WEBVTT - The Bay of Pigs Disaster 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:03.560 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of five 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:12.680 Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:15.920 I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryan over there, 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:18.680 and Jerry's over there somewhere and the Stuff you Should Know, 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:23.119 and it's about this recording session is off to his 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.840 auspicious to start as the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Chuck, am, 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:31.960 I right, yeah, nice little UH tie in there, Thank 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:34.360 you very much. It's it's what I'm paid to do. 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:38.640 I think so didn't know what they pay us for 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:43.760 to be witty and incisive? I think so. I think 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:49.080 so too, so, Chuck, I know, Um, to my astonishment 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:52.080 that you were not alive during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:55.400 You came along a good decade after that, from what 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:57.520 I understand, in full of years, I didn't want anything 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:00.480 to do with it now, and I can under stand why, 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:04.000 because it was about as big a stinker as far 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:09.400 as foreign policy and military intervention goes UM. Certainly, the 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:12.839 US has made bigger blunders. A lot more people died 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:18.000 um through some of our UH misadventures abroad, but this 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:20.800 one is perennially the one that's pointed to is like 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:26.160 this is really a case study and how terribly wrong 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:30.679 things can go and how decisions were made basically every 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.720 level and at every stage. That that made sure that 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:36.120 that the Bay of Pigs invasion, which was the United 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:42.440 States supporting uh an invasion of Cuba by Cuban dissidents UM, 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:44.400 that that it's about as bad as it can go. 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.360 That that was like the perfect example of that. Yeah, 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:51.120 it almost makes you think that if there was a 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:56.200 God who cared about American politics, that that God was saying, 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:00.840 don't invade Cuba, over and over again, don't invade Cuba. 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.000 And you know I can. I'm pressing all the buttons here. 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:08.680 Everything's going wrong, warning, warning, don't do it right? Or 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:16.320 God really loves Fidel. Well maybe so, because that was 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.880 the whole point, the whole reason that America supported this 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:23.480 UM covert action. Really it went a lot further than 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:27.680 support like drummed up a covert action UM led by 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:33.360 the CIA. The military was secretly involved, it was illegal internationally, 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.440 But the whole reason was to get rid of Castro 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:43.000 because UM on New Year's Day of what ninety nine, 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:49.359 Fidel Castro took control of Cuba from then existing president 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:54.440 Fulgencio Batista and Batista Chuck I wrote up on this guy. 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:57.040 He was a bad dude. He was a dictator. He 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.480 was actually he was the president of Cuba twice. The 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.240 first time he was corrupt, but the country is still 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:05.560 prospered under him, and he was he still looked out 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:09.200 for people. The second time, after an eight year period abroad, 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.800 when he came back, he was just bad news. But 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.399 as far as America was concerned, Uh, they were like, well, 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:19.640 he he lets American companies own most of like the 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:22.440 stuff in Cuba, so we're okay with them. When Fidel 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.200 came along, he said, nuts to that, we're getting the 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:28.040 American involvement out of Cuba and Cuba is going to 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:30.640 take care of Cuba from now on. And America said, 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.560 I'm not sure how we feel about that. Yeah. And 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:36.080 you know, we had our chance to be buddies with 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:39.600 Castro uh at the beginning, Like he came to the 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:43.640 United States and toured America and we we gave him 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:51.000 the the Heisman and he was huh, gave him the heisman, 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:57.040 the Heisman trophy. It's an expression, Oh, I've never heard 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:02.480 that before. You ever seen the hero got you? Yeah? Yeah, sure, sure, No, 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:05.880 I thought you were still like like in like describing 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:08.360 his grand tour and how great it was. I got you. 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:10.880 And then we gave him an honorary Heisman Trophy award. 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:14.600 That's that's where my mind weird, like that's what they 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:18.360 paid me for. Now. It's an expression. Yeah, it might 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:20.600 predate you if I feel like it was an expression 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:25.279 like in the nineties. No, I totally get what you meant. 