"REVOLUTIONARIES, TERRORISM ACTS, MURDER ATTEMPTS… TO INTERFERE WITH THE REVOLUTIONARY PROCESS": RARE AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT, CIRCA 1960, ENTIRELY IN THE HAND OF FIDEL CASTRO, ATTACKING U.S. ACTIONS FOLLOWING THE BAY OF PIGS

CASTRO, Fidel. Autograph manuscript. No place, circa 1960. Single original leaf, measuring 6 by 8-3/4 inches, in manuscript on recto and verso. $25,000.

Rare two-page autograph manuscript, circa 1960, written entirely in the hand of Castro soon after the Bay of Pigs, possibly containing his notes for a speech at the United Nations, expressing—often passionately—his reaction to what he describes, in part, as "our solid activity and the victorious and uncontrollable development of our revolution" against "expatriates and gringos," two pages in Spanish on a single original leaf.

This rare two-page manuscript, entirely in the hand of Fidel Castro, contains text in Spanish on the recto and verso of a single leaf, with cross-outs and marginal notations. Possibly containing his notes for a speech at the United Nations, the text reads: "Hiram of Lubrijón [unclear] [translated into English] The Revolutionary Government is very aware of the desperate efforts that is [unclear] the efforts that reflect in the last days [lined out] the open [lined out] activity that the imperialism has been realizing during the last weeks in order to promote at all cost [unclear] revolutionaries, terrorism acts, murder attempts and all type of fights that have a tendency to interfere with the revolutionary process [unclear]. That activity has been doubled after [lined out] reports have been expressed to the ONU to the Prime Minister of the Government. It seems like they are worried within the Justice department of the United States Government, every time the anger and desperation increases, because of our solid activity and the victorious and uncontrollable development of our revolution that translates each time in a less dissimulated support of anti-revolutionaries, the war criminals and the worse [lined out, partly unclear] traitors, mercenaries of all type that [unclear] of service. Disembark between Moa and Baracoa [unclear] group of expatriates and gringos coming from [lined out] They left the United States. They are 27 in total Leader dead. One hurt and another prisoner [unclear, lined out] quickly attacked combated [lined out] by the army forces and militia's farmers. [Next all lined out] The Ministry of the Arm Forces communicates the following: In the day of yesterday [unclear] communicates the headquarters of [unclear] Militia of the West."

In March of 1960, a French freighter unloading munitions from Belgium exploded in Havana taking 75 lives and injuring 200, some of whom subsequently died. The U.S. denied Cuba's accusation of sabotage but admitted that it had sought to prevent the shipment. And so it went, reaching a high point in April of the following year in the infamous CIA-organized invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. Over 100 exiles died in the attack. Close to 1,200 others were taken prisoner by the Cubans. It was later revealed that four American pilots flying for the CIA had lost their lives as well. The Bay of Pigs assault had relied heavily on the Cuban people rising up to join the invaders, but this was not to be the case. As it was, the leadership and ranks of the exile forces were riddled with former supporters and henchmen of Fulgencio Battista, the dictator overthrown by Castro, and would not have been welcomed back by the Cuban people under any circumstances.

Despite the fact that the Kennedy administration was acutely embarrassed by the unmitigated defeat—indeed, because of it—a campaign of smaller-scale attacks upon Cuba was initiated almost immediately, under the rubric of Operation Mongoose. Throughout the 1960's, the Caribbean island was subjected to countless sea and air commando raids by exiles, at times accompanied by their CIA supervisors, inflicting damage upon oil refineries, chemical plants and railroad bridges, cane fields, sugar mills and sugar warehouses, infiltrating spies, saboteurs, and assassins, anything to damage the Cuban economy, promote disaffection, or make the revolution look bad. Taking the lives of Cuban militia members and others in the process, pirate attacks on Cuban fishing boats and merchant ships, bombardments of Soviet vessels docked in Cuba, an assault upon a Soviet army camp with 12 Russian soldiers reported wounded, a hotel and a theater shelled from offshore because Russians and East Europeans were supposed to be present there. These actions were not always carried out on the order of the CIA or with its foreknowledge, but the Agency could hardly plead "rogue elephant." It had created Operating Mongoose headquarters in Miami.

Only folding crease, faint scattered foxing, and minor edge-wear. Near-fine condition.