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Enrique Ruiz-Williams (Harry Williams)


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I am very impressed by Ultimate Sacrifice, and unlike with Professor Mellen's book, can see that there is a wealth of new information contained therein. The main exception I take to the book thus far is that it misleadingly packages many of its revelations as new. As can be seen by John's statement above about the no-invasion pledge, even very old information is represented as new.

This is especially the case with regard to the plans for an invasion in late 1963. What has long been termed Second Naval Guerrilla is repackaged here and represented as new, with the authors even giving it a new name of their own: "C-Day." It is far from new information that Desmond FitzGerald said, just four months after the assassination: "If Jack Kennedy had lived, I can assure you we would have gotten rid of Castro by last Christmas."

Bill Turner and Warren Hinckle reported a quarter century ago that Manuel Artime's "MRR was receiving $250,000 a month" to set up the Second Naval Guerrilla operation in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. When Nicaragua's General Luis Somoza viewed the exiles' fleet at Monkey Point in 1963, he announced that "in November strong blows will begin against Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro by groups we are training."

We go out of our way repeatedly in the book to give credit to earlier researchers, whether in regard to the myth of the no-invasion pledge or to the plan for a coup in Cuba.

With the no-invasion pledge, our point is that it’s still commonly believed and repeated in almost every documentary and book. In fact, I believed it until Dean Rusk told me it wasn’t true. I then looked for other support for what Rusk had said, and found some in Beschloss (which I quote in the book) and a massively documented case in Chang and Kornbluh’s book, "The Cuban Missile Crisis." (For my presentation at JFK/Lancer in 2004, I even lugged their huge book to Dallas to show during my talk.)

Likewise, we quote and cite them extensively by name in the book. We’re telling people not to take our word for the pledge being myth - here is what others (and the documentation) have been saying since the early 1990s.

The same goes for the coup plan, with one key difference. Our book uses more quotes than probably any other book ever in the field, and we go out of our way to show that people like Al Burt and Tad Szulc and William Turner had written about aspects of the coup plan in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. We want people

to look at what they wrote years ago, long before any of the documents had been released, since they all had key inside sources.

However, both Burt and Szulc put most of the action in 1964 (and 1965), after the real coup plan had been

cancelled, and when the CIA had combined the remnants of AMWORLD with AMTRUNK and AMLASH. As such, they were somewhat vague about what exactly was supposed to happen, and how it would be different from a Bay of Pigs-style invasion after an assassination attempt.

William Turner’s 1973 interview with Harry Williams was not published - even in part - until "The Fish is Red"

in 1981. And even then, Harry had not fully revealed to Turner what was supposed to happen or everyone who was involved. (Though I was so impressed with what Turner had uncovered that when I finally read a copy of "Fish" in the late 1980s , I was determined to see that it became available again, and brought it to the attention of the publisher who eventually reissued the updated edition as "Deadly Secrets.")

As I say in "Ultimate Sacrifice," Turner provided us with the complete notes of his Harry Williams interview, so we were able to hit the ground running and soon got Harry to reveal the entire plan for a coup in Cuba. This included all the key exile leaders involved, the Cuban-American troops, the "palace coup," and the Provisional government. All of which we talked about in public (1993 ASK, 1994 ASK, History Channel, Vanity Fair) before the documentation was released.

So, we didn’t piece our story together from accounts from Burt, Szulc, etc., as helpful as their accounts

were, after the fact. We got the full story from key people who worked with Robert Kennedy, then we showed in the book that parts of it had been written about for years, and can now be documented from declassified files.

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Lamar

Did "Harry" Williams ever use an alias "Frank Williams?" I've already asked around including Bill Turner. This man Frank Williams and a man Canizares were involved in a mission six mos. prior to BOP near Navas Bay. Most were caught and executed the rest imprisoned by Castro, three escaped: Frank Williams, Canizares and my father Paul Hughes. Could you ask Enrique for me? Thank you.

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Did "Harry" Williams ever use an alias "Frank Williams?" I've already asked around including Bill Turner. This man Frank Williams and a man Canizares were involved in a mission six mos. prior to BOP near Navas Bay. Most were caught and executed the rest imprisoned by Castro, three escaped: Frank Williams, Canizares and my father Paul Hughes. Could you ask Enrique for me? Thank you.

The authors note that Enrique (Harry) Ruiz-Williams died on March 10, 1996. The book also notes, on page 31: "After briefly running across the 1959 CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro, Harry left Cuba once more and came to the US, returning only when he landed on the beach at the Bay of Pigs."

T.C.

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  • 6 months later...
Lamar

Did "Harry" Williams ever use an alias "Frank Williams?" I've already asked around including Bill Turner. This man Frank Williams and a man Canizares were involved in a mission six mos. prior to BOP near Navas Bay. Most were caught and executed the rest imprisoned by Castro, three escaped: Frank Williams, Canizares and my father Paul Hughes. Could you ask Enrique for me? Thank you.

Hi Christy,

I can tell you that Frank Williams was Franklin Joseph Williams. The other guy was Horacio Canizares.

Robert Kennedy, Enrique 'Harry' Ruiz-Williams and James Donovan below.

James

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Thanks James

I’ve seen the name you mention but couldn’t find much on Franklin Joe. Any searches come up with the black activist exiled in Cuba or the history prof at Univ of Miami involved w/Cuban refugee programs. Franklin Joseph Williams is also called “Mike” by State Dept according to Gordon’s site. State of course knew who he was and he wasn’t Mike according to the Bahamians and State dispatches, so don’t know how he got the Mike moniker. My search continues so anything you’ve got on Franklin Joseph “Mike” Williams is most helpful.

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Thanks James

I’ve seen the name you mention but couldn’t find much on Franklin Joe. Any searches come up with the black activist exiled in Cuba or the history prof at Univ of Miami involved w/Cuban refugee programs. Franklin Joseph Williams is also called “Mike” by State Dept according to Gordon’s site. State of course knew who he was and he wasn’t Mike according to the Bahamians and State dispatches, so don’t know how he got the Mike moniker. My search continues so anything you’ve got on Franklin Joseph “Mike” Williams is most helpful.

Sorry, Christy, I have nothing on Williams other than what can be found on the web. I tried to research him once in relation to your dad but came up empty. I was told there was a 'Tropic Magazine' article (early 1960's) on Williams but was unable to track it down.

James

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Is it possible that Enrique 'Harry' Ruiz-Williams is the 'Ruiz' mentioned in this document? Just came across it and then saw your post so was wondering.

ORIGINATOR : CIA

FROM : SANTIAGO DE CUBA

TO : DIRECTOR

TITLE : CABLE RE OSCAR ORTIZ.

DATE : 01/14/1959

PAGES : 1

DOCUMENT TYPE : PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

SUBJECTS : FIORINI, FRANK; RUIZ

CLASSIFICATION : CONFIDENTIAL

RESTRICTIONS : OPEN IN FULL

CURRENT STATUS : OPEN

DATE OF LAST REVIEW : 07/02/1993

COMMENTS : JFK2 : F16 : 1993.07.02.09:50:03:590800 :

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Hi Francesca,

Is this available at the national archives? If it is I could get it and make a copy.

John

Hi John

yes it should be available I found it listed on the online search on the NARA website. If you don't mind getting it that would be great thanks. How's it going btw? Have you met Malcolm Blunt yet? He should be able to help you a lot on doing research. Say hello to him from me when you next see him.

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