American Experience (1988–…): Season 27, Episode 10 - American Comandante - full transcript

Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.

NARRATOR:
The execution set for
the evening of March 11, 1961,

was in many ways unremarkable.

More than 200 had taken place
at Havana's La Cabaña prison

in the previous two years.

Waiting in his cell,

the prisoner could hear
the approaching car

that would take him
to his death.

(car engine revving)

NARRATOR:
William Morgan
had cut a dashing figure

fighting in Fidel Castro's
revolution.



Featured in publications
around the world,

the mysterious Americano
transformed himself

into a celebrity:

the American Comandante.

How does it happen that

you haven't offered
a diary for sale?

I don't believe that you should
cash in on your ideals.

DAVID GRANN:
Morgan is a classic example

of the American myth
of reinvention--

that you can shed your history

and reinvent yourself
and become somebody.

OLGA RODRIGUEZ (translated):
I found in him
what I had looked for in life.

And I think
he also found it in me.

We loved each other intensely.



I cannot erase his memory
from my heart

and my respect for him.

NARRATOR:
"Dear Mom, I want you know that
I have been prepared for this

"as long as I have been
in prison.

For after all, it is not
when a man dies, but how."

MICHAEL SALLAH:
From the time he gets
into the death car

to the time the death car
delivers him to the dry moat,

he is praying.

He refuses to be blindfolded,
and he refuses to be handcuffed.

After the priest
starts to leave,

he says, "Father, wait,"
and he takes a rosary off

and gives the rosary
to the priest.

And at that point in time,
he steps back.

NARRATOR:
In 1942, the circus came
to Toledo, Ohio.

Alexander Morgan captured
the excitement in a short film

with his son as protagonist.

The spectacle
must have triggered

what Loretta Morgan called
her son's "vivid imagination."

A year later, 14-year-old Billy
ran off to join the circus.

GRANN:
He was someone who, from when
he was a very little kid,

always dreamed
of becoming somebody.

He had these almost
interior fictions

that he wanted to kind of will
into reality.

NARRATOR:
His father found him in Chicago
and brought him home to Toledo.

He was not like most kids.

He was rambunctious.

He was impetuous.

You couldn't tether him.

You couldn't tie him.

William Morgan
grew up in a family

where there was discipline

and where there was
expectations.

His father was an engineer,
master's degree.

His mother was a bright lady.

NARRATOR:
Known as Miss Cathedral

for her good works
at the local Catholic church,

Loretta Morgan was more
forgiving of Billy,

waiting patiently for him
to straighten out.

SALLAH:
Every time he was in trouble,

she was there for him.

Even the times
when the father, Alexander,

would want to impose
harsh discipline,

she would intercede.

GRANN:
He was raised a Catholic boy.

He was born with these values,

but he was always at war to
some degree with these values.

But they were always there.

NARRATOR:
By the time William
entered high school,

he had been in trouble
with the law

and thrown out of two schools.

He quit in his first year

and enrolled
in the merchant marine.

ARAN SHETTERLY:
He gets mixed up
with thugs and hoodlums

on the Toledo docks
in the waterfront.

Toledo had a very developed

underworld of people
who were connected to the mafia,

of people who were gangsters.

And he touches that world.

NARRATOR:
In 1946, on his 18th birthday,

Morgan joined the army

and shipped off
to occupied Japan.

SHETTERLY:
He meets a Japanese woman,
gets involved with her,

goes AWOL, gets caught,
gets put in the brig,

and then does something that
most of the soldiers didn't do,

which was overpower the guard
and escape from the brig.

NARRATOR:
Morgan was dishonorably
discharged

and sentenced to five years
of hard labor.

He served three years
in a federal prison,

then returned home.

GRANN:
His family had quintessential
Midwestern patriotic values,

and the idea that he would be
dishonorably discharged

produces a deep shame
in his family,

and a deep shame
that he feels as well.

NARRATOR:
"I sincerely want him
to a be a boy

that I can justify
being proud of,"

Loretta Morgan said,

"not one to hang my head
in shame

for having given him birth."

(birds calling)

As an ex-con and army deserter,

Morgan had few opportunities
to remake his life in Toledo.

The only place he could really
get a job was with the mob.

He was a driver, a runner,

a lookout for their
gambling houses.

He was tough,
he was a pretty good shot,

and they needed people like him.

They needed street soldiers.

So Billy Morgan
could fill the bill.

NARRATOR:
Once again, he left town
and joined a circus.

He became a fire eater,
married a snake charmer,

and with her had two children.

"In those days,"
Morgan later said,

"I was a nobody."

In 1954, at age 26,
he settled down in Miami,

where he found work
as a clown and bouncer

at a famous nightclub.

It was there that William Morgan

first heard of a revolt
on the island of Cuba.

(people shouting)

Two years earlier,
General Fulgencio Batista

had seized power on the eve
of a presidential election.

Miami became the center
of opposition to Batista,

beginning to crystalize around
a charismatic young lawyer.

