Failure of the first covert war plan against Cuba

President Eisenhower was pleased to approve on Wednesday, March 16, 1960, what he considered the best proposal to put an end to the Cuban Revolution: the "Covert Action Program Against the Castro Regime", which included intelligence operations, economic blockade, international isolation, terrorist plans, subversion, propaganda and finally direct aggression.

Such measures were discussed and approved that morning at the National Security Council, which included the vice-president, the secretaries of defense, of state, the director of the CIA and other high-ranking officials of his government.

The main objectives of the project were based on the creation of "a responsible, attractive and unified Cuban opposition to the Castro regime", established abroad under a presumed Council of the opposition and which, in addition, would create a secret intelligence and action organization inside Cuba, which would provide a cover for CIA-controlled operations to establish infiltration and exfiltration capabilities for agents, as well as arms and explosives shipments.

The "Covert Action Program Against the Castro Regime" foresaw the creation of a paramilitary force outside Cuban territory and logistical capabilities for covert military operations on the island, which gave rise to mercenary camps in the US and Central America to form the mercenary brigade that would invade the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961.

OAS actions were included to condemn the Caribbean island for facilitating communist infiltration in the continent and to promote its international diplomatic isolation and the economic, commercial and financial blockade; it was also determined that US companies operating in the island would provide support and financial resources for the plan along with the CIA budgets authorized for that purpose.

The media war was based, mainly, on the installation on the Honduran island of Swan of a CIA radio station that would systematically broadcast propaganda, elaborated in the main center of the Agency to undermine popular support for the Revolution and its maximum leader Fidel Castro.
All the measures were to coincide with counterrevolutionary uprisings in the country, as a whole in the mountainous regions that would allow the establishment of supposed liberated zones, which as bridgeheads would justify northern support or the invasion of mercenary forces, with the support of the White House in the climax stage.

Although not included in the "Covert Action Program Against the Castro Regime", plans for the assassination of the leaders of the Revolution, mainly the Commander in Chief, were outlined, which was recognized in 1975 by the investigations of the U.S. Senate Select Committee to study intelligence activities.

In addition, Section 4 of the CIA's Western Hemisphere Division was created, which would expand into the organization of the agency's J. Waves Base in Miami, the largest on U.S. territory.

This first program was the most aggressive applied by Washington against a territory in the Western Hemisphere and was only surpassed by what would become Operation Droshop, a plan for a surprise attack with more than 300 atomic devices to be launched by thousands of US and NATO planes against the USSR, the People's Republic of China and countries of the socialist bloc of Eastern Europe, which was not carried out when in August 1949 the Soviets fired their first atomic bomb.

However, the promoters of this program against Cuba could not be described as formal, since before its approval it was applied in practice in all its magnitude: sabotage in the cities, burning of sugar cane, uprisings, terrorist attacks such as the March 4 bombing of the steamship La Coubre, which was carrying arms and ammunition acquired by Cuba in Belgium, which was considered by the Cuban leadership as a prelude to the aggressions.

On March 16, 1960, when the definitive offensive against the Revolution was being planned, hundreds of workers were still repairing the disaster caused by the explosion of that ship, at the so-called Tallapiedra Pier, and the ship itself, leaning against the pier at its berth without its stern, was being provisionally repaired to be towed to France months later.

Its rudder, along with its shaft and part of its steel plates, were conceived by artists as what would perhaps be a precursor work of modern art of denunciation, which since then can be seen on the road next to the pier, since then called La Coubre.

The "Program of Covert Action Against the Castro Regime" began to fail as early as 1960 due to the bravery and capacity of resistance and unity of the people and their historical leadership together with the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Militias, the State Security Organizations, the Internal Order, and other revolutionary groups that successfully confronted each one of the plans to subvert the country and provoke counterrevolutionary outbreaks.

The strategy of the empire has changed little since that first plan, and those applied by the different U.S. administrations continue focusing on breaking the unity of our society and encouraging subversive processes now supported by the new communication technologies and social networks, which constitutes a challenge for the current generations of revolutionaries who, like their predecessors, will know how to rise to the challenges of the new times of aggressions of the powerful neighbor.