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:27.720 It was the context that through me. Okay, well we 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:32.000 gave him the Heisman, and uh, he wanted buddy, And 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:34.120 that's when Kruschef came along and he was like, well, look, 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:36.760 Americans aren't gonna be my buddy. I'll be a friend 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:39.800 with you. And that's kind when all got started. We 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:43.599 had our shot. Yeah. Supposedly, though, the Bay of Pigs 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.200 invasion itself was one of the things that really drove 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:49.440 Castro into the arms of Kruscheff. So the whole idea 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:51.680 was to get rid of Castro because we were afraid 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:53.920 he was going to go toward Kruscheff and give the 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:58.440 Communists a foothold in the Western hemisphere, basically in our backyard. 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:03.600 Um and bye bye. Carrying out this bay of pigs invasion. 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:05.599 We made sure that that happened. It's one of the 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:08.960 great ironies of this whole thing. Yeah, because Castro wasn't 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:13.599 looking to be a puppet of the Soviets. That was 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:17.880 not on his docket. Um, and the Soviets really needed him. 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:21.120 I think at the time they they didn't have I mean, 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:23.800 I think they had less than five I C b ms. 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:26.040 I don't think they had anything that could even get 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.720 to the United States at that point. An I c 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:34.280 B M is the worst kind of BM. Uh. Actually, 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:37.360 I think the fiery HOTBEATM so the worst kind. Yeah, 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.760 you're right about that, although it's anyone had an ICBM 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:44.200 because you'd probably be in big trouble. Maybe. But but 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:48.960 Russia needed the Soviet Union needed Cuba way more than 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:53.239 Cuba needed them at the onset. Wow, that's really interesting. 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:55.640 I had no idea about that, because I know that 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:59.640 America was terrified of communism in the Soviet Union in particular, 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:03.440 but also you know, um, they didn't consider China to 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:06.360 be slouch is really as far as the spread of 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:10.599 communism goes. But the Soviet Union seemed really interested in 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:14.479 spreading Soviet style communism throughout the world, and at the 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:18.599 time colonialism was really kind of um the I guess 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:21.960 the European colonial powers were losing their grip on places 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:25.440 in Southeast Asia and Africa, and so there were all 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:28.400 these countries, um, including ones in Latin America that were 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:30.599 kind of I don't want to say up for grabs, 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.040 because I don't mean to undermine, you know, the the 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:36.000 agency of the people who lived and ran these countries, 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:38.560 but they were, you know, these were the these were 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:41.800 becoming the two superpowers in the world, so you you 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:44.880 could fall under their influence that at the very least economically, 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:48.080 if not politically. UM. And so the US was really 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:50.440 worried about the spread of communism. And one of the 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:54.039 things that Dwight Eisenhower IKE, who was president in the 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:58.200 late fifties, warned about was the domino effect where once 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:01.040 you know, you had one country turn communists, it would 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:03.760 spread to another neighboring country, and then another and another, 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:06.720 and all of a sudden, half of Africa's communists. So 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:08.720 we need to be worried about this kind of thing. 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:12.200 So America was really starting to enter like the fear 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:15.600 of that Cold War panic in about the late fifties 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:18.440 early sixties. Yeah. And here's the thing too, When I 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:22.480 say that Russia didn't have capabilities to strike from where 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.040 they were, I'm not sure if we knew that. I'm 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.200 sure there are historians that that know that answer, but 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:30.760 I'm not sure if America knew that. So as I 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:33.560 think that they just you couldn't take any chances. Basically 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:38.840 you had to get um Cuba off the map for 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:42.320 the Soviet Union and not like in like sink the island, 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:44.480 but you know what I mean. No, and at the 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:46.520 very least you could leave the island in tech leave 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:49.240 the island. There's a lot, like a lot of valuable industries, 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:51.240 and like the mob was running casinos down there right 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:53.880 before Castros get rid of Castro seemed to be the 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:58.920 whole thing. Castro and Sha Gavar, Right. So this occurred 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:02.840 to the eyes and our administration CIA, who hatched a 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:08.400 plan that had the ominously c I a E. Title 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:12.960 of a program of covert action against the Castro regime. 