Castro's Bomb (51 page)

"Stopped them again," Manuel called to his comrades who cheered wildly.
 
The lieutenant laughed and slapped him on the back.
 
It was time to pack up and move south.
 
He looked through the embrasure of his bunker.
 
A pair of dark and sinister planes was on the horizon and moving towards him with astonishing speed.
 
He watched, slack jawed with horror as the American jets approached at incredible speed.
 
He realized what had happened.
 
Opening fire on the American tank had given away their position and now they were going to pay for it.
 

Two bombs dropped from each plane and, with lives of their own, flew towards him.

One of the bombs exploded a few yards in front of Hidalgo's bunker.
 
Waves of the liquid fire called napalm enveloped the bunker and everything around it.
 
Flames roared through the firing slits and into the bunker, immolating Manuel and his companions with searing, murderous heat.
 
Manuel managed to lurch out the back.
 
He was on fire.
 
His skin was bubbling and peeling and one of his eyes was gone.
 
He rolled on the ground as waves of agony swept over him.

There was silence for a while, but then he heard a voice directly above him speaking in English.
 
"Jesus Christ, this one's still alive."

"Can't be," another voice added.
 
"He looks like the time my mother burned the Thanksgiving turkey.
 
There's no way he's gonna live.
 
Hell, even his cock's been burned off."

"Hey, he's trying to say something."

"Kill me," seventeen year old Manuel Hidalgo managed to whisper through a destroyed throat.

"What's he saying?"

"I don't speak Spanish either, but I think I understand what he wants."

"What are you doing?" the other American asked.

Hidalgo felt the other American fumbling with his tortured body.
 
"He's gonna get some morphine to kill the pain.
 
An awful lot of it.
 
Easy, buddy, it'll be all over in a little while."

After a few seconds, Manuel's agony went away, and then so too did the light.

The strain was beginning to tell on the president.
 
His back was aching even more than it usually did and he looked like he hadn't slept, which was the truth, and a twitch had developed in his cheek.
 
Not even the First Lady's now more enthusiastic nocturnal assistance could provide JFK with anything more than temporary relief from the stress he felt.

Once more into the breach, he thought as he waited for the military leaders to make their reports.
 
Admiral Anderson said that the Russian navy's three cruiser squadron and the multiple boat submarine flotilla was maintaining itself several hundred miles north and east of Cuba.
 
At least a half-dozen Foxtrot submarines had been sighted and were driving American reconnaissance efforts nuts by constantly submerging and then popping up a few miles away from where they'd originally been.
 
The Soviet presence necessitated the movement of an American carrier group, along with U.S. submarines, to counter the potential threat.
 
So far, the Soviets hadn't come close to the American fleet, but who knew what the future might bring.
 

General Wheeler reported that three army divisions, the First Infantry, Second Infantry, and First Armored, had landed and were consolidating their beachhead, and expanding slowly into the interior.
 
Supplies were piling up preparatory to a planned massive breakout.
 
There was concern that the main Cuban army had not been encountered.
 
General LeMay was of the opinion that it had been so badly damaged by air strikes that the Cuban army was no longer a factor, and that the average Cuban soldier was either in hiding or on his way home.
 
Wheeler and Maxwell Taylor were not so confident, feeling instead that the Cubans had pulled away from the beaches where they would be vulnerable and would be found in prepared positions inland.
 
But both generals felt that the U.S. would come out ahead in any confrontation with the main Cuban forces.
 
Marine commandant, General Shoup, concurred and complained that his marines had not been committed, angrily reiterating that his marines should not be used as decoys.

There were serious concerns.
 
First, the survivors of the two disastrous airborne drops were confronting very major problems.
 
They were outnumbered, outgunned, and running out of supplies of all kinds.
 
Airdrops of supplies had been ineffective and the use of the army’s few helicopters for more accurate support had resulted in the destruction of two choppers and severe damage to a half dozen others.
 
The more northern perimeter, the one belonging to elements of the 82nd Airborne would likely be relieved fairly soon, but the southern and more distant one belonging to a detachment of the 101st might soon be overwhelmed, and that would be both a military and a political catastrophe.

The vision of long lines of more Americans shuffling off to a prison camp would be intolerable to the American public.
 
The public accepted the fact that the Cuban sneak attack on Gitmo had resulted in American POWs, but the air drop was an American attack and American attacks should succeed.
 
Especially against the damned Cubans.
 
Failure would be blamed on JFK and he knew it.
 
The generals might consider it a relatively minor setback and part of the blood price to be paid, but for Kennedy the wound might prove politically fatal.

Taylor reported that Lt. Col. Romanski thought he might have found the location of the missing Soviet nuke.
 
"Destroy it," Kennedy said emphatically.

"As always, there are problems, sir," Taylor said.
 
"First, he cannot confirm that it actually is the nuke.
 
Romanski reports that whatever it is it's heavily guarded and his small group has no way of getting a better look.
 
He's asked for bombs and we're more than willing, but we can't bomb since we can't accurately locate the site.
 
Apparently, at the moment it's in a barn or shed of some sort and we can't find it and Romanski can't quite pinpoint it for us.
 
We've got it down to a few square miles, but that's the size of a small city.
 
Romanski says they Cubans are moving their group of vehicles at night and hiding them during the day, which means we can't get a good fix on it.
 
It also means that Romanski and Ross have to track it and find it each day."

