Talk:Operation Mongoose

Characterizing acts of terrorism

I think this article needs to do a better job of explaining which parts of Operation Mongoose were specifically terroristic in nature. Typically, "terrorism" is used to definite attacks against non-combatants, usually civilians. However, the following paragraph under Execution seems to be the only one stating which targets were attacked:

"Harvard Historian Jorge Domínguez states that Operation Mongoose's scope included sabotage actions against a railway bridge, petroleum storage facilities, a molasses storage container, a petroleum refinery, a power plant, a sawmill, and a floating crane. Domínguez states that "only once in [the] thousand pages of documentation did a US official raise something that resembled a faint moral objection to US government-sponsored terrorism." Actions were subsequently carried out against a petroleum refinery, a power plant, a sawmill, and a floating crane in a Cuban harbor to undermine the Cuban economy."

Most, if not all of these, are traditional military targets. One would instead expect to see examples such as schools, hospitals, etc. These might be hyperbolic but considering that the above listed are valid targets in war, I'd like to see better examples that truly characterize these operations as 100% terroristic. NoveosRepublic (talk) 16:49, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

The application of your own standards to carry out original research as to what constitutes terrorism is not what we do on this website. We follow reliable sources. Some non-exhaustive examples follow.

Prados, John; Jimenez-Bacardi, Arturo, eds. (October 3, 2019). Kennedy and Cuba: Operation Mongoose. National Security Archive (Report). Washington, D.C.: The George Washington University. Archived from the original on November 2, 2019. Retrieved 3 April 2020. The Kennedy administration had been quick to set up a Cuba Task Force—with strong representation from CIA's Directorate of Plans—and on August 31 that unit decided to adopt a public posture of ignoring Castro while attacking civilian targets inside Cuba: 'our covert activities would now be directed toward the destruction of targets important to the [Cuban] economy' (Document 4)...While acting through Cuban revolutionary groups with potential for real resistance to Castro, the task force 'will do all we can to identify and suggest targets whose destruction will have the maximum economic impact.' The memorandum showed no concern for international law or the unspoken nature of these operations as terrorist attacks.

Miller, Nicola (2002). "The Real Gap in the Cuban Missile Crisis: The Post-Cold-War Historiography and Continued Omission of Cuba". In Carter, Dale; Clifton, Robin (eds.). War and Cold War in American foreign policy, 1942–62. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 211–237. ISBN 9781403913852. Retrieved 2 February 2020.

Rabe, Stephen (December 2000). "After the Missiles of October: John F. Kennedy and Cuba". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 30 (4). Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Blackwell: 714–726. doi:10.1111/j.0360-4918.2000.00140.x. In analyzing U.S. relations with Cuba during the Kennedy administration, scholars have understandably focused on... the Bay of Pigs invasion, the US campaign of terrorism and sabotage known as Operation Mongoose, the assassination plots against Fidel Castro, and, of course, the Cuban Missile Crisis... [The U.S. Government] showed no interest in Castro's repeated request that the United States cease its campaign of sabotage and terrorism against Cuba.

Erlich, Reese (2008). Dateline Havana : the real story of U.S. policy and the future of Cuba. Abingdon/New York: Routledge. pp. 26–29. ISBN 9781317261605. Retrieved 2 February 2020. Officially, the United States favored only peaceful means to pressure Cuba. In reality, U.S. leaders also used violent, terrorist tactics... Operation Mongoose began in November 1961... U.S. operatives attacked civilian targets, including sugar refineries, saw mills, and molasses storage tanks. Some 400 CIA officers worked on the project in Washington and Miami... Operation Mongoose and various other terrorist operations caused property damage and injured and killed Cubans. But they failed to achieve their goal of regime change.

Brenner, Philip (2002). "Turning History on its Head". National Security Archive. Washington, D.C.: The George Washington University. Archived from the original on August 24, 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2020. ..in October 1962 the United States was waging a war against Cuba that involved several assassination attempts against the Cuban leader, terrorist acts against Cuban civilians, and sabotage of Cuban factories.

Domínguez López, Ernesto; Yaffe, Helen (2 November 2017). "The deep, historical roots of Cuban anti-imperialism". Third World Quarterly. 38 (11). Abingdon: Taylor & Francis: 2517–2535. doi:10.1080/01436597.2017.1374171. In international terms, Cuba's Revolution dented the US sphere of influence, weakening the US position as a global power. These were the structural geopolitical motivations for opposing Cuba's hard-won independence. The Bay of Pigs (Playa Giron) invasion and multiple military invasion plans, programmes of terrorism, sabotage and subversion were part of Washington's reaction.

