Valdés-Dapena, Jacinto. Anti-cuban radio propaganda used as an instrument of activities and operations by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States- 1960-1980.

By Dr. Jacinto Valdes-Dapena U.S. propaganda against the Cuban Revolution did not begin on January 1, 1959. Even while Cuban liberal sectors were sympathetic to the struggle of the revolutionary forces against the Batista tyranny, important news media such as LIFE and TIME magazines took the opinion that the armed insurrection movement was inspired and managed by international communism, even before 1959. It was precisely this kind of U.S. media propaganda that placed the Cuban Revolution squarely within the scenario of the Cold War…even before the Rebel Forces, the July 26th Movement, The March 13 Revolutionary Directorate and the Popular Socialist Party had taken political power.

The Revolution, whose strategy was contained in the History Will Absolve Me speech, had not yet begun to institute its first acts when the U.S. launched a veritable flood of propaganda denouncing the trials of the war criminals, cases that were legally documented, proven and sentenced according to the laws dictated by the Revolution. This war which is still going on in a systematic and uninterrupted fashion makes use of all propaganda methods and techniques in order to destroy the political, economic, social, legal and ethical fundamentals of the Cuban nation. Tactics vary, depending on changes in scenario; the situation determines the tactics to be used but the strategy has remained the same since 1959.

All of 1959 was marked by an intense class struggle with political, economic and ideological overtones. U.S. diplomacy which had attempted to abort the Revolution during the last months of 1958 with a solution recalling mediation and which literally led to the collapse of the Revolution of 1930, proposed to neutralize the Cuban Revolutionary process by using political forces of a national capitalist nature that were organically linked to powerful U.S. capital; this had been put in place to oppose the dictatorship and establish a reform government that would favour U.S. economic interests, thereby guaranteeing stability and security for the development of U.S. plans for the investment and growth of capital.

The U.S. Embassy in Havana used all contacts and support within the country in order to promote a conspiracy that would overthrow the Revolution. Among its working objectives were political figures that had made up the first Council of Ministers of the Revolution, the bourgeoisie (landowners, sugar industry, import businesses, industrial bourgeoisie not involved in the sugar industry), traditional politicians who had not participated in the dictatorship and had revealed themselves to be well disposed to collaborate in the electoral dirty business and did not agree with the use of armed conflict as a solution to the crisis that Cuban society found itself in, bur rather espoused “civic dialogue”: this was a phenomenon known as “politicking.”

All the leaders of social, economic and cultural associations making up what Marx and Engels defined as “civil society” in The German Ideology, were targets for these activities.

Certain sectors of the middle class were subject and susceptible to this type of influence; others that had actively fought against the tyranny consolidated convictions and positions within the revolutionary volcano that was Cuba at that time.

What can we say about the media: the press, the radio and the television? They certainly played an extremely important role, both as support and as an undermining agent in the revolutionary tide which was impetuously and audaciously tearing down the foundations of a hundred years of imperialist domination on the island.

One by one the enemy’s plans were smashed; the Revolutionary Government cleaned out its ranks when Fidel Castro was appointed Prime Minister in February 1959.

The revolutionary organizations July 26th Movement, March 13th Revolutionary Directorate and the Popular Socialist Party began to coordinate their activities in defence of the Revolution. The Rebel Forces began to forge new organizational structures that would permit them to be battle-ready in those new and complicated days to come.

The CIA was not able to organize any effective counter-revolutionary organization from within Cuban society; the national bourgeoisie and their allies were unable to construct an organized counter-revolutionary opposition.

The Agrarian Reform of 1959 defined territory and positions: one was either with the Revolution or against the Revolution. The disaster of the Trujillo Conspiracy in August 1959 and the traitorous movement headed by Hubert Matos in October of that same year were excellent proof of how strong the Revolution was and how weak the enemy’s manoeuvres were.

Faced with all this evidence, the EisenhowerAdministration decided to commit all its strength into the operations that had been in the works since before 1959: annihilate the Cuban Revolution which, from its birth, was the finest example of the historical confrontation between Cuba and the United States.

When declassified documents were published in the U.S. and interesting documents on the subject of Cuba-U.S. relations during 1959 were pulled together by Cuban historians, it became obvious that the Eisenhower Administration was convinced by this date that the only way to orchestrate a Cuban political and military collapse would be by an armed attack from outside. Because of these documents declassified in recent years by the U.S. government, the Revolution’s theory during the last forty years of confrontation has been clearly substantiated: complex under-cover operations to overthrow the Cuban Revolution have been a reality.

On March 17, 1960, President Eisenhower approved a programme of covert operations against Cuba. Propaganda, especially radio propaganda, was fundamental for the development of these activities.

We must ask the following question: why does radio propaganda acquire such a high priority ranking?

We must agree with the criteria of David Wise and Thomas B. Ross who state: “The appearance of transistor radios in the 50’s intensified one of the most sinister, hidden and less known aspects of the use of electronics in the Cold War. This is the war of the spoken word, taking place in the air waves and used by combatants who are thousands of miles apart and who will never meet each other.”

They continue: “The low cost transistor has given this hidden war a whole new importance. Thousands of people in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia who cannot read, can still be reached with this propaganda method, used by both sides.”

In appreciation of the modus operandi of radio propaganda, the authors conclude: “U.S. radio activities include the full range of public programming, open, well-known and announced by the Voice of America, including CIA top secret transmissions in the Middle East and in other parts of the world. Between them there is a series of radio operations; black, grey, secret and semi-secret. Radio Swan of the CIA never tried to cover up much, due to the fact that it was involved in Bay of Pigs operations….”

It is not foolish to consider, moreover, that the use of radio propaganda for subversive activities was already being intensely and professionally developed against the socialist nations and that USIA had the experience and feasibility studies backing up this decision to use radio propaganda. Operation PB Success against Guatemala in 1954 was an irrefutable demonstration of this operational idea.

In the ideological war of the 50’s and 60’s, where radio propaganda played a central part, U.S. government perception was that this was as important a strategy as the arms race. In President Kennedy’s words on July 7, 1962, speaking to a group of CIA specialists: “As military measures are turning more deadly, and a growing number of nations have access to these, subversive war, the war of guerrillas and other confrontational forms will acquire greater importance. As thermonuclear weapons become more powerful and the opportunities to use them become further reduced, subversive war takes on an increasingly important role.”(1)

In a conference given in the Central Political Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior in 1999: “Of course, it was particularly the use of radio –rather, the use of radio transmitters– that has been most effective, because of its ability to reach the listener directly, and it is precisely this means by which most of the propaganda enters, and it is for this reason that the system has been designed, if we can call it that, made up of a number of radio stations, both legal and illegal, all pointing at our country.”(2)

The programme of undercover operations approved by President Eisenhower on March 17, 1960 defined in detail how to use radio propaganda against Cuba from that moment on. The most important aspects were:

• Creation and use of a high-powered short- and medium-wave radio station.

