FORTY YEARS AGO: BAY OF PIGS ATTACK ON CUBA
From Workers World newspaper April 28, 1961
Whole world calls U.S. aggressor;
Kennedy gets set to do it again
Kennedy takes 'responsibility' for cowardly attack
and promises to do it better next time
The whole world, including even the capitalist allies of
the United States, was appalled at the open attack on tiny
Cuba which U.S. officials engineered on April 17. And yet
Kennedy had the nerve to make his "blood and iron" speech
after the fiasco, in which he spoke of the danger to U.S.
"security" and of the "tyranny" in Cuba.
The Manchester Guardian of England summed up much of
foreign Big Business sentiment when it said:
"Everyone knows that the sort of invasion by proxy with
which the U.S. has now been charged is morally
indistinguishable from open aggression."
Of course the reason for such "moral" indignation is to
be found in the great working class demonstrations that were
held throughout the world, particularly in Latin America.
Over 25,000 marched in Mexico City alone.
But Kennedy, representing the arrogant and still
unchastened American capitalist class, made his war-mongering
speech on the very morrow of the invasion's failure, and
furiously warned the oppressed Latin American countries as
follows:
"If the nations of this hemisphere should fail to meet
their commitments against outside penetration, ... this
government will not hesitate in meeting its primary
obligation."
By this, Kennedy meant that if he could not get enough
stooges among the Latin Americans to attack Cuba, he would
see that the United States did so, this time with sufficient
planes and bombs--and Marines.
The truth is--that Cuba does indeed pose a threat to the
United States. Not to the vast majority of the people of the
United States, and not to the military security of the United
States. But by its example to Latin America, it poses a
threat to the Wall Street domination and exploitation of 230
million people in the hemisphere outside of the United
States.
Most of the 180 million people in the United States
itself do not even know that this super-exploitation exists.
And many imagine that the 6 million Cubans are going to start
attacking the United States with "Russian
weapons."
But the Latin Americans are very well aware of the nature
and identity of their oppressor. Their revolution against
that oppressor will not be defeated nor even postponed, by
Kennedy's coming adventure in Cuba.
Give arms to our people!
—SAYS AFRICAN AMERICAN LEADER
During the U.S.-sponsored invasion of Cuba, Rob
Williams, editor of the Afro-American paper, the Crusader,
sent the following telegram which Dr. Raul Roa of Cuba read
aloud at the United Nations:
To Be Conveyed to Adlai Stevenson--
Now that the United States has proclaimed military
support for people willing to rebel against oppression,
oppressed Afro-Americans in the South urgently request tanks,
artillery, bombs, money, use of American airfields and white
mercenaries to crush the racist tyrants who have betrayed the
American Revolution and Civil War.
--We also request prayer for this noble
undertaking!
--Robert F. Williams
CIA'S cheering section
The Workers World of April 28, 1961, reprinted the
following information from the New York Post of April
19:
"American business men, hoping to regain some of the
billion dollars of properties lost to Fidel Castro's
government, today watched the fighting in Cuba with intense
interest.
" 'We're just sitting and waiting ...' an officer of the
American and Foreign Power Co. said. Property of the firm
valued at $300,000,000 was nationalized by the Castro
regime.
"A spokesman for W. R. Grace and Co., which lost a
$1,500,000 paper converting mill on the outskirts of Havana,
said, 'We're playing it by ear.'
"In Boston, a vice president of the United Fruit Co. said
a $70,000,000 claim would be filed with any new government
that might depose Castro.
" 'If a new and democratic government succeeds,' he said,
United Fruit 'would hope to play a part in the
economy.'"
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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