All language subtitles for The Cuba Libre Story - S01E05 - Schweinebucht und Neue Liebe

[in Spanish] Cuba has always been fighting
for its freedom.

[in Spanish] 100,000 died, and even though
we lost the war, the country had changed.

There is little question that Meyer Lansky
had thoroughly corrupted Batista.

It's not a lie,
they didn't promise anything.

They promised a revolution.
They did a revolution.

[in Russian] These guys were bound to
become either martyrs or national heroes.

Una revolución!

[man] Fidel Castro.

He told Khrushchev, "You should unleash
the entire Soviet nuclear arsenals."

Apocalypse.

[siren]

[in German] Cuba will never bend its knee.

The island of Cuba.

A bustling melting pot of cultures
and a curious colonial paradise.

Throughout its history,
Cuba saw the rise and fall of many a hero

and suffered under many a despot.

In 1952, Fulgencio Batista,
the former head of Cuba's armed forces,

seized power in a coup.

From his presidential palace,

he would go on to rule Cuba
for seven years.

His rule ended on the morning
of New Year's Day 1959.

Batista fled Cuba,
as a new revolution swept over the island,

led by Fidel Castro.

But how did a tiny band of guerilleros
manage to form a whole new state?

What poisoned Cuba's close relationship
with the United States?

And how did Fidel Castro,
the son of a wealthy landowner,

become a communist statesman?

Fidel Castro became
the vector of a revolution

that let the people of Cuba
dream of living in freedom and prosperity.

And to this day, the Cuban people
have not given up on this dream.

[in Spanish] I know that I shall die
as a revolutionary.

I'll always be on the side
of the oppressed.

I'll always be on the side of the poor,
of the humble.

I'll always be on their side,
until the day I die.

Fidel Castro rose in rebellion
against Fulgencio Batista.

In 1933, Batista had set out to free Cuba
from the yoke of another dictator.

But since taking power
in a coup in 1952...

he had turned Cuba into a police state.

The United States supported him,

in exchange for American corporate control
over much of Cuba's economy.

Fidel Castro's revolution began
in the mountains of Sierra Maestra.

He had barely 100 men.

Rather than sending them
into a hopeless battle,

Castro led a spirited propaganda campaign.

His aim was to convince the Cubans
that his revolution was legitimate.

In December 1958,
Castro and half of his rebels

marched on the city of Santiago.

The other half,
led by Ernesto "Che" Guevara

and rebel army chief Camilo Cienfuegos,

Castro sent towards
Cuba's capital, Havana.

[in Spanish] We received orders,

meaning, Camilo received orders
to head towards Havana...

...when it became clear
that Batista was fleeing.

So we headed towards Havana.

We, the troops of Camilo Cienfuegos,
took the capital, the city of Havana.

Camilo Cienfuegos's rebels reached Havana
on January 2nd, 1959.

Batista had fled,
together with his inner circle.

The soldiers in the capital
surrendered without a fight.

At the same time, Fidel Castro
and his troops entered Santiago.

Here as well, the army
chose to surrender rather than fight.

Castro's leading comandante during
the march on Santiago was Huber Matos.

He had been a crucial part
of Fidel's revolution,

by providing weapons for the guerrilleros.

Now he entered Cuba's
second-biggest city by Castro's side.

[in French] And then something
very surprising happened.

Fidel Castro declared that Santiago
was now the capital of Cuba.

Castro's message was clear.
The capital would be wherever he was.

Meanwhile, the people of Havana
celebrated his revolution.

But not everybody was happy.

President Batista
and his inner circle were gone.

Afraid of what would happen to them,

rich foreigners, mostly Americans,
and wealthy Cuban landowners followed.

Among them were members
of the American Mafia,

who controlled the island's casinos.

Their boss was Meyer Lansky.

My grandmother said, "We have to leave.
We're gonna go back to Miami."

I guess they tried to be
as cool as possible.

I will never forget

going down in the elevator
and seeing soldiers in the street.

I will never forget that
as long as I live. I was eight years old.

And I remember green.
Just green and chaos.

Revolutionary leader Fidel Castro
was not unknown in Cuba.

