Forty years after the U.S. Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, five Cuban-American Veterans traveled from Miami to Havana for an International Conference on the invasion. It was the first time they had set foot on Cuban soil since their release from Castro’s prisons in 1963.
A list of notables traveled with them: including Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.; Richard Goodwin; JFK’s sister, Jean Kennedy Smith; and Sam Halpern, the CIA operative who ran the Kennedy-era Operation Mongoose, the goal of which was to assassinate Fidel Castro. Sitting opposite Halpern at the conference -- and heading the the Cuban delegation -- was Castro himself.
For the final day of the conference, the attendees traveled to the Bay of Pigs, advancing along the same roads the Cuban Forces used 40 years earlier to resist the attack. On the beach, the Cuban-Americans walked with their former adversaries. There were tears. There were memories of friends lost. And the Miami Cuban community’s revulsion to these images was assured.
Nonetheless, it was a moment when all who watched could only ask: Why were these men not able to talk 40 years ago instead of trying to kill one other?Forty years after the U.S. Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, five Cuban-American Veterans traveled from Miami to Havana for an Internati...all »Forty years after the U.S. Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, five Cuban-American Veterans traveled from Miami to Havana for an International Conference on the invasion. It was the first time they had set foot on Cuban soil since their release from Castro’s prisons in 1963.
A list of notables traveled with them: including Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.; Richard Goodwin; JFK’s sister, Jean Kennedy Smith; and Sam Halpern, the CIA operative who ran the Kennedy-era Operation Mongoose, the goal of which was to assassinate Fidel Castro. Sitting opposite Halpern at the conference -- and heading the the Cuban delegation -- was Castro himself.
For the final day of the conference, the attendees traveled to the Bay of Pigs, advancing along the same roads the Cuban Forces used 40 years earlier to resist the attack. On the beach, the Cuban-Americans walked with their former adversaries. There were tears. There were memories of friends lost. And the Miami Cuban community’s revulsion to these images was assured.
Nonetheless, it was a moment when all who watched could only ask: Why were these men not able to talk 40 years ago instead of trying to kill one other?«
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