2. THE LAUNCHES WERE PREVIOUSLY DETECTED BY SPEC5 CHARLES K. ANDERSON, AN OBSERVER ABOARD AN L19 PILOTED BY 1LT JACQUES PORTET CROSSING THE TANGANYIKA/CONGO BORDER. AFTER DISEMBARKING THE INFILTRATORS, THE LAUNCHES WERE OBSERVED ON A COURSE WHICH WOULD TAKE THEM TO KIGOMA, TANGANYIKA.
3. ONE OF THE INFILTRATORS WAS POSITIVELY IDENTIFIED AS MAJOR ERNESTO GUEVARA BY MSGT WILLIAM THOMAS, WHO ALSO BELIEVES MAJOR DREKE WAS IN THE PARTY. ALL BUT GUEVARA ARE NEGRO.
4. THE INFILTRATORS ARE APPARENTLY UNAWARE THAT THEY HAVE BEEN DETECTED. COLONEL JEAN-BAPTISTE SUPO BELIEVES THEIR DESTINATION WILL BE LULUABOURG IN KASAI PROVINCE, TO WHICH THEY WILL TRAVEL IN GROUPS OF TWO OR THREE IN FARM VEHICLES. SUPO HAS ISSUED ORDERS STATING THEY ARE TO BE ALLOWED TO PASS THE CHECKPOINTS HE HAS ESTABLISHED.
5. DETECTION OF THE INFILTRATORS WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY EXTRAORDINARILY ACCURATE AND TIMELY INTEL FURNISHED BY STAFF OF CIA STATION CHIEF DAR ES SALAAM.
HELPER SIX
SECRET
[ EIGHT ]
The Hotel du Lac
Costermansville, Kivu Province
Republic of the Congo
2105 23 April 1965
Master Sergeant William Thomas had just confided in First Lieutenant Geoffrey Craig that he had the crosshairs right on the bastard’s nose when Spec5 Kenneth Anderson walked into the bar with a message.
“I suppose I can show you this, Lieutenant,” he said. “Before I show it to the major.”
Craig read it, and said, “Congratulations, Fatso, well-deserved. ”
He handed it to Master Sergeant Thomas, who read it, snorted, and said, “The fucking Green Hornet.3I will be damned.”
SECRET
EARN0051 WASH DC 1910 ZULU 23 APRIL 1965
VIA WHITE HOUSE SIGNAL AGENCY
FROM: EARNEST SIX
TO: HELPER SIX
1. FOLLOWING FROM PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES QUOTE WELL DONE. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK END QUOTE
2. BY VERBAL ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THE ARMY COMMENDATION MEDAL IS AWARDED TO 1LT JACQUES PORTET, MSGT WILLIAM THOMAS, AND SPEC5 KENNETH ANDERSON. FURTHER, BY DIRECTION OF THE PRESIDENT SPEC5 ANDERSON IS PROMOTED TO SPECIALIST SIX.
3. EARNEST SIX HAS RELAYED YOUR APPRECIATION OF EFFORTS OF STAFF OF CIA DAR ES SALAAM TO DIRECTOR CIA.
FINTON FOR EARNEST SIX
SECRET
XXIII
Major Guevara (using the pseudonym Tatu) and the vanguard of Column One entered the Congo 23 April 1965, beginning the tremendous, heroic effort of revitalizing the Lumumbist forces to make them the nucleus of a new liberation army which would halt the enemy offensive and begin to recover the positions that had been lost. It was too late, for the Congolese people’s rebellion was being wiped out by enormously superior enemy forces.
—“Cuban Involvement in Liberation Efforts in the Congo,” Government Printing Office, Havana, Cuba, 1995
[ ONE ]
TOP SECRET
1820 GREENWICH 25 APRIL 1965
FROM STATION CHIEF, BUENOS AIRES
TO DIRECTOR, CIA, LANGLEY
COPIES TO SOUTH AMERICAN DESK
MR SANFORD T. FELTER, COUNSELOR
TO THE PRESIDENT
THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON
THE FOLLOWING RECEIVED FROM US ARMY OFFICER ASSIGNED US EMBASSY BELIEVED TO BE CONTROLLED BY MR. FELTER. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THE INTELLIGENCE FOLLOWING BE REGARDED AS THE EQUIVALENT OF CIA RELIABILITY SCALE FIVE. IT IS TRANSMITTED IN ITS ENTIRETY AND VERBATIM.
START
DEAR FRIENDS:
THANK YOU FOR THE INFORMATION REGARDING THE TOURING CUBANS.
Under captain santiago terry, who is both a skilled guerrila and a dedicated communist, approximately one hundred thirty (130) negro cuban soldiers are en route by truck from camps pita 1 and pita 3 in pina del rio province to the port of matanzas where they will board the cuban vessel “uvera,” a small freighter. THEY ARE CARRYING WITH THEM A QUANTITY OF SMALL ARMS AND OTHER WAR MATÉRIEL.
THE CAPTAIN OF THE “UVERA” HAS OBTAINED FROM THE OBLIGING CAPTAIN OF THE GREEK FLAGGED VESSEL “ACHILLES,” NOW IN THE PORT OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA NAUTICAL CHARTS (INCLUDING TIDES) OF THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA, SPECIFICALLY OF THOSE LEADING TO THE PORT OF POINTE NOIRE IN THE FORMER FRENCH CONGO (CONGO BRAZZAVILLE). THE “UVERA” IS SCHEDULED TO SAIL AT 0400 CUBAN TIME 27 APRIL 1965.
UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES IT SEEMS REASONABLE TO PRESUME THAT OUR MEDICAL FRIEND HAS DECIDED TO TEST THE EFFICACY OF REINFORCING HIS ARMY OF LIBERATION VIA CONGO BRAZZAVILLE.
AND SPEAKING OF OUR FRENCH AND GERMAN FRIENDS, YOU MIGHT WISH TO KEEP AN EYE, AS WE AND OUR MUTUAL GERMAN FRIEND ARE, ON THE FRENCH JOURNALIST REGIS DEBRAY, AND THE ARGENTINE/EAST GERMAN HAYDEE TAMARA BUNKE, WHO CALLS HERSELF TANIA. AN EXCHANGE HERE WOULD BE HELPFUL, TOO.
WITH OUR BEST REGARDS TO ALL OF YOU
END
J.P. STEPHENS
STATION CHIEF BUENOS AIRES
TOP SECRET
[ TWO ]
The Situation Room
The Pentagon
Washington, D.C.
05550 28 April 1965
Colonel Sanford T. Felter was in uniform. He was well aware that among the uniformed laborers in the Pentagon, the term “civilian” was almost always preceded by an—unspoken—profanity, “Goddamn.”
His uniform wore the General Staff Identification Badge, and hanging around his neck on a dog-tag chain was a plastic identification badge, with a photograph of him in uniform. Its color and stripes identified him as an officer authorized access to the most secure areas of the Pentagon, including the offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—the offices of the Chairman, the Chiefs of Staff of the Army and Air Force, the Chief of Naval Operations, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps—and the Situation Room.
He sat, sipping at a mug of tea, in the rear of three rows of theaterlike seats against the wall. There were other colonels, and some one- and two-star generals and admirals, and a half-dozen (“Goddamn”) civilian officials in the other seats. Felter was reasonably confident that if anyone noticed him at all, it would be presumed he was a gofer for one of the very senior Army general officers seated at the curving table between the seats and the wall of cathode-ray-tube displays.
The cathode-ray displays showed the location of American forces—a fleet of USAF C-130 transports with a regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division and a U.S. naval force of a hundred-odd ships—heading from the United States toward Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.
The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two-thirds of an island 500 miles long and 150 miles wide, which sits 50 miles east of the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and about as far west of Puerto Rico. Haiti occupies the western third of the island.
The President of the United States had decided it was necessary to establish an American military presence in the Dominican Republic in order to preserve peace, protect lives, and keep its government from being overthrown by Communists.
The 82nd Airborne would jump on Santo Domingo at 0555 hours. It was believed the element of surprise would permit the paratroopers to land without serious opposition, seize the airfield, and prepare to receive reinforcements, which would be landed by—not parachuted from—a second and third wave of C-130s.
The transport aircraft would be protected both by USAF fighters from Homestead Air Force Base outside Miami, and by Navy fighters aboard aircraft carriers in the naval element. The naval element of the incursion force included a force of U.S. Marines who were prepared to invade a hostile shore, if this proved necessary, and to reinforce the Army.
Felter’s attention was on one of the smaller displays, which showed the area from Havana, Cuba, to San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was data-relayed, some of it real-time, from satellites passing over, and from long-distance radar aboard Air Force radar planes and from radar aboard vessels of the naval element.
Every vessel on the sea appeared on the display, not unlike the displays used in air traffic control. Ev
ery vessel had a symbol, and most of them a code, that identified them.
Some did not, including one unidentified surface vessel apparently on a course from the north coast of Cuba that would place it in the path of the naval element. It was tentatively identified as a small merchant vessel of unknown ownership.
