Lisa Howard and the March 1964 Offer to Expel the Russians
Kept secret under Top Secret/Eyes Only markings, a 1964 gambit indicates Fidel Castro was ready to trade Soviet influence for a guarantee of his own survival.
By Constance Bell ·
Cuba
James B. Donovan and the 1963 Bid to Pry Cuba from Moscow
Kept secret under "Eyes Only" restrictions, a 1963 report details a gamble to exchange prisoners by promising a diplomatic thaw the agency never intended to deliver.
By Desmond Okafor ·
William Donovan and the 1963 Plan to Fracture Castro's Cabinet
A secret trip to Havana and a meeting in Palm Beach show a president abandoning exile assets to pursue a palace coup kept hidden from the diplomatic corps.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Joseph Califano and the CIA's Private Spy Network in Bogota
A 1963 report kept secret for decades details the funding of Colombian businessmen to spy on their own government and the training of U.S. assets in Cuban guerrilla camps
By Harlan Pryce ·
Two Cuban Diplomats and the Cement Drum in Rio Lujan
A Secret/Eyes Only FBI memorandum from 1976 tracks the disposal of two kidnapped officials, whose identities were erased by state terror and hidden for 36 years
By Desmond Okafor ·
J.K. McDonald and the Top Secret Scrubbing of the Bay of Pigs
The men who died on the beach in 1961 were left to history's mercy while the Agency spent two decades refining a narrative that kept the real architects in the shadows.
By Desmond Okafor ·
37 Colombian Guerrillas and the CIA's Secret Tally
A secret CIA tally from 1963 kept a count of Colombian revolutionaries trained in Havana, while the names of those targeted for neutralization remained blacked out.
By Desmond Okafor ·
Havana and the KGB's 1995 Malware Campaign
Kept under Secret//Noforn markings, this record details how Soviet and Cuban agents targeted American computer systems using malicious software to erode national security.
By Vera Kessler ·
Cuban Relief Violations and the State's Sanitized Fraud Files
While the U.S. enforced a fuel blockade to force regime change in Cuba, the funds meant for relief were shuffled into 'fraud' files to hide where the assets actually went.
By Desmond Okafor ·
Paul Austin’s Alzheimer’s and the Failed Cuban Summit
A private emissary's cognitive decline allowed unauthorized promises of an embargo lifting to reach Havana, forcing the State Department into a desperate campaign of damage control.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Joseph Califano and the Secret Machinery of Cuban Assassination
Kept from public view until the JFK Act forced their inclusion in the assassination records, these files track the CIA's plots to kill Fidel Castro and the Army's plans to invade Cuba.
By Desmond Okafor ·
José Basulto and the 1996 Paper Trail to a Shootdown
Civil aviation warnings were used to distance the White House from Cuban exile pilots who were shot from the sky after flying over Havana.
By Desmond Okafor ·
15 Days to Clear Missile Units After Castro Blocked UN Inspectors
Castro viewed UN inspectors as a humiliation and confirmed a U-2 pilot died because he could not bail out, while the Soviets pushed to lift the US quarantine.
By Roy Castellano ·
Joint Chiefs Studied 'Contrived Incidents' to Spark Military Action in Cuba
Government censors have scrubbed the specifics of a 'contrived incident' meant to provide a casus belli, leaving only the blueprint for armed recovery of pilots expected to be shot down.
By Roy Castellano ·
Nikita Khrushchev gambles on satellite legitimacy to ground U-2 spy planes
Khrushchev maneuvered to end U-2 flights over Cuba and evade arms inspections, all while the Kremlin kept its own public in the dark about American surveillance.
By Marcus Boone ·
Kennedy orders 15 aircraft to verify IL-28 bombers in Cuba
Soviet promises left the administration skeptical and watching, demanding 15 aircraft to track bombers and set strict conditions for a promised non-invasion pledge.
By Vera Kessler ·