He was the son of a wealthy landowner,
a lawyer from Havana,

and had been married to the daughter
of one of Batista's chief ministers.

But now his wife and her family
abandoned him out of fear,

taking Castro's son with them.

The boy, Fidelito, that was in New York.

So the only one of the family
that was in Cuba

was myself and my sister,
but my sister was married, so no problem.

The one who had problem was me

so I just got the last plane
and out, out of Cuba.

Havana, for the moment
no longer Cuba's capital,

was under control of Castro's
head of the army, Camilo Cienfuegos.

The people of Havana
acclaimed him as their liberator.

Fidel Castro, meanwhile,
was still in Santiago,

on the other side of the island.

On January 3rd, 1959, he left for Havana.

[in French] For eight days,
he talked non-stop.

They say that, at times, he teetered
at the podium, but people held him.

But he continued.
It was an incredible triumph.

After a triumphant journey across Cuba,

Fidel Castro arrived in Havana
on January 8th, 1959

and gave the city back its title
as Cuba's capital.

By his side were his brother Raúl,

his second in command
Ernesto "Che" Guevara

and his comandantes Huber Matos
and Camilo Cienfuegos.

That evening Castro made a victory speech
before a crowd of 400,000 people.

It was the first time Castro had spoken
to such a large audience.

[in French] He gave a long
and incredibly democratic speech.

"We're going to give the land
to the peasants.

We're going to disarm,
we're soldiers of peace."

It was not a communist speech.
It was not a violent speech.

And at one point
there was an extraordinary moment,

where white doves rose up into the sky,

and we had this Christ-like image
of Fidel Castro.

What we didn't see
was a man behind him, a bird-handler,

who was making the birds
rise up and fly away.

On the stage next to Fidel Castro

stood the man who had liberated Havana,
Camilo Cienfuegos.

[in Spanish]
Fidel talked for 15 or 20 minutes.

He was telling a story about something,
I forgot what it was,

and then Fidel leaned over to Camilo
and said, "Am I doing alright, Camilo?"

And Camilo said, "You always do, Fidel."

To this day, Camilo Cienfuegos's words

are inscribed
at the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana.

Fidel Castro had managed to unite

all those who opposed Batista
under his leadership.

Now the deposed dictator's army and police
want to join his cause as well.

But Castro had no intention

of letting the old regime's supporters
keep their power.

[in Spanish] Fidel did not take power,
he made power.

The army dissolved and fled,

so he made a new army with his own people.

There was no congress, so legislation
was made in a council of ministers,

which he entrusts
with total judicial power.

When he took control of Cuba,
Fidel Castro had no official position.

Instead of appointing himself
as head of state,

he formed a government of
esteemed Cuban intellectuals and thinkers.

But then, gradually,
he deposed one minister after the other,

and replaced them with his own people.

This worried many of his supporters,

particularly when he appointed
two communists as ministers:

his brother Raúl
and Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

Many revolutionaries did not want
Cuba to become communist,

including Camilo Cienfuegos.

[Alcarón, in Spanish] There were
other comandantes of great prestige,

but Fidel started making the decisions
on his own,

without taking into consideration
the opinions of others.

Huber Matos asked him to listen to them.

He demanded that decisions
be taken as a collective.

[in French]
It may have been Fidel Castro's strategy

not to put all his eggs in one basket.

He wanted to maximize
his potential among his followers.

Initially, the July 26th Movement
was very diverse.

It was not a communist movement,
it was a nationalist movement.

The United States recognized
Castro's revolutionary coalition

as the legitimate government of Cuba
on January 7th, 1959.

Fidel had not even arrived in Havana yet.

[DePalma] This idea of Fidel

as a young rebel in 1957

who was going up against
the corrupt dictator,

who didn't want power for himself,

who said clearly,
"I've nothing to do with communism,"

ends up being a hero
that people in Cuba could support,

and imagine the impact
in the United States

to see this person,
young, handsome, magnetic personality.

Even those of Cuba's upper classes
who remained

supported Fidel and his government.

