Ultimate Sacrifice by Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartmann

Introduction
The authors claim that JFK was planning an invasion of Cuba in December ’63. They claim that this invasion was so secret that many in their administration didn’t know about it. The mafia caught wind of it, however, and used it against JFK. Because of RFK’s war against crime, the mafia wanted to get even. These included Roselli, Trafficante and Marcello.

This plan was going to be different than the Bay of Pigs in that the US would support the invasion. There would be a palace coup, also, which would result in the assassination of Castro. A high-ranking Castro official who the Kennedys could trust would replace him.

This invasion would take place because Cuba didn’t agree to allow UN weapons inspectors into Cuba. Kennedy’s agreement of no invasion of Cuba to Khrushchev was predicated on the removal of the missiles and the subsequent UN inspections. This is a little known fact.

Once the mob learned of this plan, they knew that they could kill JFK and get away with it. This is because the invasion plans were so secretive, that the government would go to any lengths to cover them up. The mob wanted vengeance for RFK’s deportation of Marcello and his unrelenting war against organized crime.

This invasion, called C-day by the authors, would push the US to the brink of nuclear war with the USSR if the plans were revealed.

RFK told close aides that he believed Marcello was responsible for JFK’s death.

RFK put the invasion plans under the Defense Department’s jurisdiction because of the CIA’s mishandling of the Bay of Pigs.

The authors base their conclusions of recently declassified material. After researching this material, they interviewed key people like Rusk. This invasion was not to install an American backed dictator like Batista. Its goal was to establish a democratic Cuba. The Kennedys kept the plans secret by having the military develop “contingency” plans that were actually going to take place at a predetermined time.

The Kennedys tried to learn from their mistakes. As such, the CIA and mob were excluded from the plans—unlike Nixon who used the mob to get at Castro in ’59.

In Part II, the authors explain the motives and means the mob used. They also claim that many of the mob bosses took credit for the JFK assassination. Some of the evidence indicates that Ruby was receiving money for his efforts in the plot. The mob usually did hit officials but they did do so when their existence was threatened. They killed the attorney general of Alabama just 9 months before JFK because he was shutting down organized crime.

The HSCA determined that Marcello and Trafficante had the means and motives for pulling off the assassination. However, Roselli was murdered before he could be brought in for testimony. The mob attempted to kill JFK in Chicago on November 2 and in Tampa on November 18 before successfully killing him in Dallas. With RFK’s death in ’68, the secret of C-day was to remain hidden for several more decades.

Many of Kennedy’s people claim that there was a conspiracy and that they even saw men on the Grassy Knoll. These include Powers and O’Donnell.

Part I
The Cuban Missile Crisis and C-Day
The CMC was seen as a huge victory for Kennedy. In fact, the Kennedys thought of Cuba as an area of unfinished business because Castro didn’t allow the weapons inspectors in. JFK wanted the latitude to reinvade should the need arise.

Castro would not agree to weapons inspectors because to do so would demonstrate his weakness. If the Soviet Union was to attempt to rearm Cuba, they would be sneaky about it. This would circumvent America’s U2 spy planes and necessitate the use of on-site inspections.

The plans called for a coup in which Cuban exiles would overthrow Castro. The Kennedy administration would recognize this provisional government and seek to strengthen it publicly. Operation Mongoose was a previous plan that JFK employed to get rid of Castro. Operation Mongoose, some historians believe, could have triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The CIA had its own anti-Castro plans. These included Alpha 66 which JFK denounced. These CIA-trained Cubans attacked a Soviet ship. The other plans involved Johnny Roselli. The CIA wanted to wage a war while the Kennedys wanted to stage a revolution.

JFK got word that he could invade Cuba without Soviet reprisal.

Harry Williams
Kennedy formed a bond with Cuban exile Harry Williams. Both Kennedys had good things to say about Williams. He was blunt, candid, courageous and Catholic—all things that the Kennedys admired.

Harry was absolutely committed to removing Castro. His father was a revolutionary who fought against Machado. His dad became Minister Public Works. Harry was also successful. He was a businessman. He had some contacts with the Che Guevara.

Williams left Cuba for the US, returning only to fight during the Bay of Pigs. He was captured by Castro during the Bay of Pigs. He was badly injured in the invasion and taken into a Cuban medical facility. He was approached by Castro. He pulled his pistol on Fidel and pulled the trigger; the bullets had been removed by his friends who thought Williams might use the gun on himself.

Kennedy had the Cuban prisoners released and returned to the US. It was here that he met Williams. He apologized to the Cubans for not supporting the invasion, saying that the USSR would have moved against Berlin if the US had acted on behalf of the exiles.

The Kennedys needed someone to unite the fractious Cuban exiles and Harry fit the bill.

Williams’s file has never been fully declassified.

In the months leading up to C-day, there were a few reports about big plans for Cuba. One was the AP report on p. 36.

The authors have not revealed the C day leader, in accordance with National Security laws.

Many of the Cuban exiles saw C day as a continuation of the Cuban Revolution, the revolution that Castro had betrayed when he made himself dictator. Many Cuban patriots resented the growing Soviet influence under Castro’s regime. This made an American-backed invasion more palatable.

The C-Day Plan for a Coup in Cuba
The Cuban official who was in charge of C-Day from inside Cuba would try to shift blame for Castro’s death onto the Soviets. He would then call on the US to help Cuba form a provisional government. Here, the US would provide a few hundred specifically trained Cubans.

To support this coup, Kennedy got 2 groups to help him. One was to help keep the plans secret, the other was to get the intelligence community into Cuba ahead of time. The public couldn’t know about C-day at all. JFK couldn’t take responsibility for a Cuban failure again.

