Guantánamo

  46 Memorandum of Conversation, Department of State, Washington, D.C., Jan. 9, 1959, FRUS, 109.

  47 Stephen G. Rabe, Eisenhower and Latin America: The Foreign Policy of Anticommunism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988), 117–18.

  48 Memorandum of Conversation, Department of State, Washington, D.C., Jan. 9, 1959, FRUS, 366.

  49 Hugh Thomas, Cuba, or the Pursuit of Freedom (New York: Da Capo, 1998), 1198, 1256–57; Farber, Revolution and Reaction in Cuba, 216; Prevost, “Cuba,” 334–35; Jorge Domínguez, “Cuba Since 1959,” in Leslie Bethell, ed., Cuba: A Short History (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 98–99.

  50 Rabe, Eisenhower and Latin America, 128.

  51 Memorandum of Discussion at the Department of State, Sept. 30, 1960, in FRUS, Cuba, vol. VI, 1959–1960, 1079. See also editorial note on p. 1082, quoting Merchant as saying that “Castro would not be so stupid as to make an overt attack” on Guantánamo. Meanwhile, Admiral Dennison, commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet, remarked that Guantánamo would be “useless to Castro.”

  52 Herter and Eisenhower quoted in Rabe, Eisenhower and Latin America, 172.

  53 U.S. Policy Toward Cuba, Memorandum of Discussion at the 436th Meeting of the National Security Council, Washington, D.C., March 10, 1960, FRUS, Cuba, vol. VI, 1958–60, 834.

  54 Fabian Escalante, The Cuba Project: CIA Covert Operations, 1959–62 (New York: Ocean Press, 2004), 74.

  55 Ibid., 86–93; Jesús Arboleya, The Cuban Counterrevolution (Athens: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 2000), 94–96.

  56 Stevenson quoted in William N. Oatis, “Cuban’s Guantánamo Attack Called Absurd by Stevenson,” Washington Post, Aug. 25, 1961; Dennison quoted in “Reminiscences of Admiral Robert Lee Dennison, U.S. Navy (Ret.),” U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, Md., Aug. 1975.

  57 Memorandum from CIA chief of operations Richard Helms to director of Central Intelligence McCone, Jan. 19, 1962, National Security Archive, Washington, D.C.

  58 Program review by the chief of operations, Operation Mongoose (Lansdale), Jan. 18, 1962, FRUS, Cuba, vol. X, 1961–1963.

  59 Memorandum for Brigadier General Edward G. Lansdale, USAF, assistant to the secretary of defense, from Brigadier General William H. Graig, DOD representative, Caribbean Survey Group, Feb. 2, 1962, Digital National Security Archive.

  60 Memorandum from the chief of operations, Cuba Project, to Brigadier General William H. Craig, Feb. 19, 1962, Digital National Security Archive.

  61 Memorandum for Secretary of State Robert McNamara from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lyman Lemnitzer, March 13, 1962, Digital National Security Archive.

  62 Memorandum for U.S. National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy from Acting Director Central Intelligence Marshall S. Carter, “CIA Action in Response to National Security Action Memorandum No. 181,” Aug. 1962, Digital National Security Archive; Memorandum of Meetings of the Special Group, Augmented, to Discuss Mongoose, Aug. 16, 1962, FRUS, 1961–63, Cuba, Doc. 378; Memorandum of Meeting with President Kennedy, Aug. 23, 1962, FRUS, 1961–63, vol. XI, doc. 385.

  63 Current Intelligence Memorandum, August 22, 1962, FRUS, Cuba, 1961–63, vol. XI, doc. 383.

  64 See Laurence Chang and Peter Kornbluh, eds., The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962: A National Security Archive Documents Reader, rev. ed. (New York: The New Press, 1999), introduction.

  65 Telegram from Chief of Naval Operations (Anderson) to the Department of State, Aug. 24, 1962, FRUS, Cuba, 1961–63, vol. XI, doc. 389.

  66 Memorandum from Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (Hils-man) to Acting Secretary of State Ball, Aug. 25, 1962, FRUS, Cuba, 1961–63, vol. XI, doc. 390.

  67 Carter to McCone, Cable, Sept. 7, 1962 (Excerpt), Digital National Security Archive.

  68 See, for example, Report from the Chief of Naval Operations to the Secretary of State, Sept. 7, 1962, Digital National Security Archive; Summary of Items of Significant Interest, Sept. 7, 1962, Digital National Security Archive; as well as subsequent intelligence reports in idem.

