Exploding Cigars for Comandante
The year 2016 for the commander of Fidel Castro is three times jubilee: on August 13 he turned 90; also in August, exactly 10 years, as he voluntarily abdicated power in favor of Raoul's younger brother; in December, 60 will be celebrating the triumphal march of the Granma yacht, on which Fidel and his devotees set off to overthrow the dictator Batista’s bloody regime. Soon after, he, choosing the political course for the country, spoke out among his associates: “I am ready to become a communist immediately, if I am made Stalin!” But in stories nevertheless, they appeared in different guises: if Joseph Vissarionovich was the “father of nations”, then Fidel was the “lover of the nation”. It is not surprising: several hundred mistresses and 20 extramarital children are credited with a fiery bearded man.A DARK HORSE
For decades, the political leadership of the United States perceived Cuba as a real threat and did not abandon any attempt to overthrow the communist regime of Fidel Castro Ruz. That, in general, is not surprising. Cuba is the only place in the world where the United States and the Soviet Union almost collided in an open nuclear fight. The only country in the Western Hemisphere where communism came and established itself as a state ideology. The only state whose head the American intelligence services were going to remove by the hands of the mafia ... However, if you look at it, the main purpose of US intelligence was not so much Cuba herself, as Castro, who was perceived not so much as an object of intelligence, but as an annoying irritant that needs to be eliminated has become.
January 1 1959, when the “bearded men” led by Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba, neither the US government nor the CIA gave it any special significance - just think, another coup in another banana republic! As for the revolutionary slogans of Castro, these are simply demagogic agitations who do not announce them for the purposes of self-promotion. After all, the overthrown General Fulgencio Batista, being a sergeant, also condemned American imperialism with foaming at the mouth. And Fidel is still no match for him, coming from the family of the richest latifundists, so you need to calmly accept his patriotic rhetoric, they decided in Washington.
At first, the CIA even provided financial support for Castro’s supporters, seeing them as romantics from democracy. At the end of March 1959, the CIA experts concluded that Castro was “not a Soviet communist,” but a “true representative of the bourgeoisie.” However, after he nationalized American property on the island, collectivized farm agriculture, openly proclaimed a policy of building communism, and established military-economic ties with the USSR, the US government, finally realizing that Castro was a dark horse, decided to get rid of it .
However, the work against Castro did not begin with the assassinations, from March to the end of August 1960, that is, in the last months of Eisenhower's presidency, the CIA only considered plans to undermine the popularity of the Cuban leader.
OPERATION "MANGUST"
10 May 1960 President Dwight Eisenhower approved a CIA operation to overthrow the communist regime in Cuba. It included military training in Florida for anti-Castro Cuban refugees. In the future, it was planned to abandon them to their homeland and with their help provoke mass popular protests against Castro. After that, the leaders of the emigre movement were to arrive on the island and proclaim themselves the interim government of a “free Cuba”. On the eve of the Central Intelligence Agency managed to organize coups in Iran and Guatemala, and the Americans hoped that Cuba will become their new trophy.
On the initiative of the CIA, veterans of various American special services who took part in similar events were brought to work on the plan of the new operation. In Florida, the Revolutionary Democratic Front was established and recruitment points were opened. Recruits were shipped by plane from Florida to the Camp Trucks military training base located in the mountains of Guatemala. In addition, the CIA has established contact with anti-Castro fighters, the so-called Gusanos, who were based in the mountains of Cuba. By air they began to deliver equipment and ammunition.
Events in the meantime evolved. In July, 1960, Fidel sent his brother Raul to the USSR, where he achieved increased military assistance and enlisted the support of the Soviet leadership in the event of American intervention in Cuba. When this was reported to CIA Director Allen Dulles, he ordered a secret sabotage action to be turned into a full-scale paramilitary operation. However, as the time of the beginning of the operation approached, the presidential election in the US 1960 also approached. In this regard, Eisenhower temporarily suspended the operation. But in November of 1960, the newly elected President John F. Kennedy took over the baton, and on April 15 of the year, an armed invasion of Cuban immigrants into Cuba began in Cochinos Bay.