The C-Day plans were not just an assassination plot. They also included a full coup. While the CIA would hire hit men to try to take out Castro, the Kennedys wanted Castro removed and democracy restored to Cuba.

Helms at the CIA didn’t see this distinction. He mentioned C-Day to the HSCA in so many words. He blurred the distinction between coup and assassination, however. The HSCA didn’t have the funding for a full investigation in order to uncover what the authors have written about. Everything that Helms said, they can verify. However, Helms left out many important details. He didn’t mention the CIA-Mafia connections. He didn’t say that Marcello et al had infiltrated the C-Day plans.

McCone came over to the CIA from the Atomic Energy Commission. JFK wanted a man who wasn’t career intelligence. McCone got left out of a lot of details because of this.

JFK wanted the military, under Joint Chief General Maxwell Taylor, to lead the charge. The military would provoke actions that it could respond to in Cuba.

One of these was called Operation Northwoods. This got some media play in ’97 due to its bizarre contents. The military was considering using terrorism in the US to foment a revolution in Cuba. This could have included killing people or sinking ships. The military would use this in ’63 on C-Day because they had done the same thing in ’61 during the Bay of Pigs. They tried to get Cubans to attack Guantanamo Bay so they could respond with a coup. The Cuban exiles refused to participate.
Taylor’s request for “engineering a pretext for invasion” may have been a cover for his true goal: using the US military to support a revolt within Cuba. The Joint Chiefs insisted that US military intervention was necessary because the Cubans were tougher under Soviet sponsorship than ever.

The military handled the exile troops. RFK and Harry handled the exile groups that were aiding C-Day. Harry was contemptuous of the CIA and demanded that he be in charge of any CIA agents that were to be used in C-Day. RFK agreed.

RFK met with Cuban exiles and told them they were not autonomous. RFK had to be careful about his contacts with these men or the secrecy would be compromised. Desmond Fitzgerald was furious when he found out that RFK was not using the CIA to act as a go-between. So was Ted Shackley. Both these men were career CIA. Shackley ran the Miami CIA station, the largest in the world outside Langley. Their hatred for this action was probably felt by most CIA men at the time. This hatred could explain the tragic fallout of the C-Day plans—JFK’s murder.

AMWORLD: The CIA’s Portion of C-Day
AMWORLD was created on June 28, 1963. AMWORLD was the CIA’s portion of the C-Day action. This was declassified in ’99 and as such was never seen by the WC.

AMWORLD was incredibly secretive. Its memos were laced with many code words which the authors have decoded for the readers. These memos say that the Kennedy administration was willing to support these Cuban exiles as a price to pay for disavowing any knowledge of their activities.

Artime would head the Nicaragua base. He would have access to Harry and the Kennedys. David Morales was the CIA station chief in Miami. He was working on Miami’s plans for Artime and working with Roselli to eliminate Castro—parallel plans. The CIA would meet with Artime outside the US. David Atlee Phillips was one such contact who met with Artime in Mexico City.

One of the men initially signed the AMWORLD memo was John Whitten. He was also the head of the CIA’s investigation into the JFK assassination. He was taken off that case by Helms who didn’t want him snooping around Lee Harvey Oswald’s Cuba file. These files confirmed that the CIA used the Mafia to get at Castro. The Mafia bosses, Trafficante, Roselli and Marcello, were the top suspects in JFK’s assassination.

Some memos say that Morales would do anything, even work with the Mafia. This may explain why the CIA is so secretive about these matters. Morales was the perfect choice for CIA-backed coups because he was a trained assassin. He honed his skills in Uruguay and Guatemala. Many of the people who were involved in the Guatemala coup would pop back up in Bay of Pigs and Watergate.

The Guatemala affair was perpetrated by Phillips and Howard Hunt. Many of the documents were not declassified. Therefore, these men’s full actions are not known even 50 years later. Phillips was the propaganda expert. He ran operations against FPCC. He also organized DRE which had a run in with Lee Harvey Oswald. He was also in Chile fighting against Allende on behalf of the Nixon administration.
In addition to Phillips, James McCord, Howard and Bernard Barker were involved in C-Day. Hunt was Harry’s CIA case officer.

McCone confirmed that RFK would try to confuse the press when they were getting close to the truth concerning C-Day. The author of this article (p. 64) was Hal Hendrix. He won a Pulitzer Prize a year earlier. But he was all CIA. He was convicted of lying to Congress on behalf of Nixon and his plans to overthrow Allende in Chile.

One of Artime’s deputies was Raphael Quintero who was also involved in Iran-Contra. In fact, many C-Day veterans would turn up running Iran-Contra.

The Kennedys wanted to consolidate all anti-Castro efforts. They also went to Central American countries to solicit help.

The Kennedy Men: Vance, Haig and Califano
In order to ensure the success of C-Day, the Kennedys used the divide and conquer method to keep the separate agencies from getting bogged down in the bureaucracy. By using this method, the Kennedys had plausible deniability. They also had a wide array of input from men who didn’t know the whole picture.

The suffered from a couple of problems, however. Because those who gave input didn’t know the whole picture, they couldn’t comment on potential problems. In addition to this, the SS and the Justice Department were kept out of the planning, allowing the Mafia to infiltrate.

They made Vance their point man in order to keep the operation out of the hands of military brass who might hijack the idea.

Bobby would call Califano everyday to inquire about the welfare of the Cuban exiles. The Kennedys didn’t want the Republicans to exploit them in the ’64 election.

Califano says in his autobiography that the WC didn’t want to talk to him about his knowledge about American operations in Cuba.

