Don Bohning: Bay of Pigs

[John Simkin]

Don Bohning has agreed to discuss his new book, The Castro Obsession: U.S. Covert Operations Against Cuba, 1959-1965.

For those who do not know his work, Don was for 36 years, foreign correspondent for the Miami Herald. As well as covering Cuba in great detail he reported on the overthrow of Salvador Allende by Augusto Pinochet in Chile, the 1978 Jonestown Massacre in Guyana and the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983.

Bohning has also written extensively about the Bay of Pigs and the attempts to remove Fidel Castro from power in Cuba. This had included carrying out interviews with CIA officials, Jake Esterline and Jack Hawkins.

The book will be discussed here:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=4761

You can find out more about Don here:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKbohning.htm

[John Simkin]

Don Bohning has started answering questions about his his new book, The Castro Obsession: U.S. Covert Operations Against Cuba, 1959-1965. Don knows more about this subject than probably anyone else and so his views are fascinating to read. I hope others will ask him some questions on this topic.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=4761

[Tim Gratz]

John is right! He has a great dialogue with Mr. Bohning, very worthwhile reading.

I hope to read the book in its entirety very soon!

[John Simkin]

Just a reminder about the Don Bohning interview about his book, The Castro Obsession: U.S. Covert Operations Against Cuba, 1959-1965.

The book is being discussed here:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=4761

I found this reply very interesting:

The only occasions I can recall the subject of the JFK assassination coming up were in casual conversations with Oliva and Quintero, both of whom – not surprisingly and without any evidence to support it – believed Castro had a role in the JFK assassination. Both Quintero and Oliva were also very close to Bobby Kennedy and, as I note somewhere in the book, believe that had he lived, Castro would be long gone.

[Tim Gratz]

John, as you know (what an understatement!) I think there (probably) was Cuban involvement in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

I have never suspected Cuban involvement in the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. I am unaware of anyone who has suggested any such involvement. The statements by Quintera and Oliva would certainly provide a motive for Cuban involvement in Robert's assassination as well. But motive alone is insufficient to draw any inference of involvement, and I am unaware of any other evidence to suggest Cuban sponsorship of the Robert Kennedy assassination.

It is interesting why Quintera and Oliva held that opinion. I know that shortly after Jack Kennedy was assassinated, Oliva was quoted as saying that Kennedy's death doomed the efforts to depose Castro. I wonder whether either Quintera and Oliva had any post 1964 dealings with RFK post-1964 or if there opinions were based only on their dealings with Bobbie in 1963. I shall try to propose that question to Mr. Bohning.

As I said in the "Books" section, it is a very good book and I would commend it to all Forum members.