The Pentagon began ''getting nervous about Cuba,'' in the words of a State Department official, and a snap national security meeting was called for the afternoon of New Year's Eve 1958 -- a fateful date as it turned out.

At the meeting, Defense Department officials discussed the possibility of sending U.S. Marines to Cuba to ''protect American lives and property'' as Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship crumbled. As the meeting ended, pressing information arrived from Havana.

Batista was now willing to ''step down'' and had a ''plane ready to leave the country,'' Ambassador Earl Smith reported. At 6 a.m., Smith sent an urgent telegram to Washington: ''General Batista departed for Santo Domingo with his family approximately 4 a.m. this morning.'' Other Batista officials, Smith said, were escaping aboard planes to New Orleans and Daytona Beach.

A lengthy memo that recorded the military proposal and Batista's departure plan is among documents at the National Archives and Records Administration that chronicle the last day of Batista's regime and the first of Fidel Castro's reign 50 years ago.

The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald reviewed the documents to piece together an account, from the perspective of nervous U.S. officials in Havana and Washington, of the historic 48 hours that radically transformed Cuba.

Among the most striking communications is a seven-page memo apparently written by U.S. Navy Rear Adm. A.S. Hayward Jr. summarizing highlights of the hastily called 4 p.m. meeting on Dec. 31, 1958.

The meeting, at the office of then Undersecretary of State Christian Herter, had been called the day before when Herter telephoned Robert Murphy, undersecretary for political affairs, to report that ''Defense is getting nervous about Cuba'' in light of the Batista regime's deteriorating situation.

Murphy then telephoned John Irwin, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, and set up the emergency meeting.

The evening before the meeting, at 8:04 p.m. Dec. 30, Herter had sent a six-paragraph telegram to the U.S. Embassy in Havana alerting Ambassador Smith about a warning Herter had just received from Col. John Kieffer, Batista's registered agent in Washington.

Kieffer claimed that advancing Castro's rebels were ''ostensibly under direction of Fidel Castro, [but] actually taking orders directly'' from communist leaders. Herter said Kieffer also warned that though Batista's government can hold major Cuban cities, 'US will `find Communist Cuba on its doorstep' unless it quickly lifts arms embargo'' imposed earlier in 1958.

Herter asked Smith to check the claim of communist command and control of Castro forces and whether it was true the embassy had sent officials to the area to check.

Herter led the State Department delegation to the meeting, which included Irwin, Hayward and the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Arleigh Burke. Also in attendance: assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs Roy Rubottom and Deputy CIA Director Gen. Charles Cabell.

Burke noted that a message had been drafted for dispatch to the commander of U.S. forces in the Atlantic region known as CINCLANT instructing him to be ``prepared to intervene to protect U.S. nationals and U.S. property.''

On Jan. 1, 1959, there were about 7,800 U.S. citizens living in Cuba and about 1,300 American tourists, according to U.S. files at the time.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@