Caribbean Comedy: Late August 1962

Forty-ninth Chapter in a Series Chronicling the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962

Exiles Strafe Cuban Hotel

On August 26, 1962, major U.S. newspapers announced on page 1 that Cuban exiles had fired about sixty 20-millimeter shells into a hotel housing Soviet Bloc technicians in Miramar, a suburb just west of Havana. The surprise attack occurred at approximately 11:30 PM on Friday, August 24th.

According to newspaper reports, while the hail of cannon fire did little damage and no one was killed or wounded, guests sleeping in the hotel nearly panicked when aroused from their slumbers.

It later developed that the attack had been mounted by members of a Cuban exile group called the Student Revolutionary Directorate in two motorboats. After closing, undetected, to within a half mile of the slumbering hotel guests and raining terror upon them from the skies, the students skedaddled back to U.S. waters, where the U.S. Coast Guard seized them.

The Chicago Tribune later reported that one of the vessels was a “PT boat” which provided cover for the 31-foot motorboat mounting the students’ 20-millimeter cannon. José Basulto, the student gunner, told a reporter that he had fired directly into a room where the attackers believed—and hoped—that Castro would be meeting with Soviet Bloc personnel. Basulto said he could see his shells breaking windows as he fired, after which the hotel’s lights went out. 

An Associated Press article filed from Havana reported that Havana newspapers published pictures of mirrors and glass doors splintered by “Yankee bullets.”

(Reading between the lines of these descriptions, one imagines that the rudely awakened hotel guests must have been scared into a laundry bill they hadn’t expected, to paraphrase Robert Penn Warren.)

The State Department Weighs In

As reported in contemporary newspapers, the State Department proclaimed dryly that while it sympathized with the “strong feelings” of the Cuban students, further anti-Castro shenanigans mounted from United States soil would violate the Neutrality Act. Subsequently, however, it appeared that the students had staged their escapade from another Caribbean island.

Castro Was Not Amused

A major factor in the Cuban Missile Crisis was Castro’s fierce patriotism and his hyper-sensitivity about his and his country’s dignity. His favorite slogan, which became Cuba’s rallying cry, was “Patria o Muerta!”—“Fatherland or Death!”

Now a small group of frisky students, apparently acting without outside support, had managed to penetrate Cuba’s coastal defenses, attack Cuban property, scare the living daylights out of Cuba’s Soviet allies, and get away unscathed. They had made the bombastic Castro look and sound ridiculous.

Saving Face

According to the Associated Press, Castro recast the students’ midnight foray as a “…treacherous surprise attack [that] shows the cowardice, the criminal and piratical spirit of its authors…”

Castro then identified the “authors”: the United States, with its imperialistic ambition to conquer the Cuban people. After denouncing the “cowardice” of the United States, Castro solemnly warned the U.S. that the Cuban people would take any and all steps “to confront the danger…” And then, of course, he ended,

“Fatherland or death. We will conquer.”

Cuba’s military ordered reservist artilleryman to report for duty on the Sunday morning, presumably to repel more “treacherous…criminal and piratical” attacks.

Cuban Exiles’ Were Also Proud…but Toothless

A New York Times news analysis of the shelling incident said that Dr. José Miró Cardona, a Cuban exile who headed the anti-Castro Cuban Revolutionary Council headquartered in Washington, was aware of what he called “the military operations” carried out by a Cuban exile group called the Revolutionary Students Directorate. Cardona also said that the students’ “heroic” action was but one step in an irresistible movement that would liberate Cuba and sweep Castro from power.

Brave words! Fifty years later, however, Fidel Castro is still alive, though his younger brother is now head of state. While we sense changes in the Cuban air, Castro’s revolutionary government is still in power.

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Sources and Notes

These major newspaper articles described the student group’s attack on Miramar:

• Associated Press, “Castro Blames U.S.” New York Times, August 26, 1962, p. 1. This is the article that reported Castro’s words blaming the United States for the students’ attack on Miramar. This article also contained the “shattered mirrors and glass doors” details.
• Arthur J. Olsen, “Student Base in Miami.” New York Times, August 26, 1962, p. 1.
• Associated Press, “Havana Area Damaged by Shellfire from Sea.” Los Angeles Times, August 26, 1962, D1.
• Arthur J. Olsen, “U.S. Studies Raid of Cuban Exiles.” New York Times, August 27, 1962, p. 1

The two August 26 Times articles were printed on page 1 under a two-column, two-deck headline.

If anyone had been wounded or killed in the students’ midnight foray, it would not, of course, have been a humorous interlude. But the only casualties were Castro’s pride and those broken windows and doors.

Robert Penn Warren’s “laundry bill” statement comes from chapter 6 of his All the King’s Men. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1946, 1974, p. 231. The novel’s narrator, Jack Burden, says, “The boss [Gov. Willie Stark] knew all about the so-called fallacy of the argumentum ad hominem. ‘It may be a fallacy,’ he said, ‘but it is shore-God useful. If you use the right kind of argumentum, you can always scare the hominem into a laundry bill he hadn’t expected.’ ”

The “P.T. Boat” details of the Miramar cannonading appeared in an article written by Jules Dubois: “Castro Cuts Links to U.S. for 10 Hours.” Chicago Tribune, August 27, 1962, p. 1. José Basulto, the gunner quoted above, went on to describe his weapon as “a helluva cannon. It was German and we bought it for $300.” The raiders were apparently able to evade two Cuban patrol boats that gave chase after the fusillade.

Castro’s accusation that the U.S. government was behind the students’ midnight raid may have had considerable truth behind it. Historians have explored the clandestine connection between the CIA, the Students’ Revolutionary Directorate (Directorio Revolucionario Estudantil, or DRE), and well-heeled private citizens like Claire Boothe Luce and William Pawley. Luce and Pawley apparently gave the DRE money for unofficial raids and other missions into Cuba via high-speed boats—as in the Miramar shoot-up. For more on this fascinating subject as well as leads to many sources, see Max Holland, “A Luce Connection: Senator Keating, William Pawley, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.” Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol. 1, No. 3, Fall 1999, pp. 139-167. We turn to Senator Keating’s part in this story in September.

Castro’s earlier hint that Cuba had secret plans for its defense is discussed in chapter 37 in this series ().

But look again at Castro’s statement paraphrase above that the Cuban people would adopt any and all steps necessary to protect themselves. Is this yet another hint from Castro that Cuba had something special up its sleeve?

Cuba’s future leadership was the subject of a Reuters article by Jeff Franks published in the Hartford Courant on August 12, 2012. The bottom line: “There are no obvious young successors, which greatly troubles many Cubans.”