Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Cuban Revolution Behind-the-Scenes 20240714

Journey through the historical underbelly of europe. And most recently, cuba libre, che fidel and the improbable revolution that changed world history. As a college student, tony regular lay disappeared to hitchhike through the outback and travel through rural independent que where he briefly enjoyed now based in the east village of manhattan, he makes it a point to continue exploring in iceland, tee yes, sir ra del fuego, beijing, tasmania, to name a few. Tonys travel stories have been published in magazines like the New York Times, smithsonian magazine, have been translated into a dozen languages. Having been selected seven times for the best American Travel writing series. He is also a regular television guest on the History Channel where he has spoken about everything from the crusades to the birth of disco. Cuba low pray is available for sale and signing after the program. Please join me in welcoming tony perrottet. Thank you for coming out on a beautiful spring night. D. C. Is looking pretty good today. To celebrate the secrets of the cuban revolution. What is an australian doing living in new york and writing about cuba . I used to live in argentina, in buen buenos aires, and or theed in south america. Everyone there is in some way thinking about cuba. What happened in cuba. Whats going to happen in cuba. So in that sense, i felt like i really had to go, and i did in 1996. Which was just after the soviet union had collapsed. It was the nadir of cubas fortunes. It was kind of an economic disaster. I got down there from new york because you couldnt fly direct, via nassau. All i knew was that i had to take 1,000 in cash and give to it a guy named lionel at the airport. And i would recognize him by his porkpie hat. And i did get to the airport, i went into a disused terminal with wires hanging down everywhere, and lionel did appear. I gave him the money, he gave me a little handwritten thing and pointed out to a russian prop plane. Six people squeezed onto this plane that zoomed over the caribbean and landed in cuba. It was a fascinating experience. The next time i went was under the obama years. And i got invited on the first private jet to fly from miami to hava havana. Also six passengers, slightly different experience. Champagne. Picked up in these beautiful american cars. Being taken to a luxury hotel with a rooftop pool. Even wine bar. It was science fiction. But yeah, so after that before i went on that trip, i asked a friend, a cubaphile specialist, i want to find out about the revolution, is there some book that will tell me more or less what happened . She said, no it doesnt exist, you should write it. Okay, that seems wildly difficult and extremely unlikely. The obamaera trip i heard there were certain sites still around the island, cuba, for example for example the hideout in the mountains where che and fidel used to lurk and other extraordinary places. I proposed to the smithsonian that i go back and follow this trail, follow the history of the revolution, which is how that story that is in the printout came about. Thi a 3,000, 4,000word work of going to find the things going on. Look, okay, i should have had that up just to give you an idea of the classic image of havana. But after i did that, i realized there was a much more there was much more to be discovered. It really was just the tip of the iceberg. So i suggested doing a book about it. And penguin got into it. The way i would try to get into it in a way, the thing that inspired me, was this idea that i discovered of how popular the revolution was amongst americans in those days. Back in 1959. Which seemed extraordinary, given what had happened since. And so i decided to try and investigate. And here the image that sort of most intrigued me was just after the dictator had fled, ed sullivan flew down to cuba to interview fidel as he was about to come into havana. The interviews still around, you can see it on youtube. Hes like and eds starstruck. And hes all over fidel, comparing him to george washington, talking about guerillas as if theyre a fine young group of revolutionary youngsters. Which is again this Twilight Zone feel to it. And he says, like what do you think of america . Fa sell says, very positive feeling. And ed says, we want you to like cuba, and we like you. So on the other hand, we want you to it was sort of a lovefest, anyway. So this was the sort of point where i started the book and then go back into to find out how it all unfolded. Because it was incredibly unlikely that this bunch of youngsters, these sort of early 20s, some teenagers, crash land on the coast of cuba. At one stage down to 12 people. How they ended up being an army of 40,000 professional soldiers. In the space of just over two years. It really seemed an extraordinary story. So the thing that i like about the story as well is its broken up into very specific little chapters in a way. Like a little op retta. I should have put this on printouts. Its nice to have printouts. But there are five parts to the story. So youll know more or less where we are as we drift along. And the first part, the sort of prelude in a way, is the young fidel playing basketball. And he was a very athletic character, a very sort of charming, garrulous student. As well as his nickname was elloco, the crazy one. He would do things like bet his friends that he wouldnt drive his bicycle into a wall. At full tilt. And well bet you that. So he went down a hill, smashed it into a wall, was out for like three days. And that was just to prove a point. This sort of gives an insight into character in a way. And he loved sport. In basketball and baseball were his favorite. All the american sports. And you can actually go and visit his family house which is in the eastern side of cuba. A place called the oriente, the east. His family manse is still there. He was from quite a rich family, strangely enough. But he grew up with a terrible sense of injustice. Hed go to the local school and all the other kids didnt have shoes. He realized that his dad, who was a land holder washes paying his workers badly. Hed get into arguments. He organized a strike of his fathers workers which didnt endear him to his dad. But if you go to this place called buran, you can glimpse the family bedroom. Him and his brother raul shared the bedroom. You can see his baseball outfits there. Unfortunately the story that he was that fidel was offered a contract with american baseball, professional baseball, is a nice one, but its untrue. He had a great pitching arm. But apparently not enough to get a scholarship to miami or to indianapolis or to places with baseball. Fidel this extraordinary character, one of the more extraordinary characters of the 20th century, the thing that i love, this is without a beard. He once didnt have a beard. He was this young lawyer, quite conservative. He went to havana, went to the university there. Studying law. And became more and more radicalized as he went there. He sort of less the studies and the politics going on, there were things brewing. In 1953, a coup by a former president batista. Now fidel was running for politics at that time. He was trying to become a senator. Had he had that had that coup not occur head probably would have run, then maybe eight years later run for the presidency. Instead batista comes in, takes over, everyones suddenly cut out of the process. Batista invites american mobsters to run the casinos. Basically running the state, milking the state in a blatant way and extremely violent as well. The secret police were going around, beating up and murdering opponents. It was this incredibly thuggish environment. Fidel came to the conclusion, and many cubans came to the conclusion that this americanbacked dictator could not be defeated by peaceful means. That they had to do something kind of extreme. So they decided to start an insurrection. This is way before the actual revolution begins. Its sort of the first volley. So in the east the major city is called santiago. A very beautiful place, very dreamy. It also has a barracks there, moncada. He and 100 of his friends, basically students, got together and sort of taught themselves how to shoot guns. Not very well. And they made themselves uniforms to make themselves look like a soldiers. They piled into a bunch of chevrolets and buicks and dodges and sort of trundled off to attack this place that had like maybe 500 soldiers in it. And they thought if they surprised them while they