"IN RETURN FOR $53 MILLION IN FOOD & MEDICINE"

FIRST GROUP OF CUBAN POWS FREED BY CASTRO

Havana, Cuba (JFK+50) On December 23, 1962, Cuba's Premier Fidel Castro released the first group of prisoners captured during the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961.

According to the BBC, 107 freedom fighters boarded a Pan American DC6 airliner at "a military airbase near Havana."  By the end of the following day, 1,113 POWS had been returned safely to the United States.

Arriving in Miami by several flights over a two day period, the released prisoners were greeted by 10,000 Cuban exiles.

Their release had been gained through negotiations with $53 million in food and medicines, provided by companies in the United States, to be sent to the Cuban government.

The CIA plan to overthrow Castro was approved by both Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.

SOURCE

"1962:  Bay of Pigs prisoners fly to freedom," On This Day: 24 December, www.bbc.co.uk/ 

 

 

 CIA Cover Report

Bay of Pigs Operation

Top Secret Document

Released 1998 

"WE SHALL EXPEDITE THEIR RETURN AS SOON AS CONDITIONS FACILITATE"

JFK ASKS SECRETARY RIBICOFF TO DIRECT CUBAN REFUGEE ACTIVITY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On January 27, 1961, President John F. Kennedy wrote a letter to Abraham Ribicoff*, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, asking him to... 
"effective February 1, (direct) the Cuban refugee** activities now being conducted by the Executive Branch...and to make an on-the-scene investigation of the problem within the next week as my personal representative."

The President wrote that he wanted the Secretary...

"to make concrete my concern and sympathy for those who have been forced from their homes in Cuba, and to assure them that we shall seek to expedite their voluntary return as soon as conditions there facilitate that."

*Abraham Alexander Ribicoff (1910-1998) was born in New Britain, Connecticut to Jewish immigrants from Poland.  AAR graduated from the University of Chicago Law School (1933) & served as a member of U.S. Congress (1949-1953), Governor of Connecticut (1955-1961), Secretary of H.E.W. (1961-1962), U.S. Senate (1963-1981).

**Cuban refugees (a.k.a. exiles) included 200,000 people who fled Fidel Castro's revolution of 1959.  President Eisenhower set up the Cuban Refugee Emergency Center to offer public services to the exiles.  Today, more than a third of the population of Miami/Dade County, Florida is Cuban.
  
SOURCE

"Letter to Secretary Ribicoff Requesting Him To Undertake Direction of Cuban Refugee Activities,"  January 27, 1961, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, John F. Kennedy, January 20 to December 31, 1961, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1962.

Abraham Ribicoff

United States Congress

I WELCOME YOU TO THE UNITED STATES

RELEASED POWS GREETED BY PRESIDENT KENNEDY

Miami, Florida (JFK+50) On December 29, 1962, President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy welcomed the released prisoners of the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion.

The brigade of anti-Castro Cuban exiles, trained and supported by the CIA,  hit the beach at Cuba's Bahia de Cochinos on April 17, 1961.   The President was presented with the flag of Brigade 2506 by Erneido Oliva*.

The President said...

"I can assure you that this flag will be returned to this brigade in a free Havana.  You are here following an historic road.  You come to us from behind prison walls.  But you leave behind more than 6 million countrymen who are also, in a very real sense, in a prison.  On behalf of my government and my country, I welcome you to the United States."

*Erneido Oliva was born in Havana in 1932 & graduated from the Cuban Military Academy.  EO was the Deputy Commander of Brigade 2506.  LBJ terminated the Special Army Training of Cuban exiles 2 months after JFK's death.  EO was promoted to Captain in the US Army in 1965.

JFK and Mrs. Kennedy in Miami

December 29, 1962

Photo by Cecil Stoughton

JFK Library Image