• The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States would be responsible for the setting up of a station outside the U.S. territorial limits and for having it ready to operate in sixty days.

• Swan Island in the Caribbean was chosen for the station which at the beginning must be top secret but just before beginning transmissions its cover would be that of a commercial station.

• With the support of the U.S. Navy, an airport was built on the island and transmitters and all the equipment for a radio station were brought in.

• On May 17, 1960, Radio Swan commenced transmitting to Cuba.

• Even though the cover for Radio Swan was a commercial radio station, space would be sold to counter-revolutionary organizations, émigré publications, radio stations of counter-revolutionary groups. The radio transmissions were recorded in the U.S. and then sent to the station.

According to declassified CIA documents, Radio Swan became the voice of Cuban counter-revolution both inside and outside of Cuba. These sources also claim that by the end of 1960 the station began to lose credibility as a result of declarations and viewpoints stated by the various groups having programmes. It appears that the squabbles between the various organizations, the absence of a proper message and the use of flimsy and nonsensical information, easily discernible by the audiences, contributed towards the weakening of the station’s public image. Audiences quickly discovered that false information was being transmitted. On one occasion, it was said that there were 3,000 Soviets in a park in Santiago de Cuba, and to show up the lack of coordination among the various transmitting groups, there were programmes that said that militia members who became counter-revolutionaries would be considered to be heroes, while in other programmes they said that they would be hanged..

As the time for the landing of Assault Brigade 2506 drew near, according to the plan set up by Operation Pluto, the CIA took complete control of all the station’s transmissions in order to offer tactical support to the invaders.

From March 27, 1961, Radio Swan only broadcasted information about psychological warfare as it related to Operation Pluto and the counter-revolutionary organizations in Cuba. During the landing of the mercenaries at the Bay of Pigs, information was broadcast as tactical support for the mercenaries: monitoring by stations in Latin America and the Caribbean and by international news agencies revealed that a completely erroneous vision of the facts was being presented.

Once the U.S. special services realized that Operation Pluto was about to fail on the Cuban coastline, the station immediately changed its message in order to give information about the defeat of Assault Brigade 2506, indicating that Soviet armament had deterred the advance of the mercenaries and that these were now on their way to the Escambray Mountains to begin a guerrilla war, joining rebels already operating in the region.

Days later, the station returned to its normal programming, after it had transmitted on a 24 hour schedule during the Operation. It offered news about counter-revolutionary activities but avoided making any comments that would be interpreted as inciting rebellion. In October 1961, it transmitted in short- and medium-wave, from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m., from 12:30 to 2 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 12:15. Programming consisted of news and commercials. In this research, there was access to important OSE considerations regarding anti-Cuban radio broadcasts coming from the U.S. directed against Cuba in the 1960-1961 period.

In a report dated April 7, 1961, an expert states: “Last year the Spanish Voice of America radio station returned to the air. From March of that year, as we have already informed, our Navy Intelligence Bureau (G-2 Naval) had information about U.S. Naval vessel and plane operations on Swan Island, territory belonging to Honduras. Unemployed persons from the Cayman Islands have been contracted and taken to that island to work on the CIA project called “Independent Radio Cuba.”

“At the beginning of May, 1960, the programme “For Cuba and By Cuba” went on the air, transmitted from U.S. territory, and recorded in Miami, transmitted by phone to WRUL studios in New York and from there re-transmitted towards Cuba five times a week at 9 p.m. Andres Vargas Gomez, a traitor and a thief, is the man behind this project; once the editorial material was written, he supervised the transmissions, insulting and lying to our nation and its Revolution which is as Cuban as the palm trees. This programme is the soap-box for loud mouthed individuals like the Leyva brothers, Humberto Medrano, Sergio Carbo, Jose Ignacio Rasco, Nino Diaz, Pewpito Rivero, Ricardo Lorie and others.”

“Since August 1960, the so-called Swan Radio is on the air appearing to be operated by a supposed commercial company, the Gibraltar Steamship Company, based in New York; this is nothing more than a cover for the CIA. They set it up in Swan Island in a short period of time, bringing in equipment and the logistics to ensure the broadcasts against Cuba. It seems that the CIA needs more than their clandestine transmissions and their programmes from Radio Santo Domingo, WRUL and VOA.” “Every evening Swan Radio broadcasts four (4) hours in Spanish and the recordings are made in the U.S., flown in twice a week to Swan Island…” “Swan Radio spreads lies and rumours about our people and our revolutionary leaders…” “Swan Radio is also a CIA communications medium to keep in touch with the terrorist groups that lurk in the Escambray while they flee from our militia members and revolutionary forces that are personally lead by our Prime Minister Fidel Castro Ruz.”

To underline the connection of the station with intelligence activities, the report goes on: “Swan Radio encourages people to turn into traitors, and at the same time coded transmissions send orders to the secret agents of Yankee intelligence who are living in Cuba.”

The expert goes on to note that radio programmes are prepared in Florida to be broadcast to Cuba from the Old Channel of the Bahamas, using the so-called Independent Radio Cuba programme to deliver instructions on how to sabotage the island. Independent Radio Cuba is a private enterprise with six transmitting stations in Florida and Louisiana.

Coincidentally, it is noted that in the port of Matias de Galvez in Guatemala, a ten-kilowatt radio station was set up and its broadcasts are directed towards Belize on announced frequencies. It is possible that the station also transmits to Cuba since “it could also help out if an invasion on Cuban territory were to be announced, given the fact that because of its strength and geographical position, broadcast signals can readily enter Cuban territory. It also adds the following information: “the chauffeur of the Guatemalan puppet Miguel Ydigoras drives to the port of Matias de Galvez twice a week to take tapes recorded by a Cuban in Guatemala City.”(3)

Messages broadcast by Swan Radio are part of the general picture of Psychological Warfare. The following examples are interesting.

