January 1, 1959 came the end of the power of the next "son of a bitch" of the United States. This time the revolution happened in Cuba. The dictator who turned out to be unnecessary was called Fulgencio Batista.
"Banana" president and dictator Fulgencio Batista
In 1933, Batista himself played a significant role in the overthrow of the "Antillean Mussolini" Gerardo Machado (who in Cuba also received the nickname "president of 1000 murders) - the so-called" sergeant rebellion ". Once at the head of the Cuban army, Batista already on January 5, 1934 "persuaded" President Ramon Grau to resign. Then came the government leapfrog, typical for Latin America: until 1940, when Batista decided that he could already do without puppets, the presidency was occupied by Carlos Mandietta, Jose Barnet, Miguel Mariano Gomez, Frederico Laredo Bru. It was at this time that the money of the American mafia came to Cuba. Active "investors" were Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Castello, Vito Genovese, Santo Trafficante Jr., Mo Dalitz. The pioneers were Meyer Lansky, nicknamed "the accountant of the mafia" and Lucky Luciano, who in 1933, after meeting with Batista, received a patent for opening gambling houses in Cuba. And in 1937, Lansky achieved the adoption of a law according to which gambling in Cuba was not taxed.
It was then that Cuba became a big brothel, as well as a US gambling house. Batista even became a minor character in the movie "The Godfather 2" and the computer game of the same name, tk. gambling houses of Cuba fell into the sphere of interests of the movie mafia family Corleone.
Official Washington was very sympathetic to Batista's activities; they did not pay attention to executions or incomprehensible disappearances of Batista's opponents in the White House. Moreover, American businessmen felt at home in Havana, trade was growing, and in December 1941 Cuba even declared war on Germany, Italy and Japan. In 1942, diplomatic relations were established with the USSR, an ally of the United States. Participation in the war consisted mainly in the search for German submarines, one of which the Cuban ship managed to sink. Even E. Hemingway took part in the "hunt" for German submarines on his yacht "Pilar", who managed to get funding from the leadership of the US Navy for this business.
However, according to many biographers of the writer, this "hunt" (which received the proud name "Friendless" - after one of Hemingway's cats) was very much reminiscent of Russian fishing from jokes - because after drinking a good portion of good Cuban rum, German submarines are found much more often, and it is much easier to see them in the sea. In April 1943, the new FBI Director D. E. Hoover, who disliked Hemingway, got the funding for these cruises cut off.
In 1944, Batista unexpectedly lost the election, and moved to Florida for 4 years. In 1948 he returned to Cuba, where he became a member of the Senate. In 1952, on the eve of the next presidential elections, he decided not to be bound by conventions, and organized a military coup, removing Carlos Prio from power. The Soviet government then severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, but US President Harry Truman recognized the Batista government, which, in response, opened the doors wide for American business. The American investments did not bring much benefit to Cuba, since a significant part of the income was withdrawn by investors outside the island, the remaining funds "stuck" to the hands of Batista, his entourage and provincial officials, literally crumbs reached ordinary citizens. And the real economy was on its last legs. In large latifundia, up to 90% of the land was not cultivated, as a result, not only industrial goods, but also foodstuffs were imported from the USA in huge quantities. At the same time, the unemployment rate in 1958 reached 40%. It is not surprising that after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Batista on April 26, 1953 (the storming of the Moncada barracks under the leadership of F. Castro), the army commander Ramon Barkin tried to organize a coup d'etat (April 6, 1956). Since December 1956, a real civil war has been going on in Cuba under the leadership of Fidel Castro and Ernesto che Guevara.
In early 1959, Batista decided not to tempt fate, and fled to the Dominican Republic, taking with him most of the funds from the state bank. He died in Madrid in 1973.
Revolutionary romantics at the head of Cuba
Cuban revolutionaries were not staunch communists: they were patriotic idealists, advocating a welfare state and greater economic and political independence for Cuba. Castro spoke about the socialist choice only in May 1961 - after an unsuccessful attempt at a military coup organized by the United States, which will be discussed in this article. Therefore, it is impossible to say that the hostile actions of the United States against the government of F. Castro were caused by the opposition of the USSR, which, allegedly, already at that time planned to turn Cuba into a large military base directed against the United States. In fact, the main reason for the rejection of the new Cuban government by the Americans was, as usual, purely economic.
