The full story (?) of the Cuban Missile Crisis has now been told, thanks to a well-researched report from Yahoo News. The U.S. didn’t simply stumble upon Soviet missiles in Cuba thanks to U-2 flyovers, but instead, a CIA operation led by Tom Hewitt had infiltrated the country, and was able to detect the Soviet activity on the ground.
This is a compelling story of Americans and Cubans working together for their respective countries.
Yahoo News noted the award and citation presented by the CIA to Hewitt’s widow in 2005. The citation read in part:
“In January 1961, Mr. Hewitt joined the Miami Station as a Paramilitary Officer in the Cuban program. Shortly thereafter he developed and ran one of the most successful operations in the history of the organization. Mr. Hewitt spotted, developed, recruited, and provided intensive paramilitary training to a team that was infiltrated into Cuba. It was this team that reported on the presence of nuclear equipment in the Pinar Del Rio Province of Cuba. Based upon the reporting from Mr. Hewitt’s team, U-2 aircraft were dispatched to the region. Their photographs confirmed the presence of nuclear capable missile equipment. The rest is history, known today as the ‘Cuban Missile Crisis.’ Public credit for the discovery of the missiles in Cuba was given to the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft in order to preserve the security of the team that Mr. Hewitt created, trained, managed, and motivated through one of the darkest periods of the Cold War. … It was his commitment to the mission, dedication, and obligation to the agents he ran in Cuba that resulted in the collection of intelligence that impacted on the course of history.”
- Ray Keating
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