Presidential X-Files: Fidel Castro and the Kennedy Assassination
Among the many theories as to who was behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy is one that places the blame of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The Cuba strongman was certainly one of Kennedy's nemeses, having thwarted Kennedy's proposed assistance to Cuban rebels in the botched Bay of Pigs invasion, and having allowed the Soviet Union to install nuclear bases on the island just south of Florida.
It was Castro who planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, first launching a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. After a year's imprisonment, Castro traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group known as the 26th of July Movement, along with his brother Raúl Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara. When he returned to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution. He led the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. This led to Batista's overthrow in 1959, at which time Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's head of state. The United States opposed Castro's government for bringing communism so close to home. The US government unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by assassination. But like many of the Warren Commission's finding, many did not accept this and some conspiracy theorists continue to allege that it was Fidel Castro who ordered the assassination of Kennedy in retaliation for the CIA's previous attempts to assassinate him.
One of the leading proponents of this theory in the early 1960s, was Clare Boothe Luce, the wife of Time-Life publisher Henry Luce. She was one of a number of prominent Americans who helped to finance and support anti-Castro groups. This support included funding exiles in commando speedboat raids against Cuba. In 1975, Clare Luce claimed that on the night of the assassination, she received a call from a member of a commando group she had sponsored. According to Luce, the caller's name was "something like" Julio Fernandez and he claimed he was calling her from New Orleans. She said that Fernandez had told her that Oswald had approached his group with an offer to help assassinate Castro. On further investigation of Oswald, Fernandez said that he and his associates learned that Oswald was a communist and was a supporter of Castro. On learning this, his group kept a close watch on Oswald. He said that Oswald suddenly came into money and went to Mexico City and then Dallas. Luce claims that she was warned by Fernandez that "there is a Cuban Communist assassination team at large and Oswald was their hired gun."
Luce said that she told the caller to give his information to the FBI. Luce disclosed the details of her communications with Fernandez with both the Church Committee and the HSCA. Both committees investigated the incident, but were unable to uncover any evidence to corroborate these allegations.
In May 1967, CIA Director Richard Helms informed President Lyndon Johnson that the CIA had tried to assassinate Castro. Helms further stated that the CIA had employed members of the Mafia in this effort. Helms reported that "CIA plots to assassinate Fidel Castro dated back to August of 1960 — to the Eisenhower Administration." He said that the plots against Castro continued into the Kennedy Administration and that Attorney General Robert Kennedy had known about both the plots and the Mafia's involvement.
Two prominent television newsmen disclosed discussion with Johnson in which the President confirmed with then that Kennedy's assassination had been organized by Castro as retaliation for the CIA's efforts to kill Castro. In October 1968, Johnson told veteran newsman Howard K. Smith of ABC that "Kennedy was trying to get to Castro, but Castro got to him first." In September 1969, in an interview with Walter Cronkite of CBS, Johnson hinted at Cuban involvement, though not as directly as he had with Smith. In 1971, Johnson told his former speechwriter Leo Janos of Time magazine that he "never believed that Oswald acted alone".
Fidel Castro always denied the accusations, and in fact, he believed that the assassination was orchestrated by right wing forces who wanted to see Cuba blamed for Kennedy's death. In 1964 he met with Soviet leaders in Moscow to discuss the possible ramifications for Cuba in light of Kennedy's death. In subsequent interviews Castro maintained that Cuba was not a party to the assassination. In 1977, Castro was interviewed by newsman Bill Moyers, a former speechwriter for Johnson. Castro denied any involvement in Kennedy's death, saying: "It would have been absolute insanity by Cuba. It would have been a provocation. Needless to say, it would have been to run the risk that our country would have been destroyed by the United States. Nobody who's not insane could have thought about that."
More recently, when Castro was interviewed in 2013 by Atlantic editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, Castro said: "There were people in the American government who thought Kennedy was a traitor because he didn't invade Cuba when he had the chance, when they were asking him. He was never forgiven for that."
On October 26, 2017, the National Archives made public more than 2,800 files relating to the Kennedy assassination, just hours before the deadline set for their final release by Congress in the 1992 JFK Records Collection Act. President Donald Trump announced he was blocking the immediate release of approximately 300 files, citing concerns from U.S. intelligence and national security agencies. Despite this, the release of thousands of JFK-related documents led to some surprising revelations. This included a transcript of a 1967 cablegram which recounted how a man named Angel Ronaldo Luis Salazar was interrogated at the Cuban embassy in Mexico City the year before by Ramiro Jesus Abreu Quintana, “an identified Cuban intelligence officer,” about Kennedy’s assassination. During the interrogation, Salazar claimed that Oswald was a good marksman, contrary to some reports.
