of more significance is fidel castro as the opening ceremonies. the one-week visit are part of a program to woo the goodwill of castro in cuba. while he was boosting russia n industrial and military achievements, a soviet composer was leading the city symphony orchestra. the soviet may have made real progress toward link trade and reestablishing diplomatic relations, thus adding to american headaches in our troubled relations with this caribbean neighbor. ♪ narrator: cuba celebrates the seventh anniversary of castro's revolutionary movement with a red chinese delegation and one from bolivia as a quarter million march past castro's viewing stand. this appearance on the sierra where he directed the revolt against the batista regime was one of castro's few public appearances. suffering from a lung infection, he has laid aside duties to take dr.'s orders -- doctors orders for complete rest. castro's brother raul was enjoying this triumphant section in moscow at the time. here at the moscow trade union house, he seems to respond eagerly to the soviet

castro seizes more united states property. now in the summer of 1960 the united states and cuba have reached the point of no return. in washington the eisenhower administration is now convinced it is in the united states national interest to get rid of fidel castro. at this moment in guatemala a cuban exile army is being created by the cia. a cuban exile air force with b26 bombers. they are the instruments with which the cia plans to overthrow fidel castro. havana, summer 1960. fidel castro admits publicly for the first time there is unrest inside cuba. counter revolutionary activity. among his opponents now is his former minister of public works, leader of the mrp. >> the mrp was highly organized and well extended over the whole country. reached almost every section of the cuban life, city institutions, professional organizations, labor unions, the militia, the army. and we have people inside fidel castro's office. >> the mrp operates in the cities. it's an underground movement specializing in sabotage. in the mountains is an

castro takes personal command. the roads out of havana are clogged with troops moving up to the invasion beach. but in the first hours, the brigade pushes inland. castro has not yet been able to bring up his tanks and heavy guns. the first communicae reports satisfactory progress. over the beach are 12 b-26s. shortly after dawn, they are attacked by the three castro jets that survived saturday's airstrike. five of them are shot down. the brigades' communication ship and supply ship are sunk. within a few minutes, the men on the beach have lost their air cover and their supplies. now, castro can bring up his tanks without fear of air attacks. and he can bring up thousands of his milicianos. by afternoon, castro is pressing the brigade hard. how are they to survive? where are they to get help? some expected to come from the ground. there is no uprising, there is no sabotage, there is no help from the underground for the brigade. well, the next 48 hours, the men on the beach take a terrible pounding. they wait for hel

and they ought to find some way to help anti-castro cubans take up arms against castro. of course, this is exactly what the eisenhower administration was trying to do. when nixon saw this in the newspapers, he was outraged. somebody in the cia, he thought, must have told kennedy about the cia's plan. now kennedy was claiming this as his own idea when, in fact, he, richard nixon, had been pushing for this operation for months. but nixon couldn't say that because it was a covert operation. so he just had to shut up and let kennedy pretend the whole thing was his idea. that's probably what he should have done. that's not, in fact, what nixon did. instead in the fourth debate, he lashed out at kennedy's statement denouncing it as irresponsible and foolish. he gave a long thoughtful argument as to why a covert military operation against the castro regime was a terrible idea. dangerously irresponsible as he said in the debate. nixon later explained that this lie of his was very painful, but that it was his "uncomfortable and ironic duty." then he added from that point on, i ha

at the hotel, and he celebrated with castro and from that day on castro, russia had castro's confidence and took him -- they became friends. >> is that what happened, nicholas? >> yes, that is what happened. but a lot of that was political theater. i think castro intented to stay in harlem for appearances. he already was developing a relationship with the soviet union. it wasn't sparked because of this act of generosity on the part of kruschef. these things are usually political theater. it is interesting that on that trip, castro did meet -- eisenhower wouldn't meet with him but he met with the vice president, richard nixon. who was impressed by this young charismatic new leader of cuba. but said afterwards that he is either incredibly naive about communism, or he's one of them. >> i'm going to show for everyone a clip from president kennedy who was speaking about the bay of pigs invasion on april 20th, 1961. here is what he said. >> the president of a great democracy such as ours and the editors of great newspapers, such as yours, owe a common on ligation to the people. an obligation

