How Cuba was betrayed by certain Americans into the hands of Fidel Castro and the Communists.

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Thursday, 18 December 2014
The Betrayal of Cuba
Written by Michael E. Telzrow
www.thenewamerican.com – www.jbs.org
Cuban communist tyrant Fidel Castro
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President Obama's announcement yesterday that he is taking steps to end
our "outdated approach" with Cuba and re-establish diplomatic relations
has kicked up a firestorm of controversy. But one element that may be
widely overlooked in the debate is how influential forces in the U.S.
government and major media significantly aided and abetted Castro in his
bid for communist domination of the island. This history, from Castro's
guerrilla activities against the Batista regime to the Bay of Pigs fiasco, is
examined below. A basic understanding of this history is important, since if
Castro was unable to subject the Cuban people to totalitarian rule to begin
with, there would have been no flood of Cuban refugees fleeing communist
tyranny, no embargo, and no breaking of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations —
and therefore no present-day discussion about ending our "outdated
approach" with Cuba. — The editors
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2. Castro's Communist Credentials
By the time Castro landed in Cuba's Oriente Province in 1956 with a
tiny band of revolutionaries, he had already manifested a strong link to
communism dating back to the 1948 uprisings in Bogota, Colombia. In
Colombia, the 22-year-old Havana University law-school student actively
helped organize the insurrection. The "Bogotazo," as it was known, which
involved looting, murder, and the takeover by communists of radio stations
and government buildings, revealed Castro's communist affiliation and
should have made Castro a pariah on the American political scene. But
elements within the U.S. State Department and CIA refused to
acknowledge the fact, setting the stage for his eventual triumph in
Cuba.
In close cooperation with New York Times reporter Herbert Matthews, the
State Department kept up Castro's noncommunist appearance. It was a
deception that worked amazingly well in the halls of Congress and on the
American street.
After an interview with Castro, Matthews described the bearded
revolutionary as a "man of ideals" who "has strong ideas of liberty,
democracy, social justice, the need to restore the Constitution, to hold
elections." Matthews even went as far as to describe Castro as an "anti-
communist." At the same time, the New York Times painted Batista with
broad strokes as a right-wing dictator ready to suspend constitutional
guarantees at the drop of a hat. The State Department even required the
newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Cuba, Earl E.T. Smith, to be
briefed by Matthews in 1957.
After spending some time in Cuba, Smith conducted an intensive
background check of Fidel Castro. He questioned anti-Batista elements
that included members of the clergy, intellectuals, and professional men.
These individuals, though not supporters of Batista, were unanimous in
their assessment that Castro was a terroristic communist whose
ascendance to power would not be in the best interest of the Cuban
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3. people. The idea that the anti-Batista element was unanimously pro-Castro
was a lie. Aware of Castro's communist affiliation, Smith attempted to
engage the CIA in an effort to monitor Communist Party strength in Cuba.
Although the communists had polled over 120,000 votes the last time they
voted as a party, the CIA insisted that card-carrying communists numbered
merely 10,000, and that sympathizers numbered no more than 20,000.
Several months after assuming his post as chief of mission in Havana, Smith
recommended to CIA Director Allen Dulles that a CIA operative infiltrate
Castro's top echelon to monitor the extent of communist infiltration. Smith
assumed that this was never done, given the CIA's seemingly complete lack
of knowledge regarding communist infiltration among Castro's movement.
In 1960, U.S. Secretary of State Christian Herter was still trumpeting
the company line when he remarked:
"I don't think anyone could say affirmatively that Cuba is Communist
at the present time."
Despite Smith's warnings about Castro's communist alignment, the
State Department and the establishment media successfully maintained
the illusion that Castro was clean. With the influential New York
Times firmly in his pocket shaping American policy and opinion, Castro did
not need to achieve military victory. He simply had to wait until a
demoralized Cuban government gave up.
How was it possible that the State Department and the CIA could
smother the fact that Castro was a communist? Through some clever
maneuvering by William Wieland and Roy Rubottom, both of whom
were on the staff of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, the true political nature
of Castro was suppressed by key elements in each department. Although
they knew otherwise, Wieland and Rubottom continued to maintain that
Fidel was not a communist, even as late as 1961 when it had become
apparent to even the most idealistic that Castro was not the freedom-loving
hero portrayed by the media.
