William Morgan (guerrilla fighter)

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William Morgan (second from right) with the Cuban Revolutionary Leadership, funeral march for the victims of the La Coubre explosion , March 5, 1960

William Alexander Morgan (born April 19, 1928 in Cleveland , Ohio , † March 11, 1961 in Havana ) was an American guerrilla fighter on the side of the Cuban Revolution against Fulgencio Batista , who opposed his pro-communist course after Fidel Castro came to power turned and was executed as a traitor.

Life

Morgan grew up in a middle class home with a sister. His parents were Loretta Morgan b. Ruderth and William Alexander Morgan (* 1885), commercial director of the energy supply company Toledo Edison . Morgan was considered an intelligent child, but dropped out of high school as a reckless and behavioral teenager, got involved in various crimes and acts of rebellion against those around him, and repeatedly ran away from home.

Morgan joined the US Forces in 1946 at the age of 18 and served as part of the occupation forces in Japan . On the way from Ohio to embarkation in California, he spontaneously married Reno Darlene Edgerton, the first of three wives. Morgan had only met Edgerton the day before on the train. He dissolved the marriage a year and a half later from Japan. In the meantime, he had fallen in love with the Japanese-German barmaid Setsuko Takeda and had a child with her. Shortly before his son was born in the fall of 1947, he was not given any off duty, which is why he left the troops without permission, but was arrested. He then caught a military policeman by surprise and fled with his service weapon, but was arrested a little later in Takeda's presence. In early 1948 he was sentenced to five years imprisonment by a court martial and dishonorably discharged from the army. He was later transferred to a Michigan prison, where he was released early for good conduct in mid-1950. When his hope for a new beginning of the relationship with Takeda and their son could not be realized, he finally went to Florida.

In Florida, he hired a variety company and fell in love with their snake charmer, Morgan Ellen Theresa May Bethel, whom he married in Miami in 1956. In the marriage 1956 Anne Marie and 1957 William A. Morgan, jun. born. In view of his problematic résumé, he had difficulty finding a regular job. Soon he was doing messenger services and other work for the Mafia, which, despite good business relations with Batista, had also been organizing arms sales to Fidel Castro's July 26th Movement and other opponents of the dictator, who had ruled since his military coup in 1952, since 1955 . In 1956, Morgan obtained machine guns that had been retired from the US Army through mobster Dominick Bartone. Morgan delivered to the Directorio Revolucionario (DR), a student resistance group that later joined forces with Castro's July 26th Movement. A group of the DR led by José Antonio Echevarría attacked the presidential palace in Havana with these weapons on March 13, 1957 in an attempt to overthrow Batista, but the attack was suppressed with numerous deaths.

Entry into the rebel army against Fulgencio Batista

In late 1957, Morgan left his wife and children in Toledo and joined the guerrilla force Segundo Frente Nacional del Escambray (Second National Front of the Escambray Mountains, SFNE), led by Comandante Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo . After he had distinguished himself as an exemplary and successful guerrilla fighter in numerous skirmishes, Morgan was appointed Comandante in July 1958, the highest rank in the rebel army, who was the only non-Cuban to be awarded only to Ernesto Guevara . Morgan became Menoyo's deputy as supreme commander of the SFNE. The SFNE had around 3,000 fighters at the end of the war and (like Fidel Castro in his official statements) its main political goals were the restoration of the Cuban constitution of 1940 , which was suspended by Batista, and democracy in Cuba. Morgan and other fighters of the SFNE met the Comandantes of the Movement of July 26, Raúl Castro and Ernesto Guevara, who are known for their Marxist-Leninist ideology, with great suspicion. With Guevara, during his advance into the Escambray Mountains in October 1958, a confrontation with Morgan's confidante, Jesús Carreras, who initially did not allow Guevara and his troops to pass the area controlled by the SFNE.

In November 1958, Morgan married his campaigner Olga María Rodríguez Fariñas. His marriage in Florida had been divorced on August 13, 1958. Immediately after Batista's flight on January 1, 1959, Morgan took over the city of Cienfuegos. On January 6, the rebel leader Fidel Castro, who was marching in a triumphal procession from Santiago de Cuba through all of Cuba to the capital Havana, arrived there, and the two of them met for the first time on Cuban soil.

For March 1959 Morgan planned a promotional tour for the Cuban Revolution through US cities, but it was canceled by the Cuban government.

In mid-May 1959, Morgan bought spare parts for the Cuban Air Force in Miami.