On October 26, 1960, in the programme, National Liberation Hour, broadcast by Swan Radio at 8:30 p.m., directed by Enrique Huerta, with the collaboration of Angel del Cerro, Pepita Riera and Luis Conte Aguero, information was revealed about the actions of Operation Peter Pan, organized by the U.S. government as one of its elements of Psychological Warfare against the Cuban nation. The text was:

ATTENTION CUBANS! REMEMBER HOW A FEW DAYS AGO DURING THIS SAME PROGRAMME, LIBERATION HOUR, WE TOLD YOU ABOUT MANY OF THE LAWS THAT WERE TO BE INSTITUTED LATER BY THE GOVERNMENT, LIKE FOR EXAMPLE THE URBAN REFORM, WE TOLD YOU THAT THEY WERE GOING TO DO IT AND THEY DID, SO NOW WE ARE TELLING YOU THIS: THE NEXT LAW WILL BE THAT THEY WILL TAKE AWAY YOUR CHILDREN AGED 5 TO 18 YEARS OLD, THEY WILL TAKE THEM AWAY TO INDOCTRINATE THEM AND WHEN YOU GET THEM BACK THEY WILL HAVE BEEN TURNED INTO A MATERIALISTIC BEAST AND SO FIDEL WILL BECOME THE SUPREME MOTHER OF CUBA.

The same programme also broadcast this, in an effort to sow the seeds of panic in the people: FIDEL IS PLANNING TO GATHER TOGETHER 10,000 MOTHERS AND CHILDREN TO PEACEFULLY INVADE CAIMANERA AND AMONG THIS GROUP THERE WILL BE PRENSA LATINA JOURNALISTS SO THAT WHEN SOLDIERS DO ANYTHING, WHETHER IT WILL BE TO THROW BOMBS OR WATER, PICTURES WILL BE TAKEN AND THE ENTIRE WORLD WILL KNOW WHAT THE PICTURES ARE SHOWING”… …”THAT IS WHY WE ARE TELLING YOU THE MILITIA MEMBERS THAT YOU MUST LEAVE THE RED TYRANNY, YOU MUST RISE UP, BECAUSE IF YOU DO NOT, WHEN THE TYRANNY FALLS, ALL THE DEAD WILL BE AVENGED”…

Supposed broadcasts and agents in Cuban territory are included in the programme Freedom Lightening from the Navy Diary, on October 27, 1960, directed by Jose Antonio Rivero, announcers Arturo Artalejos and Alberto Gandero. The following message reads: BOAC IN EXILE TO BOAC IN THE ESCAMBRAY. I WROTE THE NIECE’S MESSAGE, TO PANCHO VILLA IN THE ESCAMBRAY THEY ARE PREPARING ANOTHER MESSENGER PIGEON THAT WILL BE WELL-LOADED.”

When the Mercenary Brigade invasion began, Swan Radio sent a message that was meant to be an announcement for the entire fifth column, that Operation Pluto had broken out. The message read: “ALERT! ALERT! LOOK CAREFULLY AT THE RAINBOW. THE FISH WILL SOON BE COMING OUT. THE BOY IS AT HOME. VISIT HIM. THE SKY IS BLUE. PUT THE INFORMATION IN THE TREE. THE TREE IS GREEN AND BROWN. THE LETTERS ARRIVED WELL. THE LETTERS ARE WHITE. THE FISH WILL SOON BE OUT. THE FISH IS RED”

What follows are war bulletins prepared by the Psychological Warfare group, directed by David Phillips.

Bulletin No. 1 April 17. Before dawn, Cuban patriots from the cities and from the mountains began a battle to liberate our country from the despotic government of Fidel Castro and to liberate Cubans from the cruel repression of international Communism.

This struggle continues in the glorious tradition of Jose Marti. The uprising of the Cuban people against the tyrannical oppressors has only one aim: the final recovery of Cuba’s freedom.

Today’s historical act is the result of many months’ planning and the efforts of Cubans who at one time had risked their lives in the struggle against tyranny. These patriots today shoulder the ongoing task of saving the revolution which is being cynically betrayed. They represent all walks of life and social groups.

In the course of many months, contacts have been made with the Cuban military community by means of several revolutionary organizations, and today these silent combatants are carrying out missions assigned by the revolutionary commandos.

In their undying desire to ensure freedom, the Cuban people are arming themselves in order to wipe out the despicable foreign oppressor; they are inspired by the dream of an inevitable victory and are convinced that other nations who aspire to the freedom of this hemisphere will join and support the struggle, both morally and materially, in this critical time. There has never been such a just cause.

Bulletin No. 2 April 17. The Cuban Revolutionary Council issues a communiqué about the successful landing of military equipment and personnel in the area of the Bay of Pigs in Matanzas Province.

Overcoming any armed resistance offered by Castro followers, large amounts of food and weapons reached internal resistance forces that are now engaged in active combat.

For several months different revolutionary groups that are now associated with the Cuban Revolutionary Council have been distributing revolutionary material and equipment at selected sites in Cuba.

The remote and sparsely populated area of the Zapata Swamp has been used as an area for the hiding of weapons and equipment that will later be used by resistance fighters in the Escambray and other similar regions.

Wherever the members of the CRC are found actively engaged in these dramatic events taking place in Cuba, their statements shall be communicated to the press solely by the CRC spokesman, Dr. Antonio Silio.

Bulletin No. 3 April 17. The Cuban Revolutionary Council announces that the principal battle against Castro will take place in the next few hours. Today’s action consisted mainly of efforts to supply and support the forces that have been mobilized and trained on Cuban territory in the past few months. The powerful army of invisible patriot-soldiers has received their instructions to deliver the final blow that will liberate their beloved homeland.

Our combatants in every city and town will receive, in a manner known only to them, the message that will unleash the tremendous wave of internal fighting against the tyrant. The spokesman of the CRC stated: “I predict that before tomorrow morning, the island of Cuba will rise up en masse in a coordinated wave of sabotage and rebellion that will sweep away all traces of Communism from our country.”

Evidently, details of the event to come cannot be made public at this time. However, we can reveal that the patriots have been instructed to cut lines of communications, destroy transportation systems and mobilize against Castro.

In addition, we expect that before dawn, the Cuban patriots will be attacking the dwindling numbers of militia who have not yet come over to our side. Our information from Cuba indicates that the majority of militia in the countryside has deserted the Castro cause.

According to the press release of April 16, our clandestine radio station has been delivering instructions to the insurrectional movement throughout the island. In a coded message, yesterday’s broadcast said that “the fish will soon rise up.” It is common knowledge that the fish is a Christian symbol of resistance. When the fish appears in a vertical position it symbolizes that internal rebellion is in full swing. The fish will arise tonight!

Bulletin No. 4 April 18. Peasants, workers and militia are joining the freedom fighters and assisting in the expanded area liberated by the revolutionary commandos.

