“APR 25, 1960: The MRR [Movimiento de Recuperación Revolucionaria-Revolutionary Recovery Movement] sends a memorandum to the CIA, summarizing the history, motivations, positions and goals of the organization. The document describes six major points of the MRR platform: respect for the dignity of the individual; firm devotion to representative democracy; unbreakable faith in the concept of […]
4/23/1960
“APR 23, 1960: Cuba’s Foreign Minister Raúl Roa declares that ‘I can guarantee categorically that Guatemalan territory is being used at this very time with the complicity of President [Miguel] Ydígoras [Fuentes] and the assistance of United Fruit [Company], as a bridgehead for an invasion of our country.’” “The Bay of Pigs Invasion/Playa Giron: A […]
4/21/1960
“APR 21-22, 1960: [Ambassador] Pedro Martinez Fraga sends a letter to Ricardo Lorie and Manuel Artíme, regarding contacts with the CIA-referred to as ‘Group B,’ and ‘Mr. B’ on political, economic and military support preparing a political memorandum for MRR [Movimiento de Recuperación Revolucionaria-Revolutionary Recovery Movement] to present. The letter states that the CIA has […]
4/15/1960
“MID APRIL 1960: David Phillips [Chief of Propaganda for CIA] meets with the CIA official in charge of the Cuba operation, Deputy Director for Plans Richard Bissell. When Bissell asks how long it will take to create the proper psychological climate, Phillips says it will take about six months. Bissell directs the propaganda chief to […]
4/14/1960
“APR 14, 1960: At a National Security Council meeting, Eisenhower administration officials weigh options for broadcasting propaganda into Cuba. U.S. Information Agency [USIA] Director George Allen reports that USIA is considering establishing a Cuba-directed station in Florida and buying time on commercial stations there. Also under study is a proposal to fly an aircraft over […]
3/25/1960
“LATE MARCH 1960: David Atlee Phillips, a CIA contract employee who until recently had maintained a public-relations company in Havana, is selected by the CIA as chief of propaganda for the Cuba project. At operation headquarters in Washington, Phillips is told that the Cuba project will go by the Guatemala scenario. (Phillips had performed the […]
3/17/1960
“On approving a document titled ‘A Program of Covert Action Against the Castro Regime’, March 17, 1960, US President Dwight David Eisenhower established a strategy aimed at overthrowing the young Cuban Revolution as his administration’s official policy. The anti-Cuba program included actions such as the setting up of an exiled Cuban organization to provide a […]
3/15/1960
“MAR 1960: The CIA begins training 300 guerrillas, initially in the U.S. and the Canal Zone. Following an agreement with President [Miguel] Ydígoras [Fuentes] in June, training shifts to Guatemala. The CIA begins work to install a powerful radio station on Greater Swan Island, ninety seven miles off the coast of Honduras.” [The 15th of […]
2/18/1960
“FEB 18, 1960: A plane trying to bomb the central España, Matanzas province, explodes in mid-air. The pilot is identified as Robert Ellis Frost, an American who carries a U.S. military identification card.” “The Bay of Pigs Invasion/Playa Giron: A Chronology of Events,” The National Security Archive, NSArchive2.gwu.edu […]
2/17/1960
“FEB 17, 1960: A CIA briefing to the National Security Council reports on the visit of Soviet official Anastas Mikoyan to Cuba. ‘The USSR’, it states, ‘has shifted from cautious attitude to one of active support.’ The briefing also indicates that opposition to [Fidel] Castro is growing but that ‘the anti-Castro groups both inside and […]