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:17.960 And they presented this thing, I believe in them in 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:22.400 like nineteen sixty one, the very beginning of nineteen sixty one, um, 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:24.200 and they went to Eisenhower and they said, look, this 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:27.000 guy really, we all know that he has to go. 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:29.560 But here's what we think is the best way to 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:33.040 do this. We need to get rid of Castro, but 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:34.600 we need to do it in such a way that 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:39.280 it appears that the Cuban people have are are dissatisfied 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:42.600 with his rule and they've turned against him. We need 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.280 to keep our hands off of it. And and for 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:47.920 one reason, because I mean that just kind of seems 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:50.760 like a lot more legitimate of revolution, doesn't it. Like 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.320 the Cubans rose up against Castro, so they really didn't 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:57.600 want Castro around, so nobody should swoop in to help Castro. 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.439 But then, secondly, the US is not allowed to dabble 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:06.040 in other countries affairs. It's illegal internationally to invade a 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.920 sovereign country unprovoked or without reason. And so this was 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:12.120 not a good It wouldn't have been a good look 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:13.760 for the US to be caught doing this. So they 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:15.320 figured the best way to do it would be to 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:18.680 train a bunch of Cuban dissidents and have them just 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:21.480 do it. Yeah, and not only that, they wanted to 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:27.200 create a new government, they wanted to um disperse propaganda 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:31.400 anti Castro propaganda. I mean, it was basically, we want 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:34.400 to topple a regime and install a new government of 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:41.000 our choosing. Uh, and this is completely illegal. And Eisenhower said, sure, 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:43.760 go ahead. Um, this sounds good to me because what 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:46.959 we can't risk is them buddying up too much with 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:50.360 Kruchef and have nuclear weapons. All of a sudden parked 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:54.560 right off our coast, just right. So they went to Miami. 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.920 Which where else would you go to recute recruit Cuban defectors. 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:01.720 Perfect place because they were defecting and there were a 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:06.200 lot of unhappy Cubans that didn't like Castro that uh, 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.240 that left, and and they were they were there just 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:12.600 sort of waiting to be called upon and very willing 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:16.839 to be called upon by the CIA, as it turns out. Yeah, 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:21.120 and apparently when they started like amassing this group of 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.360 of recruits, they first started training them in the Everglades 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:28.520 in Florida, and they learned things like cryptography and demolitions 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.640 and guerrilla warfare and all that stuff. But um, it 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.960 was I guess an open secret or maybe common knowledge 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:38.200 is a better way to put it among Cuban dissidents 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:42.439 in Florida that the CIA was was training a group 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:46.959 down there with the CIA, Bless their hearts, they tried 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:49.439 to at least um make it seem like they weren't 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:51.880 from the CIA, which is a very CIA type thing 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:55.040 to do. So the agents, the CIA agents, said that 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:58.120 they were from a very powerful company that was bent 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:04.000 on on removing Communism from the world, and um, yes, sure. 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:07.040 But then one of the Cuban dissidents with CEI agents 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:09.760 says what And the c I agent said what and 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:11.800 the cat was out of the back. Yeah, and these 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:14.520 were not um, you know, they had to train these 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.480 guys up. There were there were a bunch of students. Obviously, 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:20.880 if you think about dissidents leaving Cuba, you can have 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:24.280 a lot of student involvement. But there were also just professionals. 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.719 There were doctors and lawyers and farmers. Um. There were 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.360 people that were had no money. There were people that 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.199 had quite a bit of money for Cuba, and they 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:36.760 all didn't like Castro though, but none of them, almost 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:40.160 none of them had any kind of prior training and 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:42.480 they were I mean, why this hasn't been made into 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:46.680 a movie yet is just flabbergasting to me, because this 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:50.040 has all the elements of a great movie. Yeah, especially 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:53.200 if you do it from the view of the dissidents 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:55.880 who were trained into a paramilitary group. I think that 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:59.960 would happen to be your protagonists. Yeah, because it's been 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.280 touched on before, like it was in The Good Shepherd, 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:05.520 that that Matt Damon movie about the origin of the 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.440 cia UM they touched on. You know, it's been a 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.320 I believe it's been referenced at least. But yeah, you're right, 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:15.240 there's no blockbuster movie. You know, we're like the Rock 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:20.559 and like Cuban guys who are like you know, they 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:24.160 also form a bromance too. That that that um that 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:26.360 really kind of is a subplot to the whole thing. 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.439 Oh yeah, that's that's how they ruin it, isn't it 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:34.000 with the romances. Just that they're by casting the Rock 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:37.120 and vind Everything he just said sounded awful and exactly 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.480 how it would probably happen. I think Vin Diesel actually 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:44.680 released a record recently which I say props to him. Man, 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:48.400 he's multifaceted. He's a double threat. Is the name of 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:53.120 his one man band, Diesel Fuel. Because if not, it 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:57.079 should be. It's not a bad one. You want to 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:59.839 take a break. Uh yeah, I think says it's a 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:02.480 good great time for a break. Thanks man, I thought 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:04.600 you'd say that. So we're gonna take a break everybody, 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:27.120 in case you hadn't heard, and we'll be right back George. 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:31.400 So uh, Dave russ helped us out with this one, 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:34.920 chuck um and he uh said, we need to be 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:38.040 sure to give a shout out to Jim Rasenberger, who's 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:45.120 a author of the book The Brilliant Disaster JFK. Castro 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:49.000 in America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs, which 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:53.360 is um. I've seen his work referred to multiple places, 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:55.920 so he wrote a pretty good book about it, and 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.560 I guess Dave Russ um learned a lot from him. 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:04.400 So thanks a lot, Mr Razenberger. But um, at where 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:07.560 we left off was there was a group of Cuban dissidents. 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.240 I think they reached uh the ranks of like four 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:15.200 um before they stopped recruiting that were being trained in 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:18.920 the Everglades. But they said, hey, we found this way 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:22.680 better camp in Guatemala. Let's move everybody there to the 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:25.880 to the rainforest because it's a little more like Cuba's 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:29.520 um climate. And uh and we kind of owned Guatemala 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:33.280 right well, Guatemala was at the very least very much 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:35.640 friendly to American interests by this time, because we had 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:41.360 already overthrown uh the I think the ellendeen A government, 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:44.560 if I'm not mistaken. Um, like, we had just done 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.680 that and installed like a pro American regime. So yeah, 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:49.880 this would have been a perfect place to have a 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:54.840 secret CIA training camp for Cubans to train to invade Cuba. 0:14:55.240 --> 0:15:00.000 That's right, thanks to bananas reference to our past epio 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.640 seut on pr. That was such a good one. I 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:06.240 think that's my all time favorite, live at all time favor. 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:09.840 Huh m hmm. I don't know. I'd have to. I 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:12.640 have to look at the list and really give it thought. 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:16.560 It's that one's up there. I also love the the 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:19.880 Kellogg brothers. Those are probably my top two. That was 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:23.360 a good one too, for sure. Why we have to pick, 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.880 Let's just say, yeah, it's so weird and foreign. Remember 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:28.840 when we would go in the room with fifteen hundred 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:33.040 other people and uh, I'll hug each other. I just 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:35.280 broke out in like a cold sweat man at the 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:37.400 idea of that. It's like, it's funny when you watch 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.160 TV shows and they were filmed you know, prior to 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:42.880 the pandemic, You're like, you're standing too close together. Somebody 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:45.400 put on a mask. Yeah, you're making me nervous. You 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:51.240 have anxiety dreams too, about proximity. Uh no, I have 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:54.320 anxiety dreams about politics. See. I have a lot of 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:56.480 anxiety dreams lately. I mean not lately, for the past 0:15:56.600 --> 0:16:00.200 nine months, every like once a week or so about somebody, 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:02.640 you know, being all up in my grill and I'm like, 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:04.520 what are you doing? Like, what are you doing? Get 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:09.400 away from me? Stand back, sir, Which is ironic, because 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.320 I love being close to people physically, I know. I 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:14.880 think that's probably why you have anxiety, is because there's 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:18.400 a tension there, like if you were naturally like stay 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:21.120 over there. I gotta tell you that that part of 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:23.200 the pandemic has been kind of easy for me. Some 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:29.240 standoffice to begin with, you know, Oh goodness, so chuck Um. 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:31.360 One of the things that I thought was kind of 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:34.560 cool about this this group of people, Um, this group 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:37.280 of Cuban dissidents who were trained into a paramilitary group. 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:40.520 The CIA had the foresight to give them serial numbers 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:43.800 starting at number pretty funny, so that if anyone of 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.920 them were caught. They could say, well, my serial number, 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:50.560 and they'd be like, oh my god, there's people ahead 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.440 of them, how and how who knows how many after them? 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:55.960 When in fact, again it was in fact, I think 0:16:55.960 --> 0:17:00.440 their patch said and that had a little air pointing 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:02.920 to it, and then right beside that it said, you see, 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:08.520 yeah it was. It was very elaborate patch. It was 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:10.920 very colorful too, and as a matter of fact, it 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:13.159 stood out a little too much. And then underneath it 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:17.960 said and there's more to come, get it right. What 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:21.040 was under that under that was it's totally not a 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:24.399 made up number. And then below that there was an 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:27.040 arrow that went all the way to the top. Start 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:32.840 over again. So they were actually called Brigade twenty five 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:36.320 oh six, and they named themselves after the serial number 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:39.399 of one of their fallen comrades who died in training 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:43.560 camp in Guatemala. He slipped on a slippery trail during 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.639 an exercise and fell into a ravine. And what was 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:51.200 his name? His name was Carlos Rafael Santana. Carlos Santana 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:55.240 slipped on a banana peel. Oh that Rafael really threw 0:17:55.280 --> 0:18:00.640 me off, but yeah, appeal, no it didn't. But they said, 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:02.879 this is very said, so we're going to name our 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.320 brigade after him, and they did. So that's what they've 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:08.840 always been known by from that moment on this invasion 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:12.040 force of Cuban dissidents as they were known as Brigade 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.400 twenty five oh six. And one of the really amazing 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:19.280 things about Brigade six is, despite being, like you said, 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:23.240 you know, a group of doctors and lawyers and farmers 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:27.359 and fishermen and students and coming from all walks of 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:32.119 life and socio economic status, they actually were trained into 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:36.280 a pretty decent paramilitary group. They fought bravely, they fought 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:39.320 really well, they held their own as we'll see, and 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:43.600 they were doomed from the start, not really by any 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.520 any of their own fault, which must have been incredibly 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:51.960 frustrating for them. Yeah, I imagine. So, I mean, they um, 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:55.000 like I said, they weren't too hard to recruit, like, 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:57.680 they were eager to do this job, and they really 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:01.080 wanted to get Castro out of there. And you you 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:04.600 might think when a new president comes in that things 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:07.639 might change, they might kind of revisit this plan. I 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:11.480 think maybe this's not the best idea. I'm pretty excited 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:13.800 because I get to do my Kennedy. So I'm glad 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:15.119 I got out of there. I have no idea what 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:24.720 he sounded like. Uh, he sounded like this problem. But 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:29.640 Kennedy one in sixty um in no small part due 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:32.359 to the fact that he was He touted being very 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:35.560 tough on communism and on Cuba, and so I said, 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:39.280 let's get him in here. Yeah he was. He came 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:44.320 off as more hawkish about communism in Cuba than Nixon did, 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:47.600 which is funny against Nixon, and Nixon said that he 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:51.720 basically lost because Kennedy seemed like he would do more 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:56.160 about