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Trained to Kill: The Inside Story of CIA Plots against Castro, Kennedy, and Che
Explosive account of the intrigue, hit men, and Cuban exiles in the CIA's war to destroy Fidel Castro
Antonio Veciana fought on the front lines of the CIA’s decades-long secret war to destroy Fidel Castro, the bearded bogeyman who haunted America’s Cold War dreams. It was a time of swirling intrigue, involving US spies with license to kill, Mafia hit men, ruthless Cuban exiles—and the leaders in the crosshairs of all this dark plotting, Fidel Castro and John F. Kennedy.
Veciana transformed himself from an asthmatic banker to a bomb-making mastermind who headed terrorist attacks in Havana and assassination attempts against Castro, while building one of the era’s most feared paramilitary groups—all under the direction of the CIA.
In the end, Veciana became a threat—not just to Castro, but also to his CIA handler. Veciana was the man who knew too much. Suddenly he found himself a target—framed and sent to prison, and later shot in the head and left to die on a Miami street. When he was called before a Congressional committee investigating the Kennedy assassination, Veciana held back, fearful of the consequences. He didn’t reveal the identity of the CIA officer who directed him—the same agent Veciana observed meeting with Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas before the killing of JFK.
Now, for the first time in paperback, Veciana tells all, detailing his role in the intricate game of thrones that aimed to topple world leaders and change the course of history.
Antonio Veciana fought on the front lines of the CIA’s decades-long secret war to destroy Fidel Castro, the bearded bogeyman who haunted America’s Cold War dreams. It was a time of swirling intrigue, involving US spies with license to kill, Mafia hit men, ruthless Cuban exiles—and the leaders in the crosshairs of all this dark plotting, Fidel Castro and John F. Kennedy.
Veciana transformed himself from an asthmatic banker to a bomb-making mastermind who headed terrorist attacks in Havana and assassination attempts against Castro, while building one of the era’s most feared paramilitary groups—all under the direction of the CIA.
In the end, Veciana became a threat—not just to Castro, but also to his CIA handler. Veciana was the man who knew too much. Suddenly he found himself a target—framed and sent to prison, and later shot in the head and left to die on a Miami street. When he was called before a Congressional committee investigating the Kennedy assassination, Veciana held back, fearful of the consequences. He didn’t reveal the identity of the CIA officer who directed him—the same agent Veciana observed meeting with Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas before the killing of JFK.
Now, for the first time in paperback, Veciana tells all, detailing his role in the intricate game of thrones that aimed to topple world leaders and change the course of history.
240 pages, Paperback
Published January 18, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 15, 2017
What a story, one that will join the multiple conspiracy theories on who may have killed Kennedy. Now in his late 80’s, Mr. Veciana reveals in his memoirs how Maurice Bishop, actually David Atlee Phillips, a rising figure in the CIA recruited and trained him to be a professional conspirator. 50 years after Kennedy assassination he decided to tell the world the explosive information he has about the case.
Mr. Veciana was an accountant by profession living in Cuba during Castro’s regime when he was approached to spy for the CIA. So hurt by what was happening to his country, he never regretted fighting Fidel. Inside the book is the story of CIA plots against Castro, Kennedy and Che. Stories hard to believe happened if they weren`t told by someone at the heart of it all.
Although the author admits he doesn’t know who killed John Kennedy, he knows who wanted to: two months before the assassination he was introduced to Lee Harvey Oswald by the CIA. By then he was an agent and had already tried to kill Castro. By the end of his career, he knew too much, became a threat, found himself a target, framed for an offense he did not commit and sent to prison. What a life…..
This is an excellent read and very informative. Vivid descriptions of how an asthmatic banker masterminded terrorist attacks in Havana and all this under the watchful eyes if the CIA. Detailed roles he played and much more. This story kept me glued to the words and interested from page one. It is smoothly writing and very intense….excellent book.
I received this book for free via Eidelwess for an honest and unbiased review.
