tuluum's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operation MONGOOSE There�s much much more to this story. It involves the bombing of Cuban planes and hotels but I can�t get into all of that right now. Working to deadline and much behind�. Operation Mongoose:A Cuban History Lesson Simon Wollers Simon Wollers Radio Havana Cuba October 10th, 2002
On November 30, 1961, President John F Kennedy authorized a major new covert operation aimed at removing Fidel Castro and dismantling the Cuban Revolution: Operatin Mongoose. Kennedy appointed Air Force Brig. Gen. Edward Lansdale - a renowned clandestine operative with 1950s experience in Vietnam and the Philippines - as the project's chief of operations in what was the biggest covert program initiated by the USA i the 1960s. As we approach the anniversary of the 1962 October Missile Crisis it is worth pondering Operation Mongoose and its historical ramifications. The project was so secret that many documents relating to its set-up and operation were only declssified in 1998 - a full 35 years after Mongoose was closed down. The CIA to this day still holds secrets about Operation Mongoose that are of the highest national security. What is there still to hide? Cuba was heavily condemned in 1962 when the Misile Crisis almost brought the USSR and the United States into nuclear conflict. However, there is now no doubt that the Cuban government was well aware of U.S. plans to invade the island in the months following the debacle of the failed Bay of Pigs invasin, and took the steps it had to take to protect its sovereignty. Much information has come to light to indicate that then-President John F Kennedy and his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy faced off against the desire of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of taff to bomb the missile launching installations the USSR had set up in Cuba as a response to US missile batteries in Turkey and the constant threat of this invasion of the island by Washington. However, from the outset Operation Mongoose was designed a a prelude to invasion and both Kennedy brothers had every intention of carrying out that invasion. Robert Kennedy, especially, was obsessed with this and ordered that "the Cuba Project was the top priority of the United States government - all else is seondary - no time, money, effort, or manpower is to be spared." Former Kennedy insider Arthur Schlesinger, who along with former Kennedy Defense Secretary Robert Macnamara, will be attending a conference on the Missile Crisis here in Havana this week says:"As for Operation Mongoose, which Robert Kennedy kept trying to spur on -- not his finest hour -- this was not an assassination project but a foolish, futile and costly intelligence-gathering and sabotage effort." Every aspect of covert destabilization as used to attack the Cuban government. Attempts to spark an internal revolt that could then lead to U.S. direct military intervention "to save democracy" under the umbrella of the pliable Organization of American States was planned. Chemicals were used t affect the vision of cane cutters to sabotage the important sugar cane harvest; suggestions were made to drop leaflets on Cuba offering a bounty for anyone who killed Cuban government officials. Other harebrained plans involved pretending that radio inteference from Cuba would be responsible for a staged failed U.S. space launch; faking a Cuban attack on Guant�namo naval base to provide an excuse for U.S. armed intervention; and the incredibly childish idea of publishing a doctored photograph of Fidel Catro before a table replete with food, fawned over by two women in "any situation desired". Terrorist attacks against the island combined with psychological warfare were conducted with the specific target of an invasion date at the end of 1962. Thus, t transpires that Havana was correct to fear another U.S. invasion, which is why it allowed the Soviets to place missiles on their territory in the first place. The eventual agreement reached between Washington and Moscow included a pledge by Kennedy not to invade Cuba. Today Cuba is still subjected to Washington's psychological warfare. It is periodically accused of something bad just to keep the election funds flowing from Miami. The latest imbecilities have been that Cuba is producing biological weapns and that post September 11th, Havana did everything in its power to hamper U.S. efforts at counter-terrorism by supplying erroneous information to United States intelligence services. It's as if Air Force Brig. Gen. Edward Lansdale was still running th show... History teaches us a lot and we should be constantly using it as a learning tool. When members of the former U.S. administration responsible for the Bay of Pigs, Operation Mongoose and the Missile Crisis retract their former positions to "come lean" about what was really happening in those days, and attend a conference in Cuba on the subject, Havana can be seen to have been right in its interpretation of history - then and now. --------------------------------------- Simon Wollers may be reached at: [email protected] ************************************************************************* Current Clix Ranking: 16 | Previous Clix Ranking: 19 7:17 p.m. - Thursday, May. 29, 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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