CIA reports state that they were trying to get at Castro during this time period but they kept the Kennedys in the dark. They also kept the Kennedys in the dark about the agency using the Mafia like Roselli.

Haig says in his book that RFK tried to get Castro 8 times. Califano says that it’s “inconceivable” that Desmond Fitzgerald would use Cubela to get at Castro without RFK knowing about it. Haig wrote that the threat to JFK came from Castro because he didn’t know about the mob.

These 3 men had their names suppressed in Senate meetings like the Church Committee in order to protect their status as rising stars. Kissinger told Ford to remove the references to RFK wanting to assassinate Castro from the ledgers. This was done not because Ford and Kissinger wanted to protect the memory of the Kennedys but because this information would open up all kinds of questions regarding the CIA which would be harmful to the Republicans.

Harry Williams, RFK and the Coup Leader
The hit-and-run raids that were leading up to C-Day were making the Soviet presence in Cuba more intrusive. Cuba began to resent the USSR. The Kennedys couldn’t fail or they would lose the ’64 election. The coup leader couldn’t fail or he’d be killed.

The CIA took a family member of the coup leader prisoner for safekeeping. The coup leader, in turn, wanted his family taken care of. The Kennedys gave him and his family a substantial lump of money.

There are 2 CIA memos from ’63 that deal with a payoff arranged by Harry for a Cuban official. One was sent to McCone and was an AMWORLD document. It said that Williams helped Franqui defect to France. The other memo is in Barker’s file; Barker was the aide to Hunt, the case officer for C-Day. His memo deals with the payoff of Franqui. Franqui met in ’63 with Manolo Ray and Che Guevara.

The AMWORLD memo refers to Plan Judas, another name for C-Day. The Barker memo says that Williams engineered the payoff for Franqui and paved the way for his defection to Paris. The Cuban exiles were to be given cabinet positions in the new provisional government once Castro was eliminated.

The AMWORLD memo has the handwritten initials “HH”, (reminiscent of the HH that led Woodward and Bernstein to Howard Hunt). The other memo came from Hunt’s aide, Barker.

In September ’63, Manuel Artime, Tony Varona and the Cuban exiles were all on board for C-Day. Williams was still trying to get the support of Manolo Ray and Eloy Menoyo. All these groups were being targeted for infiltration by Trafficante, Marcello and Roselli. The Kennedys had experienced problems since ’59 with Mafia leaders and their CIA contacts. They had no idea that in the summer of ’63 that these relationships were continuing.

Williams wanted to exclude Cubans with ties to organized crime as well. He was approached by Masferrer, a Cuban mobster with ties to Varona. CIA documents confirm that Varona and Masferrer were brought into the fold by Roselli. FBI files show that Masferrer was then linked to Oswald via Manolo Ray.

An attempt on Williams’s life took place in ’63 by Cuban mobsters in Guatemala. Manuel Artime had several bases in Central America; Bobby sent Williams there for some business. Williams killed one of his assailants before escaping. Marcello and Roselli had extensive ties to Guatemala {Bobby had Marcello deported there, according to Marrs}. Another assassination took place that was identical in circumstances to this one: pistol wielding gunmen in Guatemala City shoot a man in a restaurant. The assassination was linked to Artime.

The “Plan for a Coup in Cuba” December 1, 1963
Vance submitted his plan for a coup on 26 September 1963. This plan shows that the CIA and the DIA didn’t know all the ins and outs. This plan tells most of the details but is vague enough to not fully elucidate outsiders.

This plan had the support of the CIA, the State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It said that in order to be successful, the coup had to occupy a significant piece of territory inside Cuba and had to hold onto it long enough for American support to arrive. The plan also called for the assassination of Castro. Williams, the coup leader and other exile leaders would assume control of Cuba.

Once the provisional government takes control, they would contact JFK and ask for support. JFK would call Khrushchev and ask him to comply with an American blockade of Cuba. The US was going to have the support of the OAS.

In order to prove to the world that this Cuban revolt was not another American-backed effort, the Kennedys had gone to great lengths to distance themselves from the operation. They placed great faith in Williams. They had cracked down on the Cuban exile groups in the US.

The coup would kill Castro but the coup leader wouldn’t take credit. He would use his credentials in the Cuban revolution to buoy himself to the presidency. The person who would take credit for the assassination of Castro would be a Soviet sympathizer, forcing the USSR to distance itself from the coup. Castro’s popularity made it difficult to operate. If the person who killed Castro took over, he would himself be subject to assassination attempts. Only by distancing himself from Castro’s death could a coup leader be successful; and then, only after placing the blame of Castro’s death on a Red Cuban while he himself was arranging for American intervention.

The plan took special precautions with the Soviets as the Soviet Union figured heavily in a Cuban uprising. Once the coup was a success, JFK would appoint an ambassador to Cuba who would be America’s top official in Cuba. The overall goal of the Kennedys, Williams and the Cuban exiles was a democratic Cuba.

The plan was for the coup to begin on 1 December 1963 and be concluded before Christmas. The Kennedys wanted the coup to be done before the ’64 campaign season started in January. They didn’t want to wait until Pearl Harbor day, December 7th. They wanted to allow enough time for Bobby to take the blame and resign should the coup be a flop.

JFK was a member of Naval Intelligence during WWII. He was part of the outfit that “lost” the Japanese fleet that hit Pearl Harbor. The navy destroyed all documents of their failure. The navy also destroyed all documents of Lee Harvey Oswald after he was killed.