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4. Interventionist "Nonintervention"
Meanwhile, through the concerted efforts of the U.S. State Department
and Herbert Matthews of the New York Times, Batista's government
was undermined both politically and publicly. While State Department
policy regarding nonintervention prevented Ambassador Smith from
providing support to the Batista government, the State Department looked
the other way while pro-Castro groups operated freely in Miami. These pro-
Castro groups worked actively to secure supplies, money, and weaponry for
Castro's ragtag revolutionaries. Meanwhile Batista came up empty when the
United States, historically Cuba's closest ally, refused to ship armored cars
purchased by the Cuban government. This action emboldened Castro's
forces and demoralized the national government. It can be said that the
United States effectively intervened on the side of Castro by working to
bring about the fall of Batista.
Castro's terrorist activities continued and included the abduction of 47
Americans, who were freed after a week of captivity. In March 1958, U.S.
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles dealt a death blow to the Batista
government by refusing to ship 1,950 Garand rifles legally purchased by the
Cuban government. It was a mortal blow from which Batista failed to
recover. Dulles claimed that he took this action in the interest of
"nonintervention," but here again the United States was essentially providing
aid to Castro's forces by subverting the efforts of the national government.
Still all was not lost. A Cuban anti-communist candidate for president,
and former prime minister, Dr. Andres Rivero Aguero, was elected in
November 1958 (after Batista was prohibited from running for
reelection), but he too, like Batista, was ultimately undermined by the
U.S. State Department under the same pretense of "nonintervention."
Aguero handily defeated his opponent, former president Ramon Grau St.
Martin, but Aguero faced the same pressures that Batista faced: Castro's
growing confidence that the United States would not intervene on behalf of
the national government, and the reluctance of the State Department to
reveal the true nature of the situation, coupled with the United States'
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5. intrusive "nonintervention" policy that promised to hinder the national
government. This reality painted a bleak picture for the survival of the
national government. With Castro's takeover imminent, Aguero was forced
to leave the island in January 1959 without ever having taken office.
The Batista government eventually collapsed. On January 1, 1959, Batista
fled Cuba for the Dominican Republic with Aguero in tow, and Castro
assumed control of the government. U.S. property was confiscated; free
elections were suspended; and private business was socialized. Bloody
purges followed and Cuban patriots went before the firing squads crying,
"Long live Christ the King! Down with communism!"
Left High and Dry
In a country in which the population was staunchly anti-communist,
Castro had managed with just a few ragtag insurgents to achieve
complete control. But it was not the story of a glorious struggle between
valiant revolutionaries and a U.S.-backed right-wing dictator that Marxists
and their dewy-eyed Hollywood comrades insist it was. Absent the complicit
help of the New York Times, and the U.S. State Department and the CIA,
Castro's barefooted mob would never have achieved success.
Speaking before the U.S. Senate in 1960, Ambassador Earl E.T. Smith
opined: "Without the U.S., Castro would not be in power today." In a letter
published in a September 1979 edition of the New York Times, Ambassador
Smith reiterated his belief that U.S. actions to depose Batista amounted
to intervention on the part of Castro's communist cause:
The final coup in favor of Castro came on Dec. 17, 1958. On that date,
in accordance with my instructions from the State Department, I
personally conveyed to President Batista that the Department of State
would view with skepticism any plan on his part, or any intention on
his part, to remain in Cuba indefinitely. I had dealt him a mortal blow.
He said in substance: "You have intervened in behalf of the Castros,
but I know it is not your doing and that you are only following out
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6. your instructions." Fourteen days later, on Jan. 1, 1959, the
Government of Cuba fell.
But the betrayal of the Cubans to the communists was not complete. In
the summer of 1960, Cuba began to receive Soviet arms. Now the cat
was out of the bag for everyone to see, except perhaps Castro's enablers
in the media and his assistants in the U.S. State Department. Unease
among the Eisenhower administration led to the formulation of a plan to
back an exile effort to oust Castro. Eisenhower's plan was modified by the
incoming Kennedy administration. Although the original plan did not call
for direct U.S. military involvement, the Cuban forces were led to believe
that U.S. forces would provide assistance to prevent defeat. Kennedy,
however, was dead set against using official forces of the U.S. military.