The Cuban Revolutionary Council announces that the Cuban freedom fighters in the area of Matanzas are being attacked by Soviet armoured tanks and Mig planes which have destroyed a large amount of medical supplies and equipment.

This humanitarian materiel was intended to break the chains of Communism. The Cuban Revolutionary Council is deeply grateful for the countless messages of support and encouragement that are arriving from all over the world. This international solidarity is convincing proof that nations who espouse freedom are rejecting the Communist regime of slavery that Castro has forced on the Cuban nation.

Bulletin No. 5 April 19 Despite the continuous Soviet Mig, armoured tank and artillery attacks, the Cuban Revolutionary Council has concluded the first planned phase of its military operation in the south of Cuba.

This phase included the successful establishing of guerrilla troops in the Escambray Mountains.

Many of our forces from the area of the Bay of Pigs have moved north of Cienfuegos; this has allowed them to reinforce the patriots who are engaged in combat in the mountains.

We can also reveal that additional guerrilla units have infiltrated Matanzas Province. The heroic actions of a small force resisting the Soviet tanks, artillery and aerial attacks during the past 24 hours has made this possible.

Bulletin No. 6 April 19. The Cuban Revolutionary Council would like to make an emphatic and immediate statement in response to surprising uninformed public announcements.

The statement indicates that “several thousand” Cuban patriots fell in combat in southern Cuba. This is a statement that will no doubt please Castro but it will discourage the Cuban people who are anxiously awaiting the moment when the chains that tie them to Communism will be smashed.

The recent landings in Cuba have been constantly, but incorrectly, described as an invasion. In reality, it was a landing of supplies and support for our patriots who have been fighting in Cuba for months now and whose numbers are in the hundreds, not in the thousands.

Unfortunately, we admit to tragic losses in action today in a small force that courageously resisted the Soviet tanks and artillery fire while being attacked by Migs in a heroic action that allowed as many as possible from the landing force to reach the Escambray Mountains.

We did not expect to defeat Castro immediately or without setbacks. It is also true that we cannot expect to confront Soviet weapons sent by the Soviet advisors with no losses whatsoever. We will do it and we will survive!

The struggle for the freedom of six million Cubans continues! In this context it is important to point out some characteristics of these activities, by Swan Radio, on the occasion of the landing of the Mercenary Brigade at the Bay of Pigs. David Phillips had chosen “the fish” as a symbol to represent the counter-revolution because it had been the resistance symbol for Christians in Roman times. In a cable sent to the CIA station in Miami on March 27, 1961, Phillips stated that it was time to inform Jose Miro Cardona, president of the Cuban Revolutionary Council, that the fish would become the CRC symbol.

The religious theme had been used earlier by the CIA in its Psychological War. The first publication by the Revolutionary Democratic Front “Rescue, depicted Fidel as the Anti-Christ; also, Phillips’ delegate at the CIA station in Miami “Douglas Gupton” was connected to Catholic leaders in Florida and Central America in order to coordinate a unified Church response to the Revolution.

In August 1960, David Phillips had contracted a public relations agency in New York, Lem Jones Associates, to take charge of publicity for the activities of the counter revolutionary organizations directed and controlled by the CIA in its Operation Pluto.

The bulletins published herein to demonstrate the events of the invasion, were put together by the Psychological Warfare Group, under Phillips. The CRC really had no hand in this: the leaders were ensconced at a site near Miami, incommunicado with the outside, awaiting the creation of a beach head in Cuba so that they might organize a Cuban provisional government. Then they would have a pretext to ask for U.S. military intervention and thus legitimize direct military aggression against Cuba under the cloak of the OAS.

David Atlee Phillips was the kingpin in the Psychological War against Cuba, both in this phase and later on. Just who was this CIA employee?

In the book The CIA and the Media. Hearings before the Subcommittee on Oversight of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. House of Representatives. Ninety-fifth Congress. First and Second Sessions. December 27, 28, 28, January 4, 5 and April 20, 1979, published by the U.S. Government Press in Washington, 1978, a speech by Phillips as representative of the Retired Intelligence Officers Association is published. It spoke of CIA activity in social communications media. It states: “From 1954 to 1975 I was a professional intelligence officer. Before that I was a free-lance journalist abroad for several years, editor and owner of an English language newspaper and at the same time an intelligence operative.”

He never speaks of his participation in the Psychological War against Cuba and his presence in intelligence before the year 1959.

According to information sources, Phillips was recruited as an under cover agent of the CIA in 1950 in Chile; in 1954 he took part in the CIA group that promoted the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 (Operation PB Success). Between 1958-1960 he was the illegal CIA officer in Havana, using a job in a public relations agency as his cover, obviously monitoring the revolutionary struggle against the tyranny and working on several tasks related to intelligence and political-ideological subversion. He participated in the preparations for an assassination attempt on the Commander in Chief in the second semester of 1961, an attempt frustrated by Cuban State Security. He was the director of plans for Psychological Warfare against Cuba in Operation Pluto of 1961 and Operation Mongoose in 1962. He was active in paramilitary operations launched on the Cuban coast from station JM Wave and he is considered to be the founder of the counter revolutionary and terrorist organization Alpha 66. In 1963, he was involved in anti-Cuban activity from the CIA station in Mexico City. In 1965 he was chief of the CIA station in Santo Domingo, participating in activities against the revolutionary movement headed by Francisco Caamano Deno; later he was chief of the CIA Taskforce for Chile, organized the assassination attempt plan against the Commander in Chief in Chile in 1971, directing CIA undercover activities against the Allende government. He was appointed chief of the CIA Western Hemisphere Division in 1975. He was retired after the Watergate scandal.

Swan Radio was a part of the system of anti-Cuban radio broadcasts designed by the U.S. government to wage the Psychological War, part of the group known as Radio Cuba Libre (Radio Free Cuba) under the direction of Roman Pucinski, expert in Psychological Warfare in the U.S. Strategic Services Office during World War II and having a distinguished service record in the Cold War developing political-ideological diversion activities against the USSR and Poland, promoting dissident groups in those countries.

According to researcher Luis Andres Betancourt in his book Swan Radio: The Voice of the Pigs: “The network designed by Pucinski covered Swan, WROL, WGBS in Miami, WKWF in Key West, WWL in New Orleans, WMIE which survives today as the counter revolutionary WQBA “la cubanisima,” Radio Santo Domingo and Radio Americas. It was also used by naval and air units and specialized personnel acting under cover of the Coast Guard, the Geodetic Survey and other U.S. agencies.”