Also, at least two of the documents outline some of the Kennedy administration’s policy and actions toward Castro. According to a 1975 document simply titled “CASTRO,” the CIA was involved in assassination plots against Castro as early as late 1959 and early 1960, even during preparations for the Bay of Pigs. In 1962, a proposal was put forward called “Operation Bounty,” which would create “a system of financial rewards for killing or delivering alive known Communists.” As part of the operation, leaflets were to be distributed via air to Cuba, including one announcing “a .02¢ reward for the delivery of Castro.” The low amount was restricted to Castro himself, and was reportedly meant to “denigrate” the Cuban leader.
Another potential plan, according to another 1975 report, involved getting poison botulism pills to “organized crime figures,” who would then pass them to their Cuban contacts in the hopes of reaching someone close to Castro. The same document also includes an FBI memo stating that Robert Kennedy told the agency that the CIA had hired an intermediary to approach Mafia boss Sam Giancana offering to pay him to hire someone to kill Castro.
Another CIA document containing handwritten notes indicated Oswald may have been accompanied in Mexico by a man dubbed “El Mexicano,” who is believed to have been a Cuban rebel army captain who later defected to the United States. Identified by another source as Francisco Rodriguez Tamayo, he was said to be the head of an anti-Castro training camp in Louisiana.
According to former CIA analyst Brian Latell, the US government knew of Cuban involvement in Kennedy's assassination, but never revealed what they knew for fear of sparking public opinion demanding revenge against Cuba. Latell says that while in Mexico City, Oswald stayed at Hotel del Comercio, considered by CIA to be the base of Cuban spies working for their secret service DGI. Thomas Mann, the American ambassador to Mexico, had disclosed that he received that information from the head of CIA agency in Mexico, but when he tried to mention this issue in Washington, U.S. Department of State forced him to keep silence and stop the investigation on Oswald’s visit in Mexico.
According to Latell, only a week after the assassination, Mann was convinced of Cuban participation in the crime and about the fact that Oswald worked for Cubans in that hotel. Mann was dismissed a month after the JFK assassination. He died in 1999. Latell claims that the CIA hid this fact from the Warren’s Commission who later concluded that there was no evidence that Cuban government participated in the plot to kill Kennedy. Latell is now a senior research associate at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami, he previously taught for a quarter century at Georgetown University.
In the end the evidence is sparse on whether or not Oswald was working for the Cubans, and whether he was part of a Cuban hit squad who killed Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Strong evidence such as the Zapruder film, acoustical evidence accepted by the Church Committee and the extreme improbability of the Warren Commission's "magic bullet theory" provide very strong counter-arguments to the conclusion believed by many that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. But as time passes, it is highly unlikely that we will ever know who all was responsible for Kennedy's murder.
It was Castro who planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, first launching a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. After a year's imprisonment, Castro traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group known as the 26th of July Movement, along with his brother Raúl Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara. When he returned to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution. He led the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. This led to Batista's overthrow in 1959, at which time Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's head of state. The United States opposed Castro's government for bringing communism so close to home. The US government unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by assassination. But like many of the Warren Commission's finding, many did not accept this and some conspiracy theorists continue to allege that it was Fidel Castro who ordered the assassination of Kennedy in retaliation for the CIA's previous attempts to assassinate him.
One of the leading proponents of this theory in the early 1960s, was Clare Boothe Luce, the wife of Time-Life publisher Henry Luce. She was one of a number of prominent Americans who helped to finance and support anti-Castro groups. This support included funding exiles in commando speedboat raids against Cuba. In 1975, Clare Luce claimed that on the night of the assassination, she received a call from a member of a commando group she had sponsored. According to Luce, the caller's name was "something like" Julio Fernandez and he claimed he was calling her from New Orleans. She said that Fernandez had told her that Oswald had approached his group with an offer to help assassinate Castro. On further investigation of Oswald, Fernandez said that he and his associates learned that Oswald was a communist and was a supporter of Castro. On learning this, his group kept a close watch on Oswald. He said that Oswald suddenly came into money and went to Mexico City and then Dallas. Luce claims that she was warned by Fernandez that "there is a Cuban Communist assassination team at large and Oswald was their hired gun."
Luce said that she told the caller to give his information to the FBI. Luce disclosed the details of her communications with Fernandez with both the Church Committee and the HSCA. Both committees investigated the incident, but were unable to uncover any evidence to corroborate these allegations.
In May 1967, CIA Director Richard Helms informed President Lyndon Johnson that the CIA had tried to assassinate Castro. Helms further stated that the CIA had employed members of the Mafia in this effort. Helms reported that "CIA plots to assassinate Fidel Castro dated back to August of 1960 — to the Eisenhower Administration." He said that the plots against Castro continued into the Kennedy Administration and that Attorney General Robert Kennedy had known about both the plots and the Mafia's involvement.