There would be no visible signs of assistance from U.S. armed forces for the
land-based phase of the invasion.
The administration did promise to provide an "air umbrella" in order to
keep Castro's air force out of the action. But the promised air cover
never materialized for the 1,400 Cuban exiles that landed at the Zapata
swamp near Bahia de Cohinos — the Bay of Pigs, in the early hours of
April 17, 1961.
Three air strikes (piloted by Cubans in obsolete B-26s) intended to
knock out Castro's planes had been promised, but only one ineffective
strike took place. President Kennedy, fearing international condemnation,
had cancelled the others. Only eight sorties of a planned 48 were completed.
Only a handful of Castro's planes were destroyed.
As the battle raged between the 1,500-man Brigade 2506 and Castro's
50,000-plus Soviet-armed troops, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations
Arleigh Burke could see that things were not going well for the
outnumbered invasion force. The CNO requested U.S. naval support for
the beleaguered Cuban patriots, but was refused by Kennedy who
astonishingly said that he did not want the United States to become
involved. A frustrated Burke replied:
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7. "We are involved, sir. We trained and armed these Cubans. We
helped land them on the beaches. Mr. President, we can't let those
boys be slaughtered there!"
Exacerbating the bad treatment, anticipated anti-communist uprisings
throughout Cuba never materialized, primarily because the underground
was never alerted to the operation location. CIA radio broadcasts
intended to alert over 100 underground operations were never
transmitted. Instead, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a series of
misleading and conflicting reports were broadcast. By the time it was
apparent that the Bay of Pigs was the assault site, it was too late to render
assistance.
Despite being deserted, Brigade 2506 fought on bravely for nearly three
days. Grayston Lynch, the CIA operative who commanded the invasion
task force, later wrote:
"They fought like Tigers. But their fight was doomed before the first man hit
the beach."
They inflicted over 2,000 casualties on Castro's overwhelming forces.
The little band of doctors, lawyers, common laborers, and university
students, some as young as 16 years old, acquitted themselves well but
were doomed to fail before the battle even started.
As the situation became progressively worse, it became apparent to the small
invasion force that they would not be receiving U.S. assistance. Frenzied
calls for help from the pinned-down forces went unanswered. Still, they
fought on. "There is no retreat!" cried Brigadista Erneido Oliva, one of the
outnumbered freedom fighters, as the communist counterassault intensified.
But ultimately their courage and dedication in the face of overwhelming
forces and betrayal were not enough to escape the inevitable.
At the end, 114 members of Brigade 2506 lay dead, and 1,189 were captured
and incarcerated by the communists for almost two years. A ransom of $53
million in medical supplies and baby food was paid for the release of these
prisoners.
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8. This humiliating chapter in U.S. history came to a close, but the
repercussions of the betrayal has had far-reaching effects — including not
only more than 50 years of iron-fisted communist rule in Cuba but also the
influence the establishment of communism in Cuba has had in aiding
and abetting the rise of communism and Marxism elsewhere in the
Western Hemisphere.
Photo of Fidel Castro in 1959: AP Images
This article is a slightly upated version of an article originally appearing
under the title of "Bay of Pigs Betrayal" in the August 21, 2006 print edition
of The New American.
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Friday, 19 December 2014
Obama’s Political Career
Began With Castro-backed
Terrorist
Written by Alex Newman
www.thenewamerican.com – www.jbs.org
Communist Terrorist Weather Underground founder William Ayers
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9. While Obama framed his latest decreeson U.S. relations with the brutal
Communist Cuban dictatorship this week as a way to “help” the people
of Cuba and serve “American interests,” he failed to mention an
important detail of his life that may have played a role in the decision.
More than a decade before becoming president, Obama launched his
fledgling political career in the home of an unrepentant communist terrorist
whose murderous organization was backed primarily by none other than
the ruthless Castro regime in Havana. That terrorist, of course,
was William Ayers (shown), co-founder of the Weather
Underground infamous for bombings, terror attacks, robberies, and
murders across the United States.
