Members of Brigade 2506 recall anger, sense of betrayal
By Sean Federico-O'Murchu. MSNBC. April 18, 2001.
ELIZABETH, N.J., April 17 As they steamed toward the coast of
Cuba in April, 1961, they were young, confident and idealistic, driven by dreams
of ousting Fidel Castro and emboldened by the backing of the U.S. government.
Forty years later, Castro still holds sway in Havana, and the surviving members
of Brigade 2506 still live in exile, their anger and sense of betrayal as
palpable as ever.
"WE FELT CONFIDENT because we had the word of the United
States," recalled Eliecer Grave de Peralta, who stormed Giron Beach near
the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961, along with about 1,500 other Cuban exiles.
But the United States balked at the last minute: Castros air
force was only partially destroyed, U.S. air cover wasnt provided to the
invasion force and the CIA didnt notify the Cuban underground of the
impending attack.
After three days of heavy fighting, Castros superior forces
vanquished the exiles, the United States was faced with a diplomatic nightmare
and the invasion attempt set the harsh tone for relations between Havana and
Washington that endure to this day.
The Bay of Pigs has become a catchphrase for bungling and rich fodder
for books, movies and academic research.
Segundo Miranda
But to the men who took part, the debacle is a matter of deep
resentment. Most were imprisoned for nearly two years in Cuba, watched the
torture and execution of comrades, and hold an abiding hatred of Castro.
Gathered together during a recent stormy night in New Jersey, the
memory of April 17-19, 1961, still stings for five of the original members of
the Brigade 2506. They dream of Cuba, they pray for Cuba and they now realize
they may never go home again.
DREAMS OF CUBA
Grave de Peralta still remembers the day he left Cuba: Dec. 3, 1960.
The revolution was less than 2 years old and after fighting alongside Castro to
overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, Grave de Peralta turned his
back on his comrades.
"I took Santa Clara for Castro," he said, but he could no
longer stand the tyranny of the new regime. "The executions without trial,
the persecution of people with different ideologies, the shutdown of the press,"
Grave de Peralta said.
He was 27 when he returned on April 17, 1961, still consumed with the
ideal that drove him to join Castros band of rebels in the Sierra Maestra
mountains. "We wanted agriculture reform, to give land back to the farmers
and to reinstate the Constitution of 1940," he said.
Now he wanted to overthrow Castro. After training under CIA
supervision in camps scattered through Central America, Grave de Peralta joined
a buoyant band of exiles on its way to the Bay of Pigs. "We had no doubts.
We thought we had a closed deal."
Three days later, as they ran out of ammunition, Grave de Peralta
knew it was over. He managed to be among the handful plucked to safety after the
botched invasion. "I had to escape; I faced a death sentence in Cuba,"
he said.
Castro was prepared for the invasion. Another exile, Raul Sanchez,
recalled hearing Cuban radio broadcasts warning of an attack as he headed in one
of the five old cargo ships to his homeland.
Raul Sanchez
Even then he wasnt worried. "We were young, we were
counterrevolutionaries, we were going to free our homeland," Sanchez said.
And the CIA told them that the United States would not let them down.
Time has only hardened their bitterness and the target for
much of the anger is President Kennedy, who took office a few months before the
Bay of Pigs, and his brother, then Attorney General Robert Kennedy. "They
betrayed us," said Segundo Miranda, a commander with the invading force.
Although an investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency placed a
great deal of the responsibility for the fiasco on the CIA, which planned the
operation, the exiles blame Kennedy for calling off on April 15 air strikes
aimed at crippling Castros air power. Without the air strikes, the
invasion itself should have been called off, they say.
FORGOTTEN PLIGHT
The men, soldiers of a forgotten war in many peoples minds, are
still strangers in a strange land. They came to the United States to spend a few
months preparing for an invasion. They have stayed for nearly four decades.
They raised families and continue to lobby, to protest, to argue
their cause. Last heard from during the Elian Gonzalez imbroglio, the exiles try
to muster public support for dissidents inside Cuba who are still imprisoned for
venting opposition to the government.
They bemoan what they see as indifference by the U.S. government to
the plight of Cubans. And they wont tolerate those who dare sit down with
Castro.
Last month, a handful of exiles broke ranks by traveling to Havana to
pore over unclassified documents about the battle alongside top Cuban officials
and academics.
