Did the US/CIA Support Castro During the Revolution?

[stevemg...@yahoo.com]

A couple of the conspiracy advocates here have stated, with no
qualification, that the US supported Castro during the uprising/revolution
against Batista.

Is that true? From what I've read, not really. There have been allegations
made but no proof of any support.

Remember that during most of this period - from 1952 to 1958 - the US
still supported Batista. The US only stopped providing arms and support to
Batista in 1958. So, there was no interest in supporting any group trying
to oust Batista.

Additionally, the CIA was worried quite early that Castro was a Marxist
and not someone the US should support (in fact he was a Marxist but, as he
admitted, lied about his true beliefs).

Here's a short piece about how the CIA viewed Castro and Batista during
this period. The article suggests a CIA case officer in Cuba did provide
some support on his own to Castro's guerillas. But it was not the official
policy of the CIA/Eisenhower administration to support him. Again this is
because the US still supported Batista and they had grave doubts about
helping Castro.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98921086

Key grafs: "The best CIA reporting on Castro and his followers came from
Santiago, the city at the eastern end of Cuba where the movement was
strongest. Robert Chapman, the chief CIA officer in Santiago, was on his
first field assignment when he arrived in 1957 and found himself in the
center of a revolution."

And: "Some writers have alleged that Chapman covertly aided Castro and his
followers, even that he personally directed $50,000 in CIA funds to the
rebel group. Chapman vigorously denies such allegations, saying he was
suspicious of Castro and dutifully reported that the Cuban had Communist
connections. But Chapman says the CIA officer who immediately preceded him
in Santiago, Bill Patterson, was indeed sympathetic to the revolutionary
movement, and says he doesn't rule out the possibility that Patterson may
have given Castro's movement some material support."

Maybe I have it wrong but I doubt seriously that the US would have been
supporting a suspicious character like Castro when they were still
supporting Batista.

[Anthony Marsh]

On 11/30/2016 10:47 AM, stevemg...@yahoo.com wrote:
> A couple of the conspiracy advocates here have stated, with no
> qualification, that the US supported Castro during the uprising/revolution
> against Batista.
>
> Is that true? From what I've read, not really. There have been allegations
> made but no proof of any support.
>

It's called Plausible Deniability. Just as you guys used to say that
about the CIA's assassination plots using the Mafia. Your cover-up is
falling apart.

> Remember that during most of this period - from 1952 to 1958 - the US
> still supported Batista. The US only stopped providing arms and support to
> Batista in 1958. So, there was no interest in supporting any group trying
> to oust Batista.
>

Yes, but you are not allowed to ask why they stopped supporting Batista
and shifted to Castro. Don't ask about David Atlee Phillips. You're not
cleared for that. SCI.

> Additionally, the CIA was worried quite early that Castro was a Marxist
> and not someone the US should support (in fact he was a Marxist but, as he
> admitted, lied about his true beliefs).
>

That's exactly why they sent Frank Bender to vet Castro.

> Here's a short piece about how the CIA viewed Castro and Batista during
> this period. The article suggests a CIA case officer in Cuba did provide
> some support on his own to Castro's guerillas. But it was not the official
> policy of the CIA/Eisenhower administration to support him. Again this is
> because the US still supported Batista and they had grave doubts about
> helping Castro.
>

OMG, are you saying that was a rogue operation, not approved by Dulles?
I thought you said there is no such thing as a rogue operation and every
little thing must be approved by the President. Or would the
Vice-President do in a pinch?

> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98921086
>
> Key grafs: "The best CIA reporting on Castro and his followers came from
> Santiago, the city at the eastern end of Cuba where the movement was
> strongest. Robert Chapman, the chief CIA officer in Santiago, was on his
> first field assignment when he arrived in 1957 and found himself in the
> center of a revolution."
>
> And: "Some writers have alleged that Chapman covertly aided Castro and his
> followers, even that he personally directed $50,000 in CIA funds to the
> rebel group. Chapman vigorously denies such allegations, saying he was
> suspicious of Castro and dutifully reported that the Cuban had Communist
> connections. But Chapman says the CIA officer who immediately preceded him
> in Santiago, Bill Patterson, was indeed sympathetic to the revolutionary
> movement, and says he doesn't rule out the possibility that Patterson may
> have given Castro's movement some material support."
>
> Maybe I have it wrong but I doubt seriously that the US would have been
> supporting a suspicious character like Castro when they were still
> supporting Batista.

