Playa Giron, and: The Missile Crisis in Cuba (review)

Playa Girón: Bay of Pigs: Washington's First Military Defeat in the Americas. By FIDEL CASTRO andJOSÉ RAMON FERNANDEZ. Edited by STEVE CLARK and MARY-ALICE WATERS. Foreword by JACK BARNES. New York: Pathfinder Press, 2001. Photographs. Illustration. Maps. Figures. Appendixes. Glossary. Index. 278 pp. Cloth, $55.00. Paper, $20.00.

The Missile Crisis in Cuba. By KEITH EUBANK. Anvil. Malabar, Fla.: Krieger, 2000. Bibliography. Index. viii, 235 pp. Paper, $19.50.

In the early 1960s, the conflict between Cuba and the United States had repercussions reaching far beyond the Caribbean. Two recent books present primary source documents on the April 1961 invasion at Playa Girón and the October 1962 missile crisis. Neither book reveals significant new information, but each provides a handy collection of texts appropriate for classroom use.

Pathfinder Press published Playa Girón simultaneously in English and Spanish. Jack Barnes, national secretary of the (U.S.) Socialist Workers Party, introduces the volume with a long reflection on his experiences as a student and organizer of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in 1961 at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. The English language edition then includes translations of a dozen Cuban primary source documents on the U.S.-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs: excerpts of six important speeches from 15 April-1 May (four by Fidel Castro and one each by Ernesto Guevara and Raúl Castro); and, six short Cuban government communiqués from 17 to 19 April. The book also contains a 48-page transcript of José Ramón Fernández Alvarez's 1999 testimony about his role leading Cuban troops against the invaders at Playa Girón. Photographs, maps, and charts throughout the book provide a useful supplement to the text. The volume concludes with a detailed chronology of events, a "glossary" (brief biographies of major figures), and a short list of suggested readings.

The documents in Playa Girón tell a familiar story, but they tell it well. Cuba expected a major attack in April 1961, although the nature, location, and timing of the assault remained unclear. As the invasion began, Fidel Castro scoffed at Washington's denial of its involvement: "Hollywood would never have come up with something like this, ladies and gentlemen!" (4/16/61, quoted p. 53). Even without Hollywood's help, however, Fidel was the star of this story. Fernández's recollection of the invasion's initial hour vividly captured Castro's leadership style:

After Fidel gave me my orders [via telephone around 2:00 A.M. on April 17], I began to get dressed, ordered the driver to fill up my jeep and check it over, and called a group of four officers to accompany.

Before I had finished dressing, Fidel called me again. 'What are you doing?'

'I'm just finishing getting dressed, Commander.' I continued dressing and, with the greatest urgency, doing everything else I had to do.

Ten minutes later: 'Why are you still there?'

I went downstairs—my room was on the second floor of the School of Cadets—and began looking for the maps. The officers weren't there yet, but the jeep was waiting.

Fidel called again: 'Why haven't you left yet?' . . . As soon as I arrived in Matanzas, Fidel was on the phone: 'Has the school been assembled? What are you doing? How is the morale?' (p. 107).

Near the end of his testimony, Fernández credited "the example set by Fidel—his presence, his orders, his leadership" with being decisive in Cuba's victory (p. 122). Fidel never claimed such stature for himself; instead, he stressed the righteousness of the Cuban and Socialist cause as the reason for the quick triumph. With sacrifice and struggle, Castro concluded, the revolution inevitably would succeed.

On 23 April 1961, Castro declared victory over the invasion and made a telling observation about his foes...