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Since returning from Cuban prisons after
the Bay of Pigs invasion on April 17, 1961
I have been asked
hundreds of times why the flag of the Assault Brigade 2506
was presented to President John F. Kennedy on December 29,
1962 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. To many, who are not aware
of all the facts, it seems like a paradoxical action since
to this day Kennedy is often directly blamed for our defeat
in the Bay of Pigs and as a result for Fidel CastroÍs five
decades of dictatorship and for all of CubaÍs ongoing troubles.
This perception is a result of the decisions he made
to deny the BrigadeÍs freedom fighters the promised air
support. There are those who believe that the Brigade was
duped into engaging in the flag presenting ceremony by apologies
or flattery. However, I thought then, as I do now, that
the presentation of the Brigade flag to the President at
that time was fully justified and that it was the correct
and patriotic thing to do. Until this time I have addressed
this topic only with an old friend of the numerous reporters
that have come knocking on my door because of the classified
information that was involved. Well, the information is
now declassified and I would like to put our actions into
perspective.
On December
22, 1962, the majority of the members of the Brigade were
allowed to leave Cuba because the United States government
had paid the ransom demanded by Castro for our freedom.
Before we left CubaÍs San Antonio Air Force Base that day,
Castro took the time to visit privately with the BrigadeÍs
three leaders: Dr.
Manuel Artime, José Pérez San Roman and I.
His goodbye included not only another admonishment for what
we had done„something we had heard multiple times during
our captivity„but also a personal assurance that if we ever
dared return to the island we would be shot on the spot.
Our departure was actually delayed by eight hours until
the last 1.5 million dollars in cash paid for the three
leaders had been deposited in Fidel CastroÍs personal bank
account.
When we finally landed at Homestead Air
Force Base in Florida, I had barely placed a foot on free
soil when an American came running toward me saying that
someone on a base phone wanted to talk with me immediately.
I was wondering who would be so anxious to speak to me because
my wife, Graciela, was still in Cuba with my young daughter.
When I answered the phone, Robert Kennedy, the PresidentÍs
brother and Attorney General, was on the other end of the
line. He warmly welcomed me to the United States and said
that in the following days we would be talking about topics
of great importance to both of us.
When Artime, San Roman and I met with
Robert Kennedy two days later in Washington, D.C., he told
us of paramilitary operations being conducted to overthrow
the Castro regime.
His presentation made us quickly forget about the
dictatorÍs farewell threat and prompted us to start working
on another opportunity to fight for the liberation of our
native land. Kennedy
mentioned to us that although plans for the operation that
we later learned was called ñOperation Mongoose," were already
being implemented, he wanted to make sure that we were included
in the process. Operation Mongoose had been approved by
President Kennedy in November 1961, only six months after
the Bay of Pigs invasion. The recently declassified ñGuidelines
for Operation Mongoose" established two very important points:
ñ(a) in undertaking the overthrow of the Castro government,
the U.S. will make maximum use of indigenous resources,
internal and external, but recognizes that final success
will require decisive U.S. military intervention. (b) Such
indigenous resources as are developed will be used to prepare
for and justify this intervention, and thereafter to facilitate
and support it."
 In the days after
our meeting with Robert Kennedy, the three Brigade leaders
spent long hours in Washington and Miami discussing the
plans presented to us. We finally unanimously concluded
that for the sake of our homeland we had to forget our bitter
disappointments with President Kennedy and the lack of promised
air support and we needed to accept the new opportunity
that was being offered to us. Although we also wanted to
ensure that the whole Brigade could participate in the operations.
We also agreed to follow the counsel of one of our new American
advisors and not yet share the information with any one,
not even with our closest friends in the Brigade.
To show the President that we had made
a firm decision to cooperate, as well as to show him our
eagerness to fight again for CubaÍs liberation, Artime suggested
that we publicly present President Kennedy with our Brigade
flag as a symbolic gesture. We decided that I would make
the presentation at the conclusion of San RomanÍs brief
salutation remarks. When we informed the Attorney General
of our decision, White House officials immediately began
preparing
for what culminated in an extraordinary ceremony in the
Orange Bowl that was attended by thousands of Cuban exiles. It was there that I presented the Brigade
flag to President Kennedy and said: "Mr.
President, the men of the Brigade 2506 give you their banner;
we temporarily deposit it with you for safekeeping."
The President then unfolded the flag, paused a few
seconds, and in a voice filled with emotion declared:
ñCommander, I can assure you that this flag will
be returned to this Brigade in a free Havana."
During the weeks that followed, we received information
from numerous individuals in the government and most importantly,
directly from Robert Kennedy, indicating that Operation
Mongoose had failed to do the job and it had been replaced
for a new covert effort against Castro. We received assurances
that the new effort had the highest priority and that the
Administration was committed to the liberation of Cuba.
We also learned that hundreds of people were already involved
and that dozens of psychological and paramilitary operations
had been conducted against the Havana regime. We felt that
this time, victory, would be the outcome.