As part of the broad policy changes decreed by Obama this week, the
U.S. government will release spies and a convicted murderer working
for the savage Communist dictatorship. In exchange, the Castro
regime released American hostage Alan Gross, a man who was attempting to
bring Internet to some of the enslaved Cuban people, who have virtually no
access to information other than regime propaganda. Around the world,
communists and dictators celebrated the announcement that Obama was
once again negotiating — or outright surrendering, perhaps — to hostage-
taking terrorists. Globalists, long working to legitimize (and before
that, bring to power) the Cuban regime also declared victory after the
announcement.
So far, however, little has been said in the establishment press about
Obama’s own links to the murderous dictatorship ruling over Cuba.
Back when the Weather Underground was perpetrating terrorist attacks in
the United States, it had one very strong ally: the Soviet-backed dictatorship
ruling over Cuba. In fact, the FBI declared that Cuba was helping the
Weathermen as early as 1977. Bernardine Dohrn, a convicted Weather
Underground terrorist and prominent Obama fundraiser, even traveled
to Cuba in 1969, meeting with Communist Vietnamese operatives
during the trip.
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10. Whistle-blowers and investigators involved in the Weathermen’s reign of
terror later revealed how the Cuban regime's embassies in Mexico City
and Ottawa actually helped coordinate the underground terrorist
movement in the United States. Among other roles, the Castro regime
helped Weathermen — who according to infiltrators planned to exterminate
millions of Americans after the “revolution” — disappear and re-appear as
needed. It continues to shelter fugitive communist terrorists on the island.
Julian Rizo, an official with the regime's intelligence-terror service, the
DGI, actually gave a speech to the Weather Underground to rally their
revolutionary fervor. In addition to murdering police, the Weathermen
bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, the State Department, and
more.
Now fast forward several decades:
Many "ex"-terrorist Weathermen had burrowed their way into
American universities and academia. Perhaps the most prominent
among the Castro-backed domestic terrorists was co-founder Ayers,
who, along with his wife, was involved in numerous deadly attacks on
U.S. soil. Eventually, he got a job as a professor of education at
the University of Illinois. Far more troubling, though, are his links to
Barack Obama, who launched his fledgling political career in
Ayers' living room before going on to shock the world by becoming
the president of the United States.
Conservapedia also noted that another Weather Underground co-founder,
Jeff Jones, worked for several years with Obama’s “Green Jobs” Czar
Van Jones, who eventually resigned after his own words identifying
himself as a revolutionary communist were uncovered and publicized. But
as far back as the mid-1990s, and even in his early years, Obama was
literally surrounded by a gaggle of Marxists, Maoists, terrorists, and
other pro-Castro [Communists] forces backed by Havana. A comparison
of writing styles also revealed that Ayers — who boasts of his terrorism
has said publicly that he “should have done more” — may have ghost-
written Obama’s book Dreams From My Father.
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11. According to research by analysts, [comrade] Obama is the first and only
person in history with well-established links to a known terror
organization to ever gain control over the U.S. government’s nuclear
arsenal. Of course, administration [communist] apparatchiks in the White
House and the increasingly discredited establishment press have tried hard
to downplay the myriad ties to Castro-backed terrorists. In 2008, for
example, Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, claimed Obama “didn't
know the history” of his communist terrorist backer. Much of the press
largely ignored the explosive scandal.
When it came to another Castro-backed Communist terrorist, though,
Obama was hardly shy about expressing his adoration. Upon the death of
Nelson Mandela — chief of the Soviet-backed African National
Congress’ terrorist wing and a member of the South African
Communist Party’s Central Committee — Obama showered him with
praise in a speech at his funeral, comparing him to America’s Founding
Fathers. He also took the opportunity to shake hands with Raul Castro, the
current despot enslaving the Cuban people after his older brother stepped
down. The current ANC-SACP South African regime, implicated in ongoing
preparations for genocide, boasted of its role in facilitating Obama and
Castro’s recent announcement.
