... the men who risked all in the dark days of 1961

Sunday we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the saddest day in Cuban history, the invasion at the Bay of Pigs. It should be a day of reflection for Cubans on both shores. The fighting lasted for several days — Cubans fought and killed one another while the two super powers stood on the sidelines and observed. During the few bloody days of combat all Cubans fought with conviction and honor. But one side (Brigade 2506) was under-equipped, poorly advised and, worst of all, betrayed.

Over the last few weeks I’ve had an opportunity to speak to veterans of those dark days of April, 1961. I have always been amazed by the humility with which many of the Brigade members tell their stories. In fact, there are many Brigade 2506 members in the community, and you would never know that half a century ago they were abandoned in Cuba by the Kennedy administration, left to fend for themselves on a beachhead. They are our grandfathers, neighbors, friends and, sometimes, few know of their plight.

The victors always write history, and in the case of the Brigade 2506 they had lost the battle before they even set sail for the Bay of Pigs. They were the unfortunate victims of the inexperience of incoming President Kennedy and the poor planning and arrogance of outgoing President Eisenhower.

The original plan to combat the Castro regime commenced under Dwight D. Eisenhower. It took quite a bit of time for the CIA and the State Department to concur that Fidel Castro was a pawn of the Soviets. The delay turned out to be a costly intelligence calculation — sound familiar?

The original scheme to unseat Castro was crafted by the same group (led by the likes of Howard Hunt, later of Watergate fame) that destabilized and eventually deposed the left-leaning Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954. I guess they never understood that Fidel Castro was not Arbenz, and the situation in Cuba was far different from that in Guatemala.

The original plan was to aid the underground opposition within the island. Alberto Muller, a brave 20-year-old student leader at the time who had battled Batista’s regime and was then working in the underground movement, recently told me that the United States would have been better served to continue that course of action.

“There was a legitimate opportunity to help Cubans free themselves. Although many, if not most, were still under Castro’s spell, there were a significant number of Cubans who saw through the communist charade and were willing to fight it any way they could. Many times we had to turn them away because we had no weapons or supplies.” Muller was captured during the Bay of Pigs invasion in the Sierra Maestra mountains. He served 15 years in prison.

As the Kennedy administration came into power in 1960, JFK inherited the plan. Instead of perfecting the strategy, Kennedy became obsessed with keeping “plausible deniability.” The strategy was inexplicably changed from guerrilla warfare to a full-on invasion. Nearly 1,600 Cuban exiles were trained and promised support albeit “no direct intervention.”

“The air would be ours or so we were told,” commented Julio Gonzalez Rebull, another young student who had volunteered to go to the camps in Guatemala to train for the invasion.

The mission was compromised from the outset — fewer supplies and less equipment and logistical help were provided than originally promised. And much worse, no air support was given. The invading men were easy targets for Castro’s fighter planes, which were supposed to be wiped out during bombing raids that were at first lessened and then cancelled altogether by Kennedy and his advisors days before the invasion.

Brigade 2506 veteran pilot, Eduardo Barea, who flew multiple missions over the beach called Playa Girón, asked me: “What if the invaders at Normandy would have been as poorly supported as we were? What would have happened then?”

The Brigade fought to the last bullet and with that they preserved the dignity and the hope that has sustained Cuban exile for 50 years. These men still among us are heroes. Sunday we should honor them all.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/16/v-print/2169602/honor-the-men-who-risked-all-in.html#ixzz1JiQNoON8