Editor's Note: Part II came out yesterday. I deliberately chose not to publish Part I when it came out last Saturday in
order to publish Parts I and II at the same time. This is a story that
can't be told often enough, and no one tells it as well as Humberto
Fontova, who has graciously allowed be to publish his work for some
years. You may wish to view my Humberto Fontova file. For those who may have wondered at the utter contempt I've expressed for JFK over the years, this will explain it, as this was the most vile act of his corrupt life. RK
Humberto Fontova Apr 09, 2022 @ Townhall.com
“I really admire toughness and
courage, and I will tell you that the people of this brigade (Bay of
Pigs freedom-fighters) 2506 really have that…you were let down by our
country.'' (Donald Trump, addressing Bay of Pigs Veterans at Bay of Pigs
museum Miami Fl, 11/16, 1999.)
“It’s
a great honor and I’m humbled for this endorsement from these freedom
fighters—from TRUE freedom fighters… You were fighting for the values of
freedom and liberty that unite us all. (Candidate Donald Trump,
receiving endorsement of Bay of Pigs Veterans at Bay of Pigs museum
Miami Fl, 10/25, 2016.)
“The Republicans have allowed a
communist dictatorship to flourish eight jet minutes from our borders…We
must support anti-Castro fighters. So far these freedom fighters have
received no help from our government.”(Presidential candidate John F.
Kennedy baiting Richard Nixon during the famous 1960 debates.)
Short
weeks before the debates CIA chief Allen Dulles (on President
Eisenhower’s orders) had briefed Kennedy about Cuban invasion plans
(what became the Bay of Pigs invasion,) so Kennedy was lying through his
teeth. He knew damn well the Republican administration was training
Cuban freedom fighters. And since the plans were secret, he knew damn
well Nixon couldn’t rebut. So Nixon bit his tongue. He could easily have
stomped Kennedy on it. But to some candidates national security trumps
debating points.
To blindside his Republican opponent Kennedy relied
on that opponent's patriotism. Let's face it, Republicans are at a
woeful disadvantage here. Nixon bit his tongue. He could easily have
stomped Kennedy on it. But to some candidates national security (and
those freedom-fighters lives) outweighs debating points.
"We
shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any
friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty,"
proclaimed President Kennedy at his inauguration.
Not
only had KGB satraps the Castro brothers and Che Guevara extinguished
liberty “eight jet minutes from U.S. borders” but had also sent armed
guerrillas to attempt the violent overthrow of five sovereign Latin
American countries, (Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Panama, Venezuela,
Haiti,) had stolen $2 billion from American businessmen at Soviet gun
point after torturing and murdering several U.S. citizens who resisted,
had invited in thousands of Soviet military and police agents, had
kidnapped 50 U.S. citizens from Guantanamo Bay, and jailed and executed
several Americans—all this before the U.S. even started contingency
plans to disturb them.
In fact during this period, the
State Dept. made over 10 back channel diplomatic attempts to ascertain
the cause of Castro’s tantrums and attempt to appease him. Argentine
President Arturo Frondizi (himself a leftist) was the conduit for many
of these and recounts their utter futility in his memoirs. At long last
the U.S. started contingency planning for what came to be known as the
Bay of Pigs invasion.
Surely, in light of all the
factors above, we’re among the luckiest freedom-fighters in modern
history, must have reasoned the Cuban volunteers. Few great powers in
history have had such overwhelming justification for intervening against
a neighboring terrorist enemy than does the mighty USA in April of
1961. And the newly elected, fire-breathing President has gone on
record-- both as candidate and as Commander in Chief of the world’s most
powerful nation-- promising to back us to the hilt against the
Communist regime wrecking our homeland, jailing, torturing and murdering
our families, and subverting half the hemisphere on behalf of the
Soviet Empire.
"Freedom is our GOAL!" Roared Pepe San
Roman to the men he commanded on April 10, 1961. "Cuba is our CAUSE! God
is on our SIDE! ON TO VICTORY!"