Mr. Veciana was an accountant by profession living in Cuba during Castro’s regime when he was approached to spy for the CIA. So hurt by what was happening to his country, he never regretted fighting Fidel. Inside the book is the story of CIA plots against Castro, Kennedy and Che. Stories hard to believe happened if they weren`t told by someone at the heart of it all.
Although the author admits he doesn’t know who killed John Kennedy, he knows who wanted to: two months before the assassination he was introduced to Lee Harvey Oswald by the CIA. By then he was an agent and had already tried to kill Castro. By the end of his career, he knew too much, became a threat, found himself a target, framed for an offense he did not commit and sent to prison. What a life…..
This is an excellent read and very informative. Vivid descriptions of how an asthmatic banker masterminded terrorist attacks in Havana and all this under the watchful eyes if the CIA. Detailed roles he played and much more. This story kept me glued to the words and interested from page one. It is smoothly writing and very intense….excellent book.
I received this book for free via Eidelwess for an honest and unbiased review.
April 8, 2017
"Antonio Carlos Veciana Blanch is an accountant by training, a banker and a businessman by trade. Some call him a patriot, some call him a terrorist. Only one knew that he is a spy, with a single mission to destroy Castro."
Thanks to Net galley and Skyhorse Publishing for giving me an opportunity to read and review this fantastic book.
The book is an account of an 88 year old Cuban exile Antonio Veciana with his CIA handler Maurice Bishop. During the Cuban revolution he was working as an accountant to a wealthy man, Julio Lobo, and Veciana was also the head of the Accountant Association. Like others he also hated the reign of Fulgencio Batista. On 1st January 1959 Batista was replaced by the revolutionist Fidel Castro. But Veciana hated Fidel as he will rule as a dictator.
Later his assumptions of Fidel does not falter and he voiced against him. A CIA, Maurice Bishop also known as David Atlee Phillips comes to his office and gives an opportunity to work for anti Fidel Castro activities. Maurice trains him and makes him his covert field operative.
Under Maurice direction Veciana destructs public confidence on Castro by spreading rumours and leaking fake government drafts such as Monetary control and parental right laws. He used men with incendiary bombs to destroy many tobacco fields and industries there by crippling Cuba's economy.
After failure of Bay of Pigs invasion, Maurice gives a solution to kill Castro. Veciana with his Mother-in-law takes up an apartment opposite government plaza where Castro and Dorticos will meet. His choice of weapon to kill Castro is a bazooka, its 3.5 inch warhead could pierce a three inch armour plate. Before the mission is accomplished as planned he has to take his mother in law and land in US. He reaches the US coast and was waiting for the news of Castro's death but the mission was a failure.
Then he stays in US, he finds Alpha 66 and becomes the Chief and principal fund raiser, Alpha 66 turned out to be most active group which became a headache to Castro's reign.
Under Maurice instructions he takes up the job of banking advisor to Central Bank of Bolivia, he lived with his family and rubbed shoulders with high ranking members. This time his task is to kill the legend of Che. He tried his best by making arrangements to hand Congo Diary of Che to Castro for publication, he thought that the book will give the feeling that Che's chronicles are a debacle. But the legend continued to grow and inspired many. From Veciana's view point apart from Che's daring, simple and disciplined life, he saw confirmation of Che's failure.
During 1971 Veciana got another big opportunity to assassinate Castro, as he had planned to pay a visit to Chile which is under the rule of Salvador Allende. The weapon of choice had to be small enough to fit inside a fully operational television camera, to remain hidden until the assassins were close enough, and to fire one or more shots, point blank, into Fidel's throat and head. He selects three persons for the job but luck favoured Fidel. When this attempt failed he returned to US and fell from the patronage of Maurice Bishop, and he was paid $230,000 for his service on anti Castro activities.
Some years later he was thrown into prison on the charges of supplying narcotics which he denied. Later he told the United States House Selection committee on Assassination that he met Maurice with Lee Harvey Oswald couple of weeks before assassination of JFK. He was ambushed on the way back to home but he survived a bullet wound. He was sure Bishop is David Atlee Phillips. Veciana says that he regretted his political life.
The book gives much information on how CIA recruits people, different kind of code language and how secret meetings takes place.
my book review
Thanks to Net galley and Skyhorse Publishing for giving me an opportunity to read and review this fantastic book.
