1960s Timeline

June 26, 1962 - Raul Castro (left), Cuba’s Armed Forces Minister, announced today the execution of two alleged U.S. agents captured in Oriente Province. Mr. Castro, Premier Fidel Castro’s younger brother, said four agents were captured May 19 and contended that at least two of them were CIA “infiltrators.” The others, he charged, were agents based at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay. “They can start mourning them,” he said, referring to the alleged agents. He declared th

June 1, 1962 - Premier Fidel Castro spoke to two Western newsmen for an hour and a half in a Havana bar early today, declaring that he was “very worried” about the possibility of a U.S. move against Cuba. Castro’s three-car party stopped at 2 a.m. outside the bar, and the Premier accepted an invitation by two British newsmen to step inside for a talk. It was his first lengthy interview with Western reporters in a year. Answering questions in English over coffee, Premier Castr

Apr. 17, 1962 - Premier Fidel Castro hailed today the failure of the C.I.A.-backed invasion attempt exactly one year ago as “imperialism’s first great and historic defeat in the Americas.” Cuba started a two-day holiday in observance of the victory at the Bay of Pigs, where the invasion effort took place. The holiday will end Thursday with the presentation of battle flags by a visiting Czech Communist army unit to Cuban air force pilots. Soviet helicopters and jet fighters fl

Apr. 11, 1962 - President Kennedy said today that the U.S. Government would not negotiate with Cuba to ransom the rebel prisoners (pictured) sentenced last week to 30-year prison terms. The 1,179 prisoners seized in 1961’s unsuccessful invasion were found guilty of treason, but the regime of Premier Fidel Castro indicated that the freedom of individual captives could be purchased for amounts ranging from $500,000 for each of the three invasion leaders to $25,000 for rank-and-

Apr. 8, 1962 - The 1,179 prisoners seized in the invasion of Cuba a year ago have been convicted of treason. But the Castro regime is offering to free them on the payment of a total of $62 million in ransom. The verdict, which called for 30-year prison terms for the captives, was reached tonight by a military tribunal. The ransom for the individual prisoners ranged from $25,000 to $500,000, the latter for each of the three invasion leaders. They are Manuel Artime, once a lieu

Mar. 30, 1962 - Sitting on benches on an outdoor basketball court, nearly 1,200 prisoners captured in the invasion of Cuba last April went through the second day of their military trial today. Morning newspapers said they had already “admitted their guilt.” Western newsmen were barred from the proceedings. Pictures in Havana newspapers showed row after row of prisoners in white shirts and denim trousers seated in the basketball court within the compound of Principe Prison. #P

Mar. 29, 1962 - Approximately 2,000 people a week are leaving Cuba. All commercial planes bound for Miami, Mexico City and Kingston, Jamaica are full, and lines of people can be seen every day at the airline offices in Havana waiting to leave the country. The refugees must forfeit all their money and almost all their possessions. They are allowed to take only a minimum of clothing, one pair of shoes, one watch and one ring or a pair of earrings. Everything they leave behind i

Mar. 29, 1962 - The Castro Government put 1,182 prisoners on trial today behind closed doors at Principe Prison, in Havana’s suburbs. The official charges against the prisoners, captured after last April’s unsuccessful invasion, were not disclosed. The Havana radio said the prisoners were accused of having carried out a “treacherous attack” against the Cuban people at the “direct instigation of the imperialistic Government of the United States.” The Government would not let t

Mar. 21, 1962 - Richard M. Nixon declined today in the face of a Presidential denial to alter his contention that Senator John F. Kennedy (pictured with Allen W. Dulles in July 1960) had taken advantage in the 1960 campaign of confidential C.I.A. briefings on Cuban invasion preparations. The former Vice President’s assertion was made this week in a magazine excerpt from a forthcoming book, “Six Crises.” He said today: “President Eisenhower [now vacationing at nearby Palm Dese

Mar. 21, 1962 - President Kennedy said today that he had no evidence of an impending Cuban attack on the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay. He added at his news conference that the U.S. was always prepared to defend any territory under its responsibility. The President’s statement was made in response to a question about possible plans for increasing the base’s defenses in view of reports of a Cuban military buildup. The President said that “we are always concerned about the