Fifteen hundred men
crowded before San Roman at their Guatemalan training camps that day.
The next day they’d embark for a port in Nicaragua, the following day
for a landing site in Cuba named Bahia De Cochinos (Bay of Pigs). Their
outfit was known as Brigada 2506, and at their commander’s address the
men absolutely erupted...
A scene of total bedlam
unfolded. Hats flew. Men hugged. Men sang and cheered. Men wept. The
hour of liberation was nigh – and these men were putting their lives on
the line to see their dream fulfilled. Their dream was a Cuba free from
the murderous barbarism that tortured it, free from firing squads,
torture chambers and the teeming Castroite Gulag. A Cuba where the
chilling command of "FUEGO!" to firing squads would be a horrible memory
and nothing more. A Cuba where patriots served their nation. Not one
where they were beaten, bound, gagged and tied to a stake at dawn, to be
riddled by Russian bullets on the order of KGB satraps.
Terms
like "liberation" were point-blank and crystal clear to these men. No
navel gazing about the merits of "regime change" for them. Babbling
foreigners in sandals and strange robes wouldn’t be the ones greeting
them. They’d be bashing open prison doors and bulldozing down barbed
wire, all right – but their own fathers, uncles, cousins and even
sisters, aunts, daughters would be the ones staggering out to suffocate
them with hugs and sobs.
One of 19 Cubans was a
political prisoner that horrible year. Dozens of American citizens
languished in Cuba’s KGB-designed dungeons too.
Every one of those proud and pumped men (and boys – some
were as young as 16) of Brigada 2506 was a volunteer. A good number had
wives and children. Some were formerly wealthy.
"SEE?!
SEE?!" snivel the pinkos "We told ya! Only those beastly, slave-driving
sugar mill, gambling casino and factory owners opposed Castro!"
Other
freedom-fighters hailed from humble backgrounds …"SEE?! SEE?!" snivel
the pinkos again. "Just like those effete millionaires to sit back and
hire their gardeners and foot servants to recoup their mansions for
them!"
Forget trying facts and logic with Castro and
Che Guevara groupies. You’re better off trying to wean your teenybopper
daughter from her Justin Bieber poster. Point is, Brigade 2506 included
men from every social strata and race in Cuba – from sugar cane planters
to sugar cane cutters, from aristocrats to their chauffeurs. But
mostly, the folks in between, as befit a nation with a larger middle
class than much of Europe of the time.
“My observations
the last few days have increased my confidence in the ability of this
force to accomplish not only initial combat missions, but also the
ultimate objective of Castro’s overthrow. These (Cuban) officers are
young, vigorous, intelligent and motivated with a fanatical urge to
begin battle for which they have supreme confidence they will win all
engagements against the best Castro has to offer. I share that
confidence.”
This was the final report before they hit
the beaches from Marine Col. Jack Hawkins, a highly decorated WWII and
Korea vet, who after escaping from Japanese captivity after the Bataan
Death March, trained and organized Philippine guerrillas then helped
plan the invasion of Okinawa. During the Korean war Hawkins landed at
Inchon and fought his way out of Red Chinese encirclement at the famous
battle of “Frozen” Chosin Reservoir. I’d say Col. Hawkins qualified as a
good judge of military morale.
“In war morale forces are to physical as three to one,” famously said Napoleon Bonaparte.
(Tune in next week when we hit the beaches with Brigada 2506.)
The Bay of Pigs: The Sickening Truth Part II, The Battle is Joined
"They fought like Tigers," wrote a CIA officer who helped
train the Cuban freedom-fighters who landed at The Bay of Pigs 61 years
ago this week... "But their fight was doomed before the first man hit
the beach."
