NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Assassinations
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Assassinations
Program moderator Paul Duke in television studio, listing the five cases covered in the Senate report: Congo leader Patrice Lumumba, South Vietnam President Diem, dictator of the Dominican Republic Rafael Trujillo, army general Rene Schneider of Chile and Fidel Castro of Cuba.
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Assassinations
Program moderator Paul Duke in television studio, summarizing why Cuban leader Fidel Castro was an American enemy. Picture of Castro on screen behind Duke. U.S. officials feared the establishment of a Soviet outpost in Cuba. Scrolling text from Senate report detailing CIA attempts to assassinate Castro from 1960-1965, one attempt occurring on the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Descriptions of plots to assassinate Castro, including poisoning and providing weapons to underworld organizations in Cuba; mention of Operation Mongoose. One assassination plot was scheduled to take place while a U.S. diplomat was meeting with Castro. The report also says that there was inconclusive evidence to directly link any U.S. President to authorizing any assassination attempt.
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Assassinations
U.S. Senator Walter Mondale (D-MN) says, "There is evidence that during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when our government finally realized what was at stake, that we tried to call off operatives in Cuba that may have been trying to get Castro killed, but we had no assurances that we in fact we had reached them or called them off. So, that you set in motion things which may be horrible in concept but may be unbelievable when it finally played out to its final conclusion." Adult Caucasian female reporter says, "Now that these various plots against Castro have been officially revealed, what do you think this will do to our efforts to normalize relations with Cuba?" Sen. Frank Church (D-ID) says, "Castro was the first to know of these attempts long before the American people. The committee found a certain irony in the fact that a poison pen device was being passed for the purpose of assassinating Castro on the very day that President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas."