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'Operation Mongoose': Washington's Secret War on Cuba [Socialist History: S1 Episode 2]
From The Socialist Program by The Socialist Program
June 30, 2026 · 50 min
About this episode
This episode explores Operation Mongoose, the US's covert operation against Cuba during the Cold War, and its implications for current US foreign policy.
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…
People in this episode
Host: Brian Becker
Guests: Jorge Risquet, Samuel Halpern
Topics covered
- Cold War
- Cuban Revolution
- covert operations
- US government
- CIA
- regime change
- embargo
Keywords
- Operation Mongoose
- Cuba
- CIA operations
- Cold War history
- US foreign policy
- covert operations
- Cuban Revolution
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: United States
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