The failures of Deputy Secretary Lester D. Mallory

On April 6, 1960 Lester D. Mallory (1904-1994), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, in a memorandum declassified in 1991, acknowledged that most Cubans support Fidel and advised that “every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba (…) a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of Government."

These fascist designs to drive a people to despair by provoking hunger, disease and hardship of all kinds, have been permanent and unalterable principles of the U.S. blockade since then, as have the subversive and aggressive actions organized in that country against Cuba.
In the early 1990s, as part of the Cold War and the establishment of a presumed U.S.-ruled unipolar world, it seemed the right moment for such a strategy to succeed.

In 1994, nearly three years into the collapse of the USSR and the socialist bloc, which deprived Cuba of more than 70% of its foreign trade, a violent propaganda campaign was launched to foster violence and counterrevolutionary insurrection in the Island and to encourage illegal departures in hijacked ships and airplanes, a move likely to give the U.S. the excuse that would justify an allegedly humanitarian military intervention.

On August 5 that year, an atmosphere of great tension prevailed around Havana’s seafront avenue and nearby neighborhoods that soon escalated into vandalism and attacks against state facilities, vehicles, the police and revolutionaries in general. Then the Commander in Chief showed up in the area to, as he himself said, receive his share of stones, but before that he strictly ordered his bodyguards and the military to refrain from using firearms.

Fidel's presence at the head of those who boldly defended the streets sufficed for the revolutionary people to reject the uprising down the line, based on the historical leadership capacity that he always exuded since the Sierra Maestra mountains, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the October Crisis and so many other battles.

The events proved once again the revolutionary values and principles of the Cubans and their unconditional loyalty to our history and top leaders, and it also led to the establishment of August 5 as the Day of Loyalty to the Homeland.

On that day, the predictions of the late Mallory, who died in June that year, became evident. His legacy was not discarded, since his successors renewed his theories in times of social networks and the Internet, using manipulative logarithms that raise deception to levels of social stupidity and digital marketing appellations such as color revolutions, soft coups and cognitive wars, among others.
It is worth remembering that 28 years after that day—on July 11, 2021—the time was ripe for the U.S. to concoct fresh subversive actions against Cuba, in the midst of the international health and economic crisis caused by COVID-19 and worsened by a stronger-than-ever blockade.
However, in spite of the U.S.’s technological advantages and its control over most social networks, they miscalculated the degree of popular support for the Revolution, as they did the legacy of the Commander in Chief, embraced by the current leaders and their people, to put an end in a matter of hours to the second failure of the followers of the infamous Lester D. Mallory, this time on July 11, 2021.