  69 Kennedy quote in Off the Record Meeting on Cuba, Oct. 16, 1962, The Cuban Missile Crisis, Avalon Project, Yale University, doc. 21.

  70 Minutes of the 505th Meeting of the National Security Council, Oct. 20, 1962, The Cuban Missile Crisis, Avalon Project, Yale University, doc. 34.

  71 Minutes of the 506th Meeting of the National Security Council, Oct. 21, 1962, The Cuban Missile Crisis, Avalon Project, Yale University, doc. 38.

  72 Note to All Base Residents, October 22, 1962, Guantánamo Vertical File, U.S. Navy Library, Washington, D.C.; U.S. Naval Air Station, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Command Historical Report, 1962, Guantánamo Vertical File, U.S. Navy Library, Washington, D.C., 4.

  73 Memo for Record, Cuba Fact Sheet, Oct. 27, 1962, Guantánamo Vertical File, U.S. Navy Library, Washington, D.C.

  74 “Reminiscences of Admiral Robert Lee Dennison, USN (Ret.),” U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, Md., Aug. 1975.

  75 Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008), 124–25.

  76 Memorandum for Director of Central Intelligence McCone from Deputy Director of Planning Richard Helms, Jan. 19, 1962, Digital National Security Archives.

  7 THE AMERICAN DREAM

  1 Research Proposal NM 005 098, Preventive Medical Aspects of Field Vector Control, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Aug. 26, 1956, Spielman Papers, in author’s possession.

  2 Andrew Spielman to C. W. Sabrosky, Oct. 15, 1957, Spielman Papers. “The Guantánamo Bay Naval Base has acquired the reputation of a place in which eye-gnats are very annoying to man,” Spielman wrote in an undated “Progress Report on an Eye Gnat Research Project at the US Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba,” probably around September 1957. Certain eye gnats, Spielman observed, “manifest this annoying and potentially dangerous ‘eye-gnat’ habit. They persistently attempt to crawl over and into various parts of the bodies of certain animals and of man. Some species are attracted to the eyes or other head orifices while others crawl over the feet or upon open sores and ulcers. In certain areas of the world, these flies vector trachoma or yaws, and they cause contaminative conjunctivitis wherever they occur. Where eye-gnats are numerous, their nuisance value is sufficient justification of some sort of a control program … . Ordinary window screens are not a deterrent.”

  3 “Living Conditions at the United States Naval Base, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, 1956,” U.S. Navy, ii.

  4 Ibid., 2.

  5 Ibid., 12.

  6 The federal minimum wage in the United States in 1956 was one dollar an hour in current dollars. Information Please Database, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. At the low end, Cuban maids made just over one twentieth of that.

  7 “Living Conditions,” 12.

  8 Ibid.

  9 Author telephone interview, Commander Harold H. Sacks, U.S. Navy (Ret.), June 30, 2008.

  10 Harold H. Sacks, Commander, U.S. Navy (Ret.), “Lt. Andrew Spielman Remembered,” January 2007, in possession of the author.

  11 This includes sailors living aboard ships. Confidential Security Information, History of the U.S. Naval Base, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Command File, World War II, Operational Archives Branch, Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C., 9.

  12 Nick Thimmesch, ‘“GITMO’—10 Years Later,” Newsday, March 28, 1972.

  13 Commander Leslie J. McCoy, quoted at www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=31290.

  14 Author interview with Commander Jeffrey M. Johnston, Oct. 14, 2005.

  15 Author interview with Judy Spielman, June 19, 2008, Cambridge, Mass.: Daniel Spielman to F. R. DuChanois, May 22, 1957, Spielman Papers.

  16 Andrew Spielman to K. L. Knight, April 22, 1957, Spielman Papers.

  17 Andrew Spielman, “Progress Report on Eye Gnat Research Project NM 005 098.01 entitled ‘Identification, Biology and Control of Eye Gnats (Hippelates spp.) at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba’ for the period of Octo
ber, 1–31, 1957,” Spielman Papers.

  18 Local planters, ranchers, and farmers also complained about eye gnats. Spielman speculated that sugar production and cattle ranching exacerbated the eye gnat problem in the region, as soil contamination from horse and cattle feces contributed to their abundance. Spielman, “Progress Report on Eye Gnat Research Project,” 2, Spielman Papers.

  19 Andrew Spielman to K. L. Knight, May 4, 1958, Spielman Papers.

  20 Andrew Spielman to F. R. DuChanois, Sept. 6, 1957, Spielman Papers.

  21 “Living Conditions,” 15–16.

