23 April 1965, beginning the tremendous, heroic effort of revitalizing the Lumumbist forces to make them the nucleus of a new liberation army which would halt the enemy offensive and begin to recover the positions that had been lost. It was too late, for the Congolese people’s rebellion was being wiped out by enormously superior enemy forces.
—“Cuban Involvement in Liberation Efforts in the Congo,” Government Printing Office, Havana, Cuba, 1995
[ ONE ]
TOP SECRET
1820 GREENWICH 25 APRIL 1965
FROM STATION CHIEF, BUENOS AIRES
TO DIRECTOR, CIA, LANGLEY
COPIES TO SOUTH AMERICAN DESK
MR SANFORD T. FELTER, COUNSELOR
TO THE PRESIDENT
THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON
THE FOLLOWING RECEIVED FROM US ARMY OFFICER ASSIGNED US EMBASSY BELIEVED TO BE CONTROLLED BY MR. FELTER. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THE INTELLIGENCE FOLLOWING BE REGARDED AS THE EQUIVALENT OF CIA RELIABILITY SCALE FIVE. IT IS TRANSMITTED IN ITS ENTIRETY AND VERBATIM.
START
DEAR FRIENDS:
THANK YOU FOR THE INFORMATION REGARDING THE TOURING CUBANS.
Under captain santiago terry, who is both a skilled guerrila and a dedicated communist, approximately one hundred thirty (130) negro cuban soldiers are en route by truck from camps pita 1 and pita 3 in pina del rio province to the port of matanzas where they will board the cuban vessel “uvera,” a small freighter. THEY ARE CARRYING WITH THEM A QUANTITY OF SMALL ARMS AND OTHER WAR MATÉRIEL.
THE CAPTAIN OF THE “UVERA” HAS OBTAINED FROM THE OBLIGING CAPTAIN OF THE GREEK FLAGGED VESSEL “ACHILLES,” NOW IN THE PORT OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA NAUTICAL CHARTS (INCLUDING TIDES) OF THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA, SPECIFICALLY OF THOSE LEADING TO THE PORT OF POINTE NOIRE IN THE FORMER FRENCH CONGO (CONGO BRAZZAVILLE). THE “UVERA” IS SCHEDULED TO SAIL AT 0400 CUBAN TIME 27 APRIL 1965.
UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES IT SEEMS REASONABLE TO PRESUME THAT OUR MEDICAL FRIEND HAS DECIDED TO TEST THE EFFICACY OF REINFORCING HIS ARMY OF LIBERATION VIA CONGO BRAZZAVILLE.
AND SPEAKING OF OUR FRENCH AND GERMAN FRIENDS, YOU MIGHT WISH TO KEEP AN EYE, AS WE AND OUR MUTUAL GERMAN FRIEND ARE, ON THE FRENCH JOURNALIST REGIS DEBRAY, AND THE ARGENTINE/EAST GERMAN HAYDEE TAMARA BUNKE, WHO CALLS HERSELF TANIA. AN EXCHANGE HERE WOULD BE HELPFUL, TOO.
WITH OUR BEST REGARDS TO ALL OF YOU
END
J.P. STEPHENS
STATION CHIEF BUENOS AIRES
TOP SECRET
[ TWO ]
The Situation Room
The Pentagon
Washington, D.C.
05550 28 April 1965
Colonel Sanford T. Felter was in uniform. He was well aware that among the uniformed laborers in the Pentagon, the term “civilian” was almost always preceded by an—unspoken—profanity, “Goddamn.”
His uniform wore the General Staff Identification Badge, and hanging around his neck on a dog-tag chain was a plastic identification badge, with a photograph of him in uniform. Its color and stripes identified him as an officer authorized access to the most secure areas of the Pentagon, including the offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—the offices of the Chairman, the Chiefs of Staff of the Army and Air Force, the Chief of Naval Operations, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps—and the Situation Room.
He sat, sipping at a mug of tea, in the rear of three rows of theaterlike seats against the wall. There were other colonels, and some one- and two-star generals and admirals, and a half-dozen (“Goddamn”) civilian officials in the other seats. Felter was reasonably confident that if anyone noticed him at all, it would be presumed he was a gofer for one of the very senior Army general officers seated at the curving table between the seats and the wall of cathode-ray-tube displays.
The cathode-ray displays showed the location of American forces—a fleet of USAF C-130 transports with a regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division and a U.S. naval force of a hundred-odd ships—heading from the United States toward Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.
The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two-thirds of an island 500 miles long and 150 miles wide, which sits 50 miles east of the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and about as far west of Puerto Rico. Haiti occupies the western third of the island.
The President of the United States had decided it was necessary to establish an American military presence in the Dominican Republic in order to preserve peace, protect lives, and keep its government from being overthrown by Communists.
The 82nd Airborne would jump on Santo Domingo at 0555 hours. It was believed the element of surprise would permit the paratroopers to land without serious opposition, seize the airfield, and prepare to receive reinforcements, which would be landed by—not parachuted from—a second and third wave of C-130s.
The transport aircraft would be protected both by USAF fighters from