January-March 1959 is even called by many American historians a "honeymoon" in relations between Cuba and the United States. Batista had long discredited himself, and not only in Cuba, and therefore American politicians were ready to recognize the next "banana" revolutionaries - provided they followed the "rules of the game." However, the new leaders of Cuba dared to pass a law on control over mineral resources (foreign companies now had to pay the state 25% of the cost of exported resources). And then they further exacerbated their situation with the law on the nationalization of enterprises and property of American citizens. And the main American investors in Cuba at that time were powerful mafia clans that controlled the main source of financial income - the "entertainment sector" (for every taste): brothels (more than 8500 brothels in Havana alone), gambling houses, alcohol and drug trafficking, the most luxurious hotels also belonged. The situation was fueled by numerous Cuban emigrants who had close ties with American businessmen and politicians. In June 1959, talk had already begun that the elimination of Fidel Castro was necessary for "effective cooperation" with Cuba. On October 31, the first draft of a program for such elimination was presented to US President D. Eisenhower. In early January 1960, CIA Director A. Dulles proposed to Eisenhower a plan to organize sabotage in the sugar factories of Cuba, but the president ordered him to think about a more radical program in relation to the leader of the Cuban revolution.
From Pluto to Zapata: Preparing the Invasion of Cuba
On March 17, 1960, US President D. Eisenhower ordered the preparation and implementation of an operation aimed at overthrowing the revolutionary government of Cuba. In addition to the military component, the plan envisaged work to create a single center of the Cuban opposition (in the emigrant environment by this time there were already 184 different counter-revolutionary groups). In Cuba, opponents of the revolution (both local and immigrants) were contemptuously called "gusanos" - "worms." The deployment of radio stations for propaganda broadcasting was also envisaged. General Richard Bissell, CIA Deputy Director for Covert Operations Planning, was appointed in charge of this action. A representative of the Pentagon, Colonel Elcott, who had experience of this kind of actions since the Second World War, was directly involved in the development of the operation of the invasion of the island by the military formations of Cuban emigrants prepared in the United States. It was decided to call the planned operation "Pluto", which clearly hinted at the events of the summer of 1944 (the landing of the allies in Normandy - Operation Neptune). Later this name was changed to Trinidad (Cuban city), then to Zapata. The last name was chosen with humor, and in black, because, on the one hand, Zapata is the name of the Cuban peninsula, but on the other hand, it is the Spanish custom to make a gift by putting a thing in a shoe or shoe.
Already in the second half of March 1960, CIA officers who had previously worked in Cuba were assembled in Miami. At first, there were only 10 such people, but their number was constantly increasing, totaling more than 40. The Cubans recruited for the operation were placed in seven military camps established in Guatemala, as well as on the base of the island of Vieques (Puerto Rico). Later, a transshipment base was organized in Puerto Cabezas (Nicaragua), and an air base was organized here at one of the airfields. The emigrants undergoing military training received a salary: $ 165 a month, to which additional payments were relied on the wife ($ 50) and other dependents ($ 25 each). Thus, the American government spent $ 240 on the maintenance of a family of three. To put it bluntly, betrayal of the homeland was not paid very generously - the average salary in the United States that year was $ 333. The so-called "Brigade 2506" was formed, so named for solidity: the numbering of its members began with the number 2000 - to give the impression of a large military formation. Initially, it was assumed that it would include from 800 to 1000 military-trained Cubans.
They also took care of the ideological substantiation of the future aggression against Cuba: on August 1, 1960, the Inter-American Peace Committee was presented with a memorandum on "the responsibility of the Cuban government for increasing international tension in the Western Hemisphere."
On August 18, 1960, Eisenhower ordered the allocation of 13 million dollars for direct preparation for the invasion (a very serious amount at that time) and authorized the use of the property and personnel of the US Department of Defense for these purposes - the operation against the government of sovereign Cuba began to take on real shape. In the autumn of the same year, the CIA recognized that the hopes for an uprising of the Cuban population against Castro had not come true and the only way to eliminate the unwanted leader was a military operation. Now a violent action was becoming almost inevitable.
On the eve of the invasion
On January 3, 1961, on the eve of the inauguration of the newly elected President John F. Kennedy (January 20), the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba - probably to make it easier for him to make the right decisions on relations with that country. The CIA and the Pentagon were afraid in vain. Kennedy not only did not want the normalization of relations with Cuba, but even reproached Eisenhower for softness and indecision, which resulted in the creation of a "red" state 90 miles from the United States. A little later, it was Kennedy who would authorize the participation of American military pilots in the bombing of Vietnam, the use of heavy combat helicopters in the fight against Viet Cong guerrillas and the use of chemical defoliants.
These preparations did not go unnoticed: on December 31, 1960 at a session of the UN General Assembly and on January 4, 1961 at a session of the UN Security Council, Cuban Foreign Minister Raul Castro Roa made a statement on the preparation of the United States for an armed invasion of Cuba, but to change the plans of the American government it couldn't.
