrayal.

The next time you hear someone complaining about Cuban refugees receiving "special" treatment, remember the Bay of Pigs, and come November, think about this--the traditional military punishment for desertion during war is death by hanging or firing squad.

The captured invaders of Brigade 2506 are marched to an uncertain fate by fidel's forces. (Photo courtesy Latinamericanstudies.org.) * * *

Ted Kennedy's New Book Hails JFK's Cuba Policy
Humberto Fontova -
Tuesday, April 18, 2006

"In a forthcoming book, Senator Edward M. Kennedy invokes the leadership of his brothers during the Cuban missile crisis to launch a sharp new attack on President Bush," headlined the Boston Globe last week, "declaring that Bush should have followed the example of President John F. Kennedy and his attorney general, Robert F. Kennedy. ... He accuses the president of engaging in an 'unprecedented level of secrecy' about government operations, and bemoans the Republican 'culture of corruption' in Washington."

The book's title is "America Back on Track" and its release date is absolutely priceless. Senator Kennedy and his publishers possess either an extremely morbid sense of humor or an extremely masochistic one. The book – hailing JFK's "principled leadership" and "honesty" – hit stores not just on the very week that marks the 45th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, but on the very day (April 18).

Senator Kennedy has lobbed it over home plate. So let's by all means recall Teddy's brother's administration's implied "lack of secrecy and corruption." Most importantly, let's scrutinize his sainted brother's bold "leadership." The timing couldn't be better. "The Republicans have allowed a communist dictatorship to flourish eight jet minutes from our borders," accused John F. Kennedy during his famous debate with Richard Nixon during the 1960 presidential campaign. "We must support anti-Castro fighters. So far these freedom fighters have received no help from our government."

Two weeks before that crucial debate in October of 1960, JFK had been briefed by the CIA (on Ike's orders) about Cuban invasion plans (what would later be known as the Bay of Pigs invasion). So JFK knew perfectly well the Republican administration was helping Cuban freedom fighters. But since the plans were secret, he knew perfectly well Nixon couldn't rebut.

Which is to say, to blindside his Republican opponent Kennedy relied on that opponent's patriotism. Let's face it, Republicans are at a woeful disadvantage here. Nixon bit his tongue. He could easily have stomped Kennedy on it. But to some candidates national security (and those freedom fighters' lives) outweighs debating points.

Four months later, 1,400 of those very Cuban freedom fighters that "we must support" were slugging it out with 51,000 Castro troops, squadrons of Stalin tanks and his entire air force at a beachhead now known as the Bay of Pigs. (For details see "Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant," Chapter 11.) JFK was no longer a candidate. He was now commander in chief.

It was time to put up or shut up. He'd already done plenty of putting up by hemming and hawing about the planed invasion from the moment he entered office. Then by forcing the CIA and military planners to change the landing site. Then by holding up his approval of an invasion a year in the making till 24 hours before the planned D-Day. Then by canceling 80 percent of the pre-invasion air strikes. All this was to somehow hide the U.S. logistical role (this massive secret!).

JFK and his Best and Brightest were ashamed of that role. James Burnham nailed this mindset in a famous passage from his book "Suicide of The West": "... the Liberal cannot strike wholeheartedly at the communist for fear of wounding himself in the process."

And despite what Camelot's press agency (the mainstream media and Ivy League academics) have written, those pre-invasion air strikes were the vital element of the invasion as planned under Eisenhower. The Cuban invasion was born under a Republican administration, with Vice President Nixon its main booster. The man who saw through Alger Hiss was also the first to see through Fidel Castro.

After the cancellation of the air strikes, the invading freedom fighters and their supply ships found themselves completely defenseless against Castro's air force. They were sitting ducks and under a constant hail of rocket fire. Here was a final chance for President JFK to stand with them, as promised by candidate JFK.

The U.S. carrier Essex was stationed 30 miles off the Cuban coast, dozens of deadly Skyhawk jets on deck and primed for action. Their pilots were frantic, banging their fists, kicking bulkheads and screaming in tears of desperate rage against the sellout of their freedom-fighting brothers on that heroic beachhead.