were asleep, because it was the last night of carnival, they came to the conclusion that theyd be so hung over they wouldnt fight. This was not the case. Turned out they completely blew it. Fidel accidentally nearly ran over a couple of patrolmen who let off the alert. And a firefight started. Many of them were killed. Many were captured. And tortured to death. So it was kind of a disaster, yet one of those disasters like the battle of little big horn in the United States thats celebrated in a weird way. So you can go to the moncado, you can see the bullet holes they preserved as part of a shrine. But fidel was eventually captured, as was brother raul, and a bunch of this em. They were sent to Devils Island of cuba, which is called the isle of pines off the south coast, all thrown into this model prison, modeled on one this inn chicago. Its an example of the penopticon, where a guard can be in the middle and see everyone in the whole place. It was a very sinister place in those days, very violent. For whatever reason the Political Prisoners were all put in their own room together, which was a strange decision. They all got together and they gave each other classes on revolutionary theory and they plotted what to do and they sent messages to people outside. Fidel even managed to, in a great publishing story, he wrote a book while he was in there. Sort of a pamphlet, really, on his defense speech, which he then wrote on little pieces of paper and smuggled out piece by piece to supporters in havana. Most of the time they were also writing in lemon juice. So the guards never asked why. They had this sort of passion for citrus. So eventually the pressure mounted to release fidel and his friends. Theyre only still youngsters and basically unknown. They go to mexico city. They flee to mexico city where they organize and they decide to invade cuba. And theyre complete amateurs. The thing that i love, another thing i love about the story, its as if a bunch of ph. D. Grads from princeton would dumped in the Appalachian Mountains and told to get it together to hold a revolution and overthrow the government. They had to teach themselves how to shoot, how to navigate, how to survive in the mountains. So they would put rocks in their backpacks and go hiking up and down the streets of mexico city. Sometimes up in the mountains. They found a guy, a veteran of the spanish civil war, to teach them how to shoot guns. They tried to raise money. They were often caught. The secret police were after them in mexico city. At one stage they were all arrested. By this stage theyve been joined by a young chap named ernesto rivera. He was a medic, a doctor. And he signed on to the expedition. He was also arrested. This is the first known photograph of che and fidel together in a mexico city prison. So things were really tightening for the sort of squeezing down on them. They decided to get going as fast as they could. And this is the second part of the story, really. Where they really stage the invasion. This sort of demented plan, really. They decided to buy a boat from a doctor, april american doctor, retired doctor in mexico city. And it was called the grand mar which ill show you later. They organized with the locals, the local supporters. This is frank paez, a Frank Sinatra type. He was sort of the poster boy of the revolution for a long time. And he was the one who organized in santiago, knowing they were all going to arrive sometime at the end of november. Theyd planned it all out. Fidel was going to send a telegram. The book that you ordered is out of print. This was the code they were going to leave mexico city, the caribbean coast, and head over. They planned it was going to take five days. They all piled into this boat, the grand mar, which is like the ss minnow. Leaky. Barely worked. It had been water logged. And there are like 120 people who wanted to get on, they squeezed in 82 like sardines. They set off at night in a storm, ignoring the fact that it was one of the worst storm warnings in months. As soon as they got out of the harbor it started to rock a lot and they started to get seasick. Che had forgotten to pack the tablets, seasickness tablets. They all started, with the exception of raul and the professional sailors, they all started to get seasick. Theyre awash with vomit. It was a spectacular disaster. Worse, water was coming into the boat. They realized it was starting to flood. So they grabbed whatever they could and started throwing things overboard. To lighten the thing. They thought they were going to sink until someone realized the tap was on in the toilet and it was flooding. This set the tone for the revolution. The early days of the revolution. They were heading over to this amazing coastline, which for the story i was able to travel, but it has the worst roads in cuba, which is saying something. Very remote, very isolated. Fidel had decided on this so they could hike into the sierra maestra, probably the poorest part of cuba and of the caribbean. Here heading there, two days late. The ground people who are expecting them gave up. And then so they come along, they sort of crash land. Theyre going along, the coast, suddenly the boat stops. Its kind of like what . Theyve hit a sand bank. This is the only known photograph of them getting in there. They all get in there. The 82 of them go across. And they realize, to their horror, they havent landed one of the beautiful beaches for which cuba is renowned, they landed in a swamp. And in fact, one of the worst, the most sinister swamps in the east. And today you can go and visit the spot. Theyve done this beautiful walkway to see where they crash landed. But they had to climb over the vines. They dropped their stuff. They panicked. Lost their shoes. It was a complete fiasco. They were already dehydrated and desperate. They turn up and they meet a farmer. Someone wanders out of the bushes and sees them. Fidel says, have no fear, weve come to save the cuban people. The guy apparently resisted the urge to burst out laughing. But anyway, theyre there, the farmer is very helpful. He catches a chicken and is going to cook it for them, as well as a piglet. Suddenly they hear shooting at the boat. They realize their boat has been spotted by the coast guard. Soon the air force is coming. They decided to schlep off toward the 30mile walk to the sierra maestra. Unfortunately on the third day, theyre surrounded. Theyre ambushed. The armys found them. Them and started appearing out of nowhere and something of a massacre, 20 of them are killed there, everyone else just scatters, and in wild directions, che gets nicked and blood is everywhere but he thinks he is dying and he is a poetic soul so he leans up against a tree and remembers his favorite jack london story about a guy who is about to die in the wilderness, until someone grabbed him and says come on. Get out of here, and they make a run for it and they end up in the bushes so people are scattered everywhere, fidel is by himself and is sitting in a sugarcane field and as it gets dark, he notices two of his friends going there but the army is going back and forth the soldiers so they get together and hang out in the field for five days. Waiting for the army to go away. They are drinking in the morning, they are gnawing on sugar came to keep themselves alive and sustained and much of the time fidel is rocking back and forth saying victory will be ours, dont worry in the other two are looking at each other going he has lost it. He has gone mad but, as it turns out they get it together and they walk basically it takes them like 10 days walking just a few hours a day and mostly at night. And they managed to get to the Meeting Point up in the mountains. This is a very rugged and beautiful, very isolated and others managed to survive as well, turns out that rauls brother, if you know his brother raul, six years younger managed to make it out. They end up there as well and che guevara , they nicknamed him che because he is from argentina it is like a buddy. Sort of like powell. It would be like mate and australian so he ends up there as well and eventually about 20 of them gather there and they are camping out in a coffee field. And you know recovering from their wounds many others were caught and butchered and by the army, machine guns, so it was a miraculous thing and those that survived became the leaders of the revolution. The one that was meant to be running the army unfortunately was cut and they found out two years later that he was beaten to death with shovels. So, these guys, these few