Felter watched with interest when this vessel was suddenly surrounded by a yellow circle. He was not surprised when, almost immediately, an adjacent display screen suddenly changed its display to another, closer-in, view of the unidentified surface vessel.
He sat his teacup on the floor under his seat and walked to the row of controllers. He quickly found the controller’s display, which was a duplicate of the wall display of the close-up of the unidentified surface vessel. The controller was a Navy commander, who wore a headset, with a microphone before his lips.
The controller sensed Felter standing behind him.
“Colonel?” he asked.
“What have you got, Commander?”
The commander checked Felter’s identification badge before answering.
“A medium-sized vessel, probably a merchantman, on a course that’ll put it in the path of the naval element. But it may be a Russian intel vessel. I’m about to find out.”
He pressed a lever that activated his microphone.
“Admiral,” he said. “We have an unidentified surface vessel on a course which will cross the naval element—possibly a Soviet intel trawler.”
A vice admiral came to the controller, looked curiously at Felter, then at the display.
“Recommendation?” the vice admiral asked.
“Send a fighter from Navy Three to have a look,” the commander said.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” Felter said.
“I beg your pardon, Colonel?” the vice admiral said, a little testily.
“Sir, I suspect that vessel is the Cuban vessel Uvera,” Felter said. “I would rather they not know they’ve been surveilled. I recommend that we get a satellite identification.”
“Thank you for you recommendation, Colonel,” the vice admiral said sarcastically. “Commander, send a fighter from the naval element.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
Felter walked to the row of desks where the very senior officers were seated.
“Admiral,” he said to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“What can I do for you, Felter?”
“You’re about to send a Navy aircraft to identify a ship off the coast of Cuba. I believe that ship to be the Cuban merchantman Uvera, not a Soviet intel trawler, and I don’t want them to know they’re being surveilled. I’d like it identified by satellite.”
“You’re going to tell me why, right, Colonel?”
“I believe she’s carrying a force of about 120 Cubans to Congo Brazzaville, sir. I want them to think they’re doing so secretly.”
“Excuse me, Admiral,” the Director of the CIA said. Felter had not seen him enter the room.
“Yeah, Dick?”
“I recommend you go with Felter’s recommendation.”
“Oh, Jesus H. Christ!” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said, then raised his voice. “Tennyson!”
The vice admiral scurried to the Chairman’s position.
“If you’ve launched a plane to identify the ship Colonel Felter’s talking about, abort the mission. Get the next satellite passing over to downlink a photo, and then run it through the computer. Give the results to me, the Director, and Colonel Felter. ”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“Thank you, sir,” Felter said.
“We’ll be in the movie seats, Admiral,” the Director said to the vice admiral.
“Yes, sir,” the vice admiral said.
“Thank you,” Felter said to the Director when they were in the row of seats.
“Felter, we’re on the same team. I like it a lot better when we’re cooperating, not protecting our turf like a couple of mail-men fighting over delivery routes.”
“I do, too,” Felter confessed.
“When I saw you tilting your lance at that formidable Naval windmill, Don Quixote,” the Director said, “I had one of my few inspirations.”
Felter smiled.
“Which was?”
“What we have in Africa is a war between your people and my man in Léopoldville and a love affair between your people and my man in Dar es Salaam—”
“Maybe that’s because your man in Dar es Salaam isn’t a man,” Felter interrupted.
“You do hear things, Felter, don’t you?” the Director said, smiling.
“Sometimes,” Felter said, returning the smile.
“I would like to improve that situation,” the Director said.
“I’m all for it. How?”
“What I thought, off the top of my head, is a conference in either Léopoldville or Dar es Salaam. I’ll send someone senior—I’m thinking of Howard O’Connor—with orders to tell everybody to stop the bickering. If you were to send someone . . .”
“Léopoldville,” Felter said. “I can’t go myself. I can send Lieutenant Colonel Lowell. I will, if you also tell O’Connor he and Lowell will be there as equals.”
“When?”
“How long will it take O’Connor to pack his bags?”
“You think I should propose to the Secretary of State that he send someone too?”
“I think that would unnecessarily complicate a good, simple idea.”
Fifteen minutes later, the vice admiral walked up to Felter and the Director.
“Mr. Director, we ran a downlinked satellite photograph of the vessel in question through the naval computer. It has been identified, with a ninety-seven percent positivity, as the Cuban merchant vessel Uvera. I have details—”
“That won’t be necessary, Admiral,” the Director said. “All Colonel Felter and I wanted was to make sure, (a) that it was the Uvera and, (b) that they not be aware we know where they are, and are going.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Admiral,” Felter said, “would it be possible to send one of the flanking destroyers of the naval force close enough to the Uvera so that it would be seen? Taking no action, of course. I think if they saw a destroyer that did not inspect them, they might change course, in the belief they had escaped detection.”