January 26, 1961Kennedy approved a plan for a military invasion of Cuba, increasing the number of Brigade 2506 to 1,443 people and allowing bulldozers (for on-site training at a field airfield) and additional weapons to be handed over to it. Now this brigade had 4 infantry, 1 motorized and 1 parachute battalion, a battalion of heavy guns and a tank company. José Roberto Perez San Roman, a former captain of the Cuban army, was appointed to command the brigade. The brigade was assigned five ships from the former Cuban shipping company Garcia Line Corporation and two American infantry landing ships from the Second World War, eight military transport aircraft C-46 and six C-54. The final touch of preparations for the invasion was the creation in March 1961 of a new "government of Cuba", which remained in Miami for the time being. On April 4, the final plan for the invasion of Cuba (Zapata) was approved.
The plan developed by analysts from the CIA and the Pentagon was quite simple: in the first phase of Operation Gusanos, they were supposed to capture and hold a bridgehead with air support, awaiting a counterrevolutionary uprising. If the rebellion does not start, or is quickly suppressed, a pre-formed "interim government" will land on this bridgehead, which will turn to the Organization of American States (OAS) for military assistance. Thereafter, 15,000 troops will be transported to Cuba from Key West.
The main target of the first attack was the port of Trinidad, but since President Kennedy, wanting to hide the American participation in this adventure, demanded to land troops at night and in a place remote from human settlements, the choice fell on Cochinos (Pigs) Bay - 100 miles to the west. There were comfortable sandy beaches of Playa Giron and Playa Larga and a flat area suitable for arranging an airfield.
Actually, the name Bahía de Cochinos should be translated from Spanish as "the bay of royal triggerfish" - marine tropical fish that are found in abundance in the surrounding waters.
However, the name of these fish (Cochino) turned out to be consonant with the word "pig". And now they don't even remember about triggerfish.
On the eve of the main operation, a detachment of 168 people was supposed to conduct a "military demonstration" in the Pinar del Rio area (Oriente province) - in the west of the island.
The landing of the main assault forces was planned on three beaches of Cochinos Bay: Playa Giron (three battalions), Playa Larga (one battalion), San Blas (parachute battalion).
However, American strategists did not take into account that there are swamps on the coast of the Bay of Pigs that limit freedom of maneuver. As a result, the landing units of Cuban emigrants found themselves on a small patch, limited, on the one hand, by the sea, on the other, by swamps, which made it easier for the government troops to destroy them.
Both the emigrants and their American curators pinned great hopes on the actions of the "Fifth Column". However, on March 18, 1961, Cuban counterintelligence struck a preemptive blow, arresting 20 leaders of anti-government cells in a suburb of Havana. On March 20, it was possible to destroy a sabotage group previously directed to the coast of Pinar del Rio. The only successful, but absolutely senseless action by the local "gusanos" was the arson of the largest department store in Cuba - "Encanto" (Havana, April 13, 1961). This fire, in which one completely random person died and several were injured, did not add to the Cubans' sympathy for the "worms".
Operation Zapata
The operation began on the evening of April 14, when the gusanos ships went to sea under the Liberian flag: two landing (LCI Blagar and LCI Barbara J) and five cargo ships (Houston, Rio Escondido, Caribe, Atlantico and Lake Charles). On these ships, in addition to members of the 2506 Brigade, there were 5 M41 Sherman tanks, 10 armored personnel carriers, 18 anti-tank guns, 30 mortars, 70 bazooka anti-tank rifles, about 2,500 tons of ammunition. While they were moving towards the southern coast of Cuba, American ships constantly maneuvered off the northern coast of the island, which sometimes entered the territorial waters.
On April 15, 8 unmarked B-26 bombers, taking off from the airfield of the Puerto Cabezas base (Nicaragua), went to Cuba with the aim of destroying military airfields, fuel depots and transformer stations. In the future, their pilots had to go to Florida airfields to declare themselves soldiers of the Cuban army - patriots and opponents of the Castro regime. From their agents among the emigrants, the Cubans learned about the bombing plans in time and successfully camouflaged the planes, replacing them with mock-ups. As a result, this attack did not have serious consequences. At the same time, the Cuban anti-aircraft gunners managed to shoot down one bomber and damage another. Only one of these planes landed at Miami International Airport, its pilot made a statement that he was a deserter of the Cuban Air Force and asked for asylum for himself and his crew, but quickly got confused in the answers to journalists, so the press conference had to be urgently stopped.
