The Herald’s Glenn
Garvin reviews Brian Latell’s new book on the Cuban intelligence
service. He zeroes in on a defector’s
report that, owing to statements Lee Harvey Oswald made at the Cuban embassy in
Mexico City, Fidel Castro may have known in advance that Oswald was going to
assassinate President Kennedy. And
thanks to a double agent, Fidel knew that JFK was after him. Latell: “I don’t say Fidel Castro ordered the
assassination, I don’t say Oswald was under his control. He might have been, but I don’t argue that,
because I was unable to find any evidence for that. But did Fidel want Kennedy dead? Yes. He
feared Kennedy. And he knew Kennedy was
gunning for him. In Fidel’s mind, he was
probably acting in self-defense.”
Brian Latell, then, is totally at odds with every other person who has talked to Fidel Castro about this subject including me on many occasions and also including Kennedy family members, at odds with the known facts, and at odds with hisotorical events including the fact that Kennedy and Castro were discussing a renewed relationship in November, 1963. As usual the conclusions by Latell are based on maybe's and could be possibles - a hallmark of all of what Latell usually says about Cuba.
ReplyDeleteI have met Latell, and would take him with a large grain of salt on this issue. There are a lot of people out there who have claimed to have been told to keep an eye on the news on that particular day by someone. This is especially the case with people that had close connections to the mafia triangle of Traficante, Giancana and Marcello.
ReplyDeleteOne that comes to mind is the story the son of a since deceased Florida based mafia figure with the last name Martino. He claimed that his dad told him not to go to school on Nov. 22, 1963, because “The schools will shut down early anyway.” He did not realize the significance of this until years later as he was around 11 years old at the time, and never talked about it until his father died.
I believe JFK was assassinated by rogue CIA agents allied with the above named mob figures, with a minute sprinkling of Cuban exile involvement.
Lee Harvey Oswald’s time with the Fair Play for Cuba were that of a rogue activist and any actual connection to Castro’s Cuba has long since been discounted. He went against the directives and strategy of the organization, seeking cheap publicity by engaging in what Latell describes as “One man demonstrations and scuffles with anti- Castro activists.” I don’t know if Latell mentions this in his book, but the Fair Play for Cuba Committee never recovered from the bad publicity in the JFK assassination fallout and soon closed its doors.