The book is an account of an 88 year old Cuban exile Antonio Veciana with his CIA handler Maurice Bishop. During the Cuban revolution he was working as an accountant to a wealthy man, Julio Lobo, and Veciana was also the head of the Accountant Association. Like others he also hated the reign of Fulgencio Batista. On 1st January 1959 Batista was replaced by the revolutionist Fidel Castro. But Veciana hated Fidel as he will rule as a dictator.
Later his assumptions of Fidel does not falter and he voiced against him. A CIA, Maurice Bishop also known as David Atlee Phillips comes to his office and gives an opportunity to work for anti Fidel Castro activities. Maurice trains him and makes him his covert field operative.
Under Maurice direction Veciana destructs public confidence on Castro by spreading rumours and leaking fake government drafts such as Monetary control and parental right laws. He used men with incendiary bombs to destroy many tobacco fields and industries there by crippling Cuba's economy.
After failure of Bay of Pigs invasion, Maurice gives a solution to kill Castro. Veciana with his Mother-in-law takes up an apartment opposite government plaza where Castro and Dorticos will meet. His choice of weapon to kill Castro is a bazooka, its 3.5 inch warhead could pierce a three inch armour plate. Before the mission is accomplished as planned he has to take his mother in law and land in US. He reaches the US coast and was waiting for the news of Castro's death but the mission was a failure.
Then he stays in US, he finds Alpha 66 and becomes the Chief and principal fund raiser, Alpha 66 turned out to be most active group which became a headache to Castro's reign.
Under Maurice instructions he takes up the job of banking advisor to Central Bank of Bolivia, he lived with his family and rubbed shoulders with high ranking members. This time his task is to kill the legend of Che. He tried his best by making arrangements to hand Congo Diary of Che to Castro for publication, he thought that the book will give the feeling that Che's chronicles are a debacle. But the legend continued to grow and inspired many. From Veciana's view point apart from Che's daring, simple and disciplined life, he saw confirmation of Che's failure.
During 1971 Veciana got another big opportunity to assassinate Castro, as he had planned to pay a visit to Chile which is under the rule of Salvador Allende. The weapon of choice had to be small enough to fit inside a fully operational television camera, to remain hidden until the assassins were close enough, and to fire one or more shots, point blank, into Fidel's throat and head. He selects three persons for the job but luck favoured Fidel. When this attempt failed he returned to US and fell from the patronage of Maurice Bishop, and he was paid $230,000 for his service on anti Castro activities.
Some years later he was thrown into prison on the charges of supplying narcotics which he denied. Later he told the United States House Selection committee on Assassination that he met Maurice with Lee Harvey Oswald couple of weeks before assassination of JFK. He was ambushed on the way back to home but he survived a bullet wound. He was sure Bishop is David Atlee Phillips. Veciana says that he regretted his political life.
The book gives much information on how CIA recruits people, different kind of code language and how secret meetings takes place.
my book review
August 9, 2018
A lot of interesting information on the founder of Alpha 66 and a CIA asset in 1959-1960. Worth reading, but it overplays the JFK assassination connection at the expense of some very interesting Cuba content and it's written a bit sensationalist.
February 28, 2020
Coincidence that I was reading this when the "OMG Bernie loves Cuba" issue was raised.
Summary, of sorts: Veciana was part of Alpha 66, a group of CIA-backed Cubans working to assassinate Castro. His handler was David Atlee Phillips. Phillips insisted that none of Alpha 66's activities be linked backed to the CIA.
I picked this up for the Castro stuff but there is more to the book. Interesting tidbits:
~ Veciana says he saw Phillips with Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, and that Phillips requested he put Oswald in touch with the Cuban embassy in Mexico.
~ Veciana says he met Nazi "Butcher of Lyon" Klaus Barbie in Bolivia, says that the CIA was aware of his presence, and says he heard rumors that Barbie was in on the assassination of Che Guevara.
