The
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Photographic Archive
Operation
Tilt
In the winter of 1962
Eddie Bayo claimed that two officers in the Red Army based in Cuba
wanted to defect to the United States. Bayo added that these men wanted
to pass on details about atomic warheads and missiles that were still
in Cuba despite the agreement that followed the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Bayo's story was eventually taken
up by several members of the anti-Castro community including William
Pawley, Gerry P. Hemming, John Martino, Felipe Vidal Santiago and
Frank Sturgis. Pawley became convinced that it was vitally important
to help get these Soviet officers out of Cuba.
William Pawley contacted Ted Shackley
at JM WAVE. Shackley decided to help Pawley organize what became known
as Operation Tilt. He also assigned Rip Robertson, a fellow member
of the CIA in Miami, to help with the operation. David Sanchez Morales,
another CIA agent, also became involved in this attempt to bring out
these two Soviet officers.
In June, 1963, a small group, including
William Pawley, Eddie Bayo, Rip Robertson, John Martino, and Richard
Billings, a journalist working for Life Magazine, secretly arrived
in Cuba. They were unsuccessful in their attempts to find these Soviet
officers and they were forced to return to Miami. Bayo remained behind
and it was rumoured that he had been captured and executed. However,
his death was never reported in the Cuban press.
Operation
Tilt
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
Assassination
of John F. Kennedy
James
Richards