Cuba. And that's kind of, um, one of history's 0:19:56.200 --> 0:20:01.480 great ironies because Nixon, because Kennedy used Nixon and UM 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.120 and Ike of being too soft on Cuba, of letting 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:07.040 this castro fella take power and letting him a mass 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:10.760 power and not doing anything about it. And Nixon had 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:12.600 to sit there and take it because he had been 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:16.200 sworn to secrecy about this plot to train Cuban dissidents 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:21.639 and in vague Cuba, and he couldn't he couldn't be like, actually, 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:24.119 that's not true. We've got this really great plan. Let 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:28.359 me tell you. Viewing audience all about it, so he 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:32.320 had to he had to defend this position of being 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:34.640 soft on Cuba even though he knew they weren't. Well, 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:37.119 Kennedy got to just run circles around him because Kennedy 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:39.919 was an unproven guy who seemed more hawkish on Cuba, 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:42.639 and some people point to that is how Kennedy was. 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:45.000 So when Kennedy when he came in, yeah, I had 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.080 no idea about about that. When he came in, he 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:50.920 really wanted to prove himself in that respect. And the 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:53.399 CIA said, are you sitting down, because we'd like to 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:56.920 drop this opportunity into your lap. And they let him 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:00.720 in on this plan to um in Vague, Cuba with 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:09.200 with Brigade six, and Kennedy said, are um great. Yeah, 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:12.760 They said here's our plan. Uh, Mr New President and 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:15.200 he said the area you can stop calling me that, 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:21.640 Mr President will suffice. And they said, we're gonna take 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:25.080 seven and fifty of these men and we are going 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:29.440 to do a D Day style invasion at dawn on 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:32.359 the beach head in the Bay of Pigs, named so 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:36.440 because well that's the name of it. It's Bahia de 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:40.159 Concinos in Spanish. It's on the southern side of Cuba, 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:45.760 and he said it sounds delicious, And they said, we're 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.399 gonna land on that beach head. We're not gonna we're 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:52.200 just gonna route down there and not take Havana or anything. 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:55.560 Because here's what's gonna happen, Mr. President. They're gonna get 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:59.120 news of this in Cuba and all these anti Castro 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:02.800 Cubans there are gonna know that this is their their moment, 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:06.520 and they've got some army dudes that are involved. They 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:09.800 got some military personnel that are anti Castro, and they're 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:11.880 gonna say, all right, now is our time. We're gonna 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:16.240 rise up to overthrow Castro. And then that's when our 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:20.080 seven and fifty men, who are by the way, totally 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:24.200 disguised as Cuban dissidents, like we're gonna paint planes like 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:26.920 American planes, like they're from Cuba and stuff like that, 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:29.320 like no one's ever gonna know. It's the perfect plane. Yeah, 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:31.840 we've printed we've printed up t shirts for him to say, 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:35.679 down with Castro, with Castro. And he said, that's when 0:22:35.760 --> 0:22:39.520 they're gonna join the fight and join this general revolt 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:42.600 and might take a couple of weeks. Bing bang boom, 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:47.800 easy peasy, and Kennedy said, all right, so that there 0:22:47.880 --> 0:22:50.120 was a key to success in there. That the whole 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:53.440 thing hinged on and from what I can tell, kind 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:58.040 of unwarranted lee. But that was the idea that when 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:02.960 these dissidents attacked Cuba and the word got out that 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:06.200 that Cuba was being attacked, that the Cuban people would 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:09.440 be like to heck with Castro, get him, and would 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:12.160 it would ignite this revolt? And from what I saw, 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:14.280 this was based on a hunch. It wasn't based on 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:18.639 intel or anything. It was based on a hunch or 0:23:18.800 --> 0:23:22.720 even a hope you could possibly say, which that alone 0:23:23.359 --> 0:23:25.639 is a sign that you may be working on a 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:30.800 really bad plan, because anything short of sparking a revolution 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:34.800 internally in Cuba means that this is going to fail. 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:38.600 Like Cuba small, but Castro had a really extensive army, 0:23:38.720 --> 0:23:42.680 tens and tens and tens of thousands of professional soldiers, 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:46.960 plus another I think a hundred thousand UM militia members 0:23:47.160 --> 0:23:49.600 like what we would probably call like the National Guard 0:23:49.720 --> 0:23:54.840 or reservists here UM. So even if there were five 0:23:54.960 --> 0:23:58.840 thousand people or however many, they made it seem like 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:03.399 they were probably going to be overwhelmed if if Cuba 0:24:03.480 --> 0:24:05.680