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Playa
Giron, Cuba, March 24 — Under perfect blue skies next to a
tranquil sea, veterans of the Bay of Pigs invasion gathered
today to lay flowers of reconciliation at the beach where 40
years ago a momentous battle took place that helped shape the
places of the United States and Cuba in the Cold War and the
world.
The
veterans, exiles who made up a CIA-trained invasion force that
was crushed here by President Fidel Castro's defenders, shared
moving moments along the crystalline body of water and along the
beach called Playa Giron, whose entrance is still marked with a
sign saying: "Giron, site of the first defeat of Yankee
imperialism in Latin America."
"This
is just very emotional and very powerful for me," said
Alfredo Duran, 64, who fled Cuba when Castro took power in 1959
and then returned as a member of the 1,500-man 2506 Brigade that
came ashore here just after midnight on April 17, 1961.
"I
am here at Playa Giron to pay homage and tribute to all the
Cubans on both sides who died on these beaches," he said as
he laid a floral wreath on a monument to the battle. "I am
of the hope that such a tragedy as this will never repeat itself
in the history of our country."
Duran,
who was taken prisoner and released after 18 months, has come
with four other brigade veterans to join about 50 people --
including senior Kennedy administration officials, former CIA
leaders and Cuban soldiers and officials, including Castro --
for a three-day examination of the invasion that turned into a
disaster for the United States and a triumph for Cuba.
The
conference, cosponsored by Cuban officials and the National
Security Archive, a private organization based at George
Washington University, was organized as an academic analysis of
previously classified documents and interviews with those who
participated in the invasion. But for Duran and the other
veterans, the gathering, culminating with today's seaside
ceremony on the southern coast of Cuba, turned into a deeply
emotional event.
"As
I walk these beaches, I realize how many people I knew died here,"
Duran said. "They were people I grew up with. They were my
friends."
Duran
said a highlight for him was shaking the hand of the Cuban
officer who led an artillery bombardment that kept Duran and
dozens of other invaders pinned down for more than 48 hours in
the nearby town of San Blas. "We both knew instinctively
that we needed to shake hands," said Duran, now a Miami
lawyer. "Forty years have passed since we had Cubans
fighting Cubans in the battle of the Bay of Pigs. I hope that
never happens again."
Jean
Kennedy Smith, sister of President John F. Kennedy, who ordered
the invasion and was humiliated by its stunning failure, said
she felt moved while visiting the site of one of her brother's
most crushing defeats.
"I
know that my brother felt very badly about the Bay of Pigs,"
she said. "Not just because it was a failure, but because
of the people who were taken prisoner and the people who were
killed. He was very sad about that."
The
Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban missile crisis of the
following year set a tone in Cuban-American relations that has
remained virtually unchanged for 40 years. Kennedy ordered an
economic embargo of Cuba that remains in place today. Despite
worldwide condemnation of its Cuba policy, the United States
continues to ban almost all travel to and trade with Cuba in an
attempt to strangle Castro's Communist government.
Over
the past few days, however, conference participants from both
nations generally set aside current political disputes and
focused on the battle that took place here in 1961. But they
could not get together on a joint wreath-laying ceremony,
leaving only Duran and his four companions to make the gesture.
Both
sides agreed that the participation of Castro, who attended
about 20 hours of meetings over two days but did not come to
today's ceremony on the beach, was critical to understanding
relations. Privately, many said that the voluble Castro was
almost too helpful, talking to the assembled group perhaps more
than everyone else combined.
"Fascinating,
but numbing," said one participant.
Castro
gave an animated narration of his role commanding the Cuban
troops, standing before the group using a microphone, a pointer
and a large map. All said Castro was charming; some said his
intensely detailed accounts were overwhelming.
"I
didn't know anyone could talk so long and so intelligently about
everything from world affairs to the most trivial details,"
said Robert Reynolds, who was the CIA station chief in Miami at
the time of the invasion. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., a top
Kennedy aide during the invasion, said Castro displayed "an
endearing sense of humor" and "an extraordinary memory."
"This
conference is as much about the future as it is about the
past," said Peter Kornbluh, the chief organizer of the
conference for the National Security Archive. "The coming
together of all sides is a beginning in healing really deep
wounds, not only personal wounds suffered by the combatants but
political and national wounds as well."
Jose
Ramon Fernandez, a Cuban vice president who was Castro's top
military commander here, was something of a tour guide today. He
walked participants through a tour of the Australia sugar
plantation, some 30 miles from the beach, where Castro directed
the counteroffensive. He highlighted the black crank telephone
Castro used and a memorial of a young Cuban fighter who scrawled
"Fidel" on the wall in his own blood as he lay dying.
From
there, he took the group in buses to Playa Larga, one of the key
battle sites, then a few miles more here to Playa Giron, now
dominated by a hotel and restaurant next to a palm-lined beach.
Near
the beach, Fernandez addressed the gathering and vowed that Cuba
will continue to defend "the same thing we will always
defend: the right to our self-determination and the right to our
sovereignty. Our people without any concession are willing to
maintain that at any price."
"I
don't mean to offend anyone," Fernandez told the group,
"but this is my truth. It is the truth of those of us who
fought here. It is the truth of people fighting for their
sovereignty."
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