Double agent in the 1959 Trujillo Conspiracy

In August 1959, Morgan and Menoyo played a leading role in both organizing and cracking down on an attempt by the President of the Dominican Republic , Rafael Trujillo , to overthrow Fidel Castro's government by armed forces. Trujillo was not only an ally of ex-President Batista, who had fled Cuba, but also the first target of the revolutionary export attempted by the Castro government in June 1959 in the form of an invasion force sent by Castro to the Dominican Republic, which was quickly defeated there. At the same time, Trujillo, together with Batista's high-ranking officers, had prepared an international legion for the landing in Cuba and had included numerous Cubans on the island and in exile who rejected Castro's communist policy. Morgan and Menoyo were supposed to remobilize the predominantly anti-communist former fighters of the Segundo Frente Nacional del Escambray to fight against Castro. The US embassy in Havana had also found out about appropriate preparations in advance, but did not consider the plans to be promising. Morgan and Menoyo had already called at the embassy in the spring, expressing their concern about Castro's pro-communist and anti-democratic course and asking for support for an awareness-raising campaign against communism.

The conspiracy failed after Menoyo and Morgan let themselves be involved in Trujillo's preparations, but informed Castro of their activities at an advanced stage, thus luring the subversive into a trap. At the time, the US embassy in Havana assumed that Morgan and Menoyo had learned that the Cuban secret service was already on their way, which was later confirmed by the official Cuban historiography. Morgan had been entrusted by Trujillo with the military high command of the planned coup.

Morgan, with the knowledge of Castro, took over a shipload of weapons that had been bought in Florida with money made available by Trujillo, but ensured that the weapons did not reach their intended recipients when they were brought to Cuba. On August 8, several opposition politicians were arrested at Morgan's house in Havana, who had agreed to act as a transitional government in the event of a successful overthrow. The attempted coup failed after a few small skirmishes from August 8th onwards on August 13th, 1959, after Morgan had informed his alleged allies in the Dominican Republic via radio that the city of Trinidad was already in the hands of the insurgents and some leaders of the operation could land safely there with another planned delivery of weapons. On their arrival they were expected by Morgan, Menoyo and troops loyal to Castro and arrested after a brief battle. As part of the coup attempt, mass arrests took place across the country. On the evening of August 14, 1959, Fidel Castro praised William Morgan's role in the suppression of the counter-revolution on Cuban television, explained numerous details of the action and sharply attacked Trujillo. Morgan and Menoyo had been awarded a reward of US $ 100,000 for their work, which they donated to agrarian reform.

At Trujillo's instigation, Morgan's US citizenship was revoked.

From revolutionary hero to executed resistance fighter

In late August 1959, Morgan and his Cuban wife Olga became the parents of a daughter.

On September 1, 1959, the house in which Morgan lived was shelled. In early September, Morgan turned against his expatriation from the United States. Morgan ran a bullfrog farm on the Laguna de Ariguanabo in San Antonio de los Baños . The frog legs were produced for the US market.

On October 21, 1960, the Cuban army announced the arrest of Morgan. Morgan was charged with conspiracy in Havana, along with eleven other accused. The witnesses reported four meetings with US embassy officials. Morgan denied all allegations through an interpreter. He was sentenced to death after a six-hour trial. On the morning of March 11, 1961, Morgan and Jesús Carreras Zayas (1934–1961) were shot dead by a firing squad. On March 12, 1961, Carreras and Morgan were buried in the marble tomb of Theresa Del Pino, Carrera's wife, on the Cementerio Cristóbal Colón . In April 1971, Morgan's remains were reburied.

Morgan's Cuban widow, Olga Rodríguez, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 1961, also convicted of treason, for ten years and was only allowed to leave Cuba in 1980. She has lived in the United States since then and has been fighting for the repatriation of his remains to the United States since the death of Morgan's mother in 1988. Following the agreement announced by Presidents Raúl Castro and Barack Obama in December 2014 to gradually normalize relations between Cuba and the United States , commentators saw better prospects for the unsuccessful efforts to get the Cuban government's approval.

Planned biography

In June 2012, the American film production company Focus Features announced that actor and director George Clooney was planning to produce a biography of William Morgan. After this project was not implemented, Variety reported in March 2020 of a new plan: Under the direction of screenwriter and director Jeff Nichols and with Adam Driver as the main actor, filming should start in 2021.

Web links

literature

  • Aran Shetterly: The Americano: fighting with Castro for Cuba's freedom. 300 pp., Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill 2007, ISBN 978-1565124585
  • Paul D. Bethel: The Losers: The Definitive Account, by an Eyewitness, of the Communist Conquest of Cuba and the Soviet Penetration in Latin America. Pp. 137-140, 186-192, and the like. a., Arlington House, New Rochelle 1969, ISBN 978-0821207284
  • Michael Sallah and Mitch Weiss: The Yankee Comandante: The Untold Story of Courage, Passion, and One American's Fight to Liberate Cuba. Lyons Press, Guilford 2015, ISBN 978-0-7627-9287-0