[in German] The day after the revolution,
the Bacardi family

hung a huge sign on the company wall,
saying, "Gracias Fidel."

To them, he was the son
of a big landowner, a lawyer from Havana.

He was one of them, in a way,

and they thought he would fall into line
after the initial excitement.

And tourists, as well,
continued to flock to Cuba.

The island was still a vacation paradise,

despite, or maybe because of,
the revolution.

In February 1959, barely six weeks
after Fidel's arrival in Havana,

the German liner MS Berlin
entered the harbor.

For whatever reason, Fidel Castro himself

took a launch out to greet
the arriving ship.

The last stop was Havana Harbor.

There were other, many cruise passengers

and I was standing on A Deck

and I saw a launch come...

smaller boat with many barbudos,
bearded ones,

and he bumped up against the ship
and he did motion like, "I wanna come up."

And I said, "No. No guns."

Marita Lorenz was 19 years old
and the daughter of the ship's captain.

Castro and his men obeyed her order,
and laid down their weapons.

Then it was up to Marita
to show the Cuban leader around the ship.

The minute I saw him, I fell in love.

I had this feeling I'd never felt before.

The stomach went upside-down,
my heart was beating.

I was, "Oh, my God!
I never had a boyfriend before.

Not this one. This is a soldier
in an island I don't know." You know...

But the way he looked at me
and smiled and held my hand...

The MS Berlin left Havana again
that same evening.

But this first, brief meeting
between Fidel and Marita

would be the beginning of a love story
ripe with passion... and vengeance.

[Lorenz] He said, "Do you know who I am?"

I said, "No, I don't follow politics.
I just sail around the world."

He said, "I am Cuba."

I am Fidel Castro Ruz.

I come down from the Sierra Maestra.

I am Cuba, I will fix Cuba."

But fixing Cuba was not an easy task.

There was no lack of unresolved conflicts.

After the collapse of the Batista regime,

the Cuban people stormed the prisons
of his secret police.

What they saw left many speechless.

Many of Batista's policemen
feared reprisals,

and denounced or even arrested
their former colleagues.

Fidel Castro had revolutionary courts
set up.

[in Spanish] When Fidel came to power,
I was 15 years old.

I knew that it was a change from Batista.
Nobody liked Batista.

When Fidel came to power,
he was initially well liked by the people,

but that changed
once the executions began.

The supposedly worst offenders
of Batista's hated police and armed forces

are summarily executed when Castro's
troops take over Havana and Santiago.

Initially, it was very bloody
against Batista supporters.

They executed a number of them.

There was a joke going around in Cuba
that Raúl was in charge of eastern Cuba

and Fidel called them and said,
"I don't want any bloodshed."

And Raúl started to hang people
instead of shooting them

so there wouldn't be blood.

This is a story,
but it has a lot of reality in it.

They killed a lot of enemies
in the first few months of the revolution.

The subsequent revolutionary trials
were public,

as Castro claimed that his justice
had nothing to hide.

But in front of thousands of spectators
in Havana's biggest sports stadium,

the trials soon turned into a farce.

Soon, it was no longer only Batista's
secret police henchmen being put on trial.

A simple accusation against someone
would often suffice,

and the outcome was often clear
from the start.

[in German] It's estimated that
3,000 people were killed.

They were henchmen of the old regime,

but no one today knows
exactly who they were.

Even those close to Castro
feared being caught up in the violence.

[in Spanish] We began to be afraid
of what to do, what not to do...

...and what to say, what not to say.

The motto was:
Fidel said so and that's enough.

If the comandante said so,
it is so, even if it's a lie.

You had to support this lie.

On February 16th, 1959,

Fidel Castro named himself
Cuba's prime minister.

During his revolution,
he had been deliberately vague

about what he had in mind
for Cuba's future.

But now, firmly in power,
Castro began an extensive reform program.

In one of his first reforms,

Castro expropriated
many American companies on Cuba.

Decidedly not what the US government
had had in mind

when they recognized Castro
only months earlier.

It's not a lie,
they didn't promise anything.

They didn't promise a good life.

They promised a revolution.
They did a revolution.

Many expropriated properties were
divided up and given to Cuban farmers.