(speaking Spanish)

SALLAH:
Fidel Castro is leading a drive
to raise money for a revolution.

Batista is the target.

They want him out.

They want a free Cuba.

All of the sudden,
William Morgan gets captivated

by these young men
who are risking their lives,

telling William
these great stories

of going back and
fighting in this revolution.

Then he gets an offer
to help smuggle arms into Cuba.

Many of these guns
were army surplus.

They were snatched up by the mob
and they were sent down to Cuba.

SHETTERLY:
He really wanted to be
a soldier.

He was 30 years old

and probably wasn't going
to get another chance,

and certainly not
with the U.S. army.

And so I think he saw this
as an opportunity to go fight,

to become part of something
and attach himself to something

that seemed important
and seemed exciting.

NARRATOR:
Morgan's journey
to join the Cuban revolution

began with a lie told to a group
of young exiles in Miami.

SALLAH:
He tells them that he had
a friend from the army

that he had fought
in the Korean War with.

Of course, Morgan was never
in the Korean War.

This man had saved
Morgan's life,

and during a trip to Cuba,

when this man was smuggling guns
to Cuba, he was caught,

and he was killed
by Batista's guards

and he was fed to the sharks.

And Morgan was going to avenge
his friend Jack Turner's life.

NARRATOR:
In late December, Morgan
abandoned his wife and children

and headed to Havana.

Fidel Castro
was now leading the revolution

from the Sierra Maestra
mountains in eastern Cuba.

Morgan wanted to fight
with Castro,

but his camp was too far

and the roads were crawling
with Batista's soldiers.

His contact in Cuba suggested
an alternative.

Halfway between the city
of Havana

and Castro's Sierra Maestra,

in a mountain range
called the Escambray,

a new guerrilla group
was coming together.

William Morgan arrived
at their camp in January 1958.

EVELIO MARTINEZ (translated):
3:00 in the afternoon,
that's when he arrived.

This American who couldn't speak
Spanish at all.

ROGER REDONDO (translated):
He was fat.

Not at all the William
that he later became.

He weighed more than 200 pounds.

No one thought
he would last with us.

Everyone wanted him gone,

and they made his life
difficult.

SALLAH:
They were gonna
kind of torture him

for the first several days
of his entre there.

And he gets in there,

and he starts running
up and down the hills.

He's got sores
all over his body.

He's huffing and puffing.

He's frustrated, he's mad.

NARRATOR:
Morgan was taken to see
Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo,

a 23-year-old
former student leader

who now commanded
the Escambray Second Front.

Fidel Castro
and his 26th of July movement

wasn't the only group that had
risen up against Batista.

There were other groups.

And Menoyo's Second National
Front of the Escambray

was one of the other
really important groups.

NARRATOR:
"Fighting requires more than
firing a rifle,"

Morgan told Menoyo.

He offered to teach
the inexperienced guerillas

what he had learned in the army.

REDONDO (translated):
He built this scaffolding,

same training he received
in the American army.

And he started teaching people
martial arts

and how to throw knives.

He had an incredible ability
with knives.

He would throw them

and hit a little line
he'd drawn on a tree.

Later, I found out he learned it
at the circus.

NARRATOR:
In the mountains,
Morgan soon found his place.

He was no longer a mobster,
an ex-con, a circus act.

GRANN:
He wants to get away
from his past.

And he kind of,

through demonstration
and through proof and loyalty,

gets accepted.

They don't know who he is,

and in the end, they're like,
"It doesn't really matter.

"He's one of us.

"He's fighting for us,
he's willing to bleed for us,

he's willing to die for us."

NARRATOR:
Morgan's life
as a guerilla fighter

began inauspiciously
with a misunderstanding.

SALLAH:
Menoyo gives orders
not to fire

on the six soldiers
that they see

coming up the side of a gulley.

And he doesn't understand
the order,

so he fires on them.

(gunshots)

NARRATOR:
Morgan's shot revealed
the group's position.

(rapid gunfire)

Batista's army gave chase,
forcing the Second Front

into a long trek across
the rugged mountain range.

ARMANDO FLEITES (translated):
Men bond in combat:

going hungry,

facing danger.

There was a certain affinity
among all of us,

including William Morgan,

with a tremendous spirit--
a spirit of sacrifice.

NARRATOR:
A few days into the march,

Morgan's time as a fighter
almost came to an end

when 200 soldiers caught up
with the guerillas.

GRANN:
They suddenly realize that
they're in deep trouble.

Morgan helps come up
with some of the tactics.

He helps them form
into a U-formation

to hide behind a ridge.

Then Morgan at one point
kind of stands up,

and they kind of see
this crazy white dude

with blue eyes and scraggly hair
running forward,

and it really bolsters them.

And in that moment,
they are able to prevail.

(translated):
It was the first time

the peasants saw
that we could beat the army,

and that gave us
extraordinary prestige.

I consider it
one of the decisive battles

of the Escambray war.