documentary

  • Adriana Bosch (screenplay, direction, production): American Comandante (60 minutes, 2015), for the TV series American Experience on PBS (USA), first broadcast: November 17, 2015.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Cuba's secret soldier article from The Sunday Times of March 26, 2006, accessed via The Havana Journal on November 16, 2011 (English)
  2. ↑ a b c d e f David Grann: The Yankee Comandante: A story of love, revolution, and betrayal in: The New Yorker, May 28, 2012, accessed June 7, 2012
  3. ↑ Ex-Toledoan To Tell Cuba Story In City in: The Toledo Blade of February 27, 1959, accessed from LatinAmericanStudies.org on June 7, 2012 (English)
  4. ↑ Cuba Cancels US Tour By Morgan in: The Toledo Blade, March 4, 1959, accessed via LatinAmericanStudies.org on June 7, 2012 (English)
  5. ↑ The Miami Herald , May 23, 1959, The Case Of Cuba's Maj. Alex Morgan, FBI Told He's Joined the Communist Party
  6. ^ Cuba / Castro: Incurably romantic. In: Der Spiegel of September 2, 1959, accessed November 30, 2013
  7. ↑ Philip Bonsal, July 31, 1959, telegram from the US Embassy in Havana to the US Consulate in Santiago
  8. ^ Paul D. Bethel: The Losers. Pp. 137-139
  9. ^ A b Paul D. Bethel: The Losers. P. 191, Arlington House: New Rochelle 1969 (English)
  10. ^ Fabian Escalante: The Trujillo Conspiracy , Chapter 2 of the book The Secret War: CIA covert operations against Cuba 1959-62. Ocean Press 1995 (English)
  11. ↑ Philip Bonsal, Aug 15, 1959, telegram from the US Embassy in Havana to the US Secretary of State
  12. ↑ Major Morgan Opposes Death For Plotters, Officer From Toledo Favors Hard Work On Cuban Farms , in: The Toledo Blade , August 21, 1959 (English)
  13. ↑ Philip Bonsal, Aug 10, 1959, Morgan house in Habana under heavy army guard beginning night Aug 8. Understand house raided, found large cache arms and some Batista men inside.
  14. ↑ The Toledo Blade , August 13, 1959, Toledoan Hailed As Hero In Foiling Castro Foes
  15. ^ The Toledo Blade , Aug. 11, 1959, New Clashes Reported In Cuban Countryside, Government Claims Conspiracy Smashed
  16. ↑ Castro gives details of counterrevolution, in: Foreign Broadcast Information Service of August 17, 1959, accessed via Castro Speech Data Base on December 26, 2012 (English)
  17. ↑ Gringos in the Revolution
  18. ↑ The Toledo Blade , September 1, 1959, Wife Of Toledo's Rebel Major Has Baby In Havana
  19. ↑ The Toledo Blade , September 4, 1959, Morgan's Havana Home Target Of Gunfire From Car
  20. ↑ The Havana Post , September 4, 1959, Morgan to Fight Attempt to Strip US Citizenship
  21. ↑ Time, May 30, 1960 The Hemisphere: Improbable Frogman
  22. ↑ The Toledo Blade , October 22, 1960, Cuban Army Discloses Arrest Of Major Morgan, Ex-Toledoan, Adventurer Who Gave Up US Citizenship Suspected Of Aiding Anti-Castro Rebels
  23. ↑ Llevado W. Morgan a Juicio , in: El Mundo of March 10, 1961, accessed via latinamericanstudies.org on December 26, 2012 (Spanish)
  24. ^ The Toledo Blade, April 5, 2002 Body of Toledo soldier of fortune cannot be found
  25. ↑ Antonio Rafael de la Cova, William Alexander Morgan (April 19, 1928-March 11, 1961)
  26. ↑ Kevin Maurer: Will Cuba's 'Yankee Comandante' Come Home? In: The Daily Beast, February 7, 2015, accessed February 11, 2015
  27. ↑ Bory's Kit: George Clooney to Direct Cuban Military Drama 'The Yankee Comandante' in: The Hollywood Reporter, June 6, 2012, accessed June 7, 2012
  28. ↑ Adam Driver to star in Jeff Nichols' Next Film 'Yankee Comandante'. In: Variety of April 30, 2020, accessed on May 6, 2020 (English)
  29. ↑ American Comandante. (with broadcast manuscript) on the PBS website, accessed on May 6, 2020 (English)
  30. ↑ American Comandante on IMDb.com, accessed on May 6, 2020 (English)
personal data
SURNAME Morgan, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gabby; Sinbad; Comandante Yankee; Morgan, William Alexander (full name); Morgan Ruderth, William Alexander (full name according to Cuban naming convention)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American guerrilla commander of the Cuban Revolution
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Cleveland , Ohio
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 1961
Place of death Havana , Cuba