Something to remember in the radio activities developed by Swan Radio was the connection with the radio station of the CMQ Company, owned by the brothers Goar and Abel Mestre.

The Revolutionary Government of Cuba decided to shut down the station on September 13, 1960 due to the positions taken by its owners to boycott the Revolution.

CMQ was one of the main sources of manpower for Swan Radio: Enrique Huertas, Luis Conte Aguero, Angel del Cerro, Carlos Castaneda, Pepita Riera, Luis Aguiar Leon, just to name a few. It is not surprising that David A. Phillips, journalist and public relations expert, was present during selection processes: this man’s presence in Havana was not always confined to the noble profession of journalism.

The planning of radio broadcasts against Cuba in the period before the Bay of Pigs invasion required the cooperation of the National Security Council, the Intelligence Community and the President John F. Kennedy in the Cuban work carried out by the USIA.

In this respect, the outgoing USIA director Henry Loomis wrote a report for Edward Murrow, the next appointed USIA director. On 10 February 1961, Loomis delivers the balance sheet on Cuban activities developed by the USIA. With respect to resources utilized: USIA

• More than a dozen high-powered short-wave transmitters in the U.S.. Seven transmitters with a total capacity of 559kw for the hour long Spanish language broadcasts each evening at 8 p.m. This programme is re-broadcast an hour later from two transmitters on the west coast with a total capacity of 200kw.

• Besides the short-wave broadcast, the Agency has space on local radio stations throughout all of Latin America. Approximately 140 of these stations re-transmit fragments of short-wave USIA broadcasts. In addition, the USIA contracts for about 400 hours per day on 1,500 radio stations in Latin America.

• The VOA broadcasts 4 and a half hours daily in English on short-wave, for Latin America.CIA

• Swan Radio: a medium wave transmitter of 50kw located on Swan Island off the Honduras coast. Swan broadcasts 6 days a week, 8 hours daily in Spanish and half an hour in English; it also has a short-wave transmitter of 7 and a half kw with the same programmes. The CIA has also used portable transmitters.

PRIVATE RADIO STATIONS

• WRUL has five short-wave transmitters in Boston with a total of 220kw. At the present time they broadcast several hours a day in Spanish and English for Latin America. Even though they broadcast a lot of music, the CIA placed programmes during broadcasts until Swan Radio commenced service.

• Half a dozen commercial medium wave radio stations, can be heard in Cuba, especially late at night. WBGS of Miami has the best coverage; the CIA at present programmes 2 hours in Spanish, one early morning hour and one a bit later.

• WGBS broadcasts 50 kw per day, but it must reduce to 10 kw at night. The CIA tries to get special permission from the Federal Communications Commission to increase the capacity of WGBS, but until today, it has not been able to do so.

Last year a monitoring expert from the VOA visited Cuba and obtained complete exact information about the reception of medium and short-wave transmissions, city by city. It was determined that besides WGBS, stations in Atlanta, Nashville and New Orleans have sufficient reception in certain areas, especially late at night.

FACTS

• There are an estimated 1,100,000 radio sets in Cuba; of these, 10 percent are short-wave.

• In Cuba there are approximately 135 medium-wave transmitters. Even though most of them have a low capacity, at least two of them are 50 kw. Most of these stations are concentrated in urban areas. In general, 25 FM transmitters are used to re-broadcast. Six low potential transmitters are now in use, but a transmitter of 100 kw was acquired last year in Switzerland and will soon be in service.

• Most of the medium-wave transmitters, especially in the Havana area are able to, effectively, block medium-wave stations from abroad. Since radio in Cuba is not independent, it can be assigned the task of interfering with transmissions without affecting regular programming.

• Cuba has attempted to interfere with short-wave transmissions, but it has been difficult. If Cuba would like to do so, it could change the frequencies of its powerful transmitters and interfere with commercial stations in the U.S. as far north as New York and as far west as Mississippi.

• In February 1960, the Senate passed the Regional North American Transmissions Treaty, signed by Canada, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and the West Indies. The treaty which had been on the negotiating table for ten years, assigned certain frequencies and capacities to different countries with the express goal of reducing interference among the countries. If the U.S. broadcasts openly to Cuba on medium-wave bands, it would be a violation of this treaty.

• Due to the above-mentioned, the CIA and the USIA share work against Cuba in the following fashion:

- VOA short-wave transmissions go towards an audience in America. Latin American topics of general interest are discussed. Cuba-U.S. relations are explained not just to Cubans, but to Latin Americans, in an objective non-emotional tone. Short-wave radio broadcasts are associated with the delivery of materiel to local stations for their broadcasts.

- Swan Radio is for Cubans speaking to Cubans. Its goal is to excite the listener, to ridicule and deride the regime. The CIA programme on WGBS, when speaking Cuban to Cuban, is designed to be more objective, to maintain a certain level of accuracy and a more reasonable tone.

- All evidence indicates that both VOA and Swan Radio have a broad audience. Many people listen to both: the VOA is for confirmation of information; Swan Radio is for passion. Many insist that Swan Radio has broadcast many unfounded rumours and so has very low credibility. The CIA is aware of this and is carefully observing the situation, but everyone agrees that Swan Radio tends to excite the listener. It cannot have the same broadcast policy that VOA has. The WGBS programming is just beginning.

- VOA has been requested to build a medium-wave station in Florida. Research has been made. It is not recommended to do so because it would be a violation of the regional treaty on broadcasts; it could interfere in the principal cities and Cuba would have an excuse in Latin America to interfere in U.S. domestic broadcasts.

This has been, briefly, the report of the out-going USIA director. After the Bay of Pigs defeat the Kennedy administration, in 1962, designed a coherent system of subversive activity to destroy Cuba’s socialist revolution using violence, having demonstrated the vulnerability of the fundaments of U.S. national security doctrine, the invalidity of its geopolitical thesis of geographic fatalism, and having smashed the Monroe myth around which U.S. policies of domination in the Americas revolved.

After the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy strategy includes two points: developing Operation Mongoose from the end of 1961 until October 1962, and the Multiple Track Programme of 1963 that is cut short by Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas on 22 November 1963.

Operation Mongoose was a programme made up of measures that Cuban counter revolutionary organizations proposed to carry out, subordinated to counter revolutionary structures abroad that were directed by the CIA, the unfolding of political activities, military plans, acts of sabotage and the intensification of intelligence. An outstanding feature has been Psychological Warfare; radio propaganda was its most important arm. General Edward Lansdale was appointed head of Operation Mongoose. At CIA headquarters in Langley Virginia, William Harvey assumed the headship of Force W, responsible for the direction of the anti-Cuban operation. A special unit was established in Florida to carry out the covert CIA operations against Cuba: JM/Wave, which would become in practice, responsible for Operation Mongoose, as a special CIA directive. Theodore Shackley was the head and Gordon Campbell, his lieutenant.