Castro did what communists
around the world had called for

and thus became more radical
than a lot of them.

Practically overnight, American companies
lost almost 500,000 acres of land.

The next wave of reforms
hit Cuba's wealthier classes.

It was intended to help Cuba's urban poor.

[Hoffmann, in German] And it was possible
to achieve this too and rapidly.

The reforms were aimed
at improving the daily lives of the poor,

and for the lower middle class.
For example, rents were lowered in Havana.

This obviously hurt property owners,

but for those who now had to pay less
rent, it was an immediate improvement.

For Cuba, these first few reforms
marked the beginning of a new conflict.

The US government protested against
the expropriation of their companies.

When protests were not enough,

the United States threatened
to introduce sanctions.

And in Cuba too, not everyone
was willing to follow Castro's course.

Many of those expropriated
lost all income.

After Castro took power,

only a few hundred Cubans
had fled the island.

Now thousands fled.

Those unable or unwilling
to live under Castro's reforms.

[in Spanish] We didn't receive the rent.

Landlords couldn't get the rent
from their properties,

or rather there was a limit.
I think it was 600 pesos.

It was equivalent to $600 at the time,
and not enough to live on.

To ease tensions with the United States,

Fidel Castro visited Washington, DC,
in April of 1959.

One of his first goals,

the monument of his idol,
US president Abraham Lincoln.

Fidel Castro's goal during his visit
was legitimacy.

He wanted to be recognized by the US
as Cuba's head of government.

After touring Washington, DC,

he hoped to meet
with President Eisenhower.

For many Americans,
Castro was a media star.

But President Eisenhower simply
did not trust Cuba's revolutionary leader.

I know you are worried,
first of all, if we are communist.

And of course, I have said very clear...

...that we are not communist. Very clear.

Alongside Fidel in Washington
was Marita Lorenz, by now his mistress.

He was upset because...
Eisenhower wouldn't see him.

Not even a cup of coffee.

Eisenhower wanted to play golf
and couldn't accept his uniform.

He got a call from Raúl in Barbados

and he said, "Come back.
You're wasting your time.

They don't wanna see you."

I did see him, though.
He spent the night with me.

That was nice. That was good,
but then again he's gone and I felt alone.

And people photographing me
going out of the hotel room.

And the CIA warning me,
"Stay away from that commie bastard!"

Instead of meeting Castro personally,

Eisenhower sent his vice-president,
Richard Nixon.

Nixon was a very, very brilliant figure,

and his instincts as an international
politician were very, very good.

So he sat down with Castro
in the Capitol building in Washington.

Nixon was the vice president.

Castro came to see him
at the Capitol Building

and... he took Castro's measure.

And he took Castro's measure
very skillfully, very accurately.

Nixon was supposed to push Castro
into a more US-friendly direction

to make Castro see how Cuba should
behave in regard to the United States.

Furthermore, Eisenhower gave him the task
of finding out, once and for all,

where Castro stood politically.

Nixon's verdict was devastating.
According to him,

Castro was "...either incredibly naive
about communism

or under communist discipline.
My guess is the former."

[in French] It seems that,
already at the meeting

between Fidel Castro and Nixon in 1959,

Nixon understood that Castro

was at heart anti-American,
if not communist.

The American government wasn't alone

in worrying about Cuba's relations
with communism.

During his revolution,
Fidel Castro had been deliberately vague

to unify all opponents of
the Batista dictatorship under his banner.

But the reforms introduced
by Fidel Castro,

his brother Raúl, and minister
for the economy Ernesto "Che" Guevara

alienated a good many Cubans.

The Castro brothers
were not the Cuban revolution.

They were part of a coalition
of largely democratic organizations.

But what happened
once the coalition won in 1959,

the Castro brothers were more ruthless
in eliminating their opponents

until they were the last ones standing,
so to speak.

Raúl Castro became
Cuba's Defense Minister,

a key government post.

He was Fidel's younger brother
and alongside Ernesto "Che" Guevara,

embodied the revolution's left wing.

The little brother, they used to
call him names but he's...

Raúl was intelligent.
He spoke different languages.