~ Veciana helped start the rumors which led to the Peter Pan exodus, in which lots of Cubans sent their kids to live in the U.S. Among these was 16-year-old Miguel Bezos, stepfather/adoptive father of Jeff Bezos.
Overall, Veciana remains convinced Castro was a monster. But doing the math, I have to say he was a bank accountant who disliked Castro, who plotted and acted out bombings, etc., which led to deaths, who felt that Castro's roundups and retaliations for these very same bombings and killings somehow proved that he was right about Castro. WTH? "I think you're bad, so I'm gonna destroy and kill, and when you retaliate by arresting and executing plotters, I'll say it's proof I was right about you." Um, okay.
Back to the "OMG Bernie said some nice things about Cuba" thing: Veciana does the same. And Veciana is a rightwing reactionary nut who dedicated his life to assassinating Castro, so...
Summary, of sorts: Veciana was part of Alpha 66, a group of CIA-backed Cubans working to assassinate Castro. His handler was David Atlee Phillips. Phillips insisted that none of Alpha 66's activities be linked backed to the CIA.
I picked this up for the Castro stuff but there is more to the book. Interesting tidbits:
~ Veciana says he saw Phillips with Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, and that Phillips requested he put Oswald in touch with the Cuban embassy in Mexico.
~ Veciana says he met Nazi "Butcher of Lyon" Klaus Barbie in Bolivia, says that the CIA was aware of his presence, and says he heard rumors that Barbie was in on the assassination of Che Guevara.
~ Veciana helped start the rumors which led to the Peter Pan exodus, in which lots of Cubans sent their kids to live in the U.S. Among these was 16-year-old Miguel Bezos, stepfather/adoptive father of Jeff Bezos.
Overall, Veciana remains convinced Castro was a monster. But doing the math, I have to say he was a bank accountant who disliked Castro, who plotted and acted out bombings, etc., which led to deaths, who felt that Castro's roundups and retaliations for these very same bombings and killings somehow proved that he was right about Castro. WTH? "I think you're bad, so I'm gonna destroy and kill, and when you retaliate by arresting and executing plotters, I'll say it's proof I was right about you." Um, okay.
Back to the "OMG Bernie said some nice things about Cuba" thing: Veciana does the same. And Veciana is a rightwing reactionary nut who dedicated his life to assassinating Castro, so...
November 22, 2017
With the release of the latest cache of until-now-confidential documents on the JFK assassination, I thought it time I get some reading in. Along came on NetGalley, one of the review services I use, this title. Trained to Kill is sub-headed “The Inside Story of CIA plots against Castro, Kennedy and Che” and is the autobiography of Antonio Veciana, a Cuban exile who spent the past fifty years or so plotting the overthrow of Fidel Castro.
Veciana details how he was recruited by a CIA officer known to him as Maurice Bishop (this officer’s cover name was to prove important) to usurp Castro, the CIA having correctly identified Vecianna’s growing disillusionment with the then nascent revolutionary regime. At first Veciana was tasked with psychological warfare – the spreading of rumours to sow discord and undermine the economy – something he embraced with gusto and not a little success. But by his own description, he was keen for more and it wasn’t long before he was leading his first assassination attempt. After the Bay of Pigs debacle (something he wasn’t involved in) Veciana fled with his family to Florida. Here he met up with Bishop and he says the CIA man was incandescent with what he saw as Kennedy’s betrayal of the Cuban exile invaders.
Veciana now founded Alpha 66, a militant group. While he says that the organisation’s exploits were exaggerated – again this was psychological warfare, this time more towards the Kennedy Administration, the hope being they would be forced to act against Castro – he does not deny that the group did launch attacks and raids against Cuba and against foreign shipping supplying the island. Veciana is keen to downplay civilian casualties here and perhaps Alpha 66 did take pains to avoid innocent casualties, but it’s hard not to conclude that the organisation was engaged in terrorism.