"Jesus had 12 apostles, one betrayed him. We have 5,000 people
and five betrayed us," said Sanchez.
The U.S. economic blockade widely criticized internationally
is also lambasted by the former fighters. But for another reason: They say its
not tough enough.
"What kind of blockade is it? You can use Visa, Mastercard
there; you can ship with Airborne Express," Sanchez said.
THE NEXT GENERATION
The exiles children carry the torch. Alex Grave de Peralta is
23 and has never been to Cuba. But like his dad, he cares passionately for the
country and detests the Castro regime.
Esther Gatria, 26, is the daughter of Sergio Gatria. Her father was a
dissident inside Cuba who worked with the fledgling Castro regime but waited for
word of the invasion. He left in 1967 after a long struggle to get out of Cuba.
Esther Gatria visited Cuba in 1999, but she says nothing she saw
changed her mind about the Castro government.
Both Alex and Ester share their parents anger and hopes
for a democratic Cuba.
And while Esther is active in the November 30 organization of her
father a dissident group with members, many imprisoned, inside Cuba
she and Alex realize that they will have to wait for Castros death.
"History shows that after every tyranny there is a period of
chaos. But hopefully when the dust clears, it will come up as a democratic
society," Alex said.
Cuba's failing economy.
Source: Latest CIA estimates
GDP
Cuba acknowledges that the loss of Soviet aid and trade caused its GDP to
drop by 35 percent between 1989 and 1993. The CIA estimates the drop was more
like 50 percent. But after five years of a sinking GDP, the economic decline
came to a halt in 1994. Since then, according to Cuba, here's how GDP has fared:
1994 +0.7
1995 +2.5
1996 +7.8
1997 +2.5
1998 +1.2
1999 +2.5
2000 + 1.2%
Trade balance
In 1999, Cuba said trade with other countries was worth $5.1 billion. Export
earnings declined 22% in 1998, to $1.4 billion, the result of lower sugar export
volume and lower world prices for nickel and sugar. Import expenditures also
fell 15% to $3.0 billion, in part due to lower world oil prices. Export
concentration on sugar was as much as 51.4 percent of total export value between
1993-96 which explains the trade deficits.
1994 -0.8
1995 -1.3
1996 -1.6
1997 -2.4
1998 -2.5
1999 -3.0
Trade relations
Before 1989, 85 percent of its trade was with the socialist bloc. Since
then, Cuba has had to establish new trading partners. As a result of decline in
sugar output, Cuban exports to almost all of its key trading partners have
fallen since 1996. Exports to Russia and Canada fell by 13 percent. Exports to
China by 27 percent and trade with Cuba's biggest trading partner, the European
Union, fell by 3 percent.
Sugar
The 2000-2001 crop, projected at around 3.7 million tons, could be lower
that the last harvest because of the continued drought. The 1998 sugar harvest
was the lowest under the Revolution and in the last 55 years. Output in 1993-97
averaged one-half of the 1982-89 average. Cuba's inability to export sugar was
its biggest problem, with an 18 per cent drop off in 1997. In 1997, Cuba
exported 3,552 thousand tons of sugar and (at a price of 11.16 U.S. cents/pound)
earned US$ 853 million and in 1998 it earned US $620 million.
1994 4,000
1995 3,300
1996 4,450
1997 4,252
1998 3,200
1999 4,000
2000 3,700
Physical output (thousand metric tons)
Oil and natural gas
Cuba's oil output has increased more than 400 percent over the last decade,
to over 60,000 barrels per day, a third of the cash-strapped Caribbean island's
minimum oil consumption. Oil firms from Canada, Britain, France and Sweden have
been helping Cuba develop its existing wells and search for new reserves. In
2000, Venezuelas president Hugo Chavez negotiated a deal to provide Cuba
with monthly supplies of oil.
Foreign Investment
Foreign direct investment is trickling in. In 1996, there were 240 joint
ventures in Cuba, involving firms from 57 countries and valued at $5 billion. In
1998 foreign investment still hovered around $5 billion. U.S. businesses,
although limited by the embargo against the island, remain eager to tap the
Cuban market, Rice producers in six states -- Arkansas, California, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Missouri and Texas, hope to capitalize on the Cuban rice market
estimated at 350,000 to 400,000 tons annually. Cuba now purchases rice from
Thailand and Vietnam.
