The Cuban Connection by William Weyand Turner

Author:William Weyand Turner [Turner, William Weyand]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2013-04-17T23:00:00+00:00

Nixon had demonstrated his approval of assassination as a political tool; he never saw a proposal he didn't like. In October 1960, Nixon played golf with exiled leader Mario Garcia Kohly, who laid claim to having a formidable guerilla force inside Cuba. When he became an exile in 1959, Kohly fell into the social set of Charles “Bebe” Rebozo and, ergo, Nixon. The proposal was nothing less than premeditated murder. According to an affidavit executed several years later by Kohly's son, during his golf game with Kohly, Nixon agreed “to the elimination of the leftist officials.”24

Kohly fully expected that Nixon would be the next president of the United States, and he saw himself as the next president of Cuba. He bragged to Nixon that his organization was the de facto government of Cuba in exile, and that he had an invasion plan in place. It was a risky move for Nixon, since he was locked into a tight contest with JFK for the presidency. Kennedy had been using the Cuba situation on the campaign trail, saying that he would have treated Cuba very differently during the last years of the Batista regime, “but that now we must make clear our intention…to enforce the Monroe Doctrine…and that we will not be content till democracy is restored to Cuba. The forces fighting for freedom…in the mountains of Cuba should be sustained.”25 Nixon, of course, knew about the training of Cuban exiles underway, but he could not sound too vehement in defending the Eisenhower administration's role: “We must recognize that there is no ‘quick and easy solution’ to Castro's threat; but given the opportunity and time the people of Cuba will find their way back to freedom.”

What Nixon seemed not to know was that Kohly was engaged in a counterfeiting operation that would flood the Cuban economy with $50 million of counterfeit pesos, bringing chaos to the financial markets.26 It was, unfortunately, a sting operation set up by the CIA to discredit Kohly. An agent who said he wanted to help overthrow Castro for patriotic reasons contacted Kohly to provide assistance in getting the counterfeit peso plates engraved. He assured Kohly that it was perfectly legal to manufacture counterfeit Cuban money as long as it was used for the subversion of the Castro regime. The agent introduced him to “Bill Martin,” an alleged printer who turned out to be a Secret Service special agent working undercover. Kohly was given the counterfeit-peso engraving plates that he was supposed to turn over to Bill Martin. When he met Martin in a hotel room in New York, Kohly was promptly arrested by the Secret Service and charged with conspiring to counterfeit Cuban currency. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to two years in prison.27

But Nixon stuck with him, as evidenced by the letter over his signature sent to the judge in the case, Edward Weinfeld, from his law firm, Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, and Alexander. In the letter, he gives a personal commendation of Kohly's character and offers Kohly's patriotism as a reason for his actions.

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