16: Find Me Someone to Kill Castro

Pawley’s reaction to Castro taking control of Cuba was filled with thoughts of violence. Not only did it threaten his investments but embarrassed him personally by showing the folly of his buffer-government plan. He told a reporter in Miami that he would personally pay any amount to anyone who assassinated Castro. Then retracted his angry comment within days. In lieu of contracting an assassin, he began helping CIA Director Allen Dulles organize thousands of exiles fleeing Cuba to make sure the communist rebels in Cuba would be confronted by a force more ruthless than the enemy.1

On February 23, 1959, CIA Director Allen W. Dulles wrote to Pawley, thanking him for his good letter of February 18. “J.C. [King] has brought me up to date on his recent talks with you. As you know, we are running into difficulties in finding a resting place for the person about whom you telephoned me but I shall be working with State on that. I shall speak to Foster about your letter when next I see him. I know he will sincerely appreciate your thoughts. On a whole, he is making as good progress as could be expected and well tolerating the treatment he is receiving.”

In April 1959 Castro visited the United States for eleven days, giving the most optimistic Americans hope that he would not become a total surrogate for the Soviet Union.2 But when Castro returned to Cuba, he put a limit on private land holdings with the state expropriating the remainder under a policy of Agrarian Land Reform. That summer, President Urrutia resigned, and Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado became the country's president.3

On July 27, 1959, Marcos Diaz Lanz (MDL), who was on Raul Castro’s list of government officers to be purged, escaped from Cuba to Florida with the assistance of Bernard Barker (right in photo) who earlier had transferred Marcos to a CIA safehouse in Cuba. Three weeks later, Marcos was “living in Fiorini’s house” in Florida while Barker remained in Cuba for another six months. After finally arriving in Miami, Barker and Frank Fiorini (aka Frank Sturgis; left in photo) would take part in numerous attempts to overthrow the Castro brothers. (A dozen years later, Sturgis and Barker would be arrested with E. Howard Hunt, Virgilio Gonzalez, James McCord, Jr., and Eugenio Rolando Martinez after a break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC.)4

Read more »

25: The Name Game

In the past, Pawley would go straight to the top to argue his position to Presidents Roosevelt, Truman or Eisenhower when he felt that his dealings with underlings were not going well. But in the new Kennedy administration, he did not have that access, so he had to take his case to Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Mann (photo), whom weeks earlier Pawley had praised as “brilliant” and no “nicer fellow” while chastising him for his friendship with Betancourt.1

Pawley in early March 1961 began sending Mann materials to make the case against Manuel “Manolo” Ray and for the use of others.2 Ray was a former professor of engineering at the University of Habana, who had been selected by the CIA to rally support. Pawley disliked him because he had served as Castro’s Minister of Public Works, although he quit the Castro cabinet position after his friend Huber Matos was arrested by Castro. Ray then defected to the U.S. and became the leader of the anti-Castro counterforce People’s Revolutionary Movement (MRP).3

In the letter to Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Mann, Pawley demonstrated his mastery of the Cuban situation while raising the possibility of a post-Castro civil war if the wrong leaders are selected. “It [is] also thought by important Cubans whom I know here that Ray and three or four of the other prominently mentioned Cubans have already made arrangements through Russian agents and that when Castro falls, Russia will still have their men in power even though they pretend to demonstrate a more friendly attitude toward the United States.” Pawley stated “that the best solution would be a ‘junta’ or ‘frente’ made up of leaders of the various political groups. At no time has this seemed more necessary than now.” He offered four names for this role: de Varona, Carillo, Artime, and Maceo.

Read more »