Tourism
Gross revenue from tourism stood at U.S. $ 1,500 in 1997 and at U.S. $ 1,650
in 1998. But the net revenue was about one-third of the gross due to high input
costs. Occupancy of toursit rooms was only 57 percent in 1997. But the level of
Cuban tourism is growing. In 1994 Cuba had 617,000 tourists, putting it on a par
with Aruba and the U.S. Virgin Islands and in 1995 the number of tourists was
conservatively estimated at 750,000. Canadians and Europeans are Cuba's main
visitors. The U.S. embargo prevents Americans from visiting. In 1999, 1,602,781
travelers visited Cuba In 2000, an estimated 140,000 Americans traveled to the
island for business and pleasure Some of them participating in the growing
number of culturally oriented group tours sponsored by museums and schools.
Cuba recalls defeat of imperialism
As Castro holds court, no sign of time healing wounds
By Mary Murray. NBC NEWS.
HAVANA, April 17 Like a blood feud passed down from generation
to generation, both sides remain convinced they are right each firm in
their belief of the magnitude of the insults against them.
FORTY YEARS later, they cant even agree on what to call the
historic incident that defines their relations. The United States and the Cuban
exiles refer to the event as the Bay of Pigs, "the perfect failure."
Fidel Castro and his nation honor it as Playa Girón, not just
a victory but "the first defeat of imperialism in the Americas."
The exiles assert they were patriots fighting for freedom. Castros
troops believed they were defending the nation against a "CIA-backed
mercenary army in the service of a superpower" interested in regaining its
considerable economic investments.
TRAITORS AND SCOUNDRELS
Whichever side you listen to, it is clear that little has changed in
the 40 years since 1,500 Cuban exiles landed on a nearly deserted beachhead,
only to be vanquished by Castros army. A handful from the defeated 2506
Brigade may have shook hands with their captors late last month, but most exiles
remain unrelenting.
Before even traveling to Havana, three of the five renegades had
already been expelled from their vets group for their overly conciliatory
attitude toward the Castro government. The remaining two were booted at their
first meeting back to jeers of "traitor" and "scoundrel."
Fidel Castros longevity must be particularly galling to those
on the U.S. side of the Florida Straits. Their archenemy, the man who drove them
out of Cuba with his communist revolution, is about to celebrate his 75th
birthday.
He remains ensconced in Havanas presidential palace, lambasting
his 10th American president and greeting legions of international visitors that
include the pope and the king of Spain.
To hear some aging warriors talk about the battle at Girón,
the moment defined the rest of their lives. Castro used the attack to declare
his revolution "socialist." Some in Miami converted their anti-Castro
crusade into full-time jobs. Their wealth and concentration in South Florida
made them a political force, turning Cuba into a domestic issue for anyone
running for national office.
On Monday, Castro marked the 40th anniversary of his socialism
declaration by again attacking the United States at a rally in Havana. "Latin
American nations are on the verge of being devoured by the United States,"
he warned.
Col. Angel Jimenez turned his performance at Playa Girón into
a military career. Just 20 when he led a mortar battalion to recapture a strip
of sand held by the invading forces, Jimenez today has six rows of medals pinned
to his chest. "Time heals all wounds," he said generously. "We
are not enemies anymore."
Even Cubas official historian, Pedro Alvarez Tabio, is talking
reconciliation. "We finally have the opportunity to get together with ...
members of the brigade. It has been an extraordinary experience, a positive
experience, in terms of finally promoting a dialogue between two adversaries
that have been at odds for so many years."
BURYING THE HATCHET?
Sounds good, but will the Hatfields and McCoys really bury the
hatchet?
Not Ricardo Alarcón, Cubas top legislator and close
Castro confidante. He continues the Cuban battle cry of "Washington must
recognize us first as a free, independent and sovereign nation." Alarcón
sees President Bush as "living in the past" and "ignoring the
lessons of Playa Girón."
The Bush administration, like its successors, is sticking to
American demands that Cuba respect human rights and hold multiparty elections.
Secretary of State Colin Powell stated his support for U.S. sanctions
on Cuba "to show our displeasure to the nature of that regime." Since
1962, Washington has barred trade with the island.
Clearly not interested in winning over any new friends, Fidel Castro
harshly insulted the new American president just days after the inauguration.
During a nationally televised speech, Castro mocked George W. Bush, calling him
"very strange and uncompromising... Lets hope he is not as stupid or
as Mafioso as he seems."