The adventure ended in a catastrophic failure and a loud international scandal, however, as it turned out later, it only stirred the President and his brother Robert, the Minister of Justice, and strengthened their intention to get rid of Castro. Ray Cline, the then deputy director of the CIA, who was on a short leg with the Kennedy brothers, described their reaction to the invasion failure: “They considered the unsuccessful landing at Cochinos a personal insult, and the desire to somehow fix the situation then determined all their thoughts and deeds, they were literally obsessed with it. Robert Kennedy said that to eliminate Castro, they will not spare neither time, nor money, nor effort. ”
In November 1961, John Kennedy approved a plan of sabotage and subversive operations under the code name “Mongoose”, the ultimate goal of which was to overthrow the communist regime on the island. Over time, the "Mongoose" has grown to unprecedented proportions, becoming the largest covert operation during the entire existence of the CIA. Never before has any secret peacetime event been held at such a high level. Even the CIA did not trust its implementation completely, providing only equity participation.
The “think tank” of the operation was located in the White House, where the so-called “reinforced group” created for this was operating, which included Justice Minister Robert Kennedy, Defense Minister McNamara and his deputy, Roswell Gilpatrick, Secretary of State Dean Rusk and his deputy Alexis Johnson, Director of the CIA John McCone, Presidential National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Corps General Lyman L. Lemnitzer. Responsibility for the practical implementation of the plan "Mongoose" was placed on Brigadier General Edward Lansdale, a recognized expert in riots, insurrections and methods of guerrilla warfare.
However, even before the plan appeared, the Kennedy brothers, through a certain Judith Campbell Exner, a socialite, tried to get in touch with John Roselli, the “godfather” of the Chicago branch of the Cosa Nostra criminal syndicate, to find out how realistic it is to use the mafia’s capabilities in preparing the attempted Castro . During the 18 months, Exner alternately shared a bed with John and Robert and at the same time played the role of a liaison between them and the most authoritative representatives of the American criminal world. The latter, by the way, were especially welcome guests at the White House. Subsequently, these circumstances were kept by the brothers as the most secret family secret.
CIA TANDEM - GOAT NOSTRA
By the end of 1961, plans to overthrow the communist regime had been drastically transformed into plans to eliminate three leading Cubans: Fidel Castro, his brother Raoul and their revolutionary associate Che Guevara, who was called the missionary of communism in Latin America. The CIA decided to start with the commandant.
To discuss the question of the murder of Castro, one of the leaders of the CIA, William K. Harvey, who had a reputation as a “writer of exquisite dirtier,” met with John Roselli in Miami. The latter brought Harvey to the influential mafiosi Sam Jankan and Santos Trafficante. They took up the formation of a "shock detachment of the liquidators," recruiting its members among Cuban immigrants.
Why did the mafia make a deal with the hated US law enforcement agencies? Everything is very simple: “Cosa Nostra” had its very weighty, from her point of view, reasons why she wanted to get rid of the Cuban leader: Castro covered all casinos and brothels in Havana and drove all the mobsters from Cuba. The elimination of Fidel and the establishment of the government of a “free Cuba” on the island guaranteed the Mafia a rebirth of profits from the high-season sources.
... After some time, Harvey again met with Roselli in Miami and handed him four poisoned pills made by the CIA technical service. Later, Roselli claimed that a “shock group” of three people was successfully shipped with these pills to Cuba. However, nothing happened. A group of saboteurs (as well as the second sent after her) was seized by officers of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, who worked very effectively.
However, the elimination of saboteurs did not embarrass the players of the CIA tandem Cosa Nostra, they did not intend to abandon the intention to carry out the murder of Castro. Roselli undertook to organize the murder with the help of a fountain pen, also made by the CIA. Ink filled into it contained deadly poison. Mafiosi handed the pen to a Cuban who worked in the restaurant where Castro was dining. Under the pretext of receiving an autograph, the murderer had to turn to the Comandante and, having pulled out a pen, “accidentally” scratched Fidel’s hand with an open pen. Death had to come in an hour, therefore, according to the organizers, the potential killer did not risk anything, since he had a reliable alibi. However, this attempt failed: Castro began to visit another restaurant.
“Soldiers” from “Cosa Nostra” were killers by vocation, but soon professional killers replaced them.
KILLERS BY POSITION
In 1975 (after 12 years after the assassination of President John Kennedy and 7 after the violent death of his brother and Justice Minister Robert), the book 30 Years of the CIA, in which former director William Colby told about the preparation of attempts at Fidel Castro, saw the light. The main tabernacle of the American intelligence community, in a tone that does not have doubts about the truth of the statement, wrote, in particular: “American officials who organized the alliance between the CIA and Cosa Nostra are also guilty of undermining the federal government’s campaign against organized crime. One cannot imagine that those who use representatives of the underworld as hired killers for reconnaissance or terrorist operations abroad do not understand that this practice gives the leaders of the mafia in the United States themselves a kind of protection against persecution for internal operations ... "Rejecting Mr. Kolby’s pathetic pharisaism, let us focus on the ways the CIA was going to destroy Fidel Castro. Among them were both real and very exotic. But one thing was common: all methods were born in the inflamed imagination of sadists!
The technical service of the CIA repeatedly returned to the question of the use of chemicals, drugs and explosives as tools to eliminate the Cuban leader. In particular, it was supposed to penetrate the radio studio a few minutes before the start of the Castro speech and spray it with toxic chemicals similar to the drug LSD. According to experts, after this, the comandante would temporarily lose the gift of eloquence, starting, like an idiot, slurring shameless phrases. Then the idea arose to deprive Castro of the ability to navigate in space. To do this, it was necessary to soak a whole box of cigars made for it with special chemicals. Another suggestion is to fill Castro's favorite cigars with explosives. One mini-bomb was enough for Fidel to blow his nose off and knock out his eyes with a directional explosion.
Perhaps the most popular in the Kennedy presidential administration was the delusional idfix to strip Castro of his famous beard. Some pseudo-tech paranoid techie, an admirer of the history of the ancient Jews, decided that the whole power of Castro, like the biblical Samson, is concentrated in his beard. The operation was to take place during Castro's overseas trip, where he was, of course, more vulnerable than in Cuba. A well-known means for the forced removal of hair are salts of thallium when applied to the skin. Simply simple, decided by the CIA. When staying at hotels, the team will place their shoes for the night in the corridor for cleaning. It remains only to throw the crystals of thallium in Castrovsky shoes. But, unfortunately for the developers of the operation, Castro canceled the trip.
And after some time, the CIA again returned to the idea of poisoned and mined cigars. Two boxes of such cigars were made and handed over to a Cuban citizen who allegedly had access to the Cuban leader. What happened to this suicide and with the boxes - is unknown. Castro remained unharmed.
In general, participants and leaders of Operation Mongoose expressed new ideas. The energetic Lansdale, who was thirsting for the “true cause,” suggested spreading the rumor on the island that the second coming of Christ was about to take place, and he chose Cuba as his place of origin. However, the messiah, the conspirators argued, would not appear on it until the Cubans overthrew the godless communist regime. To make this story believable, a submarine of the United States Navy was to surface on Havana on that particular day of the coming and arrange a pyrotechnic firework resembling a "heavenly sign."
However, this idea was rejected by the White House, as well as a number of others, as wild and fantastic. For example, the operation "Bounty", which was to scatter leaflets over the island with a bonus offer in 5 thousand dollars for the murder of a secret informant, 100 thousand dollars for the murder of an official, and only 2 cent for Castro. This was called a “humiliation operation.”
Similar ideas were still 33! And conspiracies involving the CIA to kill Fidel Castro between 1960 and 1965 have at least eight a year, although some of them did not go beyond planning and preparation.
It is noteworthy that no plan for the assassination attempt on Castro suggested murder with a pistol or rifle. Why? And simple: since the time of the Cuban revolution, the free circulation of firearms weapons on the island was strictly prohibited. Everyone whom the officers of the Cuban secret service - the General Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) could only be suspected of storing firearms - was doomed: without a trial he found himself in the quarries of Sierra Maestra for indefinite hard labor.
After the Caribbean crisis in 1962 (the Soviet-American conflict over the deployment of our missiles in Cuba), the CIA returned to the idea of physically eliminating Fidel Castro. And although a banal murder was planned, in the directive documents of the administration it was referred to only as the “Secret terrorist act against Castro.”
Responsible for implementing the Mongoose plan, General Lansdale knew that Castro was keen on scuba diving, and he took this into account in his search for a new way to crack down on Fidel. On his initiative, the technical service of the CIA produced a suit for scuba diving and began to process it with a poisonous fungus. And in order to get rid of Comandante finally, a tubercle bacillus was launched into oxygen cylinders. By a lucky chance, the lawyer James Donovan broke the operation - the same person who was supposed to give Castro a tsereushny "special suit." Catching up at the airport of the “gift” left at home, Donovan immediately acquired a new, of course, uninfected ...