anti-castro cubans take up arms against castro. this was exactly what the eisenhower administration was trying to do. when nixon saw this in the newspapers, he was outraged. somebody in the cia, he thought, must have told kennedy about the cia's plan and now kennedy was claiming this as his own idea when, in fact, he, richard nixon, had been pushing this operation for months. it was a covert operation and had to let kennedy pretend it was the whole idea. it's probably who wha he should have done but not what he did. in the fourth debate, he lashed out denouncing it as irresponsible and foolish. he gave a long thoughtful argument why he thought a covert military operation against the castro regime was a terrible idea, dangerously irresponsible, as he said in the debate. nixon later explained that this was very painful but it was his, quote, uncomfortable and ironic duty and then he added, from that point on, i had the wisdom and wariness of someone who had been burned by the kennedys. vowed i would never enter an election being vuln

castro knew what was happening. he had agents in guatemala where the cuban exiles -- most of them -- were being trained. but also, he was relying mostly on american and regional newspaper reporters who would hear things from the cuban exile community in miami and were able to piece together pretty much the whole story. in fact, "the new york times" on january 10th, 1951, at a front page above the fold, about the map article explaining that the u.s. was preparing cuban exiles for action against the castro regime. president eisenhower, who was in the last days of his administers -- administration, said that basically they had the whole story. and yet, planning went forward. one of the many blunders of this operation. host: who were these cuban exiles who were being trained for this assault brigade? how long had they been outside of cuba and what type of support could they realistically expect if they got to cuba? nicholas: after castro took power in early 1959 and started nationalizing industries and expropriating the

at the hotel, and he celebrated when castro -- with castro and from that day on, russia had won castro's confidence and they became friends. nicholas: -- host: is that it would happen, nicholas? nicholas: that is what happened. a lot of that was political theater. i think castro intended to stay in harlem for appearances. he already was developing a relationship with the soviet union, wasn't sparked because of this act of generosity in the part of khrushchev. these things are usually political theater. it is interesting that on that trip, castro did meet -- eisenhower would not meet with him, but he met with the vice, richard nixon, who was impressed by this young, charismatic, new leader of cuba. but said afterwards that he is either incredibly naive about communism or is one of them. host: i am going to show for everyone a clip from president kennedy, who was speaking about the bay of pigs invasion to the american society of newspaper editors on april 20th the medic, 1961. here is what he said. [video clip] >> the president of a great democracy like ours and the editors of great newspa

get rid of castro. yes. both eisenhower and kennedy were unwilling to commit at least openly us military forces to the overthrow of the castro regime one of the great concerns was to maintain good relations with the rest of latin america latin america. latin american people saw the united states as overbearing they didn't like them on road doctrine. they didn't like to be in america's backyard. they and so for for good foreign policy reasons it was ruled out that we would have the united states military openly go against the castro regime now. kennedy considered that when it came to the event that happened some 18 months later, and that was a cuban missile crisis, but that's another another story. what made us officials decide to back this bay of pigs invasion what was going on that made us official decide to consider any type of intervention in cuba at this point. well castro was definitely posing up to the soviet union. at the time this is in the depths of the of the cold war tensions are high. there's a a

do to castro what castro had done to the dictator batista before him. and so as the planning went forward in the late days of the eisenhower administration, the plan kept getting bigger. it started with we're going to infiltrate 30 or so trained guerillas at a time that would link up with resistance forces, and then by the fall of 1960 and especially after the election it sort of morphed into this conventional amphibious operation that had these presumptions that the cuban people were ready to rise up against castro, which was totally false. one of the mistakes was that the operational planners were not consulting the cia analysts who knew cuba best. the analysts were never asked, well, if we're able to put a force ashore would the cuban people then rise up? i mean there's a lot of discontent in cuban society, but castro's grip on power it seems pretty secure. anyway, the analysts were never asked that question. >> let me remind everyone watching that they can take part in this conversation about the bay of pigs 60th anniversary. we're going to open up

was fidel castro a communist? now you have to recall that in late 19 fifties and early 1960s, the battle against the so-called international communist conspiracy was the organizing principle in which american foreign policy was based. and was interest the spread of communism that was so feared, it was the fact that the communist had nuclear weapons. and given the rhetoric coming out of the -- cruise travelers saying all sorts of things like we will bear you and those were literally his words. they see more and more willing to use them. i emphasize this to point out that the communist country 90 miles from american shores was simply intolerable, not just the conservatives like barry goldwater, richard nixon, but really to everybody so. fidel castro was interrogated on the subject of communism anywhere he went on his visit. vice president nixon, by congressional subcommittee, by scores of journalists, everyone asked him the same question. doctor castro, are you a communist? and he answered the same every time. no, h