“Good idea, Felter,” the Director said.
"I’ll have the necessary orders issued, sir,” the vice admiral said.
[ THREE ]
SECRET
EARN0059 WASH DC 1235 ZULU 4 MAY 1965
VIA WHITE HOUSE SIGNAL AGENCY
FROM: EARNEST SIX
TO: HELPER SIX
1. LTCOL CRAIG W. LOWELL REPRESENTING COL FELTER AND CWO (4) JAMES L. FINTON WILL DEPART WASHINGTON DC 1400 ZULU 6 MAY 1965 TWA FLIGHT 233 TO BRUSSELS AND DEPART BRUSSELS 0830 ZULU 7 MAY 1965 UFA 4545 TO LÉOPOLDVILLE. A SENIOR CIA OFFICER REPRESENTING DIRECTOR CIA AND AN ASSISTANT WILL TRAVEL TO LÉOPOLDVILLE APPROXIMATELY SAME DATES AND ROUTE BUT DIFFERENT AIRLINES NOT KNOWN TO UNDERSIGNED.
2. A CONFERENCE BETWEEN THE ABOVE, PLUS CIA STATION CHIEFS LÉOPOLDVILLE AND DAR ES SALAAM, PLUS ONE STAFF MEMBER OF EACH WILL BE SCHEDULED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AFTER ALL PARTIES ARE IN LÉOPOLDVILLE. CIA STATION CHIEF LÉOPOLDVILLE WILL COORDINATE.
3. INASMUCH AS CONFERENCE SHOULD BE AS INCONSPICUOUS AS POSSIBLE LOWELL AND FINTON WILL TRAVEL IN CIVILIAN STATUS, AND EARNEST SIX SUGGESTS IF POSSIBLE CONFERENCE BE HELD IN HOME OF CAPTAIN PORTET.
4. YOU ARE DIRECTED TO MEET LOWELL AND FINTON ON ARRIVAL IN LÉOPOLDVILLE NOT IN US UNIFORM REPEAT NOT IN US UNIFORM AND ARRANGE FOR THEIR QUARTERS AND TRANSPORTATION. YOU AND SUCH US OFFICERS AS YOU MAY DESIGNATE WILL PARTICIPATE IN CONFERENCE NOT IN US UNIFORM.
FINTON FOR EARNEST SIX
SECRET
[ FOUR ]
404 Avenue Leopold
Léopoldville, Republic of the Congo
1930 8 May 1965
There were three Congolese paratroopers in front of the gate in the fence that surrounded the Portet prop
erty. One of them, a lieutenant, stepped in front of the black 1964 Chevrolet with a Corps Diplomatique license plate and identification badge and held his hand out to make it stop. The other two moved so, should it be necessary, they could quickly train their FN 7-mm automatic rifles on the car.
“What the hell is this?” D. Patrick O’Hara, who was the Deputy to the Assistant Director of the CIA for Sub-Saharan Africa, said to Mr. Howard W. O’Connor, the CIA’s Assistant Director for Administration. Both were in somewhat mussed tropical-weight gray suits.
“We don’t have diplomatic status,” O’Connor said, and then added, “I would like to know what the hell is going on with all of this.”
The embassy chauffeur stopped and rolled down his window.
“This is a U.S. Embassy car,” the driver said.
The Congolese paratrooper lieutenant did not seem very impressed.
“Papers, please,” he said in French.
“Can they do that to an embassy car?” D. Patrick O’Hara asked.
“Just give him your goddamn passport,” Howard W. O’Connor said.
The Congolese lieutenant examined the passports and handed them back.
“Invitation, please?” he asked.
O’Connor fumbled in the pocket of his suit and handed it over.
Captain and Madame Jacques Emile Portet Request The Honor of the Presence Of
HON. HOWARD O’CONNOR AND GUEST
At cocktails and dinner to honor Lieutenant General Joseph Désiré Mobutu 404 Avenue Leopold Léopoldville, Republic of the Congo
At half past seven o’clock
1930 8 May 1965
The paratroop lieutenant examined the invitation, returned it, saluted, and motioned for the driver to proceed.
Three minutes later, an identical black Chevrolet, also bearing Corps Diplomatique insignia, rolled up. This one contained a black man and a black woman. The paratroop lieutenant held out his hand to stop the car, and the driver rolled down the window and protested that he was driving a U.S. Embassy car carrying two American diplomats.
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