But Lansdale decided to go to the end, using Castro's hobby. He proposed to fill the sea shell with such rare beauty with explosives, that it could not help but attract the attention of the commandant. In a submarine, they were supposed to deliver it to the place where Fidel used to sail. However, the idea was abandoned, because there was no certainty that Castro would pick up the sink ...
CHERCHEZ LA FEMME ...
One of the attempts was to be made by a certain Marita Lorenz. In the 1951 year, when she and her mother lived in Germany, she, a minor girl of unearthly beauty, was raped by an American soldier. After that, she began having bouts of a rare androphobia disease - hatefulness. However, the disease did not prevent her from experiencing a stormy romance with Fidel Castro, and then become the mistress of the Venezuelan dictator Marcos Perez Jiménez. Marita, without false modesty, told about her love stories with Latin American celebrities in her autobiographical book “The Bed Has Been Dismantled Who Is Next?”.
In the secret files of the CIA, Lorenz was listed as a “contract agent” under the pseudonym Vamp and had the richest track record: she was a member of the militant group who in 1961 were preparing to land in Cochinos Bay; in 1963, she was escorted to Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald, charged with the assassination of President Kennedy; there she met the future killer of Oswald, the gangster Jack Ruby. By the way, in his book, Lorentz makes it clear that all the adventures took place under the control of her operators from Langley.
28 February 1959 Marita Lorenz arrived in Havana on the cruise ship “Berlin”. Then there was her meeting and mutual love at first sight with the bearded macho Fidel. After returning to New York, Marita spent hours on the phone with the Comandante every day until he sent her own private plane for her. Then she lived for seven months in the hotel "Free Havana", turning it into a rendezvous with Castro. The marriage should have been a logical continuation of their close relationship, and in one of their reports to John F. Kennedy, the CIA leadership was quick to call Lorenz the “first lady of Cuba”.
In her book, Marita claims that she got pregnant after the first date with Castro, gave birth to a premature baby boy, who was taken from her, and then escorted from Cuba. From that moment on, her insane love for Fidel has been replaced by an equally insane hatred. Upon returning to the US, CIA agent recruiter Frank Stregis suddenly found himself near Marita, who had once fought with Castro in the Sierra Maestra mountains. In the end, Frank, his friends and mother Marita managed to convince the girl that Castro and communism personified absolute evil. The mother sent a letter to the failed son-in-law, in which she accused him of raping her underage daughter. At the same time, copies of the letter went to the President of the United States and the Pope of Rome.
4 December 1961 of the year Marita, already in the CIA agent's office, made a blitz trip to Cuba to find out if Fidel will accept her. Three weeks later, the CIA sent Lorenz to Havana on a mission to poison Castro. To do this, she was given two vials of botulism toxin, which she had to mix with the comandante wine.
“... But at that moment when our eyes met,” writes Lorenz, “I realized that I could not kill him. I went into the toilet room and drowned the vials in the toilet. When I returned, Fidel looked intently into my eyes. He asked:
“Did you come to kill me?”
I shook my head. Then he handed me a gun and uttered a phrase that seemed prophetic to me:
“You can't kill me.” No one can kill me!
After that, I silently returned the pistol to Fidel ... "
STAR TREATOR
In 1997, in the American periodicals, under the arshin headers, there began to appear revelatory articles about the participation of Marilyn Monroe in the plot against Fidel Castro. Some authors of the publications claimed that in May 1962, a Hollywood star, meeting the wishes of her secret lover and part-time US President John F. Kennedy, agreed to have an intimate relationship with Castro to make another assassination.
With absolute certainty, it can be argued that the assassination attempt was not going on, since the initiator of the operation was not so naive as to try to kill Castro with the hands of his mistress. According to reports, the Kennedy brothers, realizing the futility of their attempts to eliminate Fidel physically, decided with the help of Monroe to persuade him to refuse to cooperate with the USSR. Monroe had to start the ideological treatment of Comandante, seducing him with “American values”. Therefore, in her baggage there were no exploding cigars, thallium crystals and a pen with poisoned ink.
But which of the Hollywood diva is a preacher? After a week of her stay in Havana to the “puppeteers” from the CIA, it became clear that their “ambassador” was capable of seducing, but not paying. From Cuba she was taken on a private plane Comandante. Within three months, Fidel, having learned of her sudden death, allegedly said: "Marilyn died a heroine."
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