and by the end of 1959 listen a year after castro castro came to power in cuba. the eisenhower administration was taking aggressive steps against him. the great irony is that after devoting millions of dollars and hundreds of men to protecting him from assassins the united states government now began to plotting can't began plotting his demise. generating these plots was the central intelligence agency. with encouragement from president eisenhower some of the early ideas explored by the cia were quite interesting one was to place a drug in castro's food. that would make them behave strangely in public. and make them appear truly insane as some people already thought that he was the drug wasn't specified in ci documents, but it was probably lsd which the cia had done quite a bit of work with in the 1950s. if that sounds like something inspired by james bond, that's because it may have been alan dulles. the director of the cia was a big james bond fan as where many people in the cia and in fact at one point that march as the cia was casting about for ideas ian flem

it doesn't oust castro. many members of the brigade were rounded up and captured and in many respects, the bay of pigs actually helped castro to consolidate his power inside cuba. prior to the bay of pigs, people could speak out against castro, there were embryonic movements against castro, but after the bay of pigs he was able to crack down on these opposition movements and lock in his power. when he met with american ambassador deen russ, the secretary of state under kennedy, he said thank you so much for that ridiculous operation because it allowed us to lock down power inside cuba. so let's look quickly at what went wrong. there's a lot of rushed planning when it came to the bay of pigs. we knew through intelligence that the soviets were going to ship advanced weapons to cuba as part of the deal that castro had made with khrushchev, and so we couldn't wait long to kind of figure out how to get this done right because eventually the cuban exiles would be dumped on the beach and running up against state of

castro: i want to salute to the people of the united states. and i do not want to do -- my english is the same, like the other time, but the other things i want to tell, i wish that you -- to the general assembly of the united nations. thank you very much. narrator: the first arriving in new york are representatives from czechoslovakia. they are not greeted by any united states government representative, not being guests of this country. novotny makes his arrival speech in his own tongue. despite their status as high-ranking red leaders they are almost ignored by numerous demonstrators, many of them european refugees who protested the arrival of khrushchev and other arriving reds on a russian liner, on which the heads of five satellite states arrived on a dank and foggy morning, heading up the east river to the deep river dock. it was harassed by cruising parties of hecklers. one boat hired by the longshoremen's union. onshore, hundreds of demonstrators massed, despite heavy rains. ♪ on shabby pier 73, carpets had been laid by soviet emissari

whatever happens to castro in cuba or to his revolution in the future, whether castro stays on as the maximum leader, or whether his revolution fails, cuba will never be the same again. it will never go back to things as they were. in south america will never be the same again either. pope john warned that top of the gulf between the rich and the poor had to be bridged. the continent to the south of us will never be the same again, because the word has gotten around that the gulf can be bridged, that for the venezuelan and bolivian mestizo, and the paraguay in, better lives are possible. schools to learn to read and write are possible. one does not have to age quickly and die young because of hard work and disease. there are better houses to live in then mud huts and cases with tin roofs. this word has gotten around. the problem is this where it is not being spread by christian men who practice a christian charity, as pope john suggested. it's being spread by revolutionaries who practice a very different method, as suggested by the man who offered these goods and services to castro to

castro. the name is a little on the nose. they are not as creative as they used to be. this is not an operation overlord kinds of thing but we finally paid off. mission accomplished. we finally got fidel. it's a really funny story for me and my mom will never let me live this down. my fascination with castro started at an early age. fascination is the right word. i grew up in miami. i am not cuban, the blond hair, green ice and transparents skin gives that away. all of my friends were, their parents, grand parents friends were vef gees. these are people who came over because they had to, to miami. and the funny story behind this is my mom still lives in miami. my whole family was down there for many, many years. and i have been up here for ten years. i lived in washington for the last ten years. every thanksgiving, i went home to miami. because that's where the family was. actually my wife's family is in miami as well. every thanksgiving except for this year. the one year i said, i have done

castro leaders most prominently i'll handle castro spain why do i bring up his name there handle castro. then lieutenant colonel back in 2014 was the main person who negotiated the normalization of relations between the united states and cuba he also organized the visit of vladimir putin in that same time period and today colonel castro is part of the ministry of the interior continues to be an important force this and so describing him as the one who's pulling the strings in cuba now roll castro even though he's stepping down will still have i believe a veto over what takes place in the country for some time whoever replaces him as the head of the communist party of the last name isn't castro will have to respond to both role and alejandro castro in what is actually done let me bring in ambassador for a quick come back on some of that particular on the point ambassador this is seems to be the widespread assumption among some at least that at all castro will continue to pull the strings behind only some strings behind the scene. i think he will turning to the elder person to be consulte

