'Operation Mongoose': Washington's Secret War on Cuba [Socialist History: S1 Episode 2]

In 1961 the United States launched the largest covert operation of the Cold War against a single country, a campaign of sabotage, terror, and assassination aimed at destroying the Cuban Revolution ninety miles from Florida. It was code-named Operation Mongoose. Alongside it, the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up Operation Northwoods, a plan to stage terrorist attacks on American citizens and blame them on Havana in order to manufacture a pretext for a full-scale invasion.

In this episode we take a deep dive into how Mongoose and Northwoods were conceived and authorized at the highest levels of the US government and how the embargo and regime change logic still operate today.

This is part of the first season of Socialist History, our new series on The Socialist Program. In each episode we unpack a different CIA or Pentagon operation, each of which was given its own code-name as Operation Mongoose was.

Join The Socialist Program community at www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get access to the next episodes in this series, more exclusive content, and help keep this show on the air.

Archival notes:

1:10 - Newsreel on Cuban Revolution (1958)

1:29 - Newsreel on nationalization of Cuban industries (1960)

1:49 - Interview with Jorge Risquet, Cuban Revolutionary Army Captain. Includes narrator voiceover (1998)

2:57 - Interview with Samuel Halpern, CIA officer 1947 to 1974, on Op. Mongoose (2003)

7:02 - Documentary on Cuban Revolution, voiceover (1964)

9:43 - UN Special Rapporteur Fionnuala Ní Aoláin on Guantanamo detention center (2023)

10:33 - US Army internal education film on Latin America (1960s)

11:05 - Cuba travelogue (1933)

11:32 - Newsreel on Fulgencio Batista’s coup in Cuba (1952)

12:12 - Newsreel on Cuban Revolution (1959)

13:25 - Interview with Ricardo Alarcón, Pres. of Cuban Natl. Assembly, on Cuba Revolution (2003)

15:40 - Fidel Castro speaking at Harvard Law School (1959)

16:51 - Interview with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., former advisor to Pres. John F. Kennedy, on Bay of Pigs. Includes narrator voiceover (2003)

17:18 - Interview with Fabian Escalante, Cuban Intelligence officer. Includes narrator voiceover (2003)

18:25 - Pres. John F. Kennedy speaking to press on the Bay of Pigs (1963)

18:32 - Interview with Theodore Sorensen, former Special Counsel to John F. Kennedy (1998)

19:06 - Interview with Richard M. Bissell Jr., Deputy Director of the CIA during the Bay of Pigs invasion. Includes narrator voiceover (1965)

20:19 - Interview with Samuel Halpern, CIA officer 1947 to 1974, on Op. Mongoose. Includes narrator voiceover (2003)

26:35 - News report on John Roselli testimony to Church Committee (1975)

27:51 - Robert Maheu, CIA mafia contact, speaking to press. Includes narrator voiceover (1975)

29:55 - John F. Kennedy in presidential debate (1960)

30:45 - Interview with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., former advisor to Pres. John F. Kennedy, on Op. Mongoose (2003)

36:26 - Interview with Robert McNamara, US Sec. of Defense 1961-1968, on Cuban Missile Crisis (2003)

36:41 - Interview with General William Y. Smith, former Air Force Staff Assistant during Cuban Missile Crisis. Includes narrator voiceover (1998)

38:03 - Interview with Fidel Castro on Cuban Missile Crisis (1998)

39:46 - Pres. John F. Kennedy’s televised speech on the discovery of Soviet missile sites in Cuba (1962)

41:51 - Phone call between Pres. John F. Kennedy and former Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1962)

42:55 - Interview with Theodore Sorensen, former Special Counsel to John F. Kennedy, on the Cuban Missile Crisis (1998)

43:39 - Interview with Robert McNamara, US Sec. of Defense 1961-1968, on Cuban Missile Crisis (2003)

44:09 - Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting with Gen. Curtis LeMay and Pres. John F. Kennedy on Cuban Missile Crisis (1962). Includes narrator voiceover.

45:40 - Interview with Robert McNamara, US Sec. of Defense 1961-1968, on Cuban Missile Crisis (2003)

47:44 - Phone call between Pres. John F. Kennedy and former Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1962)