27: Brigade 2506 Hostage Negotiations
While the CRC was meant to unite the various Cuban exile factions, an odd wedge appeared less a year later when Dr. Miro received a letter from Madrid, Spain written to newspaperman Norman Diaz. “I am sending you these lines to acquaint you with the fascist movement which was founded in Spain and Italy and called Opus Dei which is moving in the political sphere of the political refugees in Miami.” The movement of “industrialists, merchants, professional people and elements of the extreme right” is close to Franco and “in Miami is represented by Fernandez Varela, the ‘little priest’” who is struggling “for control of the organization” with “Dr. Lasaga, who is a member of the Revolutionary Council in Miami.” The DRE “whose base is the University [of Havana] Catholic action, is involved in the fascist organization and its representatives in Miami.” Dr. Miro told his CIA contact that he “looked upon this letter as merely speculation of one person.”2
Richard Scully Cain (aka Richard Scalzetti), a former Chicago policeman turned private eye “was hired as a bodyguard for Jose Rasco during a visit to Chicago.” Months earlier, Cain had contacted the CIA’s Chicago Domestic Contact Division “Field Office and voluntarily provided information on the activities of Cuban exile groups in the Chicago area.” Following his service to Rasco, in April 1962, “Cain made an unannounced visit to Agency representative Winston Scott and Warren Dean in Mexico City” and claimed he was providing “police training to Mexican Government agents.” Two months later he was deported “for carrying a loaded revolver and brass knuckles, impersonating a Mexican Government official, and violating his tourist permit by working.”
At the May 1961 Rasco/Cardona meeting, attendees “chose spokesman on spot. Pawley will identify later.” They learned that Castro “said that feeding and housing 1214 prisoners plus 800 guards was heavy economic burden he wished to shed” in exchange for multiple ferryloads of tractors and spare parts that would last five years, a burdensome process Miro proposed to avoid Castro reneging on the agreement. “Pawley suggested to Miro this process might be streamlined and speeded by letting Canadian gov’t supervise exchange.”
After the meeting, Pawley heard the delegates comment that the brigade prisoners “are proud to have fought in the first armed battle of the free world against communism” and desire “to go back again with the experience and self-confidence they have gained from the invasion.” And despite their quick capture, Pawley reported that the “Training they received in camps and execution of amphibious landing were superb.”3
Luce’s Time magazine reported on June 2, 1961, that Castro’s ransom demand included heavy tractors. To pay for them, JFK urged former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, United Auto Workers' President Walter Reuther and Dr. Milton Eisenhower to do fundraising. William D. Pawley contributed $25,000. On the West Coast, John (“Jake the Barber”) Factor of Los Angeles, “a Prohibition-era hoodlum who got kidnaped [sic] by other hoodlums in 1933 and knows all about ransoms sent $25,000.” But not everyone thought it was a good idea. Connecticut's Democratic Senator Thomas Dodd worried that paying ransom would create a ripple effect leading to the Communists seizing a billion. Time painted the image of Castro pleasurably “guffawing through his beard.”4
Pawley became an active member of the sponsor’s committee of the Cuban Families Committee for Liberation of Prisoners of War (N.Y.). The Committee was led by a member of one of New Jersey’s oldest and most distinguished landed gentry—the Kean family—which counted among the wives a Cuban exile, Luz Maria (Beba) Silverio de Kean, whose brother, Joaquin Silverio, had been captured during the invasion. Her husband, Robert W. Kean (president of Elizabethtown Water and Gas and son of a former Congressman) hired attorney James Britt Donovan, who had successfully negotiated the release of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers from the Soviet Union, to serve as negotiator for The Cuban Families Committee. He made eleven trips to Havana for that purpose. Robert’s son Tom went on to become the state’s Governor and head the 9/11 Commission.5
