Episode
'Operation Mongoose': Washington's Secret War on Cuba [Socialist History: S1 Episode 2]
- Published
- Jun 30, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3031
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Summary
In 1961 the United States launched the largest covert operation of the Cold War against a single country, a campaign of sabotage, terror, and assassination aimed at destroying the Cuban Revolution ninety miles from Florida. It was code-named Operation Mongoose. Alongside it, the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up Operation Northwoods, a plan to stage terrorist attacks on American citizens and blame them on Havana in order to manufacture a pretext for a full-scale invasion. In this episode we take a deep dive into how Mongoose and Northwoods were conceived and authorized at the highest levels of the US government and how the embargo and regime change logic still operate today. This is part of the first season of Socialist History, our new series on The Socialist Program. In each episode we unpack a different CIA or Pentagon operation, each of which was given its own code-name as Operation Mongoose was. Join The Socialist Program community at www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get access to the next episodes in this series, more exclusive content, and help keep this show on the air. Archival notes: 1:10 - Newsreel on Cuban Revolution (1958) 1:29 - Newsreel on nationalization of Cuban industries (1960) 1:49 - Interview with Jorge Risquet, Cuban Revolutionary Army Captain. Includes narrator voiceover (1998) 2:57 - Interview with Samuel Halpern, CIA officer 1947 to 1974, on Op. Mongoose (2003) 7:02 - Documentary on Cuban Revolution, voiceover (1964) 9:43 - UN Special Rapporteur Fionnuala Ní Aoláin on Guantanamo detention center (2023) 10:33 - US Army internal education film on Latin America (1960s) 11:05 - Cuba travelogue (1933) 11:32 - Newsreel on Fulgencio Batista’s coup in Cuba (1952) 12:12 - Newsreel on Cuban Revolution (1959) 13:25 - Interview with Ricardo Alarcón, Pres…