In January 1962, the Operation Mongoose working group put together what can be called the central doctrine of its project, pointing out that the “aim of the U.S. is to help the Cubans overthrow the communist regime within the island and to install a new government with which the U.S. could peacefully coexist.”

“Project Cuba,” as it later came to be known, assembled the following:

• The relationship between an uprising and a political movement

• Uprising and rebellion

• The carrying out of commando operations as support for acts of sabotage within the country and the promotion of armed resistance.

The original Mongoose project included thirty-three tasks expressed in seven plans that followed subversive lines (organizational, political, economic warfare, Psychological Warfare, espionage and activities for eventual military aggression against the island). Mongoose’s plans and tasks were to be accomplished in structured phases as follows:

• March – commence operations

• August 1 – institute subversive mechanisms

• August – September – increase activities and resistance on the entire island

• Early October – generalized revolt

• End of October – reconstruction of a Cuban government

It should be noted that the confrontation of the State Security agencies whose essential strategy was outlined in strategic and political terms by the Commander in Chief and the revolutionary direction, backed up by the people-revolution-defence triad, as well as the outcome of the October Crisis in 1962, put an end to Operation Mongoose. After this event, the United States had to re-think its programme of anti-Cuban subversive activities without giving up on their determination to militarily invade the island, as Fidel Castro stated in the Central Report to the First Congress of the Cuban Communist Party.

With its Multiple Track Programme of 1963, the administration of John F. Kennedy proposed the annihilation of the revolution by means of a military invasion of Cuba, making use of a brigade of Cuban counter revolutionaries trained by the U.S. Army and the subversive structures created for that purpose, in order to destabilize Cuban Socialism by re-establishing diplomatic relations between Cuba and the U.S..

What were the goals, aims and directions delineated by Mongoose to carry out the operations of a psychological war and which would have to be supported by USIA and CIA propaganda, an important element of which was the radio propaganda to which we have been referring above in this report?

The partially declassified Mongoose document contains 10 acts of Psychological Warfare, 5 of which still remaining in CIA secret files.

Activities to be developed should mainly be:

• Organization of American States (OAS)

• United Nations Organization

• U.S. government officials

• U.S. news agencies

• U.S. diplomatic corps

• Counter revolutionary groups under the control of the Cuban Revolutionary Council who would organize tours through the various Latin American nations

• U.S. government support for Latin American countries

• Create a “crusade” mentality, human freedom being the goal

• Visits to Cuban refugee camps in Florida by important personalities from the U.S. and Latin America

• Publicize information about Cuban deserters who had held important jobs in Cuban politics

• Dramatize stories about the lives of the refugees, representing a wide sector of the social life of Cuba

The aims of Psychological Warfare by means of propaganda in general would be:

• Ensure official condemnation of communism in Cuba in order to influence public opinion in Latin America and the world

• Denounce to the world the subordination of Cuba to a foreign power

• Create psychological conditions favouring popular revolt

• Commit U.S. prestige in the support of elements in Cuba that take an anti-communist stance

• Influence foreign politicians and their advisors, as well as intellectuals and important citizen groups

• Foster the commitment of U.S. politicians, intellectuals, union leaders, youth and clergy in the fight against communism in Cuba

• Organize special interest groups to set up contacts in Cuba and to influence U.S. public opinion

• Make use of the testimony of influential individuals in order to ask for support for the battle against communism in Cuba

• Maintain permanent information sources for the Cuban people about these goals

• Create a social support base in Cuba in opposition to the Revolutionary Government, one that would ask for military aid once a provisional government would be installed in Cuba

• Develop the motivational factors of the Cuban population vis a vis freedom.

• Demonstrate concern for the plight of Cuban refugees in Florida and other states

• Demonstrate the failure of the Cuban government in accomplishing the promises of the July 26th Programme

The methods to be used along with these propagandistic activities are:

• Personal and official anti-Cuban diplomacy

• Statements made by heads of state and government criticizing programmes of economic and social development in Cuba

• Fabricated information about political persecution in Cuba so that UN Commissions will be forced to research the situation on the island

• Official U.S. government statements geared towards keeping up the pressure on Cuba

• Wielding influence on Latin American nations, NATO and Spain, in the last case taking advantage of Spanish historical links with Cuba

• Religious programmes, interviews with a variety of émigrés to influence Cuban public opinion, keeping in mind the capacity of radio broadcasts from the U.S.

• Publishing ideological messages, using the figure of Jose Marti

• Visits by Jacqueline Kennedy to refugee camps in order to demonstrate the concern of the U.S. government for these people

• Issue written material about anti-communist struggle

• Make use of statistics to demonstrate the dimensions of the Cuban exodus to the U.S. and other countries

In all these activities, U.S. federal agencies will play an important part, and the CIA and USIA particularly will be key in the promotion of Psychological Warfare On July 20, 1962, the USIA draws up a balance sheet of its anti-Cuban activities, underlining that its goals consist in utilizing all social communication measures to mobilize Latin American public opinion against the Cuban government while highlighting Cuba’s economic disaster that resulted from its totalitarian characteristics and its total dependence on the dictates of the USSR and China.

Short-wave radio broadcasts are incredibly important to these plans so that communications will remain open with the people of the island and will undermine their support of and confidence in the Revolution.

The fundamental themes underlying the USIA actions are clearly to be appreciated when reading this report.

On an economic level, we can see emphasis on:

• Deterioration of the island’s economy

• The Cuban government’s inability to satisfy the basic needs of its populace

• Poor administration of a socialist economy

• Comparisons to the supposed failures of USSR agriculture and the famines in the People’s Republic of China

• The struggle between Fidel Castro and the old-guard Cuban communists due to the economic chaos and the government’s administrative incapacity

Referring to the refugee situation:

• Increasing numbers of refugees coming from all sectors in society, including blacks and low-income groups, those which at the beginning were staunch supporters of the Revolution

• Using refugee eye-witness accounts to paint a picture of lack of food, growing unemployment and devastated economy

In regards to the subject of the worker in the revolution:

• Show repression of the union movement

• Low salaries and poor labour conditions

• Growing unemployment and a lengthening work week

Referring to students and intellectuals, the USIA recognizes that this constitutes the most difficult area to target. The report states that, paradoxically, this is the group which is least susceptible to the call of logic and reason. It points out that here there is such a strong element of emotion that the USIA has not been able to find any way to penetrate it. Some of the subjects which have been used on these groups are: a rejection of supposed mass executions, immediate and chronic economic problems, attacks on the Church and social structures, militarizing tendencies on the work force and other limitations on individual liberties. These have not had a noticeable impact. It states: “the Messianic attraction of Castro on the intellectuals and students unleashes a gut response that cannot be subdued.”

