Castro's Bomb (7 page)

"Lines might not be secure," McCone said.

JFK thought it over.
 
"Bobby's right.
 
We can't tip our hand by having everyone come here.
 
Like it or not, the meeting will be by phone and I don't care if the lines aren't secure.
 
I want everybody except Bobby to leave and pretend everything is normal.
 
At two o'clock, I want to discuss military options with the chiefs of staff and the Secretary of Defense."
 

Kennedy turned to Rusk.
 
"After that we'll discuss diplomatic options.
 
I assume you'll be trying to find someone alive at the various embassies?"
 
Rusk, clearly unhappy at being left out of what was going to be the major part of the planning, nodded.
 

"And as to the possible lack of security in a telephone meeting, we'll have to take that chance."
 
He laughed harshly.
 
"After all, it's Christmas.
 
Who'd be listening in?"

Che Guevara was the titular head of the force surrounding Gitmo, although everyone knew that General Ortega was the real military leader.
 

Guevara had the reputation as the mastermind guerilla commander, but real soldiers like Ortega considered him a lightweight at best.
 
The Argentine-born Guevara had never been a real soldier and never commanded large numbers of men in regular combat. Nor was there much trust and love between Ortega and Guevara.
 
Che knew full well what the military professionals thought of him, and dismissed it.
 
He considered himself a man of destiny and didn't much care what more traditional soldiers thought of him.
 
He was a liberator, not a warrior, and it was his destiny to lead the communist revolution, first in Cuba and then in other nations, and no matter how much blood had to be shed.

Guevara did not fully trust Ortega's apparent enthusiasm for the people's revolution.
 
The general had been a brigade commander under the regime of the unlamented Fulgencio Batista and had, at the very last minute, swung his command over to Castro's side.
 
Guevara considered that Ortega might be an opportunist who'd change back at the first opportunity and not a dedicated Marxist like himself.
 
Still, Guevara had to admit that Ortega had so far proven to be a very good general, and his plans for taking Guantanamo were excellent.
 
Ortega was most definitely the man for the job.
 
He'd risen through the ranks on the basis of ability for the most part, and, prior to the revolution, had graduated from several army command schools in the United States where he had impressed his instructors with his knowledge and dedication.
 
He would stay in command, at least for the moment.

Ortega admitted to himself that he was a Cuban first and a communist second.
 
He considered Marxism a little extreme, but it was the movement that had ousted the despised Batista and given him a chance to redeem Guantanamo for Cuba.
 
His support for Castro, however belated, had made him a general and enabled him to provide for Maria and the four children in a manner that befitted them.
 
Nor had it escaped his notice that his family was in Havana, close to Fidel, Che, and Fidel's state police.
 
They were not quite hostages to his good behavior, but close to it.

Ortega didn't like Che Guevara and wondered if the man had a personal agenda.
 
But then, who didn't?

Che sighed.
 
"General, there is a real possibility that our plans have been compromised.
 
A man who was likely a spy for either the Americans or the Germans escaped from Cuba in a small boat.
 
If the Americans have him, he could be telling them everything he knows right now.
 
We must move our timetable forward and attack as soon as possible."

"No."

Che was taken aback.
 
He was not used to the word.
 
"What?"

"No."

"This is an order.
 
From Fidel!" he said angrily.

"I don't care if it's an order from the Blessed Virgin, that nice lady we no longer believe in.
 
No attack can take place immediately."

"I don't understand.
 
Just order the men forward."

"Comrade, I am not surprised you don't understand, because you have never had to plan a military action this massive or complex.
 
If we were to attack right now, as you put it, then understand that most of our men are not yet in position.
 
In order to keep the Yankees asleep and unsuspecting, I've been moving our men in small groups during the nights and positioning them to make a final dash for the Guantanamo fences later tonight.
 
I have allowed two additional hours for units to stumble, get lost, have flat tires, collisions, or for inept commanders to just simply fuck things up completely.
 

"I am coordinating the combined efforts of fifty tanks and the same number of armored personnel carriers.
 
I have twenty thousand men, about a third of whom are regulars and the rest militia who might not be able to find their asses in the dark without a flashlight, and close to a hundred airplanes all taking their part in a very complex dance in which timing is critical.
 
Also, there are attacks on two airfields on the base that must be coordinated as well as doing something about that damned Fletcher-class destroyer, the Wallace, that arrived the other day.
 
If the airfields remain intact, then American planes can use them to attack us.
 
If the destroyer is unhurt, her guns could do irreparable damage to our armor.
 
Our planes will first take out the airfields and attack the destroyer, along with our ground-to-ground missiles and artillery doing what damage they can to American fixed defenses."
 

Ortega paused.
 
His anger was getting the best of him.
 
The men in charge in Havana knew nothing about a real military operation.
 
He could not let Che and Fidel jeopardize what he has planned for so long.

"Comrade Che, just look at the map and you'll see the difficulties.
 
The American base at Guantanamo is roughly a rectangle with the ocean forming the southern side.
 
However, right in the middle is the bay itself and it extends far up beyond the base and into Cuba proper; thus effectively dividing the base into two halves, each of which must be handled independently.
 
This is particularly important since each half has its own airfield, even though the McCalla field is not frequently used.

"What I want you to tell Comrade Fidel is that he has three choices.
 
First, we do it my way and we will succeed.
 
