“FEB 12, 1961: The Voice of America [radio station] announces it will broadcast a series of anti-Castro radio programs, beginning with a documentary ‘The Anatomy of a Broken Promise’ which reviews Castro’s pledges to hold elections and how these pledges were broken one by one.” “The Bay of Pigs Invasion/Playa Giron: A Chronology of Events,” […]
Category: quotes
1/28/1960
“JAN 28, 1960: At four in the afternoon in the town of Chambas on the north coast, a Catalina plane drops incendiary bombs that fail to go off. The bombs have the inscription ‘Bristo Marines.’ Another plane drops incendiary bombs on the cane fields in the refineries of Adelaida, Violeta, Patria, Punta Alegre, and Morón, […]
1/25/1960
“JAN 25, 1960: President [Dwight D.] Eisenhower holds a conference to discuss the situation in Cuba. ‘The President said that [Fidel] Castro begins to look like a madman.’ Ambassador [Philip] Bonsal, also at the conference, adds, ‘[Castro] is a very conspiratorial individual who tries to create the impression that he and Cuba are beleaguered. He […]
1/24/1960
“[JAN 24, 1960] Clark Clifford, special counsel to President Harry S. Truman and later Secretary of Defense under Lyndon Johnson, reminds President [John F.] Kennedy in a memorandum that [Former President Dwight D.] Eisenhower said it was the policy of this government to help the exiles to the utmost and that this effort should be […]
1/15/1960
“JAN 1960: The CIA sets up a Task Force WH-4, Branch 4 of the Western Hemisphere Division to implement President [Dwight D.] Eisenhower’s request for an ambitious covert program to overthrow the Castro government. Jacob Esterline, Guatemala station chief between 1954-1957, is put in charge of WH-4.” [The 15th of the month used for date […]
1/12/1960
“JAN 12, 1960: Throughout the month of January, sabotage and small bombing missions in Cuba increase in frequency. A plane drops incendiary bombs in the areas of Bainoa, Caraballo, and San Antonio de Rio Blanco. Another plane coming from the north, with U.S. markings, drops inflammable material on cane fields next to the Hershey factory.” […]
12/11/1959
“DEC 11, 1959: J.C. King, head of the CIA’s Western Division, writes a memorandum for [CIA Official] Richard Bissell, and CIA Director, Allen Dulles stating that [Fidel] Castro has now established a dictatorship of the far left. The intelligence community estimates an increase in Cuban support for other revolutionary movements in Latin America, and ‘rapid […]
12/5/1959
“EARLY DEC, 1959: Rogelio Gonzalez Corso, Rafael Rivas Vazquez, Carlos Rodriguez Santana, Jorge Sotus and Sergio Sanjenis meet in Mexico and decide to create the Movimiento de Recuperación Revolutionaries (MRR), or Revolutionary Recovery Movement. They designate Angel Ros as secretary general of the new organization; he leaves for the United States to confer with Ricardo […]
11/13/1959
“13.11.59 As part of a series of maneuvers aimed at hindering Cuba’s purchases of the necessary weapons to defend itself against counterrevolutionary activity and air raids, the U.S. government pressured the British government in order to prevent it from selling 15 combat aircraft to Cuba.” “Dwight D. Eisenhower (R), Timeline,” Cuba versus Blockade: Cuban People’s […]
11/5/1959
“NOV 5, 1959: In a memorandum to President [Dwight D.] Eisenhower, [Secretary of State] Christian Herter describes the changing policy towards Cuba, ‘All actions of the United States Government should be designed to encourage within Cuba and elsewhere in Latin America opposition to the extremist, anti-American course of the Castro regime.’ Herter adds, ‘[However], in […]