Disgraced Attorney General Eric Holder, in addition to arming
Mexican drug cartels while attacking the gun rights of Americans, has
also been accused of being too sympathetic toward Cuban regime-
backed terrorists — at the very least. During the Clinton administration,
for example, while serving as deputy attorney general, Holder reportedly
played a major role in the pardons issued for Weathermen and FALN
terrorists for their reign of terror. It is well-known and well-documented
that both of those terror groups were supported by the Castro regime.
In a so-called “Fact Sheet” released by the White House on December 17,
meanwhile, the administration even echoed the Castro regime’s ludicrous
talking points, suggesting that the U.S. embargo — not communist tyranny
— was largely to blame for the misery of the Cuban people. “We know from
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12. hard-learned experience that it is better to encourage and support reform
than to impose policies that will render a country a failed state,” the White
House said, as if the embargo had rendered Cuba a “failed state” rather
than the ruthless dictatorship enslaving that once-prosperous nation.
Even the upper levels of the globalist establishment, which
unashamedly aided Castro’s murderous rise to power over the Cuban people
more than five decades ago, barely bothers to conceal its affection for the
Havana dictatorship’s tyranny. As The New American reported last year,
Julia Sweig, who leads the globalist Council on Foreign Relations’ Latin
America scheming, is a brazen apologist for communist terrorism and
the brutal Castro regime. She also has myriad close ties to the
dictatorship and its brutal allies across the region.
“Sweig's intimacy with the Cuban government underscores the long-
term continuity of CFR policy,” James Perloff, author of The
Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the
American Decline, told The New American. “When Fidel Castro was
only a fledgling revolutionary, it was CFR member Herbert L.
Matthews's articles in the New York Times that persuaded Americans
that Castro was an ‘anti-communist’ and democratic leader. This
paved the way for Castro's rise to power, with its brutal dictatorship
and Soviet missiles aimed at America.”
Another unreported aspect linked to Obama’s announcement is the role of
the Cuban regime in exporting communist revolution. Indeed, among
other schemes, Fidel Castro co-founded the now-powerful Foro de São
Paulo in 1990 (FSP, or São Paulo Forum in English). The group is
spearheading the ongoing takeover of Latin America by a closely knit
network of autocratic, Castro-friendly socialist and communist regimes
and forces — even as the Obama administration continues to send U.S.
taxpayer dollars and even military assistance to those same oppressors
and “ex”-communist mass-murderers.
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13. The totalitarian network, which the U.S. government fully
understands yet continues to aid and abet, now dominates regional
politics south of the U.S. border. Along with despot Fidel Castro, other
co-founders include radical former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio
“Lula” da Silva, the Sandinistas, and an array of Marxist narco-
terrorist groups. The organization uses oil money from Venezuela, drug
money from the Colombian FARC, Cuban training of “security”
services, rigged elections, and more, to export Cuba-style revolution
across the hemisphere. According to its own documents, the network
eventually hopes to rebuild in Latin America what was (perhaps
temporarily) lost in Eastern Europe — communist tyranny.
With Obama’s recent decrees on relations with the Cuban regime, the FSP
and Castro undoubtedly just took another great step “forward” in achieving
that goal. Of course, U.S. lawmakers expressed outrage over the
administration’s lawless machinations and the purported legitimacy Obama
conferred on a U.S.-designated state-sponsor of terrorism that savagely
oppresses and terrorizes the victims it misrules. Whether Congress will step
in to actually stop Obama’s scheming, however, remains to be seen.
Alex Newman, a foreign correspondent for The New American, is normally
based in Europe.
Related articles:
Six Years Later: The Clear Connection Between Barack Obama and The
Weathermen
New York Times Declares Victory in Release of Alan Gross
The Betrayal of Cuba
Globalists, UN, and Big Business Legitimizing Cuban Regime
Obama Praises Mandela, Shakes Castro’s Hand, at Memorial
Birch Society's Robert Welch Was Correct on Castro
Exposure of Radical CFR Latin America Boss Offers Broad Insight
U.S. Ambassador Outs Powerful Totalitarian Cabal in Latin America
Resurgent Communism in Latin America
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