During the election, Castro had described Bush and rival Al Gore as
the "most boring and insipid choices" ever in U.S. election history.
Castro called both candidates "pale shadows of the profound convictions of
Abraham Lincoln, the wisdom and statesmanship of Franklin Roosevelt and the
ethics of Jimmy Carter."
Complaining even then about a Bush victory, Castro predicted "hell
become the tenth American president to fail" to undermine Cubas
communist system.
THE ELIAN SAGA
Castros current defiance is not only based on his 42-year
skirmish with the White House (and dodging dozens of CIA assassination
attempts).
The aging leader gathered great steam during the Elian Gonzalez
custody battle and mobilized a nation behind him. Castros flag of Cuban
nationalism blended perfectly with anti-American sentiments always
smoldering under the surface of this Latin American nation.
Cuban fury spread so wide that even Castro opponents here criticized
Miami exiles for wanting to keep the child. Elian was a 5-year-old boy rescued
at sea on Thanksgiving Day 1999 who watched his mother and 10 others drown after
their small boat capsized. His father, a humble hotel worker and Castro
supporter, demanded his son be returned.
During the election, Bush hurled harsh words against Castro,
although issued in much more civil terms.
"My word to you, Mr. Castro: Let your people live in freedom...
I challenge the Castro regime to surprise the world and adopt the ways of
democracy," Bush said. "Until it frees political prisoners, and holds
free elections and allows free speech, I will keep the current sanctions in
place."
Dodging the rhetoric flying in both capitals, the more practically
minded argue that bridges are best built through commerce. The last two years
brought more than a dozen trade delegations to Havana pushing their wares.
FROZEN TIES
Washington watchers, however, see little chance of any improvement
especially considering the clout Florida and Cuban Americans wielded last
November in bringing a Bush back to the White House.
Next year, brother Jeb is up for re-election as the states
governor. Jebs ties to South Florida date to 1988, when he ran the
congressional campaign of Florida Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, one of the
loudest Castro critics on Capital Hill.
If Otto Reich becomes the administrations top Latin American
policymaker, as proposed by the president, dont expect the Cuban market to
open. The corporate lobbyist earned more than $600,000 while working for the
Bacardi Rum Co. to push for the Helms-Burton law, which tightens the embargo on
the communist island.
A former Reagan appointee, Reich now heads up the hard-line Center
for a Free Cuba. Reichs critics believe he possesses a near obsession with
the homeland he left after Castro took power in 1959. Should he win the post of
assistant secretary of state for Western hemispheric affairs, Reich would
bolster Jesse Helms, no lover of Fidel Castro.
North Carolinas ultra-conservative senator and chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee wielded his enormous influence to prevent the
Clinton administration from making any overtures toward Havana.
The foes in the Cuba-U.S. divide have hunkered down as did the
Hatfields and the McCoys, and theres not much reason to be any more
hopeful of the outcome now than in 1961.
Fidel Castro is about to turn 75 years old and has ruled Cuba since 1959.
While he has outlived many of his enemies, survived several assassination
attempts and outlasted nine U.S. presidents, he cannot rule forever. Here's a
look at potential successors to "El commandante."
Raúl Castro
Role: Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces; first vice president of
the Cuban Councils of State and Ministers; member of the National Assembly. He's
Fidels baby brother and will turn 70 in July.
Background: Raul Castro has been Fidel's most trusted confidant and
second-in-command since the two came to power in 1959. He is considered a
political hard-liner as are other likely successors who favors
old-style Soviet orthodoxies. He proved flexible and far-sighted, however, when
it came to the role of the army in salvaging the country from an economic crisis
following the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1990, he downsized the armed
forces and concentrated on efficiency while sending his troops and officers to
grow food for the hungry nation. He made the army begin to earn money by
starting tourism and retail trade companies. He also placed his generals in key
ministry positions, taking over the nations sugar and fishing industries.
Chances: Age may be against Raúl Castro but he plays an active role
domestically, constantly appearing in public.
Carlos Lage
Role: Vice president of the Cuban Council of State; secretary of the Cuban
Council of Ministers and its Executive Committee; member of Cuban Communist
Party's political Bureau; member of the National Assembly.