Second, if we see that the Americans are alert, we can decide to attack anyway or call off the attack and wait until another time.
 
This would be regrettable, but necessary and would preserve our option of attacking later.
 
Or, third, do it his way and court failure by launching premature and piecemeal attacks."

Guevara restrained his fury.
 
He could see the irrefutable logic in General Ortega's comments.
 
"I will tell him.
 
He will argue and rant, but he will come around."

Ortega smiled.
 
With Guevara put in his place, he could afford to relax and be a little jovial.
 
"Comrade, I don't think the situation is that bad.
 
I too saw the reports of our brave patrol boat captain and what did he say?
 
He reported that he saw a small boat in sinking condition that might or might not have contained our spy, and that he fired on it and might or might not have killed or wounded that same spy who may or may not have been on that boat, or maybe he was on some other boat.
 
Or maybe there was no spy in the first place, only a German tourist wondering what the hell just happened to him as he sank to the bottom of the Caribbean with bullet holes in his body.
 
At any rate, I have been personally observing the Americans and they have changed nothing.
 
They suspect nothing."

Even Guevara had to laugh.
 
"Your point is well made.
 
We will wait."

Ortega nodded.
 
"And if the Americans appear alarmed, I may cancel the attacks, although, at a point, it will be impossible to inform all the field commanders.
 
Simply put, at two in the morning, my officers will receive the go-ahead to attack or the order to abort.
 
At four a.m. they will attack.
 
Once they start moving they cannot be stopped."

Guevara smiled nervously.
 
"Then we will wait until four."

Che also smiled inwardly.
 
Poor Ortega.
 
He had no idea that he was only one part of Fidel's plans for Cuba and the world.
 
Just one small part.

President Kennedy stared at the baffling array of phones and speakers on the table in the Cabinet Room, the place where he preferred to hold his staff meetings.
 
His engineers had told him that all of the parties would be able to speak with him and with each other.
 
He had his doubts.
 
In his experience, technology never worked the way the technicians said it would.

Two o'clock in the afternoon came.
 
One by one, key members of the Executive Committee, ExComm, came on line.
 
Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson acknowledged first, and then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.
 
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Maxwell Taylor followed along with his service chiefs, Curtis LeMay of the Air Force, Admiral George Anderson of the Navy, and General David Shoup of the Marine Corps.
 
Technically, Shoup was not a member of the Joint Chiefs, but participated when matters pertaining to the Corps were discussed, and Guantanamo's defenses were largely manned by marines.

The only absentee was Army General Earl Wheeler.
 
An apologetic voice identified himself as Lieutenant General Josiah Bunting, and informed Kennedy that Wheeler was out of touch and probably driving to a family gathering and would be reached in about an hour.
 
Bunting also informed the president that he was the senior army officer at the Pentagon.
 
The president didn't care who represented the army, just so long as someone did and that the damned phones worked.
 

Kennedy was well aware that the generals didn't have much confidence in him, even though the rest of the world thought he'd forced the Soviets to back down last October.
 
The generals considered him too young, too inexperienced, and too much of a skirt-chasing dilettante to be an effective Commander in Chief of what they felt was the world's most powerful nation.
 
He'd heard rumors that some senior military officers felt that his naval experience in the Solomons in World War II had been minimal and they even joked that he'd gotten a medal for losing his ship when he should have been court-martialed.
 
Sometimes he thought they were right.
 
Men had died under his command and it might just be happening again.

Unlike his dealings with McCone and Rusk, JFK often felt intimated by the military brass who had far more experience than he.
 
Since becoming president, he had worked hard and studied harder to find out all there was to know about foreign affairs.
 
He felt he was far more knowledgeable than he had been, but still had a long ways to go.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Maxwell Taylor, had not only commanded the 101st Airborne in World War II where he’d made a combat jump, but had commanded the Eighth Army in Korea.
 
He was now Kennedy's advisor on the possibility of increasing America's role in Viet Nam.
 
He could be a very intimidating character, although he and Bobby Kennedy seemed to have struck up a rapport.

The Air Force's Curtis LeMay had extensive command and combat experience, and had been the man who'd firebombed Japan during World War II.
 
He'd also commanded the group that had dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
 
He was fiery, belligerent and short-tempered.

Marine Commandant David Shoup had been awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the battle for Tarawa.

Admiral Anderson had served on a carrier in World War II and had been awarded the Bronze Star.

Only the army's chief, General Earl Wheeler, had not had extensive combat experience.

JFK took a deep breath.
 
The hell with the generals and admirals and their experience, there was a job to do.
 
The United States had just had its nose tweaked by Fidel Castro, a lawyer turned revolutionary in his mid-thirties, and something had to be done about it.

In terse language, he informed them of the situation and the possibility that Cuban forces would launch a massive and overwhelmingly strong attack at Guantanamo Bay within the next twenty-four hours.
 
There were growls of anger.
 
Predictably, the loudest coming from Lyndon Johnson and Curtis LeMay.
 

Kennedy ignored the outbursts.
 
"Simply put, gentlemen, I want to know what our military options are, keeping in mind that the Cubans haven't done anything yet and may not ever do anything.
 
The information the CIA has could be wrong, planted, or the action simply cancelled if they think we are aware of it.
 
Thus, we simply cannot go bombing Havana or anywhere else, without provocation."