MILITARY AID OR KILLER DEAL: U.S. WEAPONS TRADE AND MILITARY TRAINING IN THE CARIBBEAN, 1790 - 2001 Guest Speaker: Dr. Humberto Garcia Muñiz

OPERATION MONGOOSE

Operation Mongoose was a program under Kennedy. Kennedy just wanted to get rid of Castro. It was just that. So he put Robert Kennedy in charge of the Mongoose program and they took the exiles and sent them for training. But in the month that the Mongoose operation was going to be held, came the missile crisis. And out of the missile crisis came the intent, the agreement, that the U.S. was not going to invade Cuba. The Soviet Union did not believe that. Fidel Castro did not believe that. That is why the Soviet Union arms Cuba to the extent that it is armed. Because at that time the revolution had a lot of support and if you arm the people, you are going to have a bloodbath. So it continues up to there when they see that they can not do anything and they disband these forces.

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