Background: A doctor who worked as a pediatrician in Ethiopia, Lage, 50,
stepped into the national limelight when the Cuban economy crashed in 1989, and
he is considered the architect of recent economic reforms. The public views Lage
as a modest man who lives simply. Lage is known as the "economy czar"
for supervising much of the day-to-day administration of government. He also has
micromanaged the war against the petty corruption that permeates the dollar
economy on the island.
Chances: He is the youngest of the front-runners and has the least amount of
clout, but time could be on his side.
Ricardo Alarcón
Role: President of the National Assembly of People's Power, or parliament,
since 1993; elected to Bureau of the Cuban Communist Party in 1992; prior posts
include foreign minister and former U.N. ambassador.
Background: Alarcón, 64, is seen as Castro's close confidante and his
point man on relations with the United States. He's popular nationally, although
his background is in international affairs. People see him as a brilliant
intellectual and a loyal Fidelista. Alarcón is a veteran of the
revolutionary underground and an ardent defender of socialism. He's an expert on
American history and takes pleasure in sparring with the "enemy." He's
fluent in French and English and has been the one person besides Castro who
makes himself available to the press.
Chances: Alarcón is touted as Fidel's most likely successor.
Portia Siegelbaum in Havana contributed to this story.
How the Kennedys handled fiasco
Invasion was monumental disaster 3 months into presidency
By Evan Thomas. NEWSWEEK
WASHINGTON On April 12, 1961, Richard Bissell, the CIAs
chief of covert operations, appeared in Robert Kennedys office at the
Justice Department to brief him on the most spectacular covert operation ever
attempted by the CIA. In a few days, a secret CIA armada planned to land a
clandestine army in Cuba to start a revolution. When the 1,300 CIA-trained Cuban
exiles stormed ashore at the Bay of Pigs, Bissell predicted, the Cuban people
would rise up and overthrow their communist dictator, Fidel Castro.
THE PLAN had been conceived during the Eisenhower administration, which had
considered Castros revolutionary regime, recently brought into Moscows
orbit, to be an intolerable threat off the Florida coast. President Kennedy had
signed off on the operation, but it was essentially a CIA invention, pushed
hardest by the agencys brilliant and extremely self-confident Richard
Bissell.
Bissell, who liked to breezily quantify the odds, told Kennedy that
the chances for success were about two out of three. And if the Cuban people did
not rise up? Then the invading force would slip into the jungle and become
guerrilla fighters.
The attorney general, who had been aware of the planning for the
invasion but not deeply involved, did not quiz Bissell closely. That Friday
night, RFK tipped off Hugh Sidey, Time-Lifes man, at a party at Hickory
Hill. "Hugh," he casually asked, "do you have anybody in Cuba?
Big things are about to happen. Better get someone there."
DAMAGE CONTROL
The first invaders landed shortly after midnight on Monday morning,
April 17. A few hours later, Bob Kennedy was summoned by his anxious brother. "I
dont think its going as well as it should," said the president.
Poor communications between the overly secretive CIA and the White House kept
JFK from knowing the full extent of the disaster.
Castros planes had blown up the secret armys ammunition
ship, and Cuban tanks were already bearing down on the landing beach. On Tuesday
morning, [National Security Adviser] McGeorge Bundy reported that the situation
was "not a bit good."
Bobby Kennedy began casting about for a way to control the damage.
As he had with Governor Vandiver during the 1960 election campaign, he looked
for one man who could be counted on to run a back-channel operation, reporting
personally to the Kennedys. The hardest charger he could find was Admiral
Arleigh "31-Knot" Burke, a World War II hero commanding destroyers in
the Pacific, who had become chief of naval operations.
Kennedy found Burke swearing ("Balls") in the Situation
Room and drafted him on the spot. Burke was to send U.S. carrier fighters over
the invasion beach to gather intelligence, Kennedy instructed. He was to deal
directly with the president, no one else.
Burke was taken aback at being commandeered in this way.
Contemporaneous notes of his reaction, made by the admirals aide, capture
Burkes unease:
Then Bobby Kennedy called me up and said the President is going to
rely upon you to advise him in this situation. I said it is late! He needs
advice. He said the rest of the people in the room werent helpful. [Burke
takes a call from the President.]
What do you do. He is bypassing [General Lyman] Lemnitzer, the
Chairman [of the Joint Chiefs of Staff], the SecDef, the SecNav, CIA and the
whole works and putting me in charge of the operation. That is a helluva thing.