He didn't boss Fidel around.

He was just very intelligent and quiet.

And serious.

Camilo was a little... [laughs] bouncy.

But Raúl was serious and quiet.

Camilo Cienfuegos was named
head of the Revolutionary Army

and thus put under the orders
of the defense minister, Raúl Castro.

And yet, he vehemently opposed Raúl
and the Cuban government's leftist drift.

[in Spanish] Camilo's popularity
among the people was so great...

...that it obscured Fidel Castro's.

I remember how
during one of Fidel's speeches,

Camilo was beside Fidel...

...and the people started calling,

"Let Camilo speak!"

And the applause lasted for 20 minutes.

Camilo Cienfuegos, still adored
by the people as the man who freed Havana,

and his close friend Huber Matos,
who had helped Fidel Castro take Santiago,

are vocal about their dislike
of Fidel's policies.

Matos even went so far
as to tender his resignation to Castro.

But Castro had already decided

that he would not let his comandante go
so easily.

[in French] Castro made a choice,
radical in a way,

to arrest the well-known commander
Matos in October,

because Matos denounced
the growing influence

of the Communist Party on Castro.

To carry out the arrest,

Fidel Castro sent none other
than Camilo Cienfuegos,

who was close friends with Huber Matos.

It was a test of his loyalty

and Cienfuegos carried out the order,
as this photo shows.

After the arrest, on October 28th, 1959,
Camilo Cienfuegos flew back to Havana.

Here, he was set to meet
with Fidel Castro,

and talk about what the future of Cuba
would look like.

His plane disappeared in mid-flight,

in clear weather,
and with no distress signal.

Neither the plane,
nor his body was ever found.

[in Spanish] Camilo Cienfuegos's accident
was far from being an accident.

What happened to Camilo Cienfuegos
was precisely planned...

...by the Cuban government.

By Fidel in particular.

[in Spanish] Camilo's death is a mystery.

I have information
that suggests Fidel killed him.

Others say it was an accident.
It's hard to say.

What we do know is that...

...Camilo had problems with Raúl Castro,
very serious problems.

Huber Matos was made a pariah
and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.

Cuba, meanwhile,
grieved for Camilo Cienfuegos.

But most Cubans had more serious problems
than political orientations.

Much of the population
lived in extreme poverty.

The main reason for this

was that the United States
had cut much of their trade with Cuba,

to Fidel Castro's dismay.

The first year Fidel was in power,
he never mentioned the word communism.

He wanted trade agreements.

He wanted sugar for tractors,
tractors for sugar.

He wanted to build up Cuba,
build hospitals.

He wanted building material,
paint, cement.

To obtain construction materials,
Cuba needed a new trade partner.

Castro's first choice

was the United States' sworn enemy,
the Soviet Union.

On February 8th, 1960, the Soviet minister
Anastas Mikoyan landed in Cuba.

Accompanying him
was an old friend of the Castro brothers,

whom they had met in exile in Mexico,

and who had helped them
during their revolution.

[in Russian] When the first Soviet
government delegation went to Cuba,

it was led by Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan.

He knew about my previous contact

with Raúl Castro, Che Guevara,
and Fidel Castro.

So he invited me to come along.
I was his translator.

Well, I was also his advisor, if you will.
And even his bodyguard.

Officially, Anastas Mikoyan was on Cuba
to inaugurate a trade fair.

But behind the scenes,
the stakes were much higher.

[in Russian]
First of all, it was the foundation

of all future relations
between the USSR and Cuba.

Before that, we had no intention
of opening diplomatic relations.

Secondly, we gave Cuba a loan
of $100 million.

And thirdly, it was a complete
re-orientation of the Cuban economy,

which eventually led to socialism.

It was the end of Cuban's alignment

with the United States.

Cuba formed a new alliance.

And pictures of the partying Soviet
minister are broadcast around the world.

In Washington, Vice-President Nixon
saw his hunch confirmed.

He secretly advocated
an American intervention in Cuba,

as he saw it as the only way to prevent
Cuba from becoming a Soviet outpost.

But President Eisenhower disagreed.