Meanwhile, on the night of April 15-16, the American ship "Playa" delivered an auxiliary detachment to the coast of Pinar del Rio, which was supposed to be a landing demonstration to divert attention from the main units. Two attempts to land on the coast were repelled by the coast guard patrols, but they still managed to mislead the Cuban command: 12 infantry battalions were urgently sent to this area.
On the afternoon of April 16, at a distance of about 65 km from the coast of Cuba, the main flotilla of emigrants met with the American squadron under the command of Admiral Burke. The American battle group included the aircraft carrier Essex, the amphibious assault helicopter carrier Boxer (which carried a US Marine battalion) and two destroyers. Nearby, ready to come to the rescue, was the Shangri-La aircraft carrier with several escort ships.
On the night of April 17, the emigrant ships entered the Gulf of Cochinos. Reconnaissance teams in rubber boats made it to the shore and lit the landmark lights.
And the "gray" American radio stations at this time began to broadcast disinformation messages that "the rebel forces began an invasion of Cuba, and hundreds of people have already landed in the province of Oriente."
At three o'clock in the morning on April 17, the emigrants began the landing of the first echelon of paratroopers.
The nearest military units of Cuba were located 120 km from the Cochinos Bay, only a patrol of the 339th battalion (5 people) and a detachment of the "people's militia" (about 100 people) tried to prevent the landing. Then the infantry battalion and the militia of the surrounding towns entered the battle. Martial law and general mobilization were declared in the country. In the morning, a very successful strike on the gusanos ships was inflicted by the aviation of the government forces: both landing ships and two transport ships were sunk. At the same time, the transport planes of the emigrants dropped troops in the San Blas beach area. In the middle of the day, their offensive was stopped (while the Cubans lost one T-34-85 tank). On April 18, the enemy landing forces at Playa Larga were surrounded, but managed to break through to other formations. By the end of the day, the gusanos were blocked in the Playa Giron - Cayo Ramona - San Blas triangle.
By this time, the Cubans had managed to bring the main forces to the scene of hostilities, including 10 T-34 tanks, 10 IS-2M tanks, 10 SU-100 self-propelled artillery mounts, as well as M-30 and ML-20 howitzers. Fidel Castro led one of the tank groups (his vehicle was the legendary T-34-85).
On the night of April 19, a C-46 aircraft managed to land on Playa Giron, which delivered weapons, ammunition and took the wounded.
Things were clearly not going for the emigrants as their American curators had hoped, so on April 19 it was decided to support the landing with air strikes. The Americans refused the help of six Nicaraguan fighters offered by the local dictator Samosa. Five bombers with American pilots (the rebel pilots evaded the mission) took to the air, but missed the cover fighters. As a result, 2 aircraft were shot down by the forces of the Cuban Air Force. In total, the invasion forces lost 12 aircraft of various types: 5 were shot down by anti-aircraft gunners, 7 - by Cuban fighters, which did not suffer losses.
The gusanos forces on the shore continued to suffer losses, in addition to the enemy's manpower, the Cubans destroyed 2 tanks that day. It was clear to everyone that the operation had failed, and in the afternoon two US destroyers (USS Eaton and USS Murray) tried to approach the shore to evacuate the landing, but were driven away by Cuban tanks (!), Which fired at them from the shore.
At 17:30 on April 19, having lost a total of 114 people killed, the gusanos ceased resistance, 1202 fighters from the 2506 brigade surrendered to the authorities.
Cubans escort prisoners gusanos
The CIA lost 10 of its employees during this operation. In addition to small arms, artillery pieces and mortars, 5 M-41 tanks (Walker Bulldog) and 10 armored personnel carriers became trophies of the Cubans. The Cubans, while repelling the landing, lost 156 people killed, 800 were wounded.
Cuban troops combed the surrounding area for another 5 days, after which the operation to repel the landing of emigrants was stopped.
The Americans recognized their participation in the aggression against Cuba only in 1986. However, 40 UN member states condemned the United States. The international prestige of revolutionary Cuba has risen to unprecedented heights. One of the main and far-reaching consequences of this US operation was the rapprochement of Cuba with the USSR.
In April 1962, a trial of the captured members of the 2506 Brigade was held, and in December of the same year they were exchanged for medicines and food for a total of $ 53 million. The US government paid for them, but they were contributed on behalf of the Tractors for Freedom Committee charitable foundation. On December 29, 1962, President Kennedy welcomed the gusanos who arrived in the United States at a ceremony in Miami. And in 2001 (the year of the 50th anniversary of the unsuccessful invasion of Cuba) the surviving members of the 2506 brigade were invited to be honored by the US Congress: Americans do not forget their "sons of bitches" (and "worms") and are not ashamed of them.