fidel castro. many ways an unknown person in his politics, but certain to be dominant in cuba, as a new era has just begun. >>> fidel castro demonstrates his unchallenged power over cuba's masses. he announces his resignation as premier and the response is explosive. from shops and factories, mass demonstrations by workers and students, calling on castro not to resign, hailing castro as the leader of the revolution. the president shown just after the revolution, when castro shown him, was ousted to be replaced by the former ministry of revolutionary laws. but sit certain whoever may be president or premier, fidel castro is number one man in cuba. in an emotional four-hour broadcast that evening, he accused the former president of treason, toppling him. fidel castro's dramatic show of strength makes it clear that after 6 1/2 months, he is still riding high on a wave of turbulent, mass e voegs. ♪ ♪ >>> 1 million machete wielding peasants in response to the call of fidel castro for a celebration o

an ailing fidel castro. he delivers a typical rebel rousing talk after raving for a half hour, the cuban premiere loses his voice, but he regains enough strength to come back and announce his latest blow against the united states, the seizure of three-quarters of a billion properties. castro promises to pay for it all in 50 years. but at the rate the cuban economy is failing, the payoff may come sooner than he expects. ♪♪ this is definitely a pro-castro crowd enthusiastically defacing the telephone company building. a day after this demonstration, senior castro charges that the u.s. in what he calls fascist priests are in a part to defeat the revolution. he says his government has been generous to the church. but there are no clergymen at the mock funeral of the telephone company. in costa rica the organization of american states votes sanctions against the dominican republic led by venezuela who complained that the dominican trujillo had ordered an attempted assassination of venezuela's president. and d

fidel castro. in many ways an unknown quantity in policy and certain to be dominant in cuba's new era just begun. fidel castro demonstrates his unchallenged power over cuba's masses. he announces his resignation as premiere and the response is explosive. mass demonstrations by workers and university students calling on castro not to resign. hailing castro the maximum leader of the revolution. the president is shown when castro installed him as provisional president was ousted to be replaced. it is certain whoever may be president or premiere, castro is number one man in cuba. in an emotional four-hour broadcast that evening, he accused the former president of near treason, toppling him from the role of hero to one threatened with mob violence. castro's dramatic show of strength makes it clear that after 6 1/2 months, he is still riding high on a wave of turbulent mass emotion. one million peasants jammed the square in response to the call of castro for a celebration of the sixth anniversary of his

castro's b-26s have no nose gun. the pilot is identified from a newspaper picture is a member of the brigade. the airstrike he took part in was intended to destroy castro's air force. more are planned. two castro has been dealt a serious blow, but his entire air force has not been destroyed. the crucial fact is, three jet trainers are untouched. the airstrike has humiliated the united states before the world. it has humiliated adlai stevenson, who did not know that what he told the u.n. was not the truth. the united states reacts to the world outcry against the bombing. the other two air strikes are postponed. this decision leaves castro with three undamaged jets. these jets will be the key to the failure of the invasion. sunday, april 15. the exile leaders do not know the invasion fleet is already at sea. [speaking in spanish] >> a waiting meet at the steps of the plane that brought me from miami were two people who identified themselves as officials of the american agencies. they took me 12 traded, and in a short w

phone castro at the hotel, and he celebrated with castro. from that day on, castro, russia had won castro's confidence and they became friends. host: is that what happened, nicholas? guest: yes, a lot of that happened. but most of it was political theater. i think castro intended to stay in harlem for appearances. he already was developing a relationship with the soviet union. it wasn't sparked because this act of generosity on the part of khrushchev. these things are usually political theater. host: it's interesting that on that trip, he met with vice president richard nixon, who was impressed by this young, charismatic new leader of cuba, but said afterwards that he is either incredibly naive about communism or he is one of them. host: i am going to show for everyone a clip from president kennedy, who was speaking about the bay of pigs invasion to the american society of newspaper editors on april 20, 1961. here's what he said. [video clip] >> the president of a great democracy such as ours and the editors of great newspapers, such as your