Rabe, Stephen G. (March 2006). "The Johnson Doctrine". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 36 (1). Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Blackwell: 48–58. doi:10.1111/j.1741-5705.2006.00286.x. Thereafter, the administration conducted 'Operation Mongoose,' a $40 million campaign of arson, sabotage, and terrorism carried out against the island by CIA agents and Cuban exiles. Operation Mongoose contributed to the onset of the Cuban missile crisis, the most ominous Soviet-American confrontation of the Cold War

Polmar, Norman (2006). Defcon-2 : standing on the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-471-67022-3. The American government had sponsored the failed anti-Castro landings at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961 and, subsequently, had initiated Operation Mongoose, a massive CIA effort to bring down the Castro regime through acts of sabotage, terrorism, and assassination.

Stern, Sheldon M. (2015). "Beyond the smoke and mirrors: the real JFK White House Cuban missile crisis". In Scott, Len; Hughes, R. Gerald (eds.). The Cuban missile crisis : a critical reappraisal. Abingdon/New York: Routledge. pp. 204–224. ISBN 978-1-138-84092-8. The American public, of course, knew nothing about the sabotage and terrorism of Operation Mongoose or about the efforts of the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro; the President also did not want to hand Moscow a propaganda bonanza by revealing that surprise air attacks against Cuba had even been seriously considered by the administration

Piccone, Ted; Miller, Ashley (2016). "Cuba, the U.S., and the Concept of Sovereignty: Toward a Common Vocabulary?". In Crahan, Margaret E.; Castro Mariño, Soraya M. (eds.). Cuba-US Relations: Normalization and its Challenges (PDF). New York: Institute of Latin American Studies, Columbia University. pp. 307–323. ISBN 978-0-9983785-0-3. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 4, 2023. President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved a plan to train Cuban exiles to commit violent acts of terrorism within Cuba against civilians, and the CIA trained and commanded pilots to bomb civilian airfields...U.S. government officials justified some of the terrorist attacks on Cuban soil on the grounds of coercive regime change

Bolender, Keith (2012). Cuba under siege : American policy, the revolution, and its people. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. x, 14, 18–20, 53–57, 63–64, et passim. ISBN 978-1-137-27554-7. While there are multiple layers of complexity to the encirclement of Cuba, the most violent facet rests with the hundreds of acts of terrorism inflicted against civilian targets...The most infamous offshoot of the Project was Operation Mongoose...Headed by Air Force general Edward Lansdale, the operation coordinated hundreds of acts of terrorism, sabotage against Cuban industrial targets, increased propaganda efforts, and the tightening of the economic blockade...by the late 1960s it had shifted to terrorist organizations in South Florida made up of the extreme right-wing opposition that had left the island. In between were the murders, bombings, and sabotage of the terrorist program Operation Mongoose...American officials understood the acts of terror during the early years were specifically designed to disrupt, destabilize, and force the Cuban government to divert precious resources, as well as induce intrusive civil measures.

Yaffe, Helen (2020). We are Cuba! : how a revolutionary people have survived in a post-Soviet world. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 67, 176–181. ISBN 978-0-300-23003-1. What have Cuba's revolutionary people survived? For six decades, the Caribbean island has withstood manifold and unrelenting aggression from the world's dominant economic and political power: overt and covert military actions; sabotage and terrorism by US authorities and allied exiles...The CIA recruited operatives inside Cuba to carry out terrorism and sabotage, killing civilians and causing economic damage.

Hughes, R. Gerald (2015). "'The best and the brightest': the Cuban missile crisis, the Kennedy administration and the lessons of history". In Scott, Len; Hughes, R. Gerald (eds.). The Cuban missile crisis : a critical reappraisal. Abingdon/New York: Routledge. pp. 117–128. ISBN 978-1-138-84092-8. In fact, JFK authorised RFK to embark on a programme of terrorism against Cuba (Operation Mongoose), which called for the assassination of the Cuban leadership

Cambial — foliar❧ 17:32, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for replying. I think this reference is particularly potent, and should be moved into the main body of the article:

"Officially, the United States favored only peaceful means to pressure Cuba. In reality, U.S. leaders also used violent, terrorist tactics... Operation Mongoose began in November 1961... U.S. operatives attacked civilian targets, including sugar refineries, saw mills, and molasses storage tanks. Some 400 CIA officers worked on the project in Washington and Miami... Operation Mongoose and various other terrorist operations caused property damage and injured and killed Cubans. But they failed to achieve their goal of regime change."

The one that I originally highlighted could use some better phrasing, as when it says "actions were subsequently carried out", it sounds as if there were plans in the original scope that were not carried out, when they actually were. NoveosRepublic (talk) 00:34, 26 November 2025 (UTC)