Mar. 19, 1962 - Richard M. Nixon has charged in a new book that President Kennedy endangered security restrictions in 1960 with his campaign call for intervention in Cuba. Mr. Nixon wrote Mr. Kennedy had been given a secret intelligence briefing in which he was told that the Eisenhower Administration was training Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba. The briefing was given by Allen Dulles, then director of the C.I.A., Mr. Nixon said. It came before Mr. Kennedy declared on Oct

Mar. 14, 1962 - Communist Cuba is attempting to demoralize this country and obtain vital U.S. dollars by smuggling opium from Red China into the United States, Charles Siragusa, assistant commissioner of narcotics, charged today. Mr. Siragusa announced the arrest of five Cubans who had posed as refugees. They were charged with sale and possession of narcotics. Mr. Siragusa said the presence of Chinese Reds in Havana had brought a serious new narcotics traffic to America’s eas

Mar. 14, 1962 - Premier Fidel Castro urged young Cubans today to develop a more intense “Communist spirit” and declared that they would someday live under communism. The Premier promised that there would be a new society devoid of egotism and individualism. He called on Cuban youth to develop a more intense “Marxist spirit and a more Communist spirit” and said the young of his island nation will someday live “in another more advanced stage — not socialism, but communism.” Pre

Mar. 12, 1962 - Premier Fidel Castro announced today nationwide rationing of rice and beans, basic items of the Cuban diet. He also announced the total rationing of lard and cooking oils, items rationed in most areas since last year. Premier Castro said soap, toothpaste, and detergents, which are in extremely short supply, would be rationed in Cuba’s major cities. The Premier made the announcements on a television program in his first publicly scheduled appearance since Feb.

Mar. 11, 1962 - Cuba has put a claim on the invention of baseball. A recent speech by Premier Fidel Castro and a subsequent editorial in the official newspaper Revolución declared that pelota, as baseball is known in Cuba, “is not a Yankee creation.” Premier Castro, who occasionally goes to bat himself, stated that “the first inhabitants of Cuba played it, with the name of batos.” Revolución explained that the game was invented by the Indians who lived in Cuba before the Span

Mar. 5, 1962 - Enrique Lister (pictured left with Ernesto “Che” Guevara), who led a Communist corps in the Spanish civil war and served as a Soviet general in World War II, is reported to be in a high military command position in Cuba. General Lister, who is 54 years old, is in charge of rocket artillery units of the Cuban armed forces and is a top advisor on strategy and the use of Soviet and Czechoslovakian equipment supplied to the regime of Premier Fidel Castro since 1960

Feb. 4, 1962 - Cuban Premier Fidel Castro charged today that the U.S. embargo on imports from Cuba was “another economic aggression.” In a 40-minute speech, Castro told a crowd in Havana that President Kennedy was “a shameless person, as he has been since he took office.” He ridiculed the U.S. decision to permit the continued shipment of food and medicine to Cuba. This is “hypocrisy,” the Cuban leader asserted. Castro warned the people that they must triple their efforts in i

Feb. 3, 1962 - President Kennedy ordered a ban on almost all trade with Cuba today to deprive Premier Fidel Castro’s regime of an annual income of about $35 million. The embargo will go into effect next Wednesday morning, stopping the remaining purchases of tobacco and some industrial molasses and vegetables from Cuba. The ban will reduce the capacity of the Cubans to engage in acts of aggression and subversion in the Americas, the White House declared. On humanitarian ground

Feb. 2, 1962 - President Kennedy is expected to announce this weekend a ban on all remaining imports from Cuba, which give the Castro government an income of about $3 million a month. The purpose of the boycott, which will strike most severely at the Tampa, Fla., cigar industry, is to deny the Cuban regime the dollars it is said to be using for subversive activity against other Latin-American governments. The ban on imports from Cuba will virtually end trade between the Unite

Jan. 31, 1962 - President Kennedy expressed satisfaction today with the actions taken against Cuba by the Organization of American States. At his news conference, the President called attention to the fact that all of the 21 members except Cuba had joined in resolutions opposing “Communist penetration of this hemisphere,” supporting the Alliance for Progress, and excluding Cuba from the Inter-American Defense Board. “It is the first time the independent American states have d