JFKA, Cuba, LBJ

[Benjamin Cole]

JFKA scholars can hardly agree on anything, but I think we can say a ton of leads point to the Cuban exile/intel community, and possibly the CIA JM Wave station in Miami (more than 400 officers there, and the only CIA facility, other than HQ, on US soil). Some people favor US Army intel as possible assassins, and that possibly through Alpha-66. But again, the word "Cuba" is prominent. 

James H. Johnson wrote a book in 2019 entitled Murder, Inc.: The CIA under John F. Kennedy

The book is interesting. Excerpted below. 

One view on JFK is that the CMC happened, and then JFK displayed solid diplomatic skills to prevent a nuclear holocaust. 

This view leaves out some details, such as JFK installing Jupiter nuclear-tipped missiles into Turkey in 1961, within range of Moscow. 

JFK also authorized the BoP regime-change op in 1961, and Operation Mongoose. In 1962, the Kennedy Administration devised plans for a 261,000-troop invasion of Cuba, which Castro obviously lacked the conventional forces to withstand. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/10/30/u-s-planned-261-000-troop-invasion-force-cuba-newly-released-documents-show/813376001/

I believe JFK's aim was not to recolonize Cuba on behalf of American capitalists, but to try to establish a working liberal democracy there. The distinction, of course, mattered little to Castro. 

From Johnson's book, and he has some cred: 

 

Some other details:

 

Document 30

Bromley Smith, National Security Council, Draft, “A Covert Harrassment/Sabotage Program against Cuba,” April 16, 1963.

Apr 16, 1963

Source

Gerald R. Ford Library: Rockefeller Commission Parallel File, box 6, folder: “Assassination Materials, Miscellaneous (5).”

 

This comprehensive policy paper by Bromley Smith shows that the Kennedy administration decided to put an end to American restraint and once again committed the CIA to sabotage campaigns against Cuba, “This paper presents a covert Harassment/sabotage program targeted against Cuba; included are those sabotage plans which have previously been approved as well as new proposals.” The paper acknowledges that “While this program will cause a certain amount of economic damage, it will in no sense critically injure the economy or cause the overthrow of Castro.” But it might “create a situation which will delay the consolidation and stabilization of Castro’s revolution…” The paper then summarizes previously approved programs of “subtle” sabotage and makes a series of new proposals, including attacks on shipping by “the placing of explosive devices with suitable time delays on the outside of ships either in Cuban or in non-Cuban ports,” as well as other maritime strikes and attacks on land targets.

(One oddity rarely discussed: LBJ put the kibosh on the anti-Cuba activity). 

Of course, perhaps JFK was just trying to be true to his word. In Dec. 1962 (mere months after the CMC) JFK delivered perhaps the most florid, bellicose, jingo-istic speech in presidential history at the Orange Bowl, to a crowd of anti-Castro supporters. If you don't believe that, then read it:

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-miami-the-presentation-the-flag-the-cuban-invasion-brigade

---30---

Something about Cuba...keeps coming up in the JFKA. 

The view that the CMC just happened, and then JFK extracted the world from a nuclear war...seems like less than half the story. The view that a chastened JFK, post-CMC, then sought peace, especially with Cuba, might need some (heavy) revision.

JFK, by placing nukes into range of Moscow in 1961, could be said to be acting provocatively. Then the Kennedy Administration worked high and low to remove Castro, including through the BoP op, no doubt intimidating Castro. Whether Castro got wind of 1962 Kennedy Administration plans for a 261,000-troop invasion is unknown (at least to me).

So Castro accepted the Russian nukes, lacking any other way to defend himself (btw, I regard Castro as a thug dictator). Russia, with US nukes bristling on the Turkish flank, had their own justifiable reasons for installing missiles in Cuba (from their viewpoint).  

Did JFK trigger the same CMC for which he gets credit for defusing? 

Then, even after the CMC, tempers and hopes regarding Cuba were raised to pitch, within the Cuban exile community, and within related US mercs and intel assets. 

RFK1 reportedly thought there was a Cuban angle to the JFK. When he asked McCone "if your guys did it (the JFKA)," was he referring to CIA Cuban assets? 

[Kevin Balch]

On 8/24/2024 at 6:28 PM, Benjamin Cole said:

Did JFK trigger the same CMC for which he gets credit for defusing? 

Yes, but he was not the only one. The deployment of Jupiter missiles in Turkey was proposed by Eisenhower in 1957 after Sputnik suggested that the Soviets were ahead in ICBM development. Because of the negotiations involved and technical problems with the Jupiters, they were not deployed until JFK was in office. With the Atlas now available as an ICBM as well as the submarine launched Polaris, the Jupiter’s were obsolete even before deployment. The JFK administration did review the deployment but decided to proceed because of the loss of US credibility after the BoP and the Vienna summit and concerns about upsetting the Turks.

Two excellent books on the subject are Sheldon Stern’s Averting the Final Failure and Philip Nash’s The Other Missiles of October.

[Benjamin Cole]

29 minutes ago, Kevin Balch said:

Yes, but he was not the only one. The deployment of Jupiter missiles in Turkey was proposed by Eisenhower in 1957 after Sputnik suggested that the Soviets were ahead in ICBM development. Because of the negotiations involved and technical problems with the Jupiters, they were not deployed until JFK was in office. With the Atlas now available as an ICBM as well as the submarine launched Polaris, the Jupiter’s were obsolete even before deployment. The JFK administration did review the deployment but decided to proceed because of the loss of US credibility after the BoP and the Vienna summit and concerns about upsetting the Turks.

Two excellent books on the subject are Sheldon Stern’s Averting the Final Failure and Philip Nash’s The Other Missiles of October.

Yes. I kept parts of my account brief, for brevity sake. What set the Jupiter missiles apart was their range, they could hit Moscow.

[Kevin Balch]

43 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Yes. I kept parts of my account brief, for brevity sake. What set the Jupiter missiles apart was their range, they could hit Moscow.

They were liquid fueled and took hours to prepare for launch so they were vulnerable to a first strike which led Khrushchev to conclude they were a first strike weapon. He also might have feared that the Turks, a long time antagonist of Russia,  might be able to launch them. This made them especially provocative.