The shift came in 1958.


Recalling Castro's Ascension — And CIA Reaction
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January 1, 200912:03 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
Tom Gjelten 2010

Tom Gjelten
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Enlarge this image

A banner depicting Fidel Castro and a guerrilla leader hangs in downtown
Havana. Jan. 1 marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, when
Fulgencio Batista was forced to flee Cuba.
Rodrigo Arangua/AFP/Getty Images
In Depth
Fidel Castro: From Rebel To El Presidente Feb. 19, 2008
Castro's Health And Cuba's Future Feb. 19, 2008

Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba 50 years ago today. Dictator
Fulgencio Batista, reviled as a corrupt tyrant, fled the island in the
early morning hours as Castro's rebel forces entered Havana, and people
poured into the streets on New Year's Day to celebrate.

The U.S. reaction to Castro's victory was mixed: Batista was seen as a
reliable ally almost to the end, but Castro had supporters inside the
U.S. government. Many were in the CIA — the very agency that would soon
try to overthrow him.

Swift Collapse Of Batista Regime

For people in the United States, the story of Castro and his ragtag
guerrillas triumphing over Batista's army could hardly have been more
dramatic.

"The forces of Castro's 26th of July Movement, named for the anniversary
of his first attack on the regime in 1953, have grown vastly. Nearly two
years of hit-and-run warfare culminated in victory as 1958 ended,"
announced one U.S. newsreel, featuring scenes of Castro's men arriving
in Havana to a wild reception. "Now Batista has fled. A new leader is on
the scene — Fidel Castro — in many ways an unknown quantity in his
politics and policies, but certain to be dominant in Cuba's new era just
begun."

The uncertainty surrounding Castro stemmed in part from the raucous
scenes that accompanied his triumph. On Jan. 1, 1959, his supporters
stormed the casinos in Havana hotels, tearing them apart as symbols of
the Mafia-controlled gambling world that Batista had allowed to flourish
on the island.

"I slept the next two nights in the lobby of the Hotel Nacional because
we started evacuating American citizens," says Wayne Smith, then a young
U.S. diplomat based at the embassy in Havana. "Not that there was really
any danger, but a lot of people — a lot of American citizens who were
there as tourists — wanted to go. They wanted to get out of there, so we
organized an evacuation from the lobby of the Hotel Nacional."

In Washington, officials were shocked. The U.S. had stopped sending arms
and ammunition to Batista a few months earlier, but the speed with which
his regime collapsed caught President Dwight Eisenhower and his
administration by surprise.

Historian Thomas Paterson, the author of Contesting Castro, points to a
meeting of Eisenhower's national security team on Dec. 18, 1958, just
two weeks before Castro took power.

"Eisenhower is told by Allen Dulles, the CIA director, and others that
the rebels are moving very fast from the eastern part of the island to
the central part, and Eisenhower says, 'Well why wasn't I told this
before?' " Paterson says.

Widespread Support For Castro

It is now known that there were many U.S. reports about Castro's
popularity in Cuba and about Batista's loss of support, but apparently
those reports weren't all passed on to higher levels. The U.S.
ambassador in Cuba, Earl E.T. Smith, was a strong Batista supporter, and
those who knew him say Smith was in denial right to the end about the
strength of Castro's movement.

"Earl Smith did not trust Castro at all," says Jay Mallin, a
correspondent for Time magazine in 1958 who had many meetings with
Smith. "He thought he was a Communist even back then, and he did
everything he could to prevent him coming in."

Smith was a political appointee, not a professional diplomat, and he
didn't always pay close attention to his political officers or to the
CIA agents assigned to Cuba at the time.

Wayne Smith, who was a vice consul at the embassy, recalls that the CIA
officers he knew were predicting Batista would be overthrown.

"From talking to them in the snack bar and at parties, I had the
impression that most of the guys in the station didn't think Batista
could win," Smith says. "They probably would have preferred to see some
negotiated solution so that someone other than Castro would come in, but
if that was not possible, then Castro was going to win. They were
realistic enough to understand that."

Collecting Intelligence On Castro

It's the job of intelligence officers to know what is happening in their
countries, and in 1958 Havana, CIA agents were keeping close track of
the rapidly growing revolutionary movement. But Mallin says agents who
got too close to Castro's followers could get in trouble with Earl Smith.

"Put it this way — they were certainly in touch with the underground,
but they would have to be careful because the ambassador was against
it," Mallin says. "So I can see there would be friction."