people, and later they would write, someone would write a book called the 12 about the 12 people that survived and it was more like 20 but they were like the religious connotations of 12. So they are up there up in the mountains trying to stay low, trying to survive. And the only way they do survive at all is through the efforts of Celia Sanchez, a doctors daughter who lived down in the low lands and was a sort of the major organizer of the revolution. And if you go to the have an archives you can find her notes, her accounts. She was very meticulous and she would do things day by day, so she found them new boots, she found them food. She would organize mule trains to go up and take them stuff. And over the coming months it would turn out that if it was not for her, the whole revolution would have been snuffed out. The boys, were very inspired and full of enthusiasm that they couldnt organize their way out of a paper bag, just an expression. They were very disorganized they could not even clean their guns, they would lose ammunition, guns were going off. But she was able to organize reinforcements, going up there and kept the revolution going through these crucial early months. Now this stage, batista had sent out the word that fidel and all his friends were dead. And this was going on for some months, so word went back to havana that fidel wanted to get that so they wanted to contact the New York Times, so in havana, she didnt want to go up there but after the mountains but she contacted another guy, Herbert Matthews, who was the great latin american of his day. And he knew cuba well and flew down to havana and the people said we will send somebody from the New York Times up there and the agent looked at him and says we will send someone, right . And matthews said i am going myself. And they couldnt quite believe him but matthews didnt decide to do it, he and his wife got, they were driven by agents out to the east pretending to be plantation owners, americans on holiday at different times, and he hikes up into the mountains and fee dell meets him. And it is an extra ordinary things, one of the great turning points. Without this the revolution wouldve expired, fidel meets him, hes got like 20 people , 20 guys and most of them are ragged, in uniforms but he tells his brother raul, to get the men to walk back and forth and go around and around and change outfit so it looks like hes got more people than he does they also had to walk sideways sometimes so they wouldnt see the backs of their shirts had been torn open. So it was ragtag army. And fidel tells matthews that he has 200 or 300 soldiers which matthews buys and you know decides to print. So, he had this extraordinary thing where fidel ends up in the front page of the New York Times and it is a glowing report. It is a very romantic revolution and matthews had been in the spanish civil war himself and he wrote it as a heroic resistance of a youth rebellion against this sinister dictator. And again a robin hood sort of thing. And this was sort of the image that sort of continues throughout the revolution and in many ways it is right, these guys they didnt really have any terrible political agenda other than getting rid of batista, that was the goal that they could all get behind now, one of the political stuff that we associate, like communism for example, came much later. He did not regard himself as a communist in fact che was, and raul but fidel basically wanted power, somebody later said that they tried to make fidel a communist and he laughed and said i would be a communist if i was stalin and refused to discuss it any further, in any case. In the early days, on the same day that Herbert Matthews meet him, celia comes up and is the one in the middle there and the other one is haley santamaria, and Celia Sanchez hikes in as well to meet fidel for the first time. And it is this extraordinary moment, here he is showing up his favorite rifle and she loves shooting, she loves fishing. She loves great outdoors. She is a huge political devotee. She is totally devoted to the revolution and it is a romantic connection that begins one of the great romances of the revolution. Really. There has a lot that has been written about the relationship between che and fidel, which was extraordinary but really this union between celia and fidel, that is what becomes the most of the revolution because he has all of these amazing ideas and he spat them out, and she put them into action she sort of translates them into something that is practical and i can actually happen. So here is this extraordinary thing that fidel, is on the front page of the New York Times and is the face of the cuban resistance. So its like an extraordinary thing, that inspires people. Cbs news decides to go there as well. And we have a guy named Robert Taylor who decides to interview fidel, and he is a tv natural it turned out and he knows how to stage things as well. So he says we will do it on the top of the highest mountain. In cuba. With its spectacular view, behind them, unfolding coastline and there is a bust of the independence hero josi and they all sing these songs. And you know it is broadcast to 50 Million Viewers across the u. S. So fidel suddenly is a huge presence there. Despite the fact that some you know, he still only has a handful of people, a handful of followers. Not today you can actually go up to the sierra and it is still an extremely poor place. The other reason that they were able to survive is that the farmers, the local farmers decided to help them out. They had long felt isolated and removed from the rest of the country, they have been left out basically of cuba, they were exiled within their own land so they gave them food, they give support and carried messages, they told that fidel when the army was coming in, and when not. So in the early, nomadic phase, we have this amazing sort of secondary army that is helping them out, with supplies and they are all wandering around in the mountains for months really and they are changing camp every night, it is an exhausting time for the revolution. And one thing that i found in the havana archives, one of my favorite discoveries, all of the leaders were writing diaries but this one was the cuban platoon leader who wrote a diary as well that was never published. Now he was a sort of a romantic. He had a girlfriend he left back in mexico, he didnt particularly like hardship, he didnt like being rained on he didnt like trudging around and didnt like blisters but he was devoted to the revolution. He was also very lonely and he missed his girlfriend. He writes all this down in the diary. And there are marvelous accounts where he falls in love with every woman he meets in the mountains. Shop girls, farmers daughters, guerrilla volunteers, and always, he writes these lovely poems about it, he and up and one romantic liaison and dollies is so long that his platoons left and they have to go back and get him but it ends when the girl opened up a locket around his neck and sees the photograph of his girlfriend in mexico. Unfortunately. And he writes in his diary it is all for the best although one doesnt quite believe him. He was a very lovelorn character. Just waiting and looking for some water. There it is. So he has extraordinary insight into this amateurish doit yourself revolution. And one of the other great things that i found out was that after Herbert Matthews story was published in the New York Times, a lot of people and a lot of americans were inspired to join the revolution, three teenagers from Guantanamo Bay decided to disappear from their families, run away and join fidel and fidel and frank decided it is a good idea, a good pr thing so they let the three American Kids join. And then they write a letter, an open letter to the u. S. Government saying that they love the revolution, that it is like the Founding Fathers all over again and it is published in the New York Times again. And it is very much calling for the americans to stop supplying but the dictator with arms. A lot of the planes were refueling in Guantanamo Bay, the americans are training the secret police, it was not an ideal situation. So the three kids are there but fidel eventually decides, one of them really could not hack that life but they decide it is too dangerous to have them there because if they get killed or wounded it would be a pr disaster so he lets them go, one guy stays up for another three months and then finally fidel sent him back to the u. S. To do when raising speeches. Because they set up an office in new york on the upper west side. Right Near Columbia University and all these students keep turning up trying to volunteer for the revolution for the Summer Holidays only. They want to be back for the classes in the fall. Only a few of them actually do make it down there but there is Great Stories like the kids from berkeley who steal their parents car to drive to miami to go down to join the revolution. And failed dismally just as well. But anyway, we have another rare early photo of che guevara because, he was a medic, he was not really initially that important. But it turned out that he had extraordinary talent for guerrilla warfare. And, he was also quite an extra ordinary character, very committed. Sort of a serial in many ways. And he had a sentimental side as well, he loved dogs in particular and he would carry dogs around everywhere. And some of them were gathering around him and one of the saddest stories, one of his favorite dogs and an army patrol is going by and the dog starts whining and making noises. So trend you che is like you got to get rid of the dog and the guy has to strangle the dog as the army is going by, it is one of those weird anecdotes and he was quite a good writer as well, a poetic soul as i said. And quite goodlooking. He was sort of like the poster boy of the revolution later. But there are some amazing photographs, it was probably historys most photogenic revolution in many ways because the chinese revolution, the russian revolution, have paintings and statues but this was the golden age of magazines so the american photographers would find their way into the area and look for time, only looking at extra ordinary magazines many of them resist but they would do these beautiful photo spreads, the guys were in paris match at one stage, it is an extra ordinary thing and this is the first execution of the revolution, they have a trial, that lasted for 12 days, there were a bunch of guys who were impersonating them, going around telling people that they were revolutionaries that they were stealing stuff, which was alienating in a lot of the farmers they put them on trial and the ringleaders or, they are executed and the photographer captures the execution and it is kind of an incredible image. But this is again in the early days and there is like 100 of them floating around and around in 1957 at the stage but one of the things that i found very interesting is trying to figure out how they did it and they would do things like they had this great support base in the cities. And they were trying to convince people to start burning the sugar plantations to undercut the economy. So they put out these helpful leaflets here they suggest tying balls of a phosphorus behind the backs of rodents and sending them into the sugarcane fields, or using a slingshot to send the phosphorus you would get from matches and it would burn and they would send it into these fields and start conflagrations and again they are sort of making it up as they go along. Whether it worked or not, nobody knows. But they would do other things as well, the army would go around bombing randomly all over the sierra maestra. The air force and a lot of these bums wouldnt go off. And if they did go off there was almost no damage because it was a jungle, in fact the they found out many years later that it just virtually get absorbed in the mulch. So, they would find these unexploded bombs and take them apart and create their own boobytraps out of condensed milk cans and use shrapnel and they would hang them with garlands and they figured out how to explode them from a distance, again one of these extraordinary sort of things. Condensed milk, was their favorite food so they had tons of cans. They would get them up from the low lands, smuggled up by celia and it was like the nectar of the gods because it was kind of sweet and rich. They would make other dishes as well and some of them, great guerrilla recipes that survived him a raul did one where it was with sausage guerrilla style where he would get a spicy hot dog, chop it up, sauti it in one tablespoon of lemon, one in rome and one of honey and sort of serve that up and it was like a favorite dish and often it would be just one sausage night. He discovered a tin of sausages and he said it was the greatest feast that he ever had in his life. So, they managed somehow to make it through to the end of 1957 and just by hanging around, they were winning in a certain way. They would take photographs, here is che, he had gone to a breakoff camp with his men. And he is saying happy new year 1958 and he takes this photograph and distribute it around mocking photograph and he has this sense of humor, as you can see he is wearing a cap, instead of the usual famous beret, again he was a sentimental, one of the grandma , comrades had been killed who decided to keep the cap and many months later he loses it and is heartbroken. So we have these guys hanging out in the mountains, but over in havana, very little is changing. Havana is sort of like this in city of the western hemisphere, if you have seen the godfather part two you have seen my is seen, they are the ones who are running the casinos, but are all still there, prostitution is there, it is one of the great scenes of a vice. Graham greene loves it and he goes to the shanghai theater to see superman, the details which i will not go into but these live sex shows and it is a decadent place but there is an underground growing there as well. And, the support is at its weakest in havana, in any case, up in the mountains, fidel is getting and preparing for like maybe five or 10 year war. He decides to actually get Permanent Base and then got about 300 men at this stage and they decide instead of going around dramatically they have to have somewhere that they can all hold up, celia comes in and she designs this beautiful camp, and it is an isolated place, this trail and you can go up there today, the hut is still there, you have this trail going up and then you trudge along and it opens up and there is like this secret area that is there. This is what it looked like in 1958 so this is like the main plaza, and they would hang out there and read the newspaper. And meet people that would come up. And so go through plant, as you can also see, he started to grow his beard early on, they all decided they had actually thrown their razors overboard with the grandma anyway but they decided they might as well, they were going to keep growing there be odes and tell the revolution was one. So, they became the bearded ones, to distinguish them from everyone else. So, they sort of get this character, he is wearing this cap and getting his way and a distinctive look that will become world famous eventually. Now this is the hut that celia made for her and herself and fidel. And it is thereby a babbling brook and it doesnt compare to a chinese philosophers house or it would be an awesome echo lodge today. It is up in the mountains it is very breezy and dreamy, very cool and the kitchen is still there and they have this bridge that was finally brought up and it still has the bullet holes that the air force made when they traced the mule train. Now, you can still go up there and the guide will show you around. It is also barricaded off but then the guide sort of wandered off at one stage so i thought oh, i will climb over and i will go into the bedroom and was like okay, the mattress is still there, so i decided to lie down on fidels bed. And, there is this gorgeous window. And it is filled with mariposa flowers, it is a lavish, tropical seen. And it is such a poetic little place, it was here where he acted like he was already president of cuba, giving orders and coming up with plans so people that came and trudged up there were incredibly impressed that he had us sensible, sense of authority and he was also joined by others and at this stage more and more women started to join the revolution, they had been working in the cities, but they were often, suspicion was starting to fall on them, the mail police, could not conceive of the idea that women had political ideas at all so they never sorta bothered the women and so they would actually use petticoats to smuggle ammunition and food and guns around for the revolutionaries but eventually they did, people did start to figure them out. And, celia is there writing and the women, was an mit chemistry graduate, she spoke fluent english and she became the major operative in santiago. And, she was one of the people organizing because frank had been murdered, he had been grabbed in the street and plugged twice in the head. For a 3000 bounty. He was 22. So, she is there and she was organizing it until finally suspicion is falling on her and she manages to get out in the nick of time and she goes up to the mountains as well, at about the same time as the photographer turns up so there is the spread of all the guerrilla gals, looking like flower children, sort of this sexy look that is the counterpart of the handsome guerrilla guys, and all the other women were coming up, some, you know. Sewing uniforms, but others were joining you know, wanting to fight and eventually fidel start a womens platoon. Which is something of a first, at least 25 years before west point. And so they had their own little platoon, a dozen of them go out into combat the whole time. Meanwhile, i am sort of cracking it along here. But meanwhile, they became more and more popular amongst the people, so they would drift into villages and it was sort of like a party and a fiesta they would crack open the beer, they would give food or whatever, until the summer of 1958 when batista decides he is going to finally get rid of these guys, by hanging around as i said, they are sort of winning in a strange way, showing how weak he is so he gets 10,000 soldiers and send them up into the mountains, he called the operation the operation end of fidel, so fidel gets word of it, and so they set up around the area and they said boobytraps along these mountain trails, and he is with 300 men so of course being a classical scholar, he said it was like stand of the spartans. But, that was his idea and it was, the overwhelming odds, were there and they didnt, they didnt have contingency plans but in the end, they were able to terrify the recruits on the march so they start to lose their morale, they sort of give up and start surrendering en masse and fidel has this brilliant idea of treating them extremely well, feeding them and giving them medicine and then sending them back. So the guys that would go back and then they say, we gave up, they let us, they are quite decent. They are not hurting us. So everyone else in the army starts to realize why are we dying for 35 a month . Batista is not, is obviously corrupt, he is obviously you know, hurting the country because they start to lose faith in the struggle so eventually the whole assault fizzled out. And they decide to leave fidel in the mountains assuming that is kind of it, that contains them in the mountains for a while, but fidel has other ideas, within weeks of this incredible victory, this incredible survival, he decides to send che and camilo, is the other great leader, that was extremely popular in cuba, so he sends them down into the low lands for what seems like a suicide mission. To trudged across the open terrain and to set up bases further into the island. And if you go around there now, it is extremely a beautiful but it is quite exposed so they were often, they found that people werent that helpful and they werent that friendly, a lot of propaganda went out that they were communist that should not be supported. At this stage, this is where che loses his hat, he decides to wear a beret, at the beginning stage with calvary crosses, not with a red star but he is going around on a mule because he had terrible asthma and of course often couldnt walk, he often have to be carried and so, four days these guys would be letting him around yelling at him come on, get moving. And dragging him physically, he seems like more of a liability in many stages then an asset. But he had his leadership and sort of because of this asthma, he had incredible endurance and he goes up to the mountains and sets up a base there and sort of organizes all the other anti batista forces, and in this project he meets elaina march. 26 years old from santa clara, sort of, she is a former teacher. And she had joined the revolution and fled up to the mountains and they start this, after the initial, they didnt like each other to begin with but after, she at one stage is driving by in a jeep and he sees her by the road and says im going to get attacked in the road, jump in. And she hops in and in a sense she says she never got out of the jeep she ended up working at the camp for che they end up getting married and they had four children. In fact i was just in havana hanging out with the oldest of their four children who does motorcycle tours in cuba and is also named ernesto, meanwhile fidel is in the mountains and taking interviews and organizing things, until in november, he starts to go down to the low lands as well to try to take the fight to batistas army, and it is all going on over in the east but in the center of the island che decides to attack the main town of santa clara it is where all the railroads intersect it is sort of the great, basically the heart of cuba. And there is elena behind him, he is wandering along getting orders on the outskirts of santa clara and none of the guerrillas had ever taken the city before. Let alone with 100 men. But they, they creep in and start fighting door by door and soldiers start giving up. Then he comes up with his other simple, but brilliant idea. Throughout the whole struggle, up and down cuba, this armored train had been going and rattling back and forth carrying troops and carrying hundreds of guns and bombs and hand grenades and sort of moving arsenal, it is heavily fortified and it is of course sent to santa clara so che figures out where it is and he attacks and they start to retreat with the train and he got a caterpillar, you know from the Agricultural School and he got them to tear up the tracks. So the train comes barreling down at full speed and is derailed. And, rex and all the guys that are in there jumped out, the ones that dont they start throwing the cocktails, that is a really easy weapon. In santa clara, supporters would make molotov cocktails for them and pass them out the windows so they could be used. So this happens like 30 december, 1958. And some news filters out that they managed to seize this train and ches men go in and its like aladdins cave, they got hundreds of guns and machine guns and mortars and bazookas and it is this extraordinary thing and word gets back to havana on new years eve, and the dictator, who, his main worry at the stage was that he would be arrested and put on trial, decides to cut and run. So he has a regular new Years Eve Party and if you have seen the godfather part two it is more or less accurate, he has a new Years Eve Party, with chicken and rice and a cup of brandy and coffee and then he reads this statement that he is about to leave havana, he is about to abandon cuba and there are three dc four waiting on the airstrip and they have a list of names of who is going with him so what does happen is that everyone at first is in disbelieve and a people start running to the airplanes, as they are idling away and they have no idea where they are going and they go in there and they do the list of names, some of the military rush off trying to get money and batista had a swiss bank account, and they finally all pile into the three planes and head off. Two of them go to florida, not to miami which was extremely protran04 at this stage, they go to jacksonville and palm beach. But the other one, the dictator, the americans had finally decided a couple of weeks earlier that they could no longer support batista, and not only that, they wouldnt let him into the country. And so, he flies to the Dominican Republic where the rightwing dictator opens him a welcomed him with open arms. Then suddenly everyone, there is a sort of word starts to filter out on new years day. The state radio announced it they just play beethovens ninth, over and over again, the word gets out and then, people start taking to the streets and the cadres that supported the dell start taking over the streets of havana, there is a shooting but fidel himself is over in the east on a farm, and he hears about it on the radio, he has no idea that these guys are coming in and its like first he thinks it is a military thing and that he realizes that he needs to do something so he goes to santiago, where he gives a rousing speech on the evening of new years day, he claims the victory for the revolution, you make sure to do it in the place where the spanish surrendered, after the spanish american war, it was the cubans in the light, the United States intervened right at the last minute in the 1958 and save the day but they decided to occupy cuba for three years and the military occupation, and they refused, they didnt even allow the cubans to come into the surrender ceremonies which were in santiago main square, so that was considered one of the greatest insults historically, and the root of that, so he makes certain to actually do this and do the declaration with all the cubans there with the guerrillas there and instead of flying straight to havana he comes up with the idea of going overland and going in a caravan of a victory taking a week and stopping at key points along the way, giving speeches. And his skill as an orator now comes out, and this two hour speeches begin and you know, cubans love him and at each step of the way he gets more and more support until finally he comes into havana. This of course is the famous thing, he already sent camilla and che to occupy the barracks and they each have about 100 guys, and 5000 soldiers throw down their arms to each of them, and one of the observers there said it was enough to make you burst out laughing. No one could quite understand, there was no resistance at all, they were just giving up, and the cia couldnt understand that, they thought there would be some sort of negotiation or opposition. But as fidel gets closer and closer to havana it is obvious that he has basically 99 support of the population. He arrived in havana and goes to the main military base right in front of the place where the new Years Eve Party occurred. And he gives this incredible speech that the evolution has finally triumphed and as he does, these women in the front row release these doves, a symbol of peace and good fortune. And they land on the podium, one on his shoulder and for the rest of the speech they are sitting there, and getting sort of a divine aura, this benediction. And in santeria as well, it is conceivably considered extremely good luck and in the following weeks, of the main magazine had his portrait of him with this sort of halo, so he was considered this strangely christlike figure. Which is a little different than what was believed but he was considered this great savior of the island. Camilo of course is also extremely popular, he is from havana. He is a good looking dude and is a real bon vivant and he was described as more like a rumba dancer than a gorilla, he carried on looking like jesus christ on esprit. Meanwhile che and elena decide to get married, they actually kept a very sort of chaste 1950s relationship as they traveled around in the mountains, most of the time too dirty or too exhausted or too tired to have any sort of romantic relationship. But finally when they get to havana, things start to progress. And it is one of the first revolutionary marriages, raul and velma get married, fidel and celia dont. Fidel takes up random admirers, which there are many and celia, we dont know what she thought about it but she sort of backed out and stays the great organizer, but they have a suite in the havana hilton. But, the romantic side of stuff starts to slide. Meanwhile, the guerrillas keep their distinctive look, they keep their uniforms, they keep their long hair, they keep their beards and they are like the prototype hippies. Nicking a complete contrast to the very state eisenhower era. Madmen sort of look. Of the time. And one of the things that i found very interesting was that if you look at the magazines of the period, the contrast between the guerrillas and the guerrilla gals and the difference in american magazines, it is striking because you know the guys are in this suit and ties, the men in the gray flannel suit and they are going off to work and polishing their shoes. And the women are also the ideal housewife. They are cooking for the kids. They are very doors the day looking. So the contrast was striking. So in a sense, the 1960s as we know them as we refer to them in shorthand were beginning in 1959, this idea of this rebellious Youth Movement was already brewing in the United States at the time especially with the young people, there was a lot of dissatisfaction growing and fidel was regarded as a james dean sort of character, marlon brando, a Rebel Without a cause. Kind of thing. Meanwhile fidel was having a blast and is hanging out with ernest hemingway, there and this period, 1959 is winding down now, in case you are wondering it is kind of the final period, it is what they call the honeymoon of the laudatory, calling him the reincarnation of one of the Founding Fathers. It is as if, they were recognizing their own better selves, you know this sort of a small group who managed to overthrow an evil empire. And juan almeida is also extremely popular and amongst africanamericans who at the cusp of the Civil Rights Movement saw in cuba, overnight they got rid of several segregation laws, and suddenly it turns out its not as easy as that. You know, there are a lot of other things but officially, segregation is gone. The struggle in the United States is only just beginning. Here we have fidel and che, more chummy, and che is starting to wear the start as he becomes more radical, and the revolution takes a drift further to the left and the fights begin after this marvelous trip to new york, things go quickly awry for the United States quickly because the washington visit was not successful at all. In public it was like an amazing thing and everyone loved them it seems like a huge success with fidel and the gang but it turned out that eisenhower was missed that it wasnt an official visit, fidel was just turning up so he made sure that he was out of washington playing golf for the whole time fidel was there. Instead he sends Richard Nixon, his Vice President and Richard Nixon and fidel hate each other on site. They have this 90 minute meeting but it doesnt go well at all. Nixon is convinced that fidel is extremely naove. Fidel calls nixon, an opinion that others have shared i suppose but they realize that things might be going awry. Not going as well as he hoped because he wanted to directly communicate with the United States people, so to the frustrations of the bodyguards, he would leap over the barriers and start shaking hands with americans and hugging them and yelling out i need to meet my people, i want to meet my people, like a rock star. And at one stage he sort of things he is getting his message through and he is in the hotel room and they describe him doing a little dance they are starting to understand us, they are starting to understand us. They couldnt quite figure out why, americans were so obsessed with the communism and why they didnt understand and fully sympathize with the main goal of independence of cuba. They wanted an independence unfortunately, also economic independence, and america ran everything there. They had the best land, they owned the railroads, the electricity companies, they owned the telephones, so it was a sort of a crash course and naovely, both america and cuba at the initial stages were thinking this could be avoided. But things did start to go awry, 1959 progressed, toward the end of 1959 eisenhower authorizes assassination of fidel. They also Start Talking about an invasion plan. By 1960 fidel comes back to new york to speak at the u. N. And is snubbed everywhere and hated. Vilified. And he is in the hotel and the guys accuse him of killing live chickens plucking them and cooking them in the hotel room and they go to harlem famously. In this was a hugely popular thing with the africanamerican community, these rallies outside, malcolm x goes to visit and one of the other visitors is cruise job who already had been offering economic aid and now will offer much more as well. The americans had banned imports of cuban sugar so the russians were sort of hanging around in the wings offered to buy the whole lot at inflated prices. And it goes from bad to worse. One of the great historical accident that is like upon in the cold war is they are in the wings, the russians, the idea during the revolution that there was a missile base in cuba within a year. And within a couple of years, it is like science fiction. Meanwhile, so here we have this iconic image of fidel , che taken at a rally in 1960 when things are really going south with the United States, there is a huge explosion in the harbor. Which everyone in cuba is convinced is staged by the cia, there has never been proof of that but the cia was doing enough other stuff and here he is standing implacably looking into the distance and a cuban photographer named albert korda takes a couple of snaps of him, and one vertical and a couple of horizontals and this one, they publish it and they forget about it and he craps it and hangs it up in his studio and until, after che died, in the u. S. In bolivia in 1967, an italian Fashion Designer comes and sees it and asks if he can borrow it, takes it back to italy and does this screenprint on it and it becomes one of the worlds, this is 1967 by 68 it is one of the worlds great images and in many ways now, that all people can remember about the revolution. So that is that story. I do not even know what time it is because i havent got a watch. It is 7 51. Should it be time for questions. Time for questions. All right. Down in the front there. I am curious about your Research Process in cuba, what was your process in cuba and, did you have government minders, government officials who followed you around . Or not . Or were you free to do the research you wanted . What was my process and was i followed . You know, cuba changed a lot by the obama years, there was this window of opportunity, not only was this first commuting, i could go back to cuba for a week and come back, i could go to the archives and make my requests and they could think about it for month which is what they often like to to do, there is one place that celia set up and it is the office of Historical Affairs and she got everything to do with the revolution and put it in one sort of repository, and it is still there and you can sort of go in and make requests and you have to get special permission and you have to get an academic visa which became very difficult unfortunately in the trump era because the america and cuban, they sacked all their stuff so it is hard to get a visa of any kind but i did manage to get an academic visa, i would go in there and sort of explain what i was doing and they were very helpful. But the real reason that i was able to break into it was a friend of mine named nancy stout had written the first biography of celia. One day in december and it was, they had not seen one in cuba, there was a calling for that sort of thing but not real biography so she went on there and spent a lot of time and she hung out there and had a translator who actually worked at the office, so she became sort of a friends with them and when i went down she introduced me to the translator who had also introduced me to the guys and i had this sort of entrie and in cuba everything is very personal, it is very sort of handshakes and whatever so i, it didnt hurt that i was australian, there was a more of objective view and theory, but i sort of hung around. And if you just hang around they sort of vigor it is easier to give him stuff and have him come in every day, and so i was there and they would bring me things they would show me the letters, and one of the funny things about it was that they have a catalog and so they would say what you want to see . And i would say what do you got . And they would be like you have to ask for something specifically. So i would ask for the diaries, certain letters. And when it came to those letters, other things would come up and then by the end what happened was i took the guys that worked there i would take them out for lunch. And around the corner there was this restaurant, which is indistinguishable from any cuban restaurant but it was us with restaurant and they had heineken beer so i would buy them heineken beer which they never actually tasted before and it is a pretty good beer but they found this sort of sense of privilege and i would email back and forth and become friends with them and then they started to bring things out. You know, juan almeidas diary was a major thing. Because i was asking did anyone else write these diaries, did anyone else do that and eventually they brought out rauls which was an extra ordinary thing but it is very clever and witty and he had a great sense of humor and he was a great character. Like an appealing, goofy sort of character, much more fun than fidel, fidel couldnt dance, was obsessed with politics, in mexico city they tried to take him out and they would line up dates with the people that were in the movement and fidel would bore them to tears. And raul would kick him under the table trying to talk him to stop talking politics but he wouldnt do it but i digress, so there was that sort of thing but also hanging around down there, they are still quite old, they are still around, all the fighters that had been very young during the revolution, some of the guerrilla leaders are still hanging around there was one guy, who became very famous, he was shuffling back and forth in the archives and i would see him there, he is like 90 now and he is in uniform and had this bundle of stuff under his arms i went up and introduced myself, and told him what i was doing and he said i am just writing a book about the womens platoon because he was involved in the womens platoon. So he showed it to me and we chatted about it and he told me a few stories and that was a breakthrough as well. And a woman guerrilla who stayed in the military, there is an annual ceremony at the anniversary of celias death, and it is in the cemetery there obviously, so i went there and realized everyone was there. And i went around and said hello. Not pressing or anything, maybe i could chat or whatever. They knew i was around and interested in stuff and i was actually taking it seriously. And i was doing research in cuba instead of a lot of americans who do it in princeton or they do it in miami or whatever i was actually going down there and going to the locations and meeting all these people, and i would go out and meet the sort of minor figures who were guerrillas and they were in their 90s but they dont remember much, their stories were kind of a little hard to follow. But then you see the photographs on the wall. And there is fidel. There they are with che and then the memories would be jogged and they would tell the stories for the marvelous thing about them is like in the 70s and 80s they would start to write memoirs. And so, you know, a lot of the stories that they were telling were actually related to the memoirs and you could sort of go back and find all these things but you might find one copy at nyu that you might find, sort of a connection with nyu so you can actually go back and find the stuff that no one has really looked at. And it is not that ideologically saturated. It is kind of a story that everyone agrees on. Things changed completely in 1959. And the big debate about, the biggest debate was about whether fidel was communist all along and if he was lying. And he kept it all to himself, there is no evidence of this at all, in fact the communist party and the movement hated each other. The communist would not join the insurrection they did not support the strikes, so they were useless until the end after fidel got this rolling things now, the cuban and communist party comes along. Anyway. To answer your question, you sort of hang around and things come to you at a certain stage. Any other questions . Down there. Its not looking great in the short term. You know triumph, trump has tightened the embargo which is not, which has been going since eisenhower blocked sugar in 1959. And then jfk imposed the trade embargo. But there was a law passed in the 1990s that could really have strangled cuba but no president has enforced this particular law that allows people to sue companies that deal with cuba. And using any piece of land that was appropriated during the revolution. And that is almost everything. And so, you can even sue german companies, french companies, whatever. It is very dubious about whether it has a basis in International Law but it is carrying everyone off entirely, the day it came and i was in cuba like the week before it came into force which was like a couple weeks ago, 2 may, and everyone was freaking out because already shortages were going around, shipments were stopping. Everyone was worried that it was going to be going back to the special period of the 1990s. It remains to be seen what effect it will finally have but it is not auspicious. And the very day it was passed, a family in miami sued Carnival Cruise lines because they were using the doctor had been taken in 1960 and 1961 its not only do you get the amount in modern dollars it is triple damages as well so i think some of the suing was like 500 million and there are hundreds of these cases at least 3000 cases that are technically on the books. So it remains to be seen what effect this will have on cuba. But it is not going to be the best and it is not going to encourage anyone else. I dont think. What were the circumstances that led batista to leave the country . There was a lot of analysis done. What made batista leave the country is the question. There is a lot of studies that are done on that because he basically had 40,000 troops, the guerrillas were in the low lands. Technically cut off in santa clara but that was one city, a lot of his generals assumed that they would keep going and playing along and fidel himself that it would take a couple more years at least. But there is one book that i find interesting it is called the war of the flea and it is by robert taber, the cbs newsman who became very pro revolution and in fact joins the revolution after fidel wins. He becomes a journalist at the revolution newspaper and goes around carrying a revolver and everyone likes to shake his hand in the street because everyone knows him from the tv show. So he writes a book studying guerrilla warfare and how does it manage to win and he comes up with the argument that they do not military leave when in a sense they create the conditions that collapsed. And in other words they weaken the other forces and morale goes, the soldiers dont want to fight, things start to crumble. Internally. The whole thing starts to fall to bits. Batista started to worry there was going to be a military ing within his own forces because he was so disliked. And he was so open about his corruption. He was kind of shameless by that stage. He, when he was younger he was quite progressive in certain ways. But as he got older he became more and more cynical, he was, there was a briefcase full of money on his desk. It was just shameless. So, he became worried that it was, that he would personally be arrested and put on trial, perhaps executed as a war criminal so he decided to run. And it was the battle of santa clara, ches victory there that really sent shockwaves through the military and convinced batista okay, the time is up. But, he cut and ran like a thief in the night, he got out and much to the disgust of many of his supporters, and his main police chief in havana, he was there at the party and said like why didnt you tell me . I could have brought my wife and kids, and so he had to leave without his wife and children. Others had no way of getting out, some were able to get on boats, they prepared for plans but many others did not get out so they were like seized and in the end a lot of them were put on trial and and fortunately not the most edifying trials. They were more of a call for blood. Because the mothers in santiago for example, when the rabble was running santiago, a bunch of mothers came up and said when are we going to get vengeance, we know these guys, they are the ones that tortured and murdered our children and many of the kids had disappeared, that was a terrible time to be a young man, they were like teenagers like 14, 15, 16 and they were like seized, tortured and were buried and very shallow graves. So people were going around digging up the shallow graves all over the country so there was this longing for vengeance. But unfortunately, they didnt carry out in a very good way at all, they held this sort of show trial, in the sports stadium which is unfortunately called the coliseum. It is still there and people were really howling for blood. He only had a few of those show trials when they realized what a pr disaster they were. But, che was put in charge of the trials over at the spanish fortress and in the end about 550 batistas men were executed. But it was a big rift in International Opinion when that happened. Was there another question back there . What is the state of the cuban Education System . And like what is the ideology of the Younger Generation there . The Education System is going fine. You know, it still has the highest Literacy Rate in latin america. The hospitals are great, they just dont have the medicine because of the various trade problems that go on. But the younger peoples opinions, it is hard to generalize about the sort of things, but they are definitely much more jaded about the revolution. They are not necessarily about to rise up and revolt against the system. They are just sort of like trudging along waiting for something to change. Waiting for these guys to die off like raul, you know. Not too much longer, so they have this sort of unusual view of things, in my opinion anyway, that they regard them as like this crazy grandparent, they have these ideas that are completely out of date and they dont work but yeah, the humor them or whatever and they have affection for them still they have an admiration for the revolution. Itself, and still on a first name basis, fidel, che, camilo and the others and so the heroic nature of that is not denied. But it has gone so far awry. And these changes that everyone is expecting are so slow, and there are so many false starts that there is a sense of unease. They dont have much to do. Sort of like no opportunity. So it is a tragic sort of mood especially now. Under the obama years, there was a sense of incredible optimism, more than the obama years it was a Rolling Stones concert that occurred and it was a symbolic thing. Hundreds of thousands of people converged to see the Rolling Stones and they all trudged back into havana with a sense that anything is possible. And that all sort of fell to bits. Now the rhetoric between the United States and cuba is extremely harsh, the new guy, the new president is a party got, the reforms they started in 2011 which were opening up of the economy, there are like 200 jobs in a people can earn foreign currency on and that was changing things much more than the normalization of relations with the United States. Or the flights, making it easier to travel. Because tourism will always go on in cuba and they will still, the United States and it was a significant force. But i think tourists when they get the american taurus, they are shocked and disappointed that the place is crawling with japanese and italians and australians and greeks and Chinese Tourists everywhere. Especially havana is a touristy place. There is not a sense of forbidden fruit, it is only for americans, the rest of the world has been going all this time so that, they will start relying more and more on tourism, as basically the only source of a foreign income at the moment, the sugar is not doing too well. So theres a sense of optimism, that was three or four years ago really has died so the last times i have been in havana there was this bleak mood there and the young people are like anyone who can get out is getting out. So its like a flight of you know creative people, sort of younger people and there is a sadness that has settled over, there has always been a melancholy in havana but now that of optimism has withered. Unfortunately. Anyway, all right. That is it. I will hold my hands up by fidel. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. We are featuring American History tv programs as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan3, tuesday the 50th anniversary of man landing on the moon, American History tv and washington journal covered the anniversary of the apollo 11 moon landing, with three hours of live interviews and viewer calls, from the Smithsonian National air and space museum on the national mall. Guests included apollo 11 astronaut michael collins, and the director of the air and space museum, watch tuesday night, beginning at 8 pm eastern on cspan3. The first africans to land in english north america would arrive here in 1619. And that would begin an amazing experience in the development of the United States. Saturday, especially American History Tv Washington journal feature. As you look back to the first arrival of africans to america. 400 years ago. At point comfort, historic portland road virginia. At 8 30 am eastern we are live with Norfolk State University history professor, Cassondra Alexander newby. For the history and origins of slavery in america. Then at 9 30 am, live coverage of the commemorative ceremony with speeches by virginia government officials, including senator mark warner, editor tim kane, governor ralph northam, and lieutenant governor, justin fairfax. The history of africans in america, from fort monroe, live, saturday beginning at 8 30 am. On cspans washington journal, and on American History tv on cspan3. Cia chief historian david talks about the evolving nature of the relationship between president s and their cia directors. And how it is influenced by the president needs and interests. One cia director George Hw Bush who was named by gerald ford later became president himself. This program is two hours. Good evening everyone. My name is ru