LeMay interrupted.
 
"And since the Air Force and Navy have many other targets, there's reluctance to divert large numbers of planes to carpet bomb the area until we know exactly what it is and where it is.
 
If we attack and miss, they'll know we're on to them and simply move it and we're back to square one."

Kennedy seethed.
 
And in the meantime, he thought, the Cubans might throw a nuclear rocket at our soldiers and marines, killing and wounding hundreds, if not thousands.
 
The military might find these casualties acceptable and he might even agree with them if the cause wouldn't be nuclear.
 
But an atomic bomb exploding on Americans?
 
Never.
 

"I disagree," JFK said.
 
"I want that damn missile found and destroyed.
 
Look, we have more than enough planes out there.
 
We can assign a number of them to be a hunter force to find and kill that nuke."
 
He turned to LeMay.
 
"Why the hell don't you designate a squadron of B52s to saturate an area with bombs, and I don't care if it's overkill or if innocent people get killed?"

"Does that include Romanski, Ross, Cathy Malone and the others?" Taylor asked icily, “Especially when it’s highly probable that we’d miss and their deaths would be for naught?”
 

Kennedy sagged and agreed that it didn't.
 
Saturation bombing was not an option.
 
Still, he wanted a hunter-killer squadron.
 
Le May then reminded him that he agreed with Taylor and that they could saturate all they wanted and still not hit what amounted to a very small target.

"All they have to do is dig it in and we might as well throw rocks at it," LeMay said.
 
"As much as I hate to admit it, but precision target bombing is more wishful thinking than it is reality.
 
At this point, the Cubans have not launched it, which means they are either waiting for orders or a good target.
 
As we've discussed, if we bomb too close to it, that might spook them into launching. Right now, we have a slim chance of finding it before they launch which is better than nothing.
 
Every minute they haven’t fired the damn thing is another minute to find it."

General Taylor glanced at LeMay and reluctantly concurred, and Kennedy wondered if the military would actually do something about it or simply stall because they had bigger problems.
 
Stalling when dealing with a nuclear threat was inconceivable to him but not to the service chiefs.
 
The nuke was small and could be contained militarily.
 
But not politically.

"What about using special forces to help locate it?" Kennedy asked.

"Already being done," Taylor answered.
 
"We've got people on the ground trying to locate both Romanski and any possible bomb site."

JFK left and went to the Oval Office where his brother, the attorney general, awaited.
 
"Please tell me you have good news," he asked of Bobby after updating him on the military situation.

"Of course not," Bobby said with a wry smile.
 
"The word that we are not going to force Castro out of Cuba has leaked and is gaining momentum.
 
You can either confirm it by saying something or confirm it by saying nothing.
 
If you say we are going to dump Castro, then the Soviets are going to be pissed off and might use their forces in Cuba to keep him in place."

"Another Hobson's choice,” JFK said and laughed bitterly.
 
“And how did your meetings go?"

"Miserably," Bobby said.
 
"First I met with representatives of the Cuban exiles who are passionately outraged that you are not letting them take over their lost homes and property immediately and that you might let Castro stay in power, which would lock them out forever.
 
To say they are angry is a gross understatement.
 
Their fury is white hot and some of them aren't totally rational.
 
They want a statement of your intent immediately or they will riot again."

JFK glared at his brother.
 
"Let them try.
 
I've had it with their attempts to force my hand.
 
They riot and I'll federalize enough Florida National Guard troops to go in and squash them.
 
Tell them that."

"I did, and they seemed to calm down, at least a little bit.
 
Some of the younger ones want to go in with guns blazing, but the older exiles feel they can keep them in check.
 
The second meeting was with representatives of the, ah, various business groups who've been expelled from Cuba by Castro.
 
I mean, of course, the sugar industry and the gambling people.
 
The sugar barons want their lands and plants back, which will not occur.
 
As we've already discussed, other people are now on those lands and running those plants and factories that are still operational.
 
Trying to take them back would result in either a bloody civil war, or us keeping a huge occupation force in Cuba, which would then become a target of a new crop of revolutionaries."

"Shit," said the president.
 

"My thoughts exactly, Jack.
 
The gambling entities, and that, of course, means organized crime and the Mafia, want unfettered access to Cuba and they want the good old days back where Cuba was not much more than one great big whorehouse.
 
Again, we all know is not going to happen.
 
Unfortunately, if you do anything less than topple Castro and bring back the old regime and the old whorehouses, you will be persona non grata by them with whatever implications that brings."

Kennedy thought, and that means the Mafia will be angry and nobody in their right mind wants organized crime on their case.
 
"I can do very little for the sugar people, but perhaps we can creatively look the other way when it comes to gambling.
 
Perhaps some more freedom in Nevada might be negotiated."

"A good thought.
 
But J. Edgar Hoover might not like it."

JFK sighed, thinking of all the dirt Hoover had on him and everyone else in Washington.
 
Perhaps it was time for it all to come out.
 
"Fuck Hoover.
 
Anything else?

"Yes, the United Nations General Assembly has condemned us for naked aggression, for using unjustified and extreme military force, and for picking on a tiny communist nation that wants to become a nuclear power and threaten its neighbors," he said sarcastically.
 
"Adlai Stevenson says it's sound and fury and we should ignore it."

JFK concurred.
 
"Fuck the UN," he smiled.