The best CIA reporting on Castro and his followers came from Santiago,
the city at the eastern end of Cuba where the movement was strongest.
Robert Chapman, the chief CIA officer in Santiago, was on his first
field assignment when he arrived in 1957 and found himself in the center
of a revolution.

"I knew everybody in town, more or less," Chapman says. "The press was
coming through. I would brief them on security, and I later found that
my name was posted in the New York Press Club. If you're going to see
Castro, see Bob, you know?"

Castro was originally from eastern Cuba, and Santiago was a hotbed of
revolutionary activity in 1958. Chapman couldn't have asked for a better
assignment.

"I had most contact with what was the civil resistance movement,"
Chapman says. "They formed a group to support the revolutionaries, and I
had very good contact with them. And I occasionally had contact with the
underground itself, the 26th of July Movement. It was great because
there was action taking place at all times."

Some writers have alleged that Chapman covertly aided Castro and his
followers, even that he personally directed $50,000 in CIA funds to the
rebel group.

Chapman vigorously denies such allegations, saying he was suspicious of
Castro and dutifully reported that the Cuban had Communist connections.
But Chapman says the CIA officer who immediately preceded him in
Santiago, Bill Patterson, was indeed sympathetic to the revolutionary
movement, and says he doesn't rule out the possibility that Patterson
may have given Castro's movement some material support.

"When [Patterson] introduced me to these people that he knew in the
civic resistance movement, I mean, he was wildly embraced. I mean, he
was actually almost loved," Chapman says. "And I thought that very
unusual at the time, that an intelligence officer would have such
relationships with the people in the civic resistance."

Patterson, who died a few years ago, later turned against Castro, as did
many of Castro's U.S. supporters. But Earl Smith, the ambassador, never
got over what he saw as CIA officers' excessive sympathy for the Cuban
revolution. In his 1962 memoir, Smith wrote, "There is no advantage to
the United States in sending an Ambassador to a country if the CIA
representatives there act on their own and take an opposite position."

Smith might have been exaggerating the extent of CIA support for Castro,
but in any case, it didn't last long. Within 15 months of Castro's
triumph, CIA officers in Cuba were seeking out his opponents and
attempting to organize a new counterrevolution.

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>
>

[stevemg...@yahoo.com]

As the article states: "Castro had *supporters* inside the U.S.

government. Many were in the CIA — the very agency that would soon
try to overthrow him."

But again, supporters inside the government is not the same as stating
"the CIA supported Castro." They didn't. Certainly not during the
revolution when the official position was to support Batista and
skepticism about Castros' beliefs.

Again: the CIA did not support Castro during the revolution.

AFTER the revolution Castro had supporters inside the CIA and US
government. But that was because they believed he was a democrat as he,
dishonestly, said he was.

Once it became clear he was a communist - remember in 1959 he shot more
than 700 former Batista supporters - the CIA and US government turned
against him.

[Anthony Marsh]

OMG. You mean you think it was a rogue operation?
You want to start admitting that there is such a thing?

> Again: the CIA did not support Castro during the revolution.
>
> AFTER the revolution Castro had supporters inside the CIA and US
> government. But that was because they believed he was a democrat as he,
> dishonestly, said he was.
>
> Once it became clear he was a communist - remember in 1959 he shot more
> than 700 former Batista supporters - the CIA and US government turned
> against him.
>
>

Fine. How many people did Batista kil? Does prove that Batista was a
Communist?

[josephm...@gmail.com]

https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/history/item/4688-the-betrayal-of-cuba

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3862254-the-fourth-floor

[Anthony Marsh]

On 10/12/2017 8:03 PM, josephm...@gmail.com wrote:
> https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/history/item/4688-the-betrayal-of-cuba
>
> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3862254-the-fourth-floor
>



More JBS kook nonsense. Some CIA officers just could not admit that they
screwed up. JFK did provide air support. CIA HS screwed it up.

Yes, the CIA supported Castro fighting Battista.

[claviger]

On Thursday, October 12, 2017 at 7:03:09 PM UTC-5, josephm...@gmail.com wrote:
> https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/history/item/4688-the-betrayal-of-cuba
>
> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3862254-the-fourth-floor

Very informative. A lot of info I had not seen before.

[Anthony Marsh]

Garbage.

[OHLeeRedux]

Anthony Marsh
- hide quoted text -

No. That would be The Puzzle Palace.