Cuban Intelligence, the CIA, and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy
February 6, 2012
Latell (After Fidel), senior research associate at the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies, draws on his nearly four decades of tracking Castro for the CIA for this authoritative exposé of “the mysteries and crimes of Cuban intelligence over the last half century.” To augment his extensive knowledge of Castro’s Cuba, the author conducted extensive interviews with defectors from Cuba’s elite intelligence and security services, interviewed CIA officers, and read thousands of pages of declassified CIA documents. Much of what he reports confirms existing knowledge: the details of Kennedy’s “bloody covert war against Fidel”; the CIA’s efforts to assassinate Castro; and Castro’s support for guerrilla movements in Latin America. Latell also uncovers some occasionally shocking new information: that Castro quickly developed an elite spy agency and managed to keep the CIA “ignorant of Cuban capabilities” for decades; that Castro himself was Cuba’s “supreme spymaster”; and that Castro knew about Lee Harvey Oswald’s plan to assassinate Kennedy. Despite his best efforts to link Castro to the assassination, however, Latell manages only to show that the dictator knew more about Oswald than he has admitted. While he documents Kennedy’s obsession with Castro, he fails to ask why. Even so, Latell provides a lively and revealing account of the long intelligence war between the U.S. and Cuba. Agent: Sterling Lord, Sterling Lord Literistic.
February 15, 2012
An analysis of Fidel Castro focusing on Cuban spy activity, by a retired CIA officer who specialized in tracking the Castro brothers. Latell (After Fidel: The Inside Story of Castro's Regime and Cuba's Next Leader, 2005) was bound by his employment contract to submit this book to CIA censors, and he claims they asked for only a few minor changes. Many of the fresh allegations about Castro, his crackerjack spy agency and U.S. efforts to undermine him are based on conversations between the author and Florentino Aspillaga Lombard, "the most knowledgeable Cuban defector ever to change sides." That means the credibility of many of these allegations depend heavily on Aspillaga's credibility, though Latell states that he has no doubt about Aspillaga's memory or the purity of his motives. Perhaps the most dramatic revelation is that Fidel Castro, and presumably his brother, a key member of the Cuban revolutionary autocracy, knew ahead of time that Lee Harvey Oswald would assassinate President Kennedy in Dallas. Latell does not sugarcoat the reasons for the anger of the Castro brothers aimed at Kennedy; rather, the author offers considerable information about how the U.S. government tried continually to overthrow the Castro regime, including plans that could have led to the assassination of one or both Castro brothers. In addition to information about assassination plots, Latell explains how a small island nation built an impressive spy agency. Though the author does not find the CIA wanting, he acknowledges that sometimes the information gathered turned out to be outdated or incorrect. An insider's account that by definition is difficult for outsiders to evaluate because the author and many of his key sources are trained dissemblers.
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Starred review from March 15, 2012
Former CIA national intelligence officer for Latin America and Cuba specialist Latell follows his successful After Fidel with a riveting look inside Cuban intelligence and at the spymaster himself, Fidel Castro. Using declassified government documents and interviews with intelligence operatives on both sides, Latell weaves a story of espionage and double agents worthy of the pages of Tom Clancy or John Le Carre. Much of his story comes from defector Florentino Aspillaga Lombard, who turned in 1987. Lombard's insights alone make for a fascinating tale, but Latell backs his narrative with other sources just as useful. The author's conclusions reveal a Cuban intelligence community that outsmarted their American counterparts time and again. He asserts two debatable points yet supports them with credible sources--that Castro knew of Oswald's plot to assassinate John F. Kennedy and that the Cuban leader pushed for Soviet premier Khrushchev to engage in a nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. VERDICT An outstanding read for Cuba watchers and those who follow Castro's continued machinations against America.--Boyd Childress, formerly Auburn Univ. Lib., AL
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