In January 1963, Artime and I met Robert
Kennedy at his McLeanÍs residence. He commented that we
looked strong, energetic and fully recovered from our tough
time in prison and told us that the hour had arrived for
us to join the U.S. operations against Cuba. Artime would
be given enough money to begin paramilitary and psychological
operations from another country, he said, and I would be allowed
to train and organize the necessary conventional forces
within the U.S. Armed Forces to achieve the goal set by
the President. Two months later, Artime departed for Nicaragua
with hundreds of men. I went to Fort Benning, Georgia with
207 Brigade members commissioned as U.S. army, air force
and navy officers. 500 additional Brigade members went to
Fort Jackson, Georgia, where they joined the thousands of
Cuban volunteers who had already enlisted in the U.S. Army
during the missile crisis of the previous October.
The President announced the acceptance
of the Brigade members into the U.S. armed forces in a JanuaryÍs
press conference and named me as the representative of all
Cuban-Americans enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces. All these
incredibly fast moving events happened following what was
a widely held belief„that the President of the United States
and the Prime Minister of the Soviet Union had made a firm
commitment to not invade Cuba after the missile crisis.
Through the years many have vehemently held to this belief.
Academicians, reporters, historians and some Cuban-Americans
have blamed John F. Kennedy for stopping all actions against
Castro after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. I can tell
you first hand that he did not.
Along with the rest of the country, the
assassination of the President on November 22, 1963 came
as a tremendous shock to me. I was at Fort Sill, Oklahoma
working with another Cuban officer assigned to that military
base on a plan to organize a Cuban infantry brigade within
the U.S. Army when I heard the news. Our Brigade officers
had been already dispersed to different U.S. I didnÍt realize
at first but as a result of the loss of President Kennedy
our plans, efforts and dreams for a free Cuba were about
to be ended. On January 14, 1964, it was new President Lyndon
B. Johnson who at the White House and in front of Robert
Kennedy advised me of his decision to stop all activities
against Cuba. I then had to relate the devastating news
to all Cuban exile personnel wearing an American military
uniform. Castro has certainly profited from that criminal
act in Dallas.
Alexander M. Haig, Army General and former
Secretary of State, made the first public reference to my
participation in ñOperation Mongoose" in his book entitled
ñInner Circles." During
the time of the operation Haig was a lieutenant colonel
and special assistant to the Secretary of the Army, Cyrus
Vance, who was closely coordinating the PentagonÍs Cuban
operations with me. In his book Haig wrote: This was an
extraordinary statement (President KennedyÍs words at the
Orange Bowl) coming from the man who had left the Brigade
to its fate when he alone had the power to save it. No doubt
he meant what he said at the momentƒOperation Mongoose was
authorized by President Kennedy in the wake of the Bay of
Pigs ƒmany in the Orange Bowl that night must have been
aware of its existence." The American people knew nothing
about itƒThirteen raids into Cubaƒwere approved for the
three-month period beginning in November 1963, the last
month of the Kennedy presidency. With the authorization
of Vance and the advice of Erneido Oliva, among others,
I processed the decisions, handing them on to representatives
of the CIA for execution by their operatives in the field."
I hope that members of the Brigade and
the general public realize that the fault for forty-six
years of dictatorship in Cuba should not fall solely on
the shoulders of John F. Kennedy. It is a fact that our
defeat at the Cuban beaches consolidated the Castro regime.
But it also needs to be realized that President Kennedy
wanted to continue the fight to remove the tyrant from power.
The President who failed us at the Bay of Pigs was truly
and sincerely remorseful about his failure to support us
and he worked to rectify his historic mistake and to free
Cuba of the tyrantÍs communist dictatorship.
Throughout the years I have continued
doing whatever was in my power to convince key personnel
in the six Administrations that followed President JohnsonÍs
to do something to liberate the Cuban people. As I have
often said, no one was willing to move a finger against
the tyrant. However, attitudes regarding Cuba have changed
dramatically in the last two years. We now have a U.S. President
who has shown determination and courage in liberating countries
far from our shores. A president who says that he places
this nation on the side of the world's oppressed people.
''All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: The
United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse
your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will
stand with youƒOur country has accepted obligations that
are difficult to fulfill and would be dishonorable to abandon."
The
Cuban dictator, only 90 miles from our shores, has made
an increasing number of mistakes which have brought him
isolation from even his former European allies. He is not
getting younger but more tyrannical by the day. As Chairman
of the Cuban American Military Council (CAMCO), I have spoken
with many Cubans who have recently arrived to the United
States. These new arrivals emphasize the deteriorating social
and economic situation in Cuba. They talk about the gossip
among CastroÍs cronies on what is going to happen to them
after the tyrant disappears from the picture or how they
will be able to survive an unavoidable transition to democracy.
They also describe how the aging dictator is becoming more
fragile, senile and eccentric. They bitterly show pictures
of the two Cubas. The Cuba showing the happy faces of tourists
who touch down briefly to sample the white sandy beaches,
luxury hotels and warm Caribbean sun and the Cuba showing
the faces of 95% of the population„the poor, the disenfranchised, the captive,
living in dilapidated homes and scrounging for food, water,
fuel and other necessities of life.
 I believe that
after forty-six years of Castro dictatorship the time is
nearing when Cuba will be free. It may be that in the not
too distant future former Assault Brigade 2506 members and
their families and the entire Cuban community will assemble
again. This time the place will not be the Orange Bowl in
Miami but it will be in a free Havana, in a place that will
have changed its name from ñRevolution Square" to ñLiberty
Square." And at that place I hope to hear another President
of the United States say, ñMembers of the Assault Brigade
2506, I am here in a Free Cuba, returning to you the flag
that was given to us for safekeeping in December 1962."
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