Simply give the nod, Mr. Commander in Chief, and they'd roar off to a chorus of whoops and cheers.

Now with air cover, the freedom fighters' ammo ships might survive a run on the beachhead. The invaders could reload, refuel and keep blasting forward. Their planes could fly in from Nicaragua. Then, perhaps, Cuba's liberation: firing squads silenced, families reunited, tens of thousands of emaciated prisoners staggering from dungeons and concentration camps.

We see it on the History Channel almost weekly, after GIs took places like Manila and Munich. In 1961, newsreels might have captured such scenes without crossing oceans. Castro's prison camps and jails held between 250,000 and 300,000 prisoners – the highest political incarceration rate on earth at the time, perhaps the highest in history. If men who voluntarily took up arms and put their lives on the line to smash Castro's regime don't qualify as freedom fighters, then I surely learned the English language in vain.

And 45 years ago this week, 1,400 of them were hard at it on the beaches surrounding Cuba's Bay of Pigs. Thousands more were waging a desperate, heroic and equally lonely guerrilla war in Cuba's hills. The original plans called for the two groups of freedom fighters to link up after the invasion. The Best and Brightest nixed that when, barely a month before D-Day, they abruptly ordered the stunned military planners to change landing sites.

"Where are the PLANES?" kept crackling over the invasion ships' radios. That was their commander, Pepe San Roman, roaring into his radio from the beachhead between artillery concussions. Soviet howitzers were pounding 2,000 rounds into the desperately embattled men (and boys). "Send planes or we CAN'T LAST!" San Roman yelled while watching the Russian tanks close in, his ammo deplete and his casualties pile up.

The pleas made it to Navy Chief Admiral Arleigh Burke in Washington, D.C., who conveyed them in person to his commander in chief.

JFK was in a white tux and tails that fateful night of April 18, 1961, having just emerged from an elegant Beltway ball. For the closing act of the glittering occasion Jackie and her charming beau had spun around the dance floor, to the claps, coos and titters of the delighted guests. In the new president's honor, the band had struck up the Broadway smash "Mr. Wonderful."

"Two planes, Mr. President!" Burke sputtered into his commander in chief's face. The fighting admiral was livid, pleading for permission to allow just two of his jets to blaze off the carrier deck and support those desperately embattled freedom fighters on that shrinking beachhead.

"Burke, we can't get involved in this," replied Mr. Wonderful.

"WE put those boys there, Mr. President!" the fighting admiral exploded. "By God, we ARE involved!"

Mr. Wonderful refused to help the freedom fighters. The advice from his Best and Brightest again prevailed. The election was over, you see. Now his "leadership" was on full display.

"Can't continue," crackled the final message from San Roman a few hours later. For three days his force of mostly volunteer civilians with one day's ammo had battled savagely against a Soviet-trained and -led force 10 times its size, inflicting casualties of 30 to 1.

To this day their feat of arms amazes professional military men. Morale will do that to a fighting force. And there's no morale booster like having watched Castroism ravage your homeland and families.

Pigs will flap their wings through interstellar space before Hollywood (or the MSM) deigns to depict that battle accurately. But to get an idea of the odds faced by those freedom fighters, the desperation of their battle and the damage they wrought, you might revisit Tony Montana during the last 15 minutes of "Scarface."

"Russian tanks overrunning my position," San Roman on his radio again, "destroying my equipment." crackle ... crackle ... crackle ... "How can you people do this to us?" Finally the radio went dead.

"Tears filled my eyes," writes CIA man Grayston Lynch, who took that final message. "I broke down completely. Never in my 37 years have I been so ashamed of my country."

Ted Kennedy might call it "leadership," but Eisenhower described JFK's role during the Bay of Pigs as "a profile in indecision and timidity." And warned that it would embolden the Soviets. Like clockwork, four months later the Berlin Wall went up. And a year later the Soviets began arming Castro with nuclear missiles.