Three of the nine hours broadcast daily in Spanish on VOA deal directly with Cuba. There are 14 programmes, including newscasts, commentaries, drama, sports and news about Cuba, matters relating to agriculture and history, all following the goals set by Psychological Warfare.

When this document is analysed and criticized, one cannot leave out an aspect that reveals the inability of the USIA to present a coherent and logical message to its Cuban audience. This is the opinion of the USIA expert when referring to the intended psychological operations: “in all psychological planning special attention must be paid to the avoiding of any information, as much as possible, that would point towards a return to the state of affairs existing in Cuba prior to the Revolution. All information used must be directed to remind the common people that the anti-Castro movement is designed to develop programmes that will encourage the social and economic hopes of the Cuban people” (4) (8)

It is recommended to use all kinds of diplomatic, economic and psychological pressure in order to topple the government of Fidel Castro without the obvious participation of the United States. At the time of the October Crisis, the U.S. government drafted a special plan to use radio broadcasts on October 20, 1962. Kennedy himself instructed the USIA to significantly increase its capacity for transmissions to Cuba, their frequency, broadcast times and the number of stations broadcasting directly to Cuba. In this plan, the USIA director outlined the strategy to be followed during the crisis about these criteria and measures:

• After Kennedy’s speech on October 22, 1962, the USIA would unleash the plan to saturate Cuba with information broadcasted 24 hours a day;

• In order to avoid what happened in Hungary in 1956 and at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, when a lack of coordination in broadcasting schedules from the U.S. occurred, the USIA would take control of the direction and centralization of the entire broadcast system towards Cuba during the period of crisis:

• Eight stations in the USIA network would be united: five commercial stations and WGBS, WMIE and WKWF which would be inserted into the Cuban refugee programme and which hypothetically would be controlled by the CIA: The network would be made up of the following stations:

WGBS, Miami. Transmitting 2 hours a day in Spanish WMIE, Miami. One special programme late at night and early in the morning. WSB, Atlanta. WWL, New Orleans. WKWF, Key West. Transmitting in Spanish late at night. WRUL, New York. Transmitting to Cuba; after VOA, this is the station with the largest audience in Cuba. In a crisis it is recommended that programmes should run 24 hours a day. Armed Forces Radio in Guantanamo. Radio Americas - Known earlier as Swan Radio -

During the October Crisis, the USIA developed its goals in three directions: to gain support for the blockade measures, to create conditions that would ensure the populace’s acceptance of any measures adopted by the U.S. government, to stimulate the people’s social apathy towards and non-collaboration with the Revolution.

These were totally unattainable goals. There had never been such a brilliant statesman as Fidel Castro during those shining days in October, backed by the unconditional total support of a nation that was ready to die in a nuclear holocaust rather than lose their independence, sovereignty and dignity.

According to the propaganda lines drawn up by the USIA on October 22, the subjects to be developed by the media were:

• Justify all U.S. government actions faced with the evidence of the presence of offensive missile on Cuban soil;

• USSR lies to the world affirming that the weapons were purely defensive

• Cuban government declarations were to be branded as lies

• Explain that the Cuban Revolution had sold out to communism and the USSR

• The risk of nuclear destruction for the Cuban people

• U.S. adopted quarantine as a defence for national interests

• The U.S. is a peace-loving nation and does not want a war with the Cuban people. There is only “friendship and hope” felt for “people who are denied their freedom”;

• The quarantine is adopted by the U.S. to secure its hemispheric safety and to protect the hemisphere from an extra-continental threat

• The Soviet military presence in Cuba intends to foment aggression and subversion on the Latin American continent and to subjugate the Cuban people;

• Establish differences that characterize the existence of U.S. bases in Turkey and Soviet bases in Cuba;

• Underline the solidarity of the OAS towards U.S. actions, the opposition of Latin American governments to the building of missile bases in Cuba and the condemnation by these governments of Soviet military presence on the island.

The document pointed out that no message can be issued without following these lines approved by President Kennedy.

Even when a detailed description of these subjects appears lengthy, all of them are included to demonstrate, yet again, that in U.S. propaganda is a state policy associated with its national security interests.

On December 10, 1962, the USIA presented a work memo to the CIA referring to the using of émigrés in their broadcasts.

The agency suggests the CIA follow these contents in their radio broadcasts to Cuba:

• Exert pressure and influence so that the USSR presence will result as expensive as possible;

• Stimulate economic sabotage and passive resistance in the populace.

The USIA recommends that groups and individuals participating in radio broadcasts be selected according to their prestige and credibility on the island, their occupational profile as spokespeople and the audience to whom the messages are being directed.

A call for open rebellion must be avoided; messages should provoke work stoppages, promote economic inefficiency, the squandering of resources and other sure forms of sabotage. For example: throw glass shards and nails on the highways, waste water in public buildings, throw sand on industrial equipment, waste electrical energy, damage sugar cane crops, request medical certificates to avoid working, etc….

The émigrés programmes would be presented as an autonomous emigrant activity without the participation of the USIA or any other government agency. Depending on concrete results, the USIA would use this information to publicize the existence of opposition in Cuba.

On March 19, 1963 the Vice-Director of Planning (Covert Operations) of the CIA sent the CIA Director the design for a programme to harass the Revolutionary Armed Forces and increase their unrest. The design is based on the following premises:

1. There is no possibility of internal army revolt in Cuba;

2. Actual policy excludes the public use of U.S. Armed Forces for intervention in Cuba;

3. Cuba is in no position to break relations with the USSR in order to establish relations with the U.S.;

Faced with this dilemma, the head of covert CIA operations proposed the so-called “tactical pincer strategy” consisting of an economic strangulation of the country in order to weaken and undermine the government at the same time as efforts are made to identify and establish communications channels with elements of unrest, non-communists and potential dissidents within the government power centres. In the latter case, it is proposed to prioritize key officers in the armed forces and the militia. It is not accidental that these plans coincide with the time of Operation Am-Lash, whose main agent was the traitor Rolando Cubela Secades.

To carry out this task, the CIA proposes to intensify the radio broadcasts together with other propaganda activities in order to try to establish access routes to officers and heads of the militia.