  22 Ibid., 17–19.

  23 Ibid., 17.

  24 Author interview with Judy Spielman, June 19, 2008, Cambridge, Mass.

  25 Andrew Spielman to F. R. DuChanois, April 24, 1958, Spielman Papers.

  26 Andrew Spielman to K. L. Knight, June 25, 1958, Spielman Papers.

  27 Fred S. Harrod, Manning the New Navy: The Development of a Modern Naval Enlisted Force, 1899–1940 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979); Morris J. MacGregor, Jr., Defense Studies Series Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940–1965 (Washington, D.C.: Center for Military History, United States Army, 1985), available at www.history.army.mil/books/integration/IAF-fm.htm.

  28 Peter C. Grenquist to Jonathan Hansen, Sept. 12, 2005; author interview, Peter C. Grenquist, July 9, 2009.

  29 Telephone interview, Harold H. Sacks, June 30, 2008.

  30 See www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/tabA-09.pdf; 1958 Coral Reef, William T. Sampson School, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In 1950, South Carolina’s black population was roughly 39 percent, Mississippi’s roughly 45 percent, and Louisiana’s roughly 33 percent. State and national figures changed little between 1950 and 1960. In these years, the U.S. census did not have a category for “Hispanics,” and there were minuscule percentages of Native Americans and Asians.

  31 Harrod, Manning the New Navy, introduction, chap. 1; Morris J. MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces: Guide to Command of Negro Personnel (NAVPERS—15092), Navy Department, Bureau of Personnel, Washington, D.C., Feb. 12, 1945.

  32 Marine Corps commandant General Thomas Holcomb, quoted in MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces.

  33 Tom Miller, “The Sun Sometimes Sets on the American Empire,” Esquire, Vol. 80, September 1973, 100.

  34 Jules B. Billard, “Guantánamo: Keystone in the Caribbean,” National Geographic, 119, no. 3 (March 1961): 420–36.

  35 Don Shoemaker, “Gitmo’s OK Except for Landlord,” Minneapolis Star, Nov. 16, 1968. Cf., for example, Tom Tiede, “The Dreary Life, One Woman for 400 Men,” Pensacola (Fla.) News-Journal, Dec. 15, 1968.

  36 Billard, “Guantánamo: Keystone in the Caribbean,” 422–24.

  37 “Teaching Overseas at the United States Naval Base in Cuba” (William T. Sampson School, 1968), 35.

  38 Billard, “Guantánamo: Keystone in the Caribbean,” 435.

  39 Ibid., 432.

  40 See Ed Kiester, “American Family in Guantánamo: An On-the-Spot Report,” Parade, March 25, 1962, 6–10.

  41 Billard, “Guantánamo: Keystone in the Caribbean,” 432.

  42 Ibid., 433.

  43 Kiester, “American Family in Guantánamo,” 6–10.

  44 Ibid., 6–7.

  45 Ibid., 7.

  46 Ibid., 7, 10.

  47 Ibid., 10–11.

  48 Guantánamo Water Crisis, February 6–21, 1964, Guantánamo Vertical File, U.S. Navy Library, Washington, D.C.; Water Crisis Facts and Occurrences, Public Information Office, U.S. Naval Base, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Feb. 1964, Guantánamo Vertical File, Navy Library, Washington, D.C., 1–3. “Suburban Living Is on Its Way Out as Gitmo Gears to Garrison Life,” Navy Times, Feb. 26, 1964.

  49 William B. Breuer, Sea Wolf: The Daring Exploits of Navy Legend John D. Bulkeley (Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1989), 185.

  50 Breuer, Sea Wolf, 188.

  51 Ibid., 202–203.

  52 Ibid., 208.

  53 See, for example, Laurence Barret, “Guantánamo News Drought,” New York Herald, Feb. 16, 1964; and Jack Raymond, “Cuba Base Ban for Newsmen,” Boston Globe, Feb. 12, 1964, 1.

  54 Water Crisis Facts and Occurrences, 3.

  55 See, for example, the cartoon entitled “Cutting His Water Off,” San Francisco Examiner, Feb. 19, 1964, 5C, as well as “Castro Can Pipe Down, U.S. Cuts Water Line,” Boston Globe, Feb. 18, 1964, 1; “The Final Answer to Cuba on Water,” New York Herald, Feb. 18, 1964, 1; and “Irate Admiral Cuts Guantánamo Mains,” New York Times, Feb. 18, 1964, 1.

