October 13, 1998

No Wonder Castro is Still in Power

Recently declassified documents show America’s cock-eyed schemes to topple Castro — including a phony attack on U.S. forces, by U.S. forces.

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Two weeks ago, the Assassination Records Review Board assigned to look into President Kennedy’s assassination finished its work declassifying documents. Not all the documents dealt with the death of Kennedy. For your enjoyment, the MoJo Wire is posting an original memo that details a number of plans to topple the government of Cuban president Fidel Castro.

The 1962 memo, which reads like a bad brainstorming session between two over-zealous College Republicans, was sent by Brigadier General William Craig, a “Department of Defense Representative.” Whether or not Craig was an important figure isn’t clear. (A Nexis search doesn’t turn up any mentions of his name.) But the memo’s recipient, Air Force Brigadier General Edward Lansdale, definitely wasn’t just shuffling papers. Lansdale is considered one of the fathers of “psychological operations” and orchestrated U.S.-friendly coups in both the Philippines and South Vietnam.

It’s unclear whether any of these anti-Castro operations were ever attempted. Here are a few of our favorites, complete with juvenile names like:

Operation NO LOVE LOST

Operation FREE RIDE

Operation DIRTY TRICK

Operation BINGO (Most boring name. Also most disturbing plan.)

Operation GOOD TIMES (No relation to the sitcom.)

View the full memorandum.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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