Eighteen months after the botched invasion, a guilt-stricken JFK ransomed the remaining freedom fighters back from Castro's dungeons. Their battlefield and prison ordeal – brought on by JFK's famous "leadership"– was over. But JFK's "culture of secrecy" (remember, the very thing Senator Edward Kennedy blasts in Bush's administration) was far from over.

"I will never abandon Cuba to Communism!" That was JFK addressing the recently ransomed freedom fighters and their families in Miami's Orange Bowl Dec. 29, 1962. "I promise to deliver this Brigade banner to you in a free Havana!" Apparently those men and their families hadn't been subjected to enough lies, to enough betrayal. The grieving mothers, widows and newly fatherless children – they hadn't been through enough either. In Camelot's eyes they deserved more shameless lies and swinishness.

Here's Nikita Khrushchev himself regarding the deal he'd cut with JFK barely two months before JFK boomed out his Cuban liberation promises in the Orange Bowl: "We ended up getting exactly what we'd wanted all along. Security for Fidel Castro's regime and American missiles removed from Turkey. Until today, the U.S. has complied with her promise to not interfere with Castro and to not allow anyone else to interfere with Castro [italics mine]. After Kennedy's death, his successor Lyndon Johnson assured us that he would keep the promise not to invade Cuba."

"We can't say anything public about this agreement," said Robert F. Kennedy to Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin when closing the deal that ended the so-called Missile Crisis. "It would be too much of a political embarrassment for us."

Yet JFK (whose administration we're told was untainted by any "culture of secrecy and corruption") addressed those Cuban men, their families and compatriots with a straight face. As CIA man Grayston Lynch writes, "That was the first time it snowed in the Orange Bowl."

Senator Kennedy should really be more careful about what administration he accuses of maintaining a "culture of corruption and secrecy" and especially about the one he hails as an exemplar of nobility.

* * *

UPDATE: Please, help support the Bay of Pigs Museum.

Other links:

http://brigada2506.com/
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/baypigs.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/24/newsid_3295000/3295045.stm
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/bay-of-pigs/conte2.htm
Humberto Fontova, writing for Newsmax (http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/4/29/34913.shtml)

* * * No Madre, Lágrimas No
Manuel F. Artime

No Madre, lágrimas no.
Eleva tu corazón.
Sé que tu hijo murió,
también se donde, en Girón.

Pero lágrimas para que
si Dios lo hizo para él,
para esculpir con su fé
un monumento al deber.

Si Martí te lo bendijo
aquel "ABRIL 17",
si Maceo dió a tu hijo
la fuerza de su machete

Si en aire que corría
por Playa larga y San Blás
se respiraba la hombría
de Mangos de Baraguá

Si a la luz del astro rey
Cuba gritó en su memoria
2506, con su garganta
de historia,
no madre, lágrimas no.

Que su sangre extraordinaria
hacia el cielo se elevó,
y un triangulo rojo dió
a la estrella solitaria.

Posted by George Moneo at April 17, 2006 06:00 AM |

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.babalublog.com/cgi-bin/mt/hut.cgi/3189

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference April 17, 1961 (Updated):

» Missed opportunities from Gall & Wormwood
Val Prieto, Henry Gomez, Robert Molleda, George Moneo, and Ziva reflect on the failure of will that was the Bay of Pigs. [Read More]

Tracked on April 18, 2006 11:22 AM

Comments

Posted by: Alberto-Q at April 17, 2006 09:25 AM

Posted by: yucababy at April 17, 2006 11:21 AM

Posted by: jsb at April 17, 2006 11:31 AM

Posted by: Jzangroniz at April 17, 2006 11:44 AM

Posted by: mandingo at April 17, 2006 12:55 PM

Posted by: conductor at April 17, 2006 01:35 PM

Posted by: Alberto-Q at April 17, 2006 01:50 PM

Posted by: Paxety at April 17, 2006 03:19 PM

Posted by: Hank at April 17, 2006 05:32 PM

Posted by: Dave J at April 17, 2006 11:27 PM

Posted by: apr_47@yahoo.com at April 18, 2006 12:18 AM

Posted by: Chez Diva at April 18, 2006 06:56 AM

Posted by: BobG at April 23, 2006 07:16 PM

Post a comment