He didn't want to risk a war
because of Cuba.

[in French] I think Fidel understood
that the only solution,

being 150 kilometers
from the world's most powerful country,

was to form solid ties with the USSR.

It was clearly risky,

because the United States
could react very badly and very quickly.

In order to defend Cuba, Fidel Castro
counted on more than just his new army.

Revolutionary militia were trained
throughout the island

with wooden rifles,
as real weapons were sadly lacking.

The USA had imposed an arms embargo
during Batista's era

and not lifted it since.

Cuba therefore attempted to
procure weapons on the world market.

[in Spanish] Already in 1960,
revolutionary militias were being formed.

They started in university.

That was the first militia.

Later they went to the work places
and they were in the thousands.

Thousands of Cubans
marching through the streets.

They received weapons too...
from Russia and from Czechoslovakia.

On March 4th, 1960,
the French freighter La Coubre,

carrying 76 tons of Belgian ammunition,
was anchoring in Havana Harbor.

Cuban dock workers were unloading
the ship when the unthinkable happened.

A Cuban cameraman filmed the event.

The death toll was at least 75,
with hundreds injured.

Fidel Castro and Che Guevara
led the funeral procession.

On that day, a world-famous photo
of Che Guevara was taken.

Fidel Castro claimed the explosion
of La Coubre was a deliberate attack

and accused the United States.

This was the last straw
for the US government.

[Latell] Castro crossed the red line

for conservative Republicans
and for many Americans.

He was crossing a red line.

It was clear that he was on a course,

taking Cuba and himself
into the embrace of the Soviet Union.

So the Eisenhower administration
began planning for his overthrow.

[in French] The Eisenhower administration
gave the go-ahead

to set up an operation in Guatemala.

It was basically a CIA operation

to finance, train and equip Cuban exiles

who would then land on Cuba.

More than 1,300 exiled Cubans volunteered.

Only a few of them
had any military experience.

The CIA filmed the recruits' training
as they prepared to form an elite unit.

[in Spanish] We had infantry training,
parachute training too.

We trained with heavy weapons too.

Some of the men went elsewhere
to learn to drive tanks,

since we had five tanks for the invasion,

and our air force
had its own base as well.

During training, the exile Cuban's unit
got a name. Brigade 2506.

[Rodriguez] The number actually 2506
for Brigade 2506

comes from Carlo Rodriguez Santana.

He was looking for an area
for training in Guatemala.

He fell from a cliff and got killed.

And because he was
the first casualty of the brigade

and his number happened to be 2506,

they used his number
for Assault Brigade 2506.

The invasion was also counting
on support from within Cuba.

Numerous former revolutionaries
had turned against Castro.

They fled to remote mountain areas,
waiting for an opportunity

to launch a counter-revolution
against Castro's drift towards communism.

But the Cuban leader was well aware
of what was happening.

[in Spanish] The Cuban government,
or rather, Fidel

let anyone who was against them
flee to the Escambray Mountains.

Why? Very simple.

He wanted them all in the same place.

There were not only ex-Castro veterans
among the counter-revolutionaries.

Some were ex-Batista soldiers on the run.

Others simple peasants,
caught by chance between the two fronts.

They received weapons from the CIA.

The agency hoped for a popular uprising
against Fidel Castro during the invasion.

[in Spanish] It was difficult initially.

The first counter-revolutionaries had,
just like me,

been part of Fidel Castro's
26th of July Movement.

It was the most dangerous moment
for the revolution.

The CIA were counting
on the Escambray rebels.

Their mission was to tie up

a maximum of Castro's soldiers
and militia in combat.

The heavily armed Brigade 2506
would then attack Cuba from Guatemala.

Their target was the town of Trinidad,
near the Escambray Mountains.

Here, they were to join up with the rebels
and establish a bridgehead,

before appealing
to the international community for help.

This appeal would serve as a pretext
for the USA to officially invade Cuba.

The American government, the CIA
and the Cuban exiles

were all convinced the plan would work.

[in Spanish] I heard a speech
by Che Guevara, and I remember thinking,

"How stupid can this guy be?

He doesn't know
this will be one of his last speeches."