Throughout this time, Veciana was still in contact with the CIA via Bishop and it was at one such meeting that he met Lee. A little while later, JFK was assassinated and Veciana claims he recognised the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, as the Lee his CIA contact had been meeting with. Does this mean that the CIA, via Bishop, had something to do with the assassination of JFK? Perhaps, perhaps not. Years later, Vecianna was asked about this by the House Select Committee on Assassinations (a House of Representatives Committee formed to look again at the JFK assassination due to concerns over the original Warren Commission’s findings). In particular, he was asked whether Bishop was in fact the known CIA officer (who rose to be the CIA Chief of Operations in the Western Hemisphere) David Atlee Phillips. Veciana said no and claimed not to recognise Phillips. Fast forward to 2014 and he changed his mind, claiming Philips was indeed the man he knew as Bishop, something he repeats in Trained to Kill. Does this volte-face undermine Veciana’s credibility? Certainly, there could be compelling reasons for him not to have told the truth originally, not least fear of the consequences. If he is right and Bishop was Philips, and he witnessed him meeting with Oswald just weeks before Kennedy’s assassination, he might have reasonably feared for his safety. In the end, it is for the reader to decide.
For my own part, I tend towards the view that Oswald was a lone assassin. If so, Veciana might still have witnessed his CIA contact meeting with Oswald (and consequently concluded the CIA to have been involved). One explanation for the CIA’s latter behaviour, which certainly gave the impression of cover up, is that Oswald was indeed in contact with the CIA and then when he assassinated Kennedy, the agency panicked. Realising people might assume they had set the assassination up, the CIA by this theory have spent the past fifty years desperately trying to suppress the evidence of their negligence, the fact that had they been on the ball they might have spotted Oswald’s plans and put a stop to them.
Whatever the case, this book’s revelations concerning the Kennedy assassination threaten to overshadow its real explosive power. For that we need to look again at Castro. Trained to Kill demonstrates that Castro’s regime was never really given a chance. Veciana and others like him were recruited almost as soon as Castro came to power. I don’t doubt that Castro is not a particularly likeable chap, but the obsessive and pernicious attempts to overthrow him hardened the regime. Hardliners came to the fore and more moderate members of the revolutionary administration were side-lined. In the end, Castro was pushed into the welcoming arms of the Soviets. All this has long been known of course, but what was new to this reader certainly was the level of terroristic violence Alpha 66 and other likeminded groups were willing to resort to. In other circumstances, these people would have been arrested by the FBI, tried and convicted. It’s difficult to see how the tactics employed by these groups were any different to, say, those of the IRA or ETA.
Trained to Kill is one man’s honest account – sometimes shockingly so – of his work for the CIA in the attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. It is a fascinating historical document and well worth a read.
Veciana details how he was recruited by a CIA officer known to him as Maurice Bishop (this officer’s cover name was to prove important) to usurp Castro, the CIA having correctly identified Vecianna’s growing disillusionment with the then nascent revolutionary regime. At first Veciana was tasked with psychological warfare – the spreading of rumours to sow discord and undermine the economy – something he embraced with gusto and not a little success. But by his own description, he was keen for more and it wasn’t long before he was leading his first assassination attempt. After the Bay of Pigs debacle (something he wasn’t involved in) Veciana fled with his family to Florida. Here he met up with Bishop and he says the CIA man was incandescent with what he saw as Kennedy’s betrayal of the Cuban exile invaders.
Veciana now founded Alpha 66, a militant group. While he says that the organisation’s exploits were exaggerated – again this was psychological warfare, this time more towards the Kennedy Administration, the hope being they would be forced to act against Castro – he does not deny that the group did launch attacks and raids against Cuba and against foreign shipping supplying the island. Veciana is keen to downplay civilian casualties here and perhaps Alpha 66 did take pains to avoid innocent casualties, but it’s hard not to conclude that the organisation was engaged in terrorism.