On December 29, 1962, in a speech delivered at the Orange Bowl in Florida, President Kennedy made statements that foreshadowed CIA policy of searching out support points within policy making centres in Cuba. Kennedy stated:

…” I believe that these are the principles of the great majority of Cuban people today, and I am confident that throughout the length and breadth of the island of Cuba, in the government itself, in the army and the militia, there are those who support faith in freedom, who have seen with disappointment the destruction of freedom on their island and are determined to restore freedom so that the Cuban people can have self-government.”

In 1963, in the U.S. Congress session on the “U.S. ideological offensive on international communism,” the existence of the Cuban Freedom Committee was revealed; according to declarations by witnesses “it was organized at the end of 1960 by U.S. citizens alarmed by the influence and direction of communism, as evidenced by the communists in the government of Cuba.” The CFC was operating Radio Cuba Libre, a non-profit private organization, according to its founders.

Experts in radio propaganda affirmed that Radio Cuba Libre was a cover organization created by the CIA just before The Bay of Pigs invasion.

Mariada Arensberg, a militant in the CFC, testified before Congress: “The CFC is convinced that radio is the strongest propaganda weapon available in these Cold War times.” (5)(9)

This committee broadcast 15 hours daily to Cuba through WGBS, WKWF in Florida, WWL in New Orleans, Radio Santo Domingo and Radio Americas (a name used after the Bay of Pigs by the subversive station Swan Radio).

These revelations coincide with the evaluation of Luis Adrian Betancourt in his book on Swan Radio.

It is revealing to see the list of the advisory council of the CFC with all its connections to the U.S. government.

Information about the members of the Advisory Council to the CFC:

Donald C. Bruce – U.S. Congressman, Republican, Indiana.

Ovetta Culp Hobby, Editor, Houston Post.

Samuel Meek, Vice-President, J. Walter Thompson co.

Edward G. Miller, former sub-secretary of State for Latin American Affairs

Peter O´Donnell – Dallas businessman

Claiborne Pell – U.S. Senator, Democrat, Rhode Island

Serafino Romualdi – Inter-American Representative of AFL-CIO

Roman Pucinski – U.S. Congressman, Democrat, Illinois

Harold Russel – National Commander, Veterans Society

George S. Schuyler ‘ Associate Editor, Pittsburg Courier

Walter Williams – former U.S. Secretary of Commerce

President – John B. Mc Clatchy

Executive Secretary – Mariada Arensburg

The CTC headquarters are on 1737 H Street, N.W. Washington D.C., USA. Years later, revelations by the U.S. government pointed out that some of the CTC members were working for the CIA in the political-ideological diversion operations. One of the branches of anti-Cuban radio broadcasts dealt with counter revolutionary fake or pirate stations.

The first stations pretending to transmit from the Escambray Mountains and Oriente Province appeared in 1961. Between 1960 and 1970, 8 pirate stations were registered transmitting from Florida on ham radio bands during different times. According to experts, the broadcasts were of doubtful technical quality and very unprofessionally done. In the seventies, the pirate stations dwindled to 4 but by the eighties, 14 of them were detected in operation. Since 1985, the fake stations pumped up their activities, coinciding with the creation of the subversive Radio Marti in 1985. In the eighties, the following were identifies: Voice of CID, Alpha 66, Radio Cuba Libre, Radio Antorcha Marti, Abdala, Radio Revolucion and the Voice of Progressive Youth, Cuba, transmitting from the U.S.. In 1985, the pirate Radio Caiman was registered transmitting from Guatemalan territory.

To avoid being controlled by the FCC, some of the fake stations have used legal station outlets in the Dominican Republic (Radio Clarin) and Venezuela (Ecos del Orbe), as well as El Salvador.

Among the goals of these fake stations, we find:

• Incite assassination attempts on the Commander in Chief

• Spread lies about the Commander in Chief

• Promote blockade economic measures

• Discredit political, social and economic changes made by the Revolution

• Encourage subversive and terrorist activities

• Discredit the image of the Revolution abroad

• Encourage illegal departures and the emigration of professionals • Call upon passive resistance among the people

• Conduct propaganda campaigns filled with disinformation and lies, such as the supposed Cuban participation in human rights violations, drug trafficking, acts of international terrorism, etc.

In the case of Radio Caiman, the fake station tried to capture a young listener audience by playing the music of songwriters living on the island. Experts agree that there is a connection between information broadcast by the fake stations and the interests of the U.S. special services.

Beginning with the [[Lyndon Baines Johnson|Johnson administration, the activities of radio propaganda against Cuba began to recede until new aggressive tendencies sprang up in the eighties conforming to the changes in strategy of U.S. foreign policy, under the Presidency of Reagan.

Various factors played a part in Johnson policy:

1. The repeated disasters of CIA schemes against Cuba

2. The consolidation of the Cuban Revolution in political terms and in matters of national security

3. The military presence in Indochina, acquiring a strategic dimension for the U.S.. Vietnam becomes the scenario in the next few years of the greatest military disasters experienced by the U.S. Armed Forces in its entire history

In a report presented by the Ministry of the Interior in a Seminar on Ideological Diversionism, 1974 (pp.29), it is stated: “As part of this process, a reorganisation of stations takes place: Swan Radio is closed down…; two official programmes remain, “Date with Cuba” on the Voice of the United States and “Sunday News Radio” on Radio New York, these being basically ideological programmes, taking the position of “objective information,” abandoning the aggressive and flimsy arguments of previous years. “The clandestine radio stations appear occasionally and generally coincide with some subversive activity being carried out.” …”One example of this new trend is seen in the “New Wave Show” on Radio America, created in 1967, which encouraged the Cuban youth to organize clubs, suggesting extravagant names to them.

Coinciding with this type of programming, a surge in youth groups and areas of concentrations of young people with anti-social tendencies was seen, under the influence of enemy activities.”

At the close of the Carter administration, substantial changes are being made in U.S. policy towards Cuba: one of its main trends is promoting subversive propaganda in order to destroy the Revolution from within and without.

(1) 5 Albrecht Charisius/Julius Mader. Nicht Langer Geheim. Deutscher Militarverlag. Berlin 1969, pp. 220. (2) Central Political Division of the Ministry of the Interior, 1989. Conference title: “Political Ideological Subversive Activity against Cuba. Psychological Warfare and other enemy activities.” Volume II, pp.7 (3) Reports on Radio Transmissions. 1960-1961. CIHSE Archives (4) PSYWAR, pp.110 (5) PSYWAR, pp.17