In the ’60 election, JFK used Cuba as a point to win a debate against Nixon. Nixon was using the Mafia to get Castro but couldn’t respond without violating national security. Nixon lobbied to prevent the Cuban exiles from being ransomed back to the US. The Cuban Missile Crisis delayed Nixon’s efforts and the Kennedys defeated the Republicans plans. This C-Day could be another political success for the Kennedys, another in a series of Cuban operations that propelled JFK’s career. Goldwater and Rockefeller were also very critical of JFK’s policies in Cuba.

The Contingency Plans
Many in Vance’s group were working on a contingency plan in case Castro found out about the coming attack. Castro couldn’t be allowed to find out about C-Day. Plus, JFK had to have time to respond thoughtfully should Cuban actions require it.

This contingency planning began in September ’63 and continued through the attempted assassination in Chicago in November. Many who worked on C-Day didn’t know about the Contingency Plan and vice versa.

The declassified documents discussing the Contingency Plans do not mention the SS. This is because Cuban strikes against Americans on American soil were considered unlikely.

The Church Committee uncovered the 1st Contingency Plans memo. Only a few lines were used, however. This memo also didn’t mention the rising stars: Haig, Califano and Vance.

The Contingency Plans decided that attacks on American people and terrorist raids were unlikely. But attacks on American targets in Latin America were considered likely. Because the Contingency Plans decided that attacks on American soil were unlikely, the committee made no plans to protect JFK from Castro. If they had, that protection would probably have been effective against a Mafia hit.

The Contingency Plans were used when JFK was killed. The various groups worked to keep a lid on C-Day. They went along with the lone gunman theory that Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin. This is why there was a cover-up. This cover-up explains the autopsy of JFK (p. 109).

The JFK autopsy was packed with officials who had worked on C-Day.

Most of the information that said Oswald killed Kennedy on behalf of Castro came from Trafficante, Marcello and Roselli. When LBJ told Hoover about C-Day, Hoover stopped the FBI from probing into matters that concerned Cuba.


Playing with Fire
There was another plan for dealing with Castro in ’63 that was a back channel effort to patch up the peace. These secret peace talks had their own risk: an appearance of appeasement. French journalist Jean Daniel would be one such Kennedy asset that would try to work out a deal with Castro. It took weeks for Daniel to get the interview. He and Castro finally met; news of the assassination was just being announced.

Rusk told the authors that C-Day; he also told Vanity Fair in 1993. He also said the Kennedys were negotiating with Castro. They often would “play with fire” by pursuing 2 opposite strategies.

Bobby Kennedy’s Oral History at the JFK Presidential Library demonstrates this dual strategy (p. 114). Pursuing both strategies was a reflection of America's own indecisiveness on Cuba.

Special U.N. Envoy William Attwood said that “he is not hopeful” (p. 114) of the peace negotiations being successful. Helms told RFK and Vance that the negotiations were a problem. This may explain why Helms pursued other assassination plans against Castro: he wanted Castro dead before Kennedy could strike a deal with Castro. William Attwood sent a memo about his efforts to the NSC just prior to the assassination.

The reports that Lee Harvey Oswald was working for Castro were fed to the intelligence agencies by Marcello, Trafficante and Rosselli. But a top secret memo from December 3, 1963 said that Oswald was not working for Castro; the DIA knew this because they had been following him for the previous months leading up to the assassination.

LBJ broke off any attempts to patch up peace with Cuba. Senator Eugene McCarthy had a private meeting with Che (who was not with Castro during the months leading up to C-Day). Che also met with Lisa Howard “just months before her tragic death and Che’s disappearance” (p. 115).

While going through back channels for peace, the DIA was preparing for C-Day. The DIA was headed by General Joseph Carroll, the man who found missiles in Cuba. Not much is known about General Carroll except from a few declassified documents and a book written about him by his son, James Carroll.

General Carroll was an FBI man until the late ‘40’s. He shared at least one major case with Guy Banister (p. 116).

The DIA’s role in covert Cuban operations has not produce the volume of documents that the CIA has. Army Intelligence has admitted to destroying records; a Congressional committee found evidence that the Marines destroyed information on Lee Harvey Oswald and JFK; and the authors discovered extensive ONI document destruction.

The documents suggest that the CIA and the DIA didn’t collaborate much.

Many of JFK’s critics (Goldwater and Nixon) were lambasting his policies because they believed that the Soviet presence in Cuba was deepening, not withdrawing.

The plans for C-Day continued until late November ’63. The plans were revised many times during the summer and fall of 1963. Many still didn’t know about the plans. The plans that were considered included using Guantanamo Bay as a base for the invasion; an amphibious invasion; and a palace coup.

While the plans for the operation were nearing completion, Khrushchev seemed to be on to the Kennedy plan. Articles in the New York Times indicate that Khrushchev was warning the U.S. that if it attacked Cuba, he’d attack Berlin.

There are 3 documents that show JFK presiding over a November 12, 1963 meeting with his advisors where the main topic was overthrowing Castro.
1. The first document was released by the Senate Church Committee in ’75. The Senate Church Committee looked into the CIA’s role in assassinations of foreign leaders and their possible connection to the JFK assassination. The memo was too brief to allow the Senate Church Committee to draw any conclusions about military actions against Cuba.
Fitzgerald played down another assassination operation because the public didn’t want to deepen American involvement in Cuba. But many of his comments could only apply to C-Day (p.123).
In ’97 another memo was declassified by McCone. Also at this meeting, the memo says, were General Taylor, Vance and Ted Shackley. Shackley was Morales boss but Ted didn’t know about C-Day. At the meeting, Shackley would learn that there was dissension and dissidents in Castro’s ranks. He was told this because the Kennedy’s didn’t want him to be surprised by Castro’s death.
This meeting was designed to integrate the Cubela operation and AMTRUNK with C-Day so as to keep key officials in the U.S. from feeling deceived by the secret mission.
Notes prepared from Rusk’s State Department refer to JFK as “Higher Authority”. Everyone else is referred to by name except Bobby who is called “Mr. Robert Kennedy.” These notes echo several points of FitzGerald’s report on Cuban operations: disaffections in the Cuban government; support of autonomous Anti-Castro Groups, etc (p. 125).


