The War That Never Was: An Insider's Account of CIA Covert Operations Against Cuba

Employees of the CIA have never been allowed to publish uncensored accounts of their activities. But Bradley Earl Ayers was never in the CIA. As a Regular Army officer, he was attached to the CIA on orders, and consequently was never required to sign a secrecy agreement. This is Captain Ayers's account of his top secret assignment to the CIA, training anti- Castro guerrilla fighters at hidden bases in the Caribbean and leading them on raids into Cuba. Ayers tells how he was chosen by the Pentagon in 1963 for his background in commando operations, then turned over to the CIA for indoctrination as an undercover operative. Ayers describes the chaotic condition of the CIA Cuban paramilitary training effort and tells of the steps that were taken to reorganize and revitalize the program. He found the men he was training highly dedicated but totally inexperienced. Under almost intolerable physical conditions, and with inadequate equipment and inferior weapons, they conducted raids against specific targets in Cuba, working from secret bases in the Florida Everglades and the Bahamas. Ayers accompanied them. There were speeding boats in the darkness, clandestine rendezvous on the high seas and in steaming subtropic jungles. And there was violent death. Ultimately, he became emotionally involved in the cause of the Cuban "freedom fighters." But after the assassination of President Kennedy, the program began to lose impetus. Increasingly, Washington favored a policy of neutrality in Cuban affairs. Disagreement with this new passivity, and loyalty to the original ideas on which the mission was based, forced Ayers to reach a radical decision: to leave the CIA mission and resign from the Army. That he did so is a measure of his profound disillusionment with official policy and a testament to his singular and abiding loyalty. With Cuba back in the headlines today this book is especially timely, affording the reader a historical perspective not available anywhere else.