CASTRO RELEASES POWS IN RETURN FOR FOOD, MEDICINE & CASH
Havana, Cuba (JFK+50) On December 23, 1962, Premier Fidel Castro of Cuba released prisoners captured during the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961. The invading force was made up of Cuban exiles secretly sponsored and trained by the United States and authorized by President John F. Kennedy.
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy had sent New York attorney James B. Donovan* to meet with Castro in late August 1962 to negotiate the release of the POWS.
The Premier accepted an offer of $52 million in food and medicine along with $2.9 million in cash.
*James B. Donovan (1916-1970) was a graduate of Harvard University & served as legal counsel for the Office of Strategic Services during WWI. JBD was assistant legal counsel at the Nuremberg, Germany war crimes trial.
JFK+50 NOTE
The planned invasion was initiated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower after Fidel Castro's government aligned with the Soviet Union. The plan was presented to newly elected President John F. Kennedy and with assurances of its success from the CIA and Joint Chiefs of Staff, JFK signed on.
JFK, however, sought to keep U.S. fingerprints off the invasion as much as possible. He cancelled a second air strike which contributed to the operation's failure. Afterwards, the President accepted full responsibility for the fiasco.
JFK reportedly said afterwards, "How could I have been so stupid?"
Airplanes carrying the released prisoners arrived at Miami International Airport on Christmas Eve, 1962.
SOURCES
"Bay of Pigs POWs Released," JFK+50, December 23, 2014, www.jfk50.blogspot.com/
"Brilliant Disaster: JFK, Castro and America's doomed invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs," by Jim Rasenberger, Scribner & Schuster Inc, New York, 2011.
www.jamesbdonovan.com/