Throughout this time, Veciana was still in contact with the CIA via Bishop and it was at one such meeting that he met Lee. A little while later, JFK was assassinated and Veciana claims he recognised the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, as the Lee his CIA contact had been meeting with. Does this mean that the CIA, via Bishop, had something to do with the assassination of JFK? Perhaps, perhaps not. Years later, Vecianna was asked about this by the House Select Committee on Assassinations (a House of Representatives Committee formed to look again at the JFK assassination due to concerns over the original Warren Commission’s findings). In particular, he was asked whether Bishop was in fact the known CIA officer (who rose to be the CIA Chief of Operations in the Western Hemisphere) David Atlee Phillips. Veciana said no and claimed not to recognise Phillips. Fast forward to 2014 and he changed his mind, claiming Philips was indeed the man he knew as Bishop, something he repeats in Trained to Kill. Does this volte-face undermine Veciana’s credibility? Certainly, there could be compelling reasons for him not to have told the truth originally, not least fear of the consequences. If he is right and Bishop was Philips, and he witnessed him meeting with Oswald just weeks before Kennedy’s assassination, he might have reasonably feared for his safety. In the end, it is for the reader to decide.
For my own part, I tend towards the view that Oswald was a lone assassin. If so, Veciana might still have witnessed his CIA contact meeting with Oswald (and consequently concluded the CIA to have been involved). One explanation for the CIA’s latter behaviour, which certainly gave the impression of cover up, is that Oswald was indeed in contact with the CIA and then when he assassinated Kennedy, the agency panicked. Realising people might assume they had set the assassination up, the CIA by this theory have spent the past fifty years desperately trying to suppress the evidence of their negligence, the fact that had they been on the ball they might have spotted Oswald’s plans and put a stop to them.
Whatever the case, this book’s revelations concerning the Kennedy assassination threaten to overshadow its real explosive power. For that we need to look again at Castro. Trained to Kill demonstrates that Castro’s regime was never really given a chance. Veciana and others like him were recruited almost as soon as Castro came to power. I don’t doubt that Castro is not a particularly likeable chap, but the obsessive and pernicious attempts to overthrow him hardened the regime. Hardliners came to the fore and more moderate members of the revolutionary administration were side-lined. In the end, Castro was pushed into the welcoming arms of the Soviets. All this has long been known of course, but what was new to this reader certainly was the level of terroristic violence Alpha 66 and other likeminded groups were willing to resort to. In other circumstances, these people would have been arrested by the FBI, tried and convicted. It’s difficult to see how the tactics employed by these groups were any different to, say, those of the IRA or ETA.
Trained to Kill is one man’s honest account – sometimes shockingly so – of his work for the CIA in the attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. It is a fascinating historical document and well worth a read.
May 27, 2021
Essential reading for JFK buffs. The style is very simple but feels all the more genuine for it. Well edited.
June 19, 2023
Eh. Started strong. That’s all.
March 20, 2017
I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank the authors, Antonio Verciana and Carlos Harrison, as well as the publisher, Skyhorse Publishing, for this opportunity.
I enjoyed the book, it was interesting to read about how things changed in Cuba under Castro's regime as well as getting some background as to how things were like beforehand and the chain of events that lead up to it from someone who experienced the events and the changes their brought firsthand. It was also interesting to see how Verciana's way of thinking and acting changed over time, the effects his obsession with killing Castro had as well as reading his reflection on the events years later. However, I have a couple of comments about the way the events were portrayed.
Firstly, I feel like the title is somewhat deceiving. It is listed in goodreads as "Trained to Kill Castro: Confessions of a CIA Recruit" and on Amazon and netgalley as "Trained to Kill
The Inside Story of CIA Plots against Castro, Kennedy, and Che". Verciana wasn't trained to kill, he received very little training from the CIA operative known as "Maurice Bishop" and he himself admits that he was on his own as far as plotting and executing the Castro assassination attempts, the only thing Bishop helped with was acquiring weapons. Additionally, when Bishop ordered him to kill the men involved in one of the assassination attempts he refuses. One can argue that if he had actually been trained to kill he would have complied. Furthermore, the only thing the book provides in terms of CIA plots against Kennedy is speculation, and Che is nothing more than a side character when talking about Castro's regime.
Secondly, during the latter half of the book the focus seems to shift from Castro to Bishop's part on the events and identity. I can't help but feel like the Bishop-related account could have done with more coverage of Phillips' account as well as the conclusions from people who investigated the events beyond just Fonzi.