The Countdown for C-Day begins: November 22, 1963
Planning for C-Day was heightening in JFK’s last few weeks. He was pressured to make a public statement of support for the coup. At a meeting that FitzGerald and Bobby were at, FitzGerald said words to that effect. Many of the agencies were not sharing information either.

JFK made a major speech on Cuba on November 18th. He made the speech in Miami at an event where he watched a Polaris missile test. The Senate Church Committee has reports that prove that this speech was intended for the coup leader. The report in particular came from Gary Hart and Richard Schweiker. It said that JFK’s speech was a CIA signal for a dissident leader (p. 128). McGeorge Bundy told LBJ that this speech was intended to encourage anti-Castro elements in Cuba.

Seymour Bolton (a CIA agent) said that he personally carried the anti-Castro portion of the speech to the White House for JFK’s approval.

The chief author of the speech was Richard Goodwin. He had strong ties to Che Guevara which provoked a right-wing backlash among Kennedy’s critics. The authors believe that Goodwin was chosen because he had high level ties to Cuban officials. Goodwin was a reassurance to Castro. If Goodwin had written the speech, Castro could be lulled.

During the time, the CIA was conducting 2 simultaneous operations in Cuba, targeting lower level officials. Among these was AMTRUNK. The CIA sent an AMTRUNK agent a message saying words to the effect that the November 18th speech was a veiled American vote of support for toppling Castro.
While the speech was being written, RFK, Manuel Artime and Harry Williams met. This meeting was classified until 1997. Artime, Haig, Califano, RFK and the Cuban leaders are mentioned several times in documents stating that they met numerous times during this period.

A long-secret Congressional report said that there was a threat of a mobile rifleman shooting from a window in a tall building with a high powered rifle fitted with a scope. A SS agent said that they were aware of the threat. One memo said the threat came from organized crime. Suspicion was focused on a man with over a dozen parallels to Lee Harvey Oswald (p. 131).

Tampa Chief of Police Mullins confirmed this threat to the authors.

Most American media outlets ignored the speech. But the Cubans did not.

If everything went according to plan, Castrol would be killed, the Russians in Cuba would be neutralized and the new provisional government would ask the U.S. for assistance in maintaining the order.

Harry Williams met with Hunt, Helms and Kirkpatrick on November 22nd—a final meeting before the coup. The second part of the meeting was interrupted by news of the assassination. This meeting, according to Haynes Johnson, was “the most important meeting” (p. 137).

Bobby told Harry that C-Day would have to put on hold.



Harry Williams and the Cubans

The authors are going to take some time to explain who the Cuban exiles were. Understanding who the Cubans were helps one understand why RFK said to Haynes Johnson, “One of your guys did it” and helps one to understand who RFK had in mind.

“A consistent pattern emerges: associates of mob bosses Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficante and Johnny Rosselli try to get close to each of them as soon as they become the focus of Harry and the Kennedys” (p.138). The mob could infiltrate the C-Day plans, cause the JFK assassination to be blamed on C-Day and thus cause the government itself to seal the record.

Harry Williams was brought on board by the Kennedys to help them handle the disparate, factious Cubans. To create a successful post-coup Cuba, the Kennedys knew the provisional government would have to be broad based. This included some conservative Cuban groups. The only conservative Cubans that Kennedys would consider were those that fought Batista. By ’63, there were Cubans from all over the political spectrum that were on board.

Harry divided the Cubans into groups. The leaders were Manuel Artime, Tony Varona, Gutierrez Menoyo and Manolo Ray.

Artime had fought in the Bay of Pigs and was close to Nicaraguan strong man Luis Somoza. Manolo Ray was more liberal and was noted for having a keen intellect. Ray’s group JURE was very effective. Eloy Menoyo was the most liberal of the exile leaders. He left Cuba before Bay of Pigs which caused the CIA to view him with suspicion. He was close to Antonio Veciana. Their groups (SNFE and Alpha 66 respectively) were so close that the FBI confused them as the same group. (p.140) Tony Varona was a former Cuban senator. The Kennedys wanted him because of this. However, he was more of a liability because of his past associations with Carlos Prio. He only joined C-Day in August ’63 after getting a huge bribe from Rosselli.

Harry was still negotiating with Menoyo and Ray in November ’63. They would have been given more general information about the plans. Varona and Artime, who joined quickly, probably got the name of the coup leader.

All of the C-Day leaders had fought for the post revolutionary government. This allowed them to claim that C-Day was a continuation of that enterprise. With the backing of the coup leader, the provisional government would have all the legitimacy it would need.

Due to the failure of the Bay of Pigs, Harry opted for great secrecy. The leaders didn’t necessarily know all the details of C-Day. Harry couldn’t allows meet them all together.

The exile groups that were excluded from C-Day suffered from various fates. According to E. Howard Hunt, the DRE was run by David Atlee Phillips. Lee Harvey Oswald was involved with the DRE during the summer of ’63. JFK cracked down on the exile groups and closed down their bases in the U.S.

A memo written on May 28, 1963 (declassified in 1997) recommended the U.S. take a hands-off approach towards achieving unity among the Cuban groups. However, RFK and Harry felt differently. Also, the memo also notes that there is some unity among the groups already including SNFE and Alpha 66. In addition to this, the memo expresses hope that Menoyo could work with JURE. E. Howard Hunt resigned from the Bay of Pigs because he thought that Ray was too liberal (p.141).