whatever happens to castro in cuba, or to his revolution in the future, whether castro stays on as the maximum leader, as he is called, or his revolution fails, cuba was never be the same again. it will never go back to things as they were. south america was never be the same again either. pope john warned in that talk that the gulf between the rich and the poor had to be bridged. the continent to the south of us will never be the same again because the word has gotten around that that gulf can be bridged, for the visit a while and -- venezuelan and others, better lives are possible. schools have learned to read and write are possible. one does not have to age quickly and die young because of her work in hunger and disease. that better houses to live in than mud huts and packing cases with tin roofs as things are possible, this word has gotten around. the trouble is though that this word is not being spread by christian men who practice a christian charity, that pope john suggested. it is being spread by revolutionaries who practice a different method, as suggested by the men who offer

castro: rep. castro: -- it is essential. you're talking about the top two economies in the world, two countries that historically have had the high -- highest levels of emissions. we got to be able to cooperate on an issue will like that that concerns not only our nations, but the world. it is a very thorny relationship. the congress, and the united states government, has not fully defined each of those categories that i mentioned. what it means for them to cheat, what it means for them to fairly compete, and the areas we can cooperate in. i feel like we are getting closer but we are not fully there. jonathan: do you think that in some cases, the united states might have to modulate its rhetoric in some ways and soften it? or, is this an issue where standing up on human rights, where we do have such strong differences with the chinese from a is -- is it an absolute? any sort of wavering would be a disappointment and fall short of our values as a country. rep. castro: we have to lead with our values. there are certain things

they were roommates, eventually castro married my father's sister, but, again, because of castro being a psychopath, and that was pretty clear relatively early on, then obviously my father distanced himself rather quickly and rather severely from castro, eventually becoming one of his strongest adversaries, precisely because he knew him very, very, very well and he knew he was, frankly, a murdering psychopath. >> cuba is one of the last remnants of the cold war. you know, a soviet-friendly mmunist dictatorship that survived the collapse of the ussr. congressman, many people don't understand why cuba didn't fall with the bern wall. >> yeah, that's a very good question. there was a lot of hope that when communism in europe collapsed that it would also collapse in cuba and in north korea and in other places, but, unfortunately, cuba is one of those places where it didn't. we could talk at length as to what role the united states may have played in that or not and should it have been more aggressive, but the reality is accurate to say that that same regime that has been in power for 62 yea

higher cuban exiles, how many of them are anti-castro or has castro sent water to penetration agents? it's good ten intelligence. so multiple sources, and it gets worse. i'll get to that. another factor in the planning that turned out to be a mistake, was a requirement that castro's air force, be destroyed first. so, that the cuban exile pilots, and their cia provided b 26 is, pretending to be cuban air force, would have command of the air. that was a requisite, prerequisite for the success of this operation. cia recruited some help, they recruited pilots from the alabama national guard. to assist them. there was to be one air attack, two days before the day, before the amphibious landing. allegedly by these cuban air force pilots who were disgruntled and decided to shoot up their own planes. that is why the cia's b 20 sixes were painted to look like cuban air force planes. the day before the invasion, the b 26 exile force would come back to cuba air bases to destroy separate planes. two airstrikes, command of the air was essential. and this was one of the several things that had to g

telling castro the maximum leader of the revolution. the president, shown just after the revolution when castro installed him as provisional president, then one of the heroes of the people was ousted to be replaced as president by office volatile. former minister of revolutionary laws. but it is certain whoever may be president or premier, fidel castro is the number one man in cuba. and unemotional for our broadcast that evening, he accused the former president of near treason, toppling him from the rule of to one threatened by mob violence. fidel castro's dramatic show of strength that makes it clear that after six and a half months, he is still riding high on a wave of turbulent, -- 1 million mulling president trying to square before cuba's national talents, in response to the cult of for you gayle pastoral for celebration of the six than you are three of his 26th of july revolutionary moment. this perhaps the greatest mass rally ever staged in the western hemisphere. i telling demonstration of castro's way over the cuban masses. show

castro takes personal command. the roads out of alana are filled with trust moving to the invasion beach. but, in the first hours the brigade pushes inwards. he is not yet to bring up his tanks or heavy guns. the first communique of the brigade reports that it is progress. over the beach are 12 b 26 is providing air coverage. shortly after dawn, they are attacked 23 castro jets that survived saturday's airstrikes. five of them are shot down. the grades to supply ships are sunk. -- the brigade's two. within a few minutes, they lost air cover and supply. now, castro can bring up his tanks and the fear of air attacks. and, he could bring up thousands of his militia. the afternoon, he is pressing the brigade hard. how are they to survive? where are they to get help? some expected it come from the underground. there is no uprising, there is no sabotage, there is no help from the underground for the brigade. for the next 48 hours, the men on the beach take a terrible pounding. they wait for help. none times. they say eve