43

Fidel Castro Signed and Annotated Bay of Pigs Map

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:50,000.00 - 60,000.00 USD
Fidel Castro Signed and Annotated Bay of Pigs Map

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2018 Nov 07 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Amazing and historically significant 35 x 13 map of Cuba hand-annotated in blue ballpoint by Fidel Castro to represent the Bay of Pigs operation, signed below, "Fidel Castro, Enero 30, 76." The map, which is intended to provide information on daily rainfall, has been copiously annotated by Castro to show the Bay of Pigs invasion from his perspective: at the top, he writes dates from April 14–17, with brief notes on what transpired each day in 1961; at the bottom, he draws a diagram of the US fleet off the Cuban coast; and at the "Bahia de Cochinos [Bay of Pigs]" he sketches the route of the invasion force. Nicely double-matted and framed with the passport page that allowed the recipient (W.C. Moyers) to travel from the United States to Cuba in 1977, as well as an image of Castro being interviewed, to an overall size of 51 x 21. In fine condition, with scattered light creasing and light overall wrinkling.

Accompanied by a letter of provenance from W.C. Moyers, who traveled to Cuba in January 1977 as part of the crew shooting a documentary on relations between Cuba and the United States, during which time the team secured interviews with Fidel Castro. In part: "In the middle of one night during our stay finally we were summoned to the presidential palace in Havana to meet with President Castro. This began a series of meetings that lasted over several nights and included remarkably intimate conversations with him on a number of topics, including the invasion. At one point Castro ordered an aide to procure a map so that he could diagram to better explain to us how the Bay of Pigs invasion unfolded in April, 1961. As this meeting was, like the others, happening deep into the night the only map the aide could make available was one normally used to record rainfall on the island.

I sat with Castro as he spread the map out on a table and began to diagram the invasion. He used a ballpoint pen he took from the pocket of his military uniform he seemingly always wore. At the top of the map he chronicled in his own hand what happened each day of the invasion. At the bottom of the map he diagrammed the route of the small boats containing the paramilitary soldiers, mostly Cuban exiles, that hit the beachhead. Most significantly, he sketched the location of the U.S. naval fleet that President Kennedy had positioned south of the island too far offshore to assist the landing force in its fight against Castro’s defending army.

As he diagrammed this invasion he described the action in Spanish while an aide translated to English. I will never forget my sense of awe as he took us through the military action that had been led by the most powerful nation on earth, the United States of America, to overthrow his government in an operation that likely would have led to his own death.

When he was done I asked President Castro if I could keep the map. He agreed. But first I had him autograph it at the bottom. Beneath his signature he also dated it ‘Enero 30, '76.’ Which was in error, as the actual date was in 1977. In his mind he had not yet turned the calendar to the new year. To me this proves that even Communist dictators make mistakes."

Conceived by Eisenhower and executed by Kennedy, the Bay of Pigs invasion was designed to covertly and quickly displace Fidel Castro and his communistic government from power. The secret offensive was in response to Castro’s overthrow of Cuba’s former US-backed dictator, Fulgencio Batista, and his ever-increasing diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union, America’s principal Cold War opponent.

The first of two planned airstrikes occurred on April 15, 1961, but with news breaking that Cuban bases were under attack by disguised American planes, President Kennedy called off the second air assault in an attempt to deny US involvement. Two days later, over 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles traveled on a seaborne force from Guatemala to the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. The exiles, known as Brigade 2506, were met with heavy fire and then badly outnumbered, with Castro advancing 20,000 troops to the beachhead. The US-sponsored forces retreated within 24 hours, with over 1,200 exiles captured and nearly 500 either wounded or killed. The botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs embarrassed President Kennedy on the international stage, and uplifted Castro as a national hero in Cuba while bolstering Cuban-Soviet relations.