Two prominent television newsmen disclosed discussion with Johnson in which the President confirmed with then that Kennedy's assassination had been organized by Castro as retaliation for the CIA's efforts to kill Castro. In October 1968, Johnson told veteran newsman Howard K. Smith of ABC that "Kennedy was trying to get to Castro, but Castro got to him first." In September 1969, in an interview with Walter Cronkite of CBS, Johnson hinted at Cuban involvement, though not as directly as he had with Smith. In 1971, Johnson told his former speechwriter Leo Janos of Time magazine that he "never believed that Oswald acted alone".
Fidel Castro always denied the accusations, and in fact, he believed that the assassination was orchestrated by right wing forces who wanted to see Cuba blamed for Kennedy's death. In 1964 he met with Soviet leaders in Moscow to discuss the possible ramifications for Cuba in light of Kennedy's death. In subsequent interviews Castro maintained that Cuba was not a party to the assassination. In 1977, Castro was interviewed by newsman Bill Moyers, a former speechwriter for Johnson. Castro denied any involvement in Kennedy's death, saying: "It would have been absolute insanity by Cuba. It would have been a provocation. Needless to say, it would have been to run the risk that our country would have been destroyed by the United States. Nobody who's not insane could have thought about that."
More recently, when Castro was interviewed in 2013 by Atlantic editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, Castro said: "There were people in the American government who thought Kennedy was a traitor because he didn't invade Cuba when he had the chance, when they were asking him. He was never forgiven for that."
On October 26, 2017, the National Archives made public more than 2,800 files relating to the Kennedy assassination, just hours before the deadline set for their final release by Congress in the 1992 JFK Records Collection Act. President Donald Trump announced he was blocking the immediate release of approximately 300 files, citing concerns from U.S. intelligence and national security agencies. Despite this, the release of thousands of JFK-related documents led to some surprising revelations. This included a transcript of a 1967 cablegram which recounted how a man named Angel Ronaldo Luis Salazar was interrogated at the Cuban embassy in Mexico City the year before by Ramiro Jesus Abreu Quintana, “an identified Cuban intelligence officer,” about Kennedy’s assassination. During the interrogation, Salazar claimed that Oswald was a good marksman, contrary to some reports.
Also, at least two of the documents outline some of the Kennedy administration’s policy and actions toward Castro. According to a 1975 document simply titled “CASTRO,” the CIA was involved in assassination plots against Castro as early as late 1959 and early 1960, even during preparations for the Bay of Pigs. In 1962, a proposal was put forward called “Operation Bounty,” which would create “a system of financial rewards for killing or delivering alive known Communists.” As part of the operation, leaflets were to be distributed via air to Cuba, including one announcing “a .02¢ reward for the delivery of Castro.” The low amount was restricted to Castro himself, and was reportedly meant to “denigrate” the Cuban leader.
Another potential plan, according to another 1975 report, involved getting poison botulism pills to “organized crime figures,” who would then pass them to their Cuban contacts in the hopes of reaching someone close to Castro. The same document also includes an FBI memo stating that Robert Kennedy told the agency that the CIA had hired an intermediary to approach Mafia boss Sam Giancana offering to pay him to hire someone to kill Castro.
Another CIA document containing handwritten notes indicated Oswald may have been accompanied in Mexico by a man dubbed “El Mexicano,” who is believed to have been a Cuban rebel army captain who later defected to the United States. Identified by another source as Francisco Rodriguez Tamayo, he was said to be the head of an anti-Castro training camp in Louisiana.
According to former CIA analyst Brian Latell, the US government knew of Cuban involvement in Kennedy's assassination, but never revealed what they knew for fear of sparking public opinion demanding revenge against Cuba. Latell says that while in Mexico City, Oswald stayed at Hotel del Comercio, considered by CIA to be the base of Cuban spies working for their secret service DGI. Thomas Mann, the American ambassador to Mexico, had disclosed that he received that information from the head of CIA agency in Mexico, but when he tried to mention this issue in Washington, U.S. Department of State forced him to keep silence and stop the investigation on Oswald’s visit in Mexico.
According to Latell, only a week after the assassination, Mann was convinced of Cuban participation in the crime and about the fact that Oswald worked for Cubans in that hotel. Mann was dismissed a month after the JFK assassination. He died in 1999. Latell claims that the CIA hid this fact from the Warren’s Commission who later concluded that there was no evidence that Cuban government participated in the plot to kill Kennedy. Latell is now a senior research associate at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami, he previously taught for a quarter century at Georgetown University.
In the end the evidence is sparse on whether or not Oswald was working for the Cubans, and whether he was part of a Cuban hit squad who killed Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Strong evidence such as the Zapruder film, acoustical evidence accepted by the Church Committee and the extreme improbability of the Warren Commission's "magic bullet theory" provide very strong counter-arguments to the conclusion believed by many that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. But as time passes, it is highly unlikely that we will ever know who all was responsible for Kennedy's murder.