Harry didn’t know about Vance’s or the Joint of Chiefs of Staff’s work behind the scenes on C-Day. As such, Harry thought that C-Day would need the help of Luis Somoza. Somoza was strongly anti-Castro. He had supported the Cuban exiles during the Bay of Pigs.

Haynes Johnson uncovered that some of the groups that were excluded by C-Day had turned to the Mafia for funding.


Manuel Artime

E. Howard Hunt (a good friend of Artime’s) said that Artime had fought for Castro before defecting to the U.S. He was considered to be very conservative but had some revolutionary ideals.

Bernard Barker said that Artime didn’t hate Kennedy for the Bay of Pigs.

Artime had bases in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. In September ’63, the New York Times reported that Cuba’s U.N. ambassador accused Artime of staging raids in Cuba. Artime was able to do this because of 1. Kennedy’s support; 2. The CIA’s support and 3. Luis Somoza’s support.

The Church Committee discovered that the CIA was probably using Artime in covert actions against Castro. The HSCA discovered that Artime had 4 bases in Latin America; Artime stated publicly that JFK and RFK were responsible for establishing these bases (p.148).

Al Burt wrote in the Nation an article that suggests he had a source close to C-Day (see pages 149-150). His article mentions Artime.

One of Artime’s deputies was Felix Rodriguez. Rodriguez captured Che Guevara and played a role in Iran-Contra. Rodriguez’s autobiography states that the anti-Castro operations were “pretty close parallels to the Contra operation” (p. 151). His autobiography confirms much of what Al Burt had written in ’65. He also acknowledges that the Kennedys were behind the planning.

Artime gave an interview to the Miami news in ’77. He said that the U.S. promised to give aid to the anti-Castro Cubans if a Latin American country would offer to give the groups the training camps.

Artime began working for the CIA in ’59.

Journalist Tad Szulc reported in February ’73 in Esquire magazine about C-Day. This article states that “the same cast of characters…reappears in Watergate. E. Howard Hunt…Bernard Barker…James W. McCord” (p.155). This article also mentions that McCord was associated with exiled Cuban pilots in the Congo.

Szulc wrote a biography of E. Howard Hunt in ’74. According to this book, McCord played “an ancillary role in Bay of Pigs” (p.155).

Artime was the only Cuban leader involved in C-Day that had links to organized crime. He was accused of profiteering from the CIA money.

Somoza and Marcello had strong ties. The FBI learned that Somoza and Marcello had the same Washington lobbyists. David Ferrie, Carlo Marcello’s pilot, was involved in the training camp that Somoza sponsored.

Artime and the Somozas would be linked to many false stories that connected Lee Harvey Oswald to Ruby and to Castro. The Warren Commission did not interview any of the C-Day leaders in spite of the links (real or alleged) between Lee Harvey Oswald and the C-Day groups.

The U.S. supported the Somoza government throughout the 70’s although it was brutal. The authors speculate that this was done because the Church Committee and the HSCA were taking place and that Somoza had compromising information.
The authors do not believe that Artime was responsible for JFK’s death. They do believe, however, that he knew (after the fact) who killed Kennedy.



Manolo Ray

Manolo Ray was described as highly intelligent and soft spoken. These qualities made him a good fit for RFK and Harry.

Ray had fought against Batista before becoming Castro’s Minister of Public Works. He held that post for only a few months because his relationship with Castro soured. He would defect in November ’60. This late defection made some like E. Howard Hunt believe that he was too socialist.

Ray formed JURE in July ’62. He wanted to oust the Soviet Union and the Communist Party. But he also wanted lots of reform. As such, the CIA saw him as a leftist.

The Kennedys wanted Ray in the provisional Cuban government because of his progressive ways. The Kennedys began financing JURE consistent with how they financed the other Cuban groups.

By the fall of ’63, Ray was traveling throughout Latin America to gain support for JURE.

FBI agent James P. Hosty said in ’93 that Ray’s group was the one that was being used to overthrow Castro. Customs, the FBI and the Coast Guard ignored Ray’s group but diligently shut down other (non-authorized) Cuban exile groups.

The Warren Commission didn’t interview any of the C-Day leaders. However, a Warren Commission document that was later declassified states that JURE was devoted to taking down Castro from within Cuba.

Harry and Ray had a good working relationship. Ray distrusted the CIA and the CIA distrusted him.

Ray hadn’t committed to C-Day as of November 22, 1963. Ray was reluctant to join other exile groups even before the Bay of Pigs.

Harry would use contacts to get in touch with Ray. These contacts would bring Ray to the attention of Rosselli and Trafficante.

The Mafia failed to buy off Ray. As such, they linked Lee Harvey Oswald to JURE. Silvia Odio, the daughter of a major JURE figure, was contacted by three men. One of the men claimed that Lee Harvey Oswald (p. 164) was one of them.

This made Lee Harvey Oswald look guilty to the Warren Commission but it also made the FBI want to shut down the investigation, lest C-Day be let out of the bag.

This incident with Odio can be linked to four of Trafficante’s associates, two of whom knew of C-Day prior to the JFK assassination.



Eloy Menoyo

Eloy was even more liberal than Ray. He too was targeted by Trafficante. Trafficante tried to link Menoyo and his group to Lee Harvey Oswald’s bullets and gun. Menoyo made it into Cuba, unlike the other exile leaders.

Menoyo set up a base in the Dominican Republic. RFK mentions in his Oral History that Harry had plans to do something from a base in the Dominican Republic (p. 165).