That CIA
man, Grayston Lynch, knew something about fighting -- and about long
odds. He carried scars from Omaha Beach, The Battle of the Bulge and
Korea's Heartbreak Ridge. But in those battles, Lynch and his band of
brothers could count on the support of their own chief executive.
At
the Bay of Pigs, Lynch and his band of Cuban brothers learned -- first
in speechless shock and finally in burning rage -- that their most
powerful enemies were not Castro's Soviet-armed and led soldiers massing
in Santa Clara, Cuba, but the Ivy League's Best and Brightest dithering
in Washington.
Lynch trained, in his own words,
''brave boys most of whom had never before fired a shot in anger." Short
on battle experience, yes, but they fairly burst with what Bonaparte
and George Patton valued most in a soldier -- morale. They'd seen the
face of Castro/Communism point-blank: stealing, lying, jailing,
poisoning minds, murdering.
They'd heard the chilling
"Fuego!" as Castro and Che's firing squads murdered thousands of brave
countrymen. More importantly, they heard the "Viva Cuba Libre!" from the
bound and blindfolded patriots, right before the bullets ripped them
apart. They set their jaws and resolved to smash this murderous
barbarism that was ravaging their homeland. And they went at it with a
vengeance.
“Where are the planes?!” kept crackling over U.S.
Navy radios 61 years ago from a Cuban beachhead. “Where is our ammo?!
Send planes or we can’t last!” The pleas came from Commander Jose San
Roman as Soviet tanks, Soviet artillery and tens of thousands of
Soviet-led troops pounded the 1400 Cuban freedom-fighters he commanded
on a bloody and heroic beachhead now known as the Bay of Pigs.
The
same heartsick (some actually sobbing) U.S. Navy men listening to these
pleas had escorted these freedom–fighters to that beachhead. Their
ships—including the aircraft carrier Essex groaning under a heavy load
of deadly Skyhawk jets-- sat just offshore.
"If things
get rough," radioed back the heartsick CIA man who helped train and
befriended them, “we can come in and evacuate you."
"We
will NOT be evacuated!" San Roman roared back to his friend Lynch. "We
came here to fight! We don't want evacuation! We want more ammo! We
want the planes that were promised! This ends here!
Camelot’s
criminal idiocy as the freedom-fighters battle savagely against
outrageous odds finally brought Adm. Arleigh Burke of the Joints Chief
of Staff, who was receiving the battlefield pleas, to the brink of
mutiny. Years earlier, Adm. Burke sailed thousands of miles to smash his
nation's enemies at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Now he was Chief of Naval
Operations and stood aghast as new enemies were being given a sanctuary
90 miles away!
The fighting admiral was livid. They
say his face was beet red and his facial veins popping as he faced down
his commander-in-chief that fateful night of April 18, 1961. "Mr.
President, TWO planes from the Essex! That's all those Cuban boys need,
Mr. President. Let me order...!"
JFK was in white tails
and a bow tie that evening, having just emerged from an elegant social
gathering. "Burke," he replied. "We can't get involved in this."
"WE put those Cuban boys there, Mr. President!" The fighting admiral exploded. "By God, we ARE involved!"
Finally,
JFK relented and allowed some Skyhawk jets to take-off from the Essex.
One of these pilots quickly spotted a long column of Castro’s Soviet
tanks making for the freedom-fighters. The Soviet tanks and trucks were
sitting ducks. "AHA!" he thought. "Now we'll turn this thing around!"
The pilot started his dive...
"Permission to engage denied," came the answer from his commander.
"This
is crazy!" he bellowed back. "Those guys are getting the hell shot out
of them down there! I can SEE it!!" Turned out, JFK had allowed them to
fly and look -- but not to shoot!
Some of these Navy
pilots admit to sobbing openly in their cockpits. They were still choked
up when they landed back on the Essex. Now they slammed their helmets
on the deck, kicked the bulkheads and broke down completely.
