The Hidden History of the JFK Assassination by Waldron Lamar

Author:Waldron, Lamar [Waldron, Lamar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781619022614
Publisher: Counterpoint
Published: 2013-10-21T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

Carlos Marcello and the Hit Men for JFK’s Murder

EVEN AS JFK’S plan with Almeida proceeded in the fall of 1963, he and Robert Kennedy looked for a way to find a peaceful solution to the problem of Cuba that wouldn’t involve what one memo called “a bloody coup.” Historians have long known that the Kennedys initiated two separate back-channel attempts to negotiate with Fidel in the fall of 1963, one using pioneering TV journalist Lisa Howard and special UN envoy William Attwood, and the other through French journalist Jean Daniel. The JFK–Almeida coup plan helps explain the urgency of those efforts at that particular time.

However, neither of the Kennedys’ secret peace efforts had produced any breakthroughs, and that would continue to be the case up until JFK’s assassination on November 22, 1963. To maintain deniability in case the secret talks were exposed, JFK had to work through William Attwood, who in turn talked to Fidel’s doctor, who dealt with Fidel. The parties were wary of each other, and the negotiations slow. Fidel also had to deal with factions within his own regime, with one Attwood memo to JFK noting that Fidel didn’t want Che Guevara to find out about the secret talks because “there was a rift between Castro and the Guevara [and] Almeida group on the question of Cuba’s future course.” JFK kept his own secrets from Attwood, not telling him that, barring some dramatic breakthrough in the secret talks, JFK and Bobby planned to allow Almeida to overthrow Fidel in December 1963.

Frustrated by the slow pace of the Attwood negotiations yet anxious to avoid a violent coup if possible, in late October 1963 JFK asked French journalist Jean Daniel to talk to Fidel on his behalf. But Fidel had kept Daniel cooling his heels in Havana for weeks. Daniel would not get to see Fidel until November 21, the day before JFK’s trip to Dallas. No real progress was made in their talk, but Fidel was intrigued enough by Daniel’s message from JFK that he invited the journalist to a follow-up lunch on November 22 at Castro’s villa at Varadero Beach. However, Daniel could not securely communicate directly with JFK or Bobby about his talks with Castro, so the Kennedys would have no way to know that Daniel was finally speaking with the Cuban leader.

John and Robert Kennedy had basically one overall goal for Cuba by late October 1963: to resolve the situation so that the United States could peacefully coexist with Cuba. That could come about with a peacefully negotiated settlement if possible, but if not, they would try to bring it about by supporting Commander Almeida and the Cuban exile leaders with their coup, hopefully leading to eventual free elections and democracy in Cuba.

President Kennedy, RFK, and other key officials in the Kennedy Administration were very concerned about Cuba and the 1964 election. William Attwood said in a memo that they needed to “remove the Cuban issue from the 1964 campaign.” Talks with other Kennedy

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