E. Howard Hunt said that Menoyo was a “pro-Castro fanatic who defected shortly before Bay of Pigs” (p. 165). William Turner said that Menoyo was detained by the FBI for several months when he came to the U.S. Castro sent Menoyo on a Portuguese luxury liner named Santa Maria with the intentions of starting a revolt in Portuguese Angola. Menoyo went to Florida instead.

Harry liked men who would risk their lives for Cuba. That’s why he sought out Menoyo.

Menoyo founded the group called SNFE which stood for Second National Front of Escambray.

Harry knew that Menoyo’s socialist leanings would make him attractive to many Cubans in a post-Castro regime. However, Menoyo was closely linked to Antonio Veciana’s Alpha 66 group. Some U.S. government agencies even confused Alpha 66 with SNFE (p. 166). JFK ordered Veciana to be confined in Miami-Dade County in the spring of ’63 when he took credit for attacking Russian ships in Cuban waters.

Several CIA documents confirm that Harry and Menoyo met several times in November of ’63. Menoyo was reluctant to join without Tony Veciana. Harry was faced with a dilemma. He had to recruit these leaders but keep them in the dark about the details. If he told them the details before they committed to C-Day, they might back out and leak the information. If he didn’t tell them the details, they would understandably be reluctant.

Many CIA documents state that Menoyo was actively trying to topple Castro.

Warren Commission Document 1085, not published in the report but declassified in ’71, says that Menoyo and his men would be in Cuba by December ’63 (p. 168). The report also says that Menoyo had joined forces with other groups in an effort to take Cuba. A CIA summary says that Menoyo commented on 21 November 1963 that “something very big would happen”.

J. Edgar Hoover thought that “something very big” might be referring to JFK’s assassination since it happened the following day. The FBI determined that the comment had nothing to do with the assassination of JFK but was in fact about a future invasion of Cuba.

A CIA memo states that Carlos Prio was trying to get Menoyo and other exile leaders to participate in Prio’s own invasion plan. Harry was having trouble getting Menoyo to commit; this was probably because Menoyo was being wooed by Prio.

Trafficante gave a large cache of weapons to Menoyo. Harry thought the CIA had given the weapons to Menoyo. These weapons (or perhaps others) would be linked to Lee Harvey Oswald.

Rolando Masferrer was the key bagman for Alpha 66. Alpha 66 was also the biggest recipient of funding that was channeled through Masferrer. An intelligence operative stated that Masferrer told him that before the assassination Masferrer told him that JFK would be hit. Masferrer was associated with Trafficante.

The authors believe that in spite of the Mafia’s presence within Alpha 66 and SNFE, these two groups were not involved in JFK’s murder

Harry went after Menoyo in the summer of ’63. During this time, Veciana met with Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas. Gaeton Fonzi wrote a book about this. Veciana was introduced to Oswald by a man named Maurice Bishop. Menoyo claims that this was Oswald’s CIA handler. Veciana also claims that Bishop was the brainchild of Alpha 66, not him (which explains why Alpha 66 clashed with JFK’s policies).

Gaeton Fonzi says in his book The Last Investigation that it was none other than David Atlee Phillips. CIA agent Ron Crozier confirms this.

The CIA had their own plans for Oswald. The Mafia knew that if they could link Oswald to the JFK assassination, it would force the CIA to push the investigation underground.

Alpha 66 and Menoyo were not questioned by the Warren Commission.

Veciana said that his meeting with Lee Harvey Oswald was at the end of the first week of September. There are three days that Oswald’s whereabouts are completely unknown: September 6th through the 9th.

Secret CIA and FBI files from the fall of ’63 state that Menoyo’s group was linked to an arms ring involving Jack Ruby. The bullets in Oswald’s rifle are linked to this incident.

The guns were being stolen from the U.S. Army base at Fort Hood, Texas by Captain George Nonte. He was part of a gun-running operation that involved Jack Ruby. Nonte was never arrested for this activity. This raises the possibility that someone wanted to arm the Cubans.

Menoyo went to Cuba but was captured by Castro. He spent 22 years in prison.

Tony Varona

Varona was a former president of the Cuban Senate. He had worked to overthrow Fulgencio Batista. He had worked on the Bay of Pigs. But he maintained extensive contacts in the underworld including Rosselli and Trafficante. Varona was supposed to give the signal to assassinate Castro but was unable to due to a CIA mix-up.

When the Kennedys decided to cut back the support for Cuban exile groups, Varona’s CRC took a huge hit.

Varona’s CRC shared an office with Guy Banister in New Orleans.

The cut backs were probably the reason that Varona joined C-Day. Varona maintained his dealings with the Mafia even after signing on. Varona used the Mafia’s funding to compensate for the cut backs.

Between 12 and 27 August 1963, Varona met with Rolando Masferrer. He also received $200,000 of the mob’s money. A CIA memo says that Varona told Masferrer that there were obstacles in the way because Masferrer had supported Batista but that Varona would remove those obstacles. The authors believe that this was NOT a reference to JFK’s assassination.

This reference could have met removing Manolo Ray. Varona is one of Trafficante’s people who may have attempted to link Oswald to Ray through Silvia Odio. Masferrer has a close relative who lived in the same apartment complex as Odio.

Harry believed that Varona was receiving payoffs from Trafficante.

Varona also had many dealings with Carlos Prio (an associate of Trafficante’s).

Prio was the last elected president of Cuba before Batista. He was quite corrupt also. Prio was did some gunrunning with Jack Ruby. A CIA report from 1955 says that Varona was a “Prio henchman”.