We knew we might have personal problems

and be wounded or even killed

but the idea that we could lose
never occurred to us.

As the CIA prepared the invasion of Cuba,

a presidential election campaign
was underway in the US.

Having served twice, President Eisenhower
was barred from running again.

Vice-President Nixon
wanted to succeed him.

His opponent was a younger senator
called John F Kennedy.

As a candidate, Kennedy should have been
informed of the invasion plan.

But Nixon was certain of his victory
and prohibited it.

In September 1960,
shortly before the election,

Fidel Castro, as well as heads of state
from around the world,

flew to New York
to address the United Nations.

The American public
welcomed Castro enthusiastically.

And he knew how to cash in on his fame.

[Latell] There's no better actor
than Fidel Castro.

When he checked out
of a very expensive first-class hotel,

we would say today
a four- or five-star hotel,

and went uptown to Harlem,
he checked into the Hotel Theresa.

It was there at the Hotel Theresa,

in black Harlem,
African-American Harlem,

that he began appealing
to another whole American constituency.

Fidel Castro
was warmly welcomed in Harlem.

He made a PR coup
out of his move to the Hotel Theresa,

presenting himself as a man of the people.

The next day,
he had a prestigious visitor.

Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev,
also here to speak at the United Nations,

visited him at the Hotel Theresa.

[Clerc, in French]
It was an amazing encounter.

Firstly, Castro was six foot three
and Khrushchev about five foot five,

so when Castro hugged Khrushchev,

it was like a bear trying to smother him.

Not a Russian bear,
Castro was the bear,

smothering a man who, carelessly,
had stepped on his territory.

As Cuba is a member of the United Nations,
Castro was free to visit the United States

and talk before the UN's general assembly.

His speech went down in history.

He said he would make
only a brief statement,

and then spoke for four and a half hours.

A record that still stands today.

But more telling than his speech
was another message Castro sent that day.

At each vote, he followed the lead
of the Soviet Union.

[in Spanish] In exchange for his survival,

Fidel Castro did what Moscow asked.

He said that Moscow was very good,
the USSR was very good,

communism was very good.

And it was in his own interest,
because the USSR supported him,

both economically and with weapons.

On November 8th, 1960, the American
people elected a new president.

Contrary to what Nixon had anticipated,
it was a race to the finish line.

Only a few thousand votes
separated him and his opponent

but in the end, John F Kennedy
became president of the United States.

Only after he had won the election

was Kennedy informed
of the plan to invade Cuba.

The Bay of Pigs was shocking thing to me.

I had to help Kennedy
produce his book Strategy of Peace.

There is a whole little section of it
on Cuba

that I had helped write
but it was in Kennedy's name.

I knew that he had one foot
in the Cold War

and one foot in another vision
of one world.

In the spring of 1961,

1,334 exiled Cubans, trained by the CIA,

were ready to take back their homeland.

But Kennedy was reluctant
to give the go-ahead.

In public, he stated
he did not want to intervene on Cuba.

There will not, under any conditions,

be an intervention in Cuba
by United States armed forces.

This government
will do everything it possibly can,

and I think it can meet
its responsibilities

to make sure that there are no Americans
involved in any action inside Cuba.

Finally, on April 4th, 1961,

Kennedy approved the operation
on two conditions.

The target would not be
the town of Trinidad,

but a remote beach
at the so-called Bay of Pigs.

And Kennedy reduced aerial support.

Only eight US bombers,
disguised as Cuban planes,

would accompany the landing.

April 15th, 1961. 6 a.m.

The eight bombers
took off in the direction of Cuba.

Their objective was to neutralize
Cuba's small air force.

They succeeded
in destroying numerous aircraft.

But the attack alerted Fidel Castro.

The Cuban leader
mobilized his army for war.

He also gave the order to arrest anyone
even suspected of being a dissenter

and publicly made martyrs
out of the victims of the bombings.

[in Spanish] It was April 15th,
two days before the landing.

San Antonio and Santiago de Cuba
were bombed.

There were several dead and injured.

One man wrote the name of Fidel
with his own blood on a piece of wood.

An unforgettable story
for those who were there.

Everyone knew the attack was imminent.

On the morning of April 17th,
three ships approached the Bay of Pigs.

Aboard were 1,334
heavily armed Cuban exiles.

[in Spanish] I disembarked at dawn

and the first exchanges of gunfire
had already taken place.

We shot down one of their planes
right next to my boat.

I remember a Sea Fury
that crashed from anti-aircraft fire.

We got into a landing-craft,

like the ones from the war,
the ones that open at the front.

Fidel Castro himself
took command of the battle.

But the Bay of Pigs was
a strategically favorable landing zone.

[in Spanish] From a military
point of view, it was difficult.

There were only three roads
to the beach, three paths,

more like tracks. And we had no choice.

There was no other way
to deploy the troops.

We had, at that point in time,
enough explosive in Cuba

that we could have blown bridges
on the way to Playa Girón,

which meant
we could have delayed tremendously

a vast amount of Castro troops.

But by the time the invasion went in,
they didn't tell us anything.

After successfully landing at the beach,

Brigade 2506 was close
to establishing a bridgehead.

Victory seemed within their grasp.

[in Spanish] We had taken the beach.

We controlled all the area
that we were supposed to control.

Castro's response was massive.

We pulled out when his tanks
arrived on the beach.

We only had bullets,
we had nothing to fight them with.

114 Cuban exiles died
in the Bay of Pigs landing.

More than 1,200 were captured.

On Castro's side,
casualties were even higher,

particularly among
the badly trained militia.

Over 4,000 men were reported
killed, injured or missing.

Fidel Castro presented victory
in the Bay of Pigs

as an unmitigated triumph.

And the failed American attack unified
the Cuban people behind their leader.

It gave Castro and the revolution

a legitimacy that
they had never had before.

The underground opposition in Cuba
was pretty well neutralized.

About a 100,000 were thrown into prison.

The Cuban Revolution achieved
a level of respect and legitimacy

all over the world. And especially
in Latin America, he was seen as a hero,

like no Latin American figure before him.

After the victory at the Bay of Pigs,
the only real opposition left in Cuba

were the rebels
in the Escambray Mountains.

With his position secure,
Castro ordered that they be eliminated.

And in order to pin their uprising
on the US,

Castro sent not just soldiers,
but also film crews.

[in Spanish] In the Escambray Mountains,
at the last minute, they closed in.

We located the bandits
and surrounded them.

A death battalion
went in and hunted them down.

The battalion came up against the bandits
and it was all over.

[in French] It was brutal. No one
will ever know how many people died.

No one kept records,

neither officially
nor among the counter-revolutionaries.

But to stay in power, Castro needed more
than just victories on his island.

He needed a firm international ally.

On May 1st, 1961, just two weeks
after the victory at the Bay of Pigs,

Castro called for a public celebration.

Soviet film crews
captured the lavish celebrations,

as he declared his revolution,
and thus Cuba, to be socialist.

Later Fidel Castro and Che Guevara

topped off the day's events
with two bottles of Coca-Cola.

[in Spanish] Fidel was like a teacher.

He talked about socialism.

But the historic truth is that most of us
did not know what socialism was.

We knew nothing about socialism.

We were 90 miles, or 180 kilometers,
from our closest neighbors...

...and everything we had heard
about socialism had been bad.

US President John F Kennedy

had to accept responsibility
for the invasion's failure.

For Kennedy, it was a disaster
he could not endure.

And so he ordered plans
for a new invasion to be drawn up.

Why we got stuck on this,

I think for the Kennedys,

it was sort of their manhood
was being tested by the whole fiasco.

And beyond the manhood,

there was the damage it may have done

for the reputation
and the power of the administration.

Fidel Castro had successfully rebuffed
a first invasion of his country.

In order to protect Cuba
from further American attacks,

he allied his country firmly
with the Soviet Union.

In the future,
it was to be Soviet soldiers,

and above all, nuclear missiles, that
would guarantee the island's independence.

And thus, Cuba had become
what the Americans feared the most.

An outpost for Soviet socialism,
right on their doorstep.