We had better watch this one.
Cdr Wilhide [Burkes aide]: He must realize what he is doing.
Adm Burke: I told Bobby Kennedy this was bypassing. He said he knew.
HITTING THE FAN
That night, President Kennedy hosted a gala reception for members of
Congress. Dressed in white tie and tails, entering the room while the Marine
Band played "Mr. Wonderful," Kennedy went to look for his old crony
Senator George Smathers.
U. S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy at the White House in Washington
in 1962.
"The shit has hit the fan," the president told Smathers.
The Florida senator suggested that it was time to send in the marines. Bobby,
who was standing nearby, said, "What? Are you crazy?"
But JFK was desperate to do something. After midnight, the president,
still in his formal dress, convened his top advisers. General Lyman Lemnitzer
offered that the time had come for the invaders to "go guerrilla" and
fade into the mountains. The CIAs Bissell had to sheepishly admit that the
mountains were eighty miles distant, across a swamp, with 20,000 Cuban troops in
the way.
Admiral Burke, quietly prodded by RFK, put forth a plan of action:
provide the Cuban invaders with an hour of air cover in the morning to try to
shoot down Castros air force.
Haltingly, clinging to the futile hope of launching a "secret"
invasion, President Kennedy agreed. But he went to the absurd precaution of
ordering the navy to paint out the U.S. markings on its war planes, as if the
Cubans and the rest of the world wouldnt know who had sent them.
A MONUMENTAL DISASTER
John F. Kennedy had been in office less than three months and he was
faced with a failure of monumental proportions. The moods among the presidents
men in the Cabinet Room at 3 a.m. ranged from despair to fury. Bobby was among
the most emotional. As the president rose from his seat, Robert Kennedy clapped
his brother on the shoulders and pleaded, "Weve got to do something.!
They cant do this to you!"
The president turned away and walked into the Rose Garden. For about
an hour, he paced in the wet grass. JFK was in tears when he awoke in his bed a
couple of hours later.
Unable to sleep, Robert Kennedy composed a memo to his brother. RFKs
first attempt at formulating foreign policy, the memo is revealing of his best
and worst instincts. The document, hastily dictated sometime in the
early-morning hours and revised in Kennedys near illegible scrawl, is a
template for his future thinking.
The United States cannot return to the status quo of "waiting
and hoping for good luck," he wrote. "Something forceful and
determined must be done." An invasion by U.S. troops was going too far. But
some kind of covert action was called for. He suggested staging a provocation:
pretend that Cuban MiGs had attacked the Guantanamo, the naval base at the top
of Cuba still held by the Americans.
Kennedy was to return to this idea of a staged provocation repeatedly
in the years ahead. The provenance of Kennedys sleight of hand is unclear:
possibly, he was recalling the sinking of the Maine, which gave the United
States an excuse to invade Cuba and liberate the Spanish colony at the turn of
the century.
Fortunately, the suggestion never caught on with his more prudent
brother, and RFK was forced to settle for less dramatic covert operations. Yet
with Kennedys rash proposal on this bleak April morning came genuine
foresight: he predicted that if the United States failed to act, Cuba would very
soon become a base for Soviet missiles. His judgment was at least a year ahead
of American intelligence experts.
TRAPPED AND ABANDONED
At the Bay of Pigs on Wednesday morning, Burkes air cover plan
failed. Because of a communications snafu, the carrier-based jets arrived an
hour late, and the aging B-26 bombers supplied by the CIA to the Cuban exiles
were all shot out of the sky. By early that afternoon, the invaders were being
driven into the sea, begging for the American warships and planes that rested
just over the horizon.
Bobby Kennedy was at his most anguished. Pacing back and forth in the
Cabinet Room, he kept repeating, "Weve got to do something, weve
got to do something." Pausing, he glared at the glum CIA and military
officials sitting around the table. "All you bright fellows have gotten the
President into this, and if you dont do something now, my brother will be
regarded as a paper tiger by the Russians."
There was little they could do. The American destroyers could not
draw close to the beach and risk being fired upon. Trapped and abandoned on the
beach, the Cuban freedom fighters fired angrily and futilely at the wakes of the
departing American warships.
From ROBERT KENNEDY by Evan Thomas. Copyright (c) 2000 by Evan Thomas.
Reprinted by permisson of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
MSNBC. © 2001 |