The Cuban Project, also known as Operation Mongoose, was an extensive campaign of terrorist attacks against civilians, and covert operations, carried out by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in Cuba. It was officially authorized on November 30, 1961 by U.S. President John F. Kennedy. The name "Operation Mongoose" was agreed to at a White House meeting on November 4, 1961.
Operation Mongoose Memorandum October 4, 1962 First page of a meeting report
U.S. Air Force Major General Edward Lansdale, head of Operation Mongoose on the military side of the operation, with William Harvey leading the CIA effort
Cuban Missile Crisis: Reconnaissance picture showing the missiles
The CIA allegedly recruited Mob bosses Sam Giancana (pictured), Santo Trafficante and other mobsters to assassinate Fidel Castro.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, often referred to as JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A Democrat, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress prior to his presidency.
Oval Office portrait, 1963
The Kennedy family in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, with JFK at top left in the white shirt, c. 1931
Lieutenant (junior grade) Kennedy (standing at right) with his PT-109 crew, 1943
Kennedy on his navy patrol boat, the PT-109, 1943