Overall, I would recommend the book to anyone who wants to learn more about Castro's regime, Verciana and Cuban exile groups, but it might not be the best book for people who are expecting to read about the CIA and their direct involvement.
I enjoyed the book, it was interesting to read about how things changed in Cuba under Castro's regime as well as getting some background as to how things were like beforehand and the chain of events that lead up to it from someone who experienced the events and the changes their brought firsthand. It was also interesting to see how Verciana's way of thinking and acting changed over time, the effects his obsession with killing Castro had as well as reading his reflection on the events years later. However, I have a couple of comments about the way the events were portrayed.
Firstly, I feel like the title is somewhat deceiving. It is listed in goodreads as "Trained to Kill Castro: Confessions of a CIA Recruit" and on Amazon and netgalley as "Trained to Kill
The Inside Story of CIA Plots against Castro, Kennedy, and Che". Verciana wasn't trained to kill, he received very little training from the CIA operative known as "Maurice Bishop" and he himself admits that he was on his own as far as plotting and executing the Castro assassination attempts, the only thing Bishop helped with was acquiring weapons. Additionally, when Bishop ordered him to kill the men involved in one of the assassination attempts he refuses. One can argue that if he had actually been trained to kill he would have complied. Furthermore, the only thing the book provides in terms of CIA plots against Kennedy is speculation, and Che is nothing more than a side character when talking about Castro's regime.
Secondly, during the latter half of the book the focus seems to shift from Castro to Bishop's part on the events and identity. I can't help but feel like the Bishop-related account could have done with more coverage of Phillips' account as well as the conclusions from people who investigated the events beyond just Fonzi.
Overall, I would recommend the book to anyone who wants to learn more about Castro's regime, Verciana and Cuban exile groups, but it might not be the best book for people who are expecting to read about the CIA and their direct involvement.
June 26, 2017
Let me explain: Yes. I do believe Veciana met with David Atlee Phillips and I do believe Phillips met with Oswald and I do believe that the CIA was responsible for the assassination of President Kennedy.
I just don't like Veciana very much. To me he came across as an incredibly dislikable man in his youth and his politics trying to play the role of an old patriot who (don't worry) is also a family man!
The beginning of the book is almost an apology for Batista and I find I have little sympathy for him running guns and rumors to try to destroy the Cuban government at all cost and then Allende's government when he didn't succeed in killing Fidel Castro.
I just don't like Veciana very much. To me he came across as an incredibly dislikable man in his youth and his politics trying to play the role of an old patriot who (don't worry) is also a family man!
The beginning of the book is almost an apology for Batista and I find I have little sympathy for him running guns and rumors to try to destroy the Cuban government at all cost and then Allende's government when he didn't succeed in killing Fidel Castro.
June 3, 2018
Book received from NetGalley
This book was an interesting read. The author was recruited to be a spy in Cuba during the early reign of Fidel Castro. I think I enjoyed it because I was just off of a Latin American History course and was still really into books on the area. Some of it does read like a conspiracy theory, but it's still entertaining.
This book was an interesting read. The author was recruited to be a spy in Cuba during the early reign of Fidel Castro. I think I enjoyed it because I was just off of a Latin American History course and was still really into books on the area. Some of it does read like a conspiracy theory, but it's still entertaining.
April 18, 2017
An interesting and heartfelt journey of one mans crusade to free Cuba from Castro. From his humble beginnings in the banking trade to rubbing shoulders with high flying CIA agents to running guns and money. His obsession with Killing Castro takes its toll not only on him but on his family as he sends them away for their safety while he begins organising daring raids and propaganda against Castro's regime. A detailed account of the final hours of Che Guevara's life as well as the insider knowledge of a meeting between the CIA and Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas just months before the assassination of JFK add to this well written part of not only Cuba's but Americas history too.
June 18, 2017
Recruited by a US intelligence agency and involved in many plots and schemes. Not until page 198 is the phrase "blind obsession" used. Most interesting in terms of discussion of propaganda and misinformation campaigns. One must wonder at the current campaigns and their goals. The author also discloses a link between the CIA and Oswald -- but guess what? No one seems to care anymore.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews