Ridenour, Ron. Back Fire: The CIA's Biggest Burn. Havana: Jose Marti
Publishing House, 1991. 174 pages.
The July 19, 1987 issue of Granma Weekly Review and two books -- one
by the National Information Service titled "The CIA's War Against Cuba" and
another by Ron Ridenour titled "Back Fire" -- all deal with the same topic.
Granma has pictures of "83 CIA officers accredited as permanent diplomats or
diplomats in transit in Cuba," while the two books narrate the experiences
of Cuban State Security agents who penetrated CIA operations in Cuba. The
NIS book is based on a Cuban television series of the same name. Ridenour,
an American who lives in Cuba, draws on this material and conducts some
additional interviews, and then adds a bit of historical background.
In June 1987, Florentino Aspillaga Lombard, chief of Cuban intelligence
in Czechoslovakia, defected in Austria. Since he knew about the extensive
penetration of the CIA, the Ministry of the Interior decided to cut their
losses and go public with the story. Pictures of CIA officers servicing
dead drops and made-in-USA spy paraphernalia were published and broadcast,
double agents working for State Security were interviewed as national heroes,
and some American diplomats were expelled. It was all somewhat embarrassing
for the CIA, so not much appeared in the U.S. press. The period covered by
these descriptions of CIA activities in Cuba is generally from 1977-1987.
ISBN 0-9624975-1-7
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