"I
wanted to resign from the Navy," said Capt. Robert Crutchfield, the
decorated naval officer who commanded the destroyer fleet off the Bay of
Pigs beachhead. He'd had to relay Washington's replies to those pilots.
A
close-up glimpse of the heroism on that beachhead might have sent those
Essex pilots right over the edge. As JFK adjusted his bow tie in the
mirror and Jackie picked lint off his tux, the men of Brigada 2506 faced
a few adjustments of their own. To quote Haynes Johnson, "It was a
battle when heroes were made." And how!
We call them
"men," but Brigadista Felipe Rondon was 16 years old when he grabbed his
57 mm cannon and ran to face one of Castro's Stalin tanks point-blank.
At 10 yards he fired at the clanking, lumbering tank and it exploded,
but the momentum kept it going and it rolled over little Felipe.
Gilberto
Hernandez was 17 when a round from a Czech burp gun put out his eye.
Castro troops Soviet-led were swarming in classic Soviet human-wave
fashion but he held his ground, firing furiously with his recoilless
rifle for another hour until the swarm of Reds finally surrounded him
and killed him with a shower of grenades.
By then the
invaders sensed they'd been abandoned. Ammo was almost gone. Two days of
shooting and reloading without sleep, food or water was taking its
toll. Many were hallucinating. That's when Castro's unmolested Soviet
Howitzers opened up, huge 122 mm ones, four batteries' worth. They
pounded 2,000 rounds into the Brigada's ranks over a four-hour period.
"It sounded like the end of the world," one recalled year later to your humble servant here.
"Rommel's
crack Afrika Corps broke and ran under a similar bombardment," wrote
Haynes Johnson. By now the invaders were dazed, delirious with fatigue,
thirst and hunger, too deafened by the bombardment to even hear orders.
So their commander had to scream.
"NO RETREAT!" stood and bellowed company commander Maximo
Cruz to his dazed and horribly outnumbered men. "We stand and fight!"
And so they did….and wrote as glorious a page in military history and
the annals of freedom as you’ll ever read.
Right after
the deadly shower of Soviet shells, more Soviet tanks rumbled up.
Another boy named Barberito rushed up to the first one and blasted it
repeatedly with his recoilless rifle, which barely dented it, but so
rattled the occupants that they opened the hatch and surrendered. In
fact, they insisted on shaking hands with their young captor, who an
hour later was felled by a machine gun burst to his valiant little
heart.
These things went on for three days.
The
Brigada's spent ammo inevitably forced a retreat. Castro's jets and Sea
Furies were roaming overhead at will and tens of thousands of his
Soviet-led and lavished troops were closing in. The Castro planes now
concentrated on strafing the helpless, ammo-less freedom-fighters.
"Can't
continue,” crackled over the navy radios. It was San Roman again. "Have
nothing left to fight with...out of ammo...Russian tanks in
view...destroying my equipment." Then the radio went dead.
"Tears
flooded my eyes," wrote CIA man and multi-deocrated WWII hero Grayston
Lynch. "For the first time in my 37 years I was ashamed of my country."
When
the smoke cleared and their ammo had been expended to the very last
bullet, when a hundred of them lay dead and hundreds more wounded, after
three days of relentless battle, barely 1,400 of them — without air
support (from the U.S. Carriers just offshore) and without a single
supporting shot by naval artillery (from U.S. cruisers and destroyers
poised just offshore) — had squared off against 21,000 Castro troops,
his entire air force and squadrons of Soviet tanks. The Cuban
freedom-fighters inflicted over 3000 casualties on their Soviet-armed
and led enemies. This feat of arms still amazes professional military men.
“They
fought magnificently and were not defeated,” stressed Marine Col. Jack
Hawkins a multi-decorated WWII and Korea vet who helped train them.
“They were abandoned on the beach without the supplies and support
promised by their sponsor, the Government of the United States.”
"We
shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any
friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success
of liberty!" proclaimed Lynch’s Commander-in-Chief a year earlier.