Varona and Prio went to Nicaragua to oversee the anti-Castro camps.

Harry turned down Prio’s request for entry into C-Day. Prio then wanted to joint Artime’s group.
Prio knew many of the details about C-Day. He did many things to disrupt it (p. 184-185).


Cuban-American Troops on US Military Bases

Cuban exiles were trained at Ft. Benning, GA. Even there Trafficante and Marcello could reach them. These were the Bay of Pigs leftovers.

JFK mentioned these men on April 3, 1963 (p. 189). On April 19th, he even said that Castro would be gone within 5 years.
The C-Day plan required American assistance due to the large number of Soviets in Cuba and due to the many factions within Cuba that were vying for power.

The purpose of these Cuban-American troops was to “foment a revolt within Cuba which would call for US military intervention…” (p. 192).



Che Guevara: A Reassessment

Che had a lot in common with Menoyo, Ray and Varona: they had all fought for the revolution but had been forced out by Castro afterwards.

The Soviets labeled him a “troublemaker” (p. 193).

DCI McCone received a cable that said a Western diplomat informed them that Che was under house arrest for plotting to overthrow Castro.

Harry Williams knew Che. Che also knew other Kennedy associates. RFK spoke highly of Che (p. 196).

Franqui knew Che very well. Manolo Ray and Rolando Cubela also had worked with Che.

By ’63, Che was on the outs with the U.S.S.R. He had many of the same goals and concerns as the Kennedys.

Che ran the Cuban economy. When the economy lagged in part because of the US economic blockade, Che was on the outs with Castro.

Che was disillusioned by the US government when the CIA toppled the democracy of Guatemala in ’54.

Che made plans to leave Cuba in ’63. In later chapters, the authors tie Che to other attempts to topple Castro.



The Other Plots against Castro

There were a lot of people involved in C-Day. Harry knew much of what was going on but he didn’t know everything. He didn’t know about the back-channel peace deals the Kennedys were throwing out to Castro. And he didn’t know about AMTRUNK.

Because there were so many plans against Castro taking place at this time, Congress was not able to uncover C-Day. Also, because of the difficulty in keeping security tight on so many different plans, the Mafia was able to penetrate.
CIA-Mafia Plots
These plots were hidden from JFK. Some of these plans were investigated by the Church Committee. These plans began in ’59, before JFK was even elected and they continued after his death.

The Kennedys didn’t know the extent of these plans. They sent their emissary, James Donovan, to Cuba to negotiate the release of American prisoners being held in Cuba. The CIA admitted to approaching Donovan with a plan to kill Castro by presenting him with a diving suit that was contaminated with poison.

The CIA tried more direct methods of assassination. They used guns and grenades, for example in a stadium where Castro was at. These would-be assassins were captured and photographed. These photos were to become part of a report that Castro put together that would eventually lead Nixon to authorize the Watergate break-in.

Also, Rosselli told Jack Anderson that he was still working on these assassination attempts-a fact left out of the CIA report.

David Morales worked with Rosselli (p.205-206). They were quite close.

Another CIA-Mafia plot was from Charles Nicoletti, a member of the Rosselli Mafia family.

The Kennedys took on organized crime in ’59 during the Senate rackets hearings. This is why the Kennedys were determined to the mob out of C-Day. Helms didn’t tell JFK about the plots. He even kept McCone in the dark. Only Helms, Desmond FitzGerald, David Morales and William Harvey knew that the CIA was using the Mafia to get at Castro.

AMLASH: the CIA’s Plot with Rolando Cubela
AMLASH has been known since ’76. The authors have uncovered more information, however—especially how it relates to C-Day.

The CIA renewed their relationship with Cubela in September ’63. Cubela was approached by the CIA to assassinate Castro. Desmond FitzGerald told Cubela he was RFK’s emissary (he wasn’t). Cubela was later arrested and imprisoned in Cuba.

The rest of the story came out through the research of the authors. The Church Committee, not knowing about C-Day, concluded that the CIA was renewing their Cubela contact for unknown reasons.

After the revolution, Cubela was marginalized by Castro. His group, the DR (Revolutionary Directorate) was a forerunner of David Atlee Phillip’s group the DRE.

The CIA renewed their relationship with Cubela at the same time that they renewed their relationship with Rosselli (and QJWIN). The CIA wanted to kill Castro but they wanted to control the plots.

Morales was working with Cubela, C-Day and AMTRUNK at the same time. To Morales this may have appeared to be different facets of the same assassination plots.

The CIA was desperately trying to get Cubela to assassinate Castro. The CIA knew that the coup leader was already willing to do this. Why was the CIA so gung-ho to do the same?
To beat C-Day to the punch
To use Cubela as a backup plan
To let Cubela take the fall for Castro’s death
To gather intelligence without alerting US officials who didn’t know about C-Day.

The CIA wanted to use Cubela to gather intelligence on the power surrounding Castro.

LBJ shut down C-Day but the CIA kept Cubela’s operation afloat.

Both C-Day and Cubela’s operation were penetrated by Trafficante.

AMTRUNK
AMTRUNK was the brainchild of Tad Szulc. AMTRUNK is different than the Cubela operation per the Inspector General’s report prepared by Helms for LBJ. AMTRUNK was first planned by Szulc, Hurwitch and Morales.

AMTRUNK was larger than the Cubela operation but smaller than C-Day. It was not a big secret like C-Day so RFK and the others could talk about it openly.

The CIA case officers said that the Cubela operation was comparable to AMTRUNK but involved different characters.

In addition to these attempts, the US was hitting Cuba with a lot of hit-and-run attacks. This was to keep Castro on edge so that when the coup took place, it would not be precipitated.