  56 Breuer, Sea Wolf, 215, 244.

  57 Ibid., 212.

  58 Report from Commander, U.S. Naval Base, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to Commander, Antilles Defense Command, on Annual Cold War Activity Report, July 8, 1964, Guantánamo Command History, U.S. Naval Library, Washington, D.C.

  59 Work Force Study, Aug. 15, 1967, appendix to 1967 Command History, U.S. Naval Library, Washington, D.C., vii–3, 8.

  60 Ibid.

  61 Ibid., vii–8.

  62 Ibid., viii–12.

  63 Ibid.

  64 Telephone interview, Commander Harold Sacks, June 30, 2008.

  65 “Your GTMO Home: U.S. Naval Base Guantánamo Bay, Cuba,” Public Affairs Office, U.S. Naval Base, Guantánamo Bay, 1968, 1.

  66 Ibid., 9.

  67 Ibid., 16–17, 24–25.

  68 Memorandum from Base Public Information Officer to Commander Naval Base, March 6, 1961, Guantánamo Vertical File, U.S. Naval Library, Washington, D.C.; “Gal Reporter Bucks Navy Red Tape,” Overseas Press Bulletin, Feb. 25, 1961.

  69 Admiral John D. Bulkeley to Admiral Needham, Feb. 1965, Guantánamo Vertical File, U.S. Naval Library, Washington, D.C. Cf. Captain B. S. Solomon to Lieutenant Commander B. D. Varner, Feb. 25, 1965, in Guantánamo Vertical File, U.S. Naval Library, Washington, D.C.

  70 1966 Command History, U.S. Naval Library, Washington, D.C., 17, and 1967 Command History, U.S. Naval Library, Washington, D.C., 3.

  71 1966 Command History, 18.

  72 Ibid.

  73 Tom Tiede, “The Dreary Life: One Woman for 400 Men,” Pensacola (Fla.) News-Journal, December 15, 1968, 8E.

  74 Tom Miller, “The Sun Sometimes Sets on the American Empire,” Esquire, vol. 80, September 1973, 97.

  75 Besides Miller, see Thimmesch, “‘Gitmo’—10 Years Later,” 1970 Command History, U.S. Naval Base Guantánamo Bay, Navy Department Library, Washington, D.C., 7, which reports seizure of more than thirty-two pounds of marijuana (estimated worth $25,760) at the base; 1972 Command History, U.S. Naval Base Guantánamo Bay, Navy Department Library, Washington, D.C., reporting a death from a drug overdose, along with the arrest of fifteen enlisted men on a drug-trafficking charge.

  76 Miller, “The Sun Sometimes Sets,” 186.

  77 Command History 1972, 8, 26, 30.

  78 Homer Bigarts, “Pioneer Navy Facility Leads Drive to Treat Alcoholism,” New York Times, June 24, 1972, 33.

  79 Tom Tiede, “Guantánamo Base Segregation of Facilities Being Done to Avoid Trouble,” Orlando Sentinel, Dec. 17, 1968, 6A.

  80 Tom Tiede, “Gitmo’s Hired Hands Tied by Segregation,” Guam Daily News, Dec. 14, 1968.

  81 “Racial Clash Injures 33 on Carrier,” Washington Post, Oct. 14, 1972, A3.

  82 “Race Fight Injures 50 on U.S. Ships,” Washington Post, Oct. 18, 1972, A48.

  83 “Sailors Charged,” Washington Post, Oct. 23, 1972, A9.

  84 George C. Wilson, “Navy Mobilizing for Racial Reform,” Washington Post, Nov. 5, 1972, A1.

  85 Jack Anderson, “Guantánamo Base Is Powder Keg,” Washington Post, Jan. 2, 1973, B11.

  86 Ibid.

  87 Robert A. Calavan, “A Neighbor Defends,” Washington Post, Jan. 8, 1973, A21.

  88 1972 Command History, 18; Miller, “The Sun Sometimes Sets,” 188.

  89 Miller, “The Sun Sometimes Sets,” 188.

  90 Ibid.

  8 THE HAITIAN PROBLEM

  1 Log of President Truman’s Trip to Puerto Rico, The Virg
in Islands, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and Key West, Florida, Feb. 20, 1948, to March 5, 1948, Truman Library, Independence, Mo.; “President Flies to Key West after Rough Voyage to Cuba,” New York Times, Feb. 25, 1948, 1.

  2 Enclosure (6), Command History, U.S. Naval Station, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, 1977, U.S. Navy Library, Operation Archives, Navy History and Heritage Command, Washington Navy Yard; “Boat Leak Sends Haitian Refugees to Base at Guantánamo,” Washington Post, Aug. 20, 1977, E5.