The Cuban Families Committee group formed after the quasi-official Tractors for Freedom Committee ceased functioning. It was comprised primarily by women who “dug in on Madison Avenue to advertise” the plight of the men and the need to raise the $62 million Castro was demanding for ransom. With the Keans and Ana Maria Sanchez spearheading the efforts “more than 50 notables are sponsoring the drive to free prisoners.” Pawley put up $25,000.6
Among those high-profile individuals adding their names to the humanitarian cause were Desi Arnaz of the I Love Lucy TV show; TV variety-show host, Ed Sullivan; Princess Lee Bouvier Radziwill, sister of President Kennedy’s wife, Jackie; Richard Cardinal Cushing, Archbishop of Boston; General Lucius D. Clay; Episcopal Bishop Reverend James A. Pike; General Elwood R. Quesada; Hon. James A Farley; and newspaper columnist Victor Riesel.7
Pawley spent hours on the phone begging world leaders and New York’s Cardinal Spellman to intervene and get Castro to release the Brigade prisoners. Spellman told Pawley as a persona non grata he had no sway over Castro and might do more harm than good.8 Cardinal Spellman eventually gave $5,000.9
Many worrisome months would go by for those held by Castro. The CIA’s “Weekly Summary of Cuban Revolutionary Council and Related Activities, Week of 27 May—2 June 1962” noted that the ransom payment discussions started by Pawley were continuing and that a false rumor about Manolo Ray replacing Miro Cardona as head of the Cuban exiles had been planted in the Miami Herald using a reporter, James Buchanan.10
Regarding the ransom efforts, Pawley wrote, “We sounded out the Cuban Government through our Ambassador to Canada, Livingston Merchant, on the possibility of ransoming prisoners.” Pawley, who had once criticized President Kennedy for resorting to money in dealings with Castro, found an exception to his own rule.
Three weeks later, Enrique Llaca, director of the Committee, announced that Fidel Castro received a substantial ransom payment for four men, including:
-
$25,000 paid for Nestor Fitzgerald Williams by William Douglas Pawley.
-
$100,000 paid by relatives to release Fabio Oscar Freyre Aguilera, a 42-year-
old former sugar and cattle grower who lost 45 pounds while imprisoned.
-
$50,000 paid for Jorge Govin Throckmorton, the 20-year-old son of Rafael
Govin, the former owner of Havana’s El Mundo newspaper.
$50,000 paid for Alfred Gonzalez Duran, 25.
The money was deposited in the Royal Bank of Canada “in the name of the Cuban Families Committee for the Liberation of Prisoners of War.”
Pawley personally put up the ransom for Nestor Williams because he “feared Castro would exploit the release of two men whose families could afford ransom, while their comrades were left behind. I therefore added to the list a courageous young Cuban, Nestor Williams, at $25,000.” Pawley had another concern besides the propaganda value. He stated at the time of the release, “blacks such as Williams—were sent to prisons where conditions were better, since they were considered potential recruits for Communism.”11 (For an unfathomable reason, the CIA refused to release its copy of The Miami Herald’s 1962 article about the ransom payment until 1999.)12
For some of the Brigade, the Cuban prisons were unhealthy. Nearly 30 prisoners contracted hepatitis while in captivity. The prisoners’ typical menu at Isle of Pines, according to Govin and Freyre consisted of a mango or an orange, and a cup of watery coffee for breakfast; macaroni cooked in dirty water without seasoning for lunch; and a spoonful of stone-hard black beans with seasoning.13 This diet was a far cry from whatGovin was used to; his parent’s engagement had been announced on The Washington Post’s society page in 1921.14
Funding was provided for “vocational rehabilitation” of the disabled Brigade 2506 members after they returned from Castro’s prisons. Of the 48 in the program in September 1964, four were training to be barbers; a half-dozen of them were learning accounting; others were studying electrical appliance and TV repair, economics, engineering, medicine, crane operation, advertising art, upholstering, and other job skills.15
Freyre, “a nephew of Julio Sanchez, who is Bill Pawley’s next-door neighbor”16 not only managed to survive the conditions but to become a sugar and real estate broker as well as an adviser to Daniel K. Ludwig, the shipping magnate during his next three- and-a-half decades of life.17 Sanchez and his two brothers had inherited from their father a 100,000-acre Cuban sugar plantation which was lost when Castro came to power. Fortunately, Julio already owned property on Sunset Island in Miami, where his 125- guest 25th wedding anniversary was featured in Life magazine in 1947.18
Another Brigade member, Miguel Cervera Consuegra (aka Mike Cervera) was elected on the second anniversary of the invasion as Director of the Association of Veterans of the Bay of Pigs, Brigade 2506 (AVBC) which a month later “discussed with former Nicaraguan President Luis Somoza, their plan for a naval operation to be directed against the Cuban regime.” It never took place. Cervera eventually became manager of Pawley’s Talisman sugar plantation in Belle Glade, Florida.19
After the release of Williams and the others, Pawley remained involved in negotiating for the release of the 1,113 remaining prisoners which dragged on from the summer into the fall.20 On October 8, 1962, “U.S. Customs, Miami, arrested ten Cubans in [a] small boat, who claimed they were en route to join Gutierrez Menoyo [founder of SNFE, and compatriot of Alpha 66 in attacks on Castro, who had departed on a mission the previous week]. Customs agents found arms, radio equipment, and food aboard.”21
Shortly after the arrests, James B. Donovan, legal representative of the committee expressed optimism about the Bay of Pigs hostage release to Ernesto Freyre, secretary of the Cuban Families Committee in Miami. But peace was hardly at hand in the Caribbean.22 A key problem was that the Cuban exiles who hadn’t been involved in the fiasco at the Bay of Pigs were splitting off into individual groups and planning attacks which could bring a stop to negotiations.
Five months after the failed invasion, “Michael J. Malone (Vice President of Czarnikow-Rionda, New York City, a sugar and cattle raising firm with extensive holdings in Cuba which were intervened) ... reported to the C.I.A. that Rorke and Fiorini were attempting to obtain funds for an anti-Castro program involving 5,200 men which would operate from off-shore islands, possibly the British Isles.”
By the end of 1961, after two aircraft leaflet drops over Cuba, Fiorini was “shunted aside” as military advisor, replaced by Pedro Diaz Lanz. But soon “Fiorini, Pedro Diaz Lanz and Rorke formed their own group” and in mid-April 1962 “along with 27 other people had departed Florida in an unnamed boat” to “commence harassment operations against the Castro regime.” The U.S. Coast Guard “gently ‘urged’ them to return to Florida, which they did.”23
In fact, the Kennedys were secretly taking on communism in Cuba. Richard Goodwin, whom Pawley had expressed concerns about to President Kennedy, proposed anew approach which soon became Operation Mongoose. This program of propaganda, sabotage and eventually assassination planning led by Air Force General Edward Landsdale in the Defense Department and William Harvey at CIA was run out of Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s office.24 Within a month of its creation, Joseph Kennedy who frequently advised his sons on political matters had a stroke and was unable to move or speak until his death in 1969.25
In May 1962, the Joint Chief of Staffs prepared a 12-page presentation of 24 tasks to be pursued in Operation Mongoose, detailing the “Purpose” and “Considerations” of each “Task.” Political tasks were assigned to the State Department and CIA. Psychological-propaganda tasks were spread among State, CIA, USIA, and the Defense Department. Intelligence gathered by Cuba-infiltration teams and agents in third countries was the duty of the CIA while Defense was called on to exploit its “intelligence potential which exists on the base at Guantanamo.” (An incident had occurred there in 1961 when a Marine shot a suspected Cuban spy.) CIA and Defense also had military/paramilitary assignments. Economic sanctions were the responsibility of State which was called upon “to enlist further participation by NATO nations, Mexico, Japan and others.” Economic sabotage through penetration of “black market operations” and counterfeiting was to be handled by CIA. The outline even mentioned as part of the psychological warfare a role for a Luce publication—delivery of “copies of Time magazine, with Bias Roca cover story” making “the truth available to the Cuban people about the Communist regime.”26
Prior to firing of Allen Dulles and Richard Bissell from the CIA, on September 5, 1961 at the Special Group meeting, Livingston Merchant brought up the topic of taking “direct positive action” against the two Castros and Che Guevara,27 which eventually became part of the CIA’s goals and could have easily derailed hostage negotiations.
William Harvey and his successor after January 1, 1963, Desmond Fitzgerald, ran the CIA’s Task Force W which developed two plans to assassinate Castro. One involved placing an exploding seashell at the location where Castro liked to skin dive, but the CIA’s Technical Services Division (TSD) considered the idea “impractical.” The second concept would have been traceable directly to the U.S. negotiator James Donovan who would have been unwitting of his role in the diabolical plot. TSD wanted Donovan to give Castro a diving suit dusted with Madura foot fungus to irritate his skin and a breathing apparatus contaminated with tubercule bacillus. Fortunately for the captured exiles, Donovan had already gifted Castro with a diving suit.28
Task Force W also had third-country “operations against Cubans in countries other than Cuba and the United States” overseen by Edward Maurelius and his deputy chief, Bruce Cheever. Task Force W member Weatherby (first name unknown) testified that his initial contact with AMLASH (Rolando Cubela Secades) “‘took place in Helsinki’” during the 1962 Youth Festival where another CIA operation, AMBARBS, “launched an agit/prop delegation” that successfully disrupted the gathering of communist youth. Cubela was considered as the fourth most important man in Cuba, and Weatherby confirmed that the AMLASH effort was focused on just [this] one high- ranking Cuban military officer” to bring about a coup. Another effort MHAPRON was designed to penetrate “Power Centers and Armed Forces of the Cuban regime— worldwide.” AMLASH was one of thirty cases Weatherby had on his plate. Responsibilities varied “meaning I maintained a file, maintained the traffic, offered advice, wrote cables, talked to different officers about handling the different individuals.” He also had to be sensitive to language; Weatherby said Cubela did not like the word “assassinate” instead favored “eliminate.” 29
Among the AMBARBS was AMBARB-70, Martin Morua Arrechea, the national coordinator of DRE during 1962-63. He joined Task Force W’s propaganda unit in April 1962 and became an “ops specialist” in October. Morua in 1961 and 1962 had tried “to purchase detonators in Chicago with Jorge Salazar who hosted Alpha 66 meetings” in Dallas.30
FOOTNOTES:
1 5/21/1961 Cable “Cuban delegates.” Subjects: Cuban delegates; Pawley, William.
5/21/1961 Cable “re the Cuban prisoner swap.” To: [None]. From: [CIA] JMWAVE. Subjects: Cuba; Pawley.
2 NARA 104-10233-10161 ~ 6/4/1962 CIA Memorandum For The Record. “Letter from a Cuban in Spain to a Cuban Newspaper and Radio Commentator in Miami.”
3 NARA 1993.08.09.17:07:29:370007 ~ 5/21/1961 Message to [REDACTED] from JMWAVE. Unsanitized CIA File of William Pawley. Page 21 of 267. Mary Ferrell Foundation website: maryferrell.org
NARA 104-10164-10468 ~ 5/17/1961 Memorandum “re: Christian Democratic Movement.” To: Chief, Contact Division, For: L/A Branch. From: Chief, Chicago Office.
Delegates chose spokesman on spot. Pawley will identify later. Spokesman said Castro at pre- flight meeting with prisoners morning 20 May told them choose reps from each battalion, including Carbo and Perez, leaving choice of others up to prisoners. Castro then said that feeding and housing 1214 prisoners plus 800 guards was heavy economic burden he wished to shed. Since he needs tractors he proposed offer prisoners (with exceptions noted ref) for tractors.
Spokesman commented that prisoners constitute another problem for Castro as result of their success in converting many of militiamen guarding them to their way of thinking and obliging Castro to change guards. Spokesman said a number of militia had even defected to invaders on beaches. His opinion, concurred in by other delegates, was that communists among militia would have been wiped out by other militiamen if tide had turned in favor of invading force.
In response to a Miro question re timing of exchange, spokesman said Castro proposed to allow ferry from Palm Beach to bring in one cargo of tractors, take back proportionate number of prisoners, repeat until trade was completed. He would hold out until last ferryload those prisoners whose barter value he considered to be highest “to prevent double-crossing.”
Pawley suggested to Miro this process might be streamlined and speeded by letting Canadian gov’t supervise exchange.
One of group (to be identified later) said he had been appointed by Castro to inspect tractors and insure that they met specifications. Castro expects five year supply of spare parts along with tractors.
In informal discussions with delegates before and after meeting Pawley heard following comments all of which appeared to represent consensus:
They are proud to have fought in the first armed battle of the free world against communism.
Almost all of imprisoned brigade members want to go back again with the experience and self-confidence they have gained from the invasion.
Training they received in camps and execution of amphibious landing were superb.
C/S Comment: WAVE advised that the ten representatives of the Liberation Army arrived in Miami on 20 May.
CIA Cryptonyms. Mary Ferrell Foundation website: Mary Ferrell.org
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958-1960, Volume VI: Cuba. Page 181.
Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation, Volume IV: The Taylor Committee Investigation of the Bay of Pigs. Page 156.
5/21/1961Operational Cable ‘William D. Pawley.” To: Bell From: JMWAVE. Subjects: QDDALE; Miro; Pawley, William.
4 “Castro’s Ransom” Time, June 21, 1961.
5 “Millions for Tribute?” Time, October 19, 1962.
Valley Independent July 5, 1962.
World Who’s Who in Commerce and Industry, 1966-67 (Marquis - Who’s Who, Chicago). Page 1015. Time, 6/2/1961.
Cardinal Spellman gave $5,000. William D. Pawley, onetime ambassador to Peru and Brazil, contributed $25,000. Los Angeles' John ("Jake the Barber") Factor, a Prohibition-era hoodlum who got kidnapped by other hoodlums in 1933 and knows all about ransoms sent $25,000 ... inevitably, the word got out that President Kennedy was behind the whole U.S. effort. He had also assured the fund-raising committee that contributions toward Caterpillars for Castro would be tax- exempt—even though the particular sort of bulldozer-equipped tractor that Castro was demanding is well suited for work on jet airstrips and missile-launching sites.”
>> In 1980, Castro gladly rid himself of prisoners and political opponents by allowing them to leave the port of Mariel by the boatload.
The Bay of Pigs: The Leader’s Story of Brigade 2506 (1964). Page 304.
When Bob Kean began to speak, Donovan interrupted: "I know who you are. You are Robert W. Kean, Jr., president of the Elizabethtown Water Company.” Kean said they were interested in liberating Brigade 2506.
>> The Kean family ran deep in politics. John Kean was a South Carolina delegate to the Continental Congress in 1785. His great-grand son, John Kean, was a U.S. Senator in the early 1900s and his brother, Hamilton Fish Kean, was a U.S. Senator in the early 1930s. Hamilton’s son Robert Winthrop Kean was in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1940s and 1950s. Thomas Kean, was New Jersey Governor in the 1980s and further distinguished himself as head of the 9/11 Commission investigating the terrorist attack using hijacked airplanes that targeted the World Trade Center and Pentagon and an unknown target that was spared by the bravery of the passengers. His son, Tom, Jr. won a U.S. House of Representatives seat in 2022 after many years in the New Jersey legislature.
6 “Work to Free Cuban Prisoners by Ann Geracimos.” The Valley Independent, Monessen, PA, July 5, 1962.
Fidel Castro set ransom terms at a total of $62 million, and the Cuban Families Committee for Liberation of Prisoners of War, Inc. set to work raising the money...Mrs. Ana Maria Sanchez ... Mrs. Luz Maria Silverio de Kean, of West Orange, New Jersey has a brother being held for $50,000 ransom ... Mrs. Kean married an American in this country 15 years ago—Robert W. Kean, chairman of the Cuban families New Jersey committee ... more than 50 notables are sponsoring the drive to free prisoners. They include Princess Lee Radziwill, ballerina Margot Fonteyn, His Eminence Richard Cardinal Cushing, General Lucius D. Clay, Hon. James A Farley, and others...
Obituary. “Kean, Luz Maria (Beba) Silverio, 87, of New York, NY.” Miami Herald, May 1, 2012.
Kean, Luz Maria (Beba) Silverio, 87, of New York, NY left us on April 3, 2012 after a full, adventurous, loving life at the core of her family. Born in Marianao, Cuba, she emigrated to the United States upon her marriage in 1947. She remained active in Cuban political and cultural causes throughout most of her life, most notably including working to free the Brigade 2506 prisoners through her efforts with the Cuban Families Committee for Liberation of Prisoners of War. She made an indelible impression on all she met, and we will never forget her generous spirit and incandescent charm. Survivors, along with their respective families, include her sister Ana Maria; brothers Joaquin and Nicasio; sister-in-law Mercedes; sons Robert, Peter, Alexander, Nicholas and Christopher; eight grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and many beloved cousins, nieces, nephews, and dear friends. There will be a memorial service in New York on May 19 at 4PM, at St. Thomas More, 65 E. 89th St. View this Guest Book at www. MiamiHerald.com/obituaries.
7 Pablo Pérez-Cisneros, John B. Donovan, Jeff Koenreich, After the Bay of Pigs (Alexandria Library, Miami, 2007). http://www.alexlib.com/afterthebayofpigs
Author John B. Donovan is the son of the Committee’s legal counsel, James B. Donovan; and author Pablo Pérez-Cisneros, son of Berta Barreto and Guy Pérez-Cisneros.
Cuban Families Committee American Sponsors
Álvaro Sánchez Jr., President
Ernesto Freyre, Secretary
Enrique Llaca, Treasurer
Virginia Betancourt, Director
James B. Donovan, Legal Counsel and Spokesman (He joined the Families Committee in June, 1962)
Berta Barreto de los Heros (Cuba’s Coordinator of the Families Committee)
Others
Manuel Gamba
Sara Sueiro
Olga Betancourt Osorio
Juana de la Torre
Cristina F. López
Rosario Domínguez
Angelberto de los Heros
Members of the Mothers Committee in Cuba
Berta Barreto de los Heros, Cuba’s General Coordinator Berta Gutiérrez de Montalvo
Rosario Munné de Zamora
Herminia López-Centella de Sollosso
Margot Silveira, Beba Caso de Arguelles María Luisa Montalvo
Carmela Franco de Pérez
Delia Reyes
Ofelia (Ofelita) Gómez González
Josefina Onetti
Carmen Reina de Martínez
Emma Pertierra de Argüelles
María Josefa Rodríguez
Palmira Saavedra
María Luisa Rovira
Rosa Agusti
Margot F. Casas
Sara Sullivan de Nodarse
Delia Lalondrí
Margarita Mendoza
The American Sponsors
Desiderio Arnaz, Showman, T.V. personality (I Love Lucy)
John G. Baragwanath, Corp. Executive Consulting Mining Eng.
Walter Beinecke Jr., President, Osceola Foundation Inc.
Joseph M. Birne Jr., Corporate Executive
Princess Lee Bouvier Radziwill, Sister of Jacqueline Kennedy
Charles E. Brundage, Investment Counselor
Richard Cardinal Cushing, Archbishop of Boston *
Gen. Lucius D. Clay, U.S. Army, ret. Chairman, Continental Can
Charles Clore, British Financier
N. W. De Berardinis, Publisher, Shreveport Times
A. Gifford Eager Jr., Executive
Roland T. Ely, Professor, Rutgers University
James A. Farley, Former Postmaster Gen. Chairman of the Board, Coca-Cola Export Corp.
Luis A. Ferré, Industrialist, Poce, Puerto Rico
Louis Finkelstein, Chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary*
Madam Margot Fontain, Prima-Ballerina
Benjamin Franklyn, III Philanthropist
Daniel L. Golden, Attorney
Ernest Gordon, Dean, Clergyman, Author
Rev. Phillip M. Hannah Rt., Auxiliary Bishop of Washington D.C.
Karl G. Harr, Jr., Attorney
Miss Ellamay Horan, Philanthropist
J. Z. Horter, Retired Executive
John Johnson, Educator
Robert W. Kean, Jr., Business Executive
Nicholás Kelley, Attorney
Joseph Kingbury Smith, Publisher of Journal American
Nathan R. Leavitt, Banker
Orin Lehman, Philanthropist
Herbert H. Lehman, U. S. Senator, retired
Donald V. Lowe, Industrialist
Leonard Lyons. Newspaper columnist
David J. McDonald. Pres., United Steel Workers of America
Tom Montague Meyer, Newspaper Editor
Vernon Munroe, Jr., Attorney
Alexander Perry Osborne, Philanthropist
Dr. Ben H. Parker. Professor and Mining Engineer
Hon. Henry S. Patterson. Mayor, Princeton, NJ
Right Rev. James A. Pike. Episcopal Bishop of California
Ambassador William Douglas Pawley. Former businessman in Cuba, owner of trolley and bus system [a rather laughable description considering his many CIA-related activities including Doolittle Committee membership, Arbenz overthrow involvement, Bay of Pigs invasion planning, and utilization by the CCS--Cover and Commercial Staff--which oversaw CIA proprietaries. NARA 104-10332-10023 page 183 (released August 24, 2023) and .NARA 157-10014-10144 page 63].
Gen. Elwood R. Quesada. US Army retired [and first FAA administrator during Bay of Pigs planning]
Victor Riesel. Newspaper columnist
Gen. C. R. Smith, US Army, ret. President, American Airlines
General Delmar T. Spivey, ret. Culver Military Academy
Louis Sobol, Newspaper columnist
Ed Sullivan. TV Personality, The Ed Sullivan Show, newspaper columnist
Rev. Edward E. Swanstrom, Director, Catholic Relief Services
Gen. Leigh Wade,U. S. Army, retired
W. Gavin Whitset, Pres., Louisville & Nashville Railroad
8 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Page 440, 441 & 442.
9 Time, 6/2/1961.
10 6/4/1962 CIA Memorandum for the Record/No. [REDACTED]. “Subject: Weekly Summary of Cuban Revolutionary Council and Related Activities, Week of 27 May—2 June 1962.”
-
Miro Cardona ... had a rather lengthy talk with Mrs. Berta Barreto, who came from Havana with Castro’s approval ... She wanted to try to see President Kennedy ... arrangements were made to see Mr. Harwitch [of the State Department]. She went to New York the evening of 28 May and conferred with Alvaro Sanchez and Ernesto Frere of the Families Committee. It is believed several of them went to Washington about midweek and returned to Miami on 2 June.
-
The early part of the week saw various announcements in the Miami press denying the allegations of the Miami Herald of 27 May (reporter Buchanan) to the effect that Manuel Ray had replaced Miro Cardona as head of the Cuban exiles, with State Department agreement and backing of Betancourt, Figueres and Munoz Marin ... this false front page blast favoring Ray may have brought a surge of support for Miro and the Council ...
Record 104-10229-10061 ~ 5/10/1961 Cable “In May 10 issue Miami Herald staff writer James Buchanan has front.” To: Director. From: WAVE.
11 Pawley, Russia Is Winning, Pages 440, 441 & 442.
12 CIA-RDP 75-00001R000200030037-3 “Three Ransomed Prisoners Will Fly to Freedom Today.” Charles Whited. Miami Herald.
13 “Fidel Gets $225,000 in Ransom.” Long Beach Press Telegram, July 26, 1962. “Three Ransomed Cubans Return.” The Greeley Daily Tribune, July 30, 1962.
14 “Miss Beatrice Adrienne Throckmorton, of Elizabeth, to Rafael Ramon Govin, Jr.” The Washington Post, November 20, 1921.
15 NARA 104-10510-10145 ~ Report on “Brigade 2506” Rehabilitation as of September 15, 1964.
16 NARA 104-10049-10364 ~ CIA Memorandum For The Record. “Subject: Conversation with Reichardt, 25 September 1959.” Signed: (REDACTED) WH/III/AO.
17 Fabio Freyre, 79; Fought to Oust Castro in 1961 by Joseph B. Treaster, The New York Times, August 21, 1997.
18 “Miami: Babylon, U.S.A.” Life, December 29, 1947.
19 RIF 1993.08.05.10:41:34:710005 ~ “HSCA Material Reviewed at [CIA] Headquarters – Cuban Counterrevolutionary Handbook.” Page 202 of 483.
Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Page 452.
20 “The Bayo-Pawley Affair: A Plot to Destroy JFK and Invade Cuba.” By Acoca, Miguel and Robert K. Brown. Soldier of Fortune, Spring 1976. Page 19.
Facts on File 1962. Page 278, F2.
>> Eventually 1,113 other prisoners were exchanged for $50 million dollars worth of medical supplies.
21 1/18/1963 FBI Memorandum. “Subject: Second National Front of Escambray.” From William Mayo Drew, Jr. Miami.
22 Donovan Optimistic on Cuban Families, The New York Times, October 21, 1962.
23 NARA 104-10048-10236 ~ 07/031962 CIA Memorandum for the Record “Frank Fiorini” From: Charles W. Matt/TFW/PM.
24 James G. Blight, and Peter Kornbluh, editors, Politics of Illusion: The Bay of Pigs Invasion Reexamined. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1999) Page 125.)
25 Obituary: “Rose Kennedy,” The Independent, January 24, 1995.
>> She died at 105.
26 NARA 202-10001~ 05/17/62 OSD Mongoose Schedule.
“Killing Of Cuban Confirmed By U.S.; But Pentagon Says He Was Shot Inside Base.” By Richard Eder, The New York Times, May 25, 1966.
>> Three years earlier on April 27, 1963, The New York Times revealed a 1961 incident at Guantanamo Naval Base. Ex-Marine lieutenant, William A. Szili stated he had helped to retrieve and bury the body of Cuban employee shot by a Marine captain. The employee was believed to be a Castro spy.
27 NARA 104-10315-10014 ~ 9/5/1961 “Excerpts from Special Group meetings/Merchant inquiry on any planning re ‘Direct Positive Action’ against the two Castros and Guevara.” From: IG (Staff member).
28 Section: 1. The Assassination Plots. Church Committee: Interim Report—Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders. (U.S. Government Printing Office 1975). Page 86.
29 NARA 104-10171-10334 ~ 8/14/1962 Dispatch “Operational/AMSPELL Progress Report—July 1962.” To:Chief,TaskForceW. From:Chief of Station, JMWAVE. Subject: AMSPELL.
NARA 157-10005-10258 ~ 8/01/1975 Testimony “Re: Cuban Operation. Mr. Weatherby’s Executive Session.” United States Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities.
30 CIA Cryptonyms. Mary Ferrell Foundation website.
Labels: Bay of Pigs, Brigade 2506, Castro, CRC, Cuban Families Committee for Liberation of Prisoners of War, Donovan, DRE, Freyre, Harvey, Kean, Kennedy, Lansdale, Luce, Merhant, Nestor Williams, Operation Mongoose
posted by David Price Cannon @ 2:15 PM
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