Had we lost, the Second Front
would not have survived

GRANN:
It was a critical moment
for Morgan

being accepted within the group

and really slowly, gradually,
emerging as a leader.

NARRATOR:
July 1958.

"Dear Mom,
this will be the first letter

"that I have written to you
since I left in December.

"I know you neither approve
nor understand why I am here,

"even though you are
the one person in the world

who understands me."

Loretta Morgan first learned
of her son's Cuban exploits

in a New York Times story
about the Second Front

and the mysterious American
fighting in their midst.

"The whole point of this letter

"is to let you know
why I fight here.

"I am here with men and boys

"who fight for a freedom
for their country

that we as Americans
take for granted."

SALLAH:
He witnesses
a series of atrocities

that really moved him.

They get called
to this small town.

By then, Batista's soldiers
had already been there.

EVELIO MARTINEZ (translated):
Batista's soldiers had come up
the river to these houses.

They assassinated the women.

They cut the lips off the face
of one of them.

And they burned
more than 11 houses.

SALLAH:
At the end of the day,

Morgan had seen something
that really cut him to his core.

And he realized
for the first time,

"This isn't about me.

This is about them."

NARRATOR:
"I do not expect you to approve,
but I believe you understand.

"And if it should happen
that I die here,

"you will know it was not
for foolish fancy,

or as dad would say,
a pipe dream."

GRANN:
I do think that is,
without question,

a beginning of a profound change
in Morgan.

I don't think it happens
overnight.

It doesn't happen in a week.

But you could see a steady
progression and change,

a deepening of his character.

OLGA MARTINEZ (translated):
I saw that all the peasants
loved and respected him,

and that filled my mind
and my heart.

In the mountains,

I saw a wonderful man
standing in front of me.

NARRATOR:
Olga Rodriguez fell in love
with William Morgan

in the summer of 1958.

A student activist from
the nearby city of Santa Clara,

she had fled to the Escambray

just ahead of Batista's
secret police.

(people shouting)

OLGA MARTINEZ (translated):
They were going to kill me,
as they had so many others.

We were students.

We had to defend our country.

We would go out on the streets
to protest,

yelling,
"We don't want dictators.

"We don't want Batista.

We want the constitution."

NARRATOR:
Rodriguez was the first woman

to join the Second Front
guerillas.

The second of six children,

she had grown up in a family
poor enough to know hunger.

(translated):
At our house, it was a plate
of cornmeal for the entire day

because my parents made
so little money.

From the time I was little,
I helped my mother.

I used to clean a house
for seven pesos a month

after school.

She is the one that brings him
that message of social justice,

of making a difference

in the lives
of poverty-stricken Cubans.

And he hears it in a way
that he hadn't heard it yet.

NARRATOR:
By the fall of 1958,

the fighting in the Escambray
was favoring the rebels.

In one year,
the Second Front had grown

from a handful of guerillas

to an army of more than
500 men and women

that controlled one-third
of Cuba's largest province,

Las Villas.

William Morgan, now a comandante
and Menoyo's second-in-command,

had not lost a single battle.

(translated):
He had charisma as a leader,
and he was exceptionally brave.

He commanded a guerilla group
he called "The Tigers,"

and the Tigritos adored
William Morgan.

LILLIAN GUERRA:
They have a tremendous degree
of confidence in themselves.

They know how to engage
in encounters with the military,

and they know how to win.

They do become extraordinarily
successful against all odds

by the end of this.

(gunfire)

EVELIO MARTINEZ (translated):
In every battle I was with him,
and there were many,

I always had the image
of a man of great discipline

who had to be obeyed.

NARRATOR:
To the east, Fidel Castro's
26th of July guerillas

had secured their own territory.

Castro asked Che Guevara,

an Argentinian who was
his second-in-command,

to extend the war west

and bring the Second Front
under Castro's control.

They didn't really need
the 26th of July's help

in the Escambray.

They were fighting
their own war,

and they were doing
a pretty good job of it.

But here comes Che.

It's October 1958,
and Che wants to take over.

NARRATOR:
As he entered the territory
of the Second Front,

Che Guevara was captured

and brought to their
headquarters at gunpoint.

It would take weeks

for Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo
and Che Guevara

to agree to an operational pact.

Guevara would take Santa Clara

and Morgan would take
Cienfuegos.

But a rift now existed
between Castro

and those loyal to Menoyo,
including William Morgan.

The time is now 2:30
Wednesday morning,

the place is the city square
of Cienfuegos.

(speaking Spanish)

Fidel Castro has been speaking
for over an hour.

He will probably speak
for another hour,

or perhaps even more.

(people cheering)

NARRATOR:
On January 2, 1959,
Fidel Castro's victory caravan

began to make its way
across Cuba.

Batista had fled
two days earlier.

And by the time Castro arrived
in Cienfuegos,

Morgan and his men
had taken the city.

I heard you say
a moment ago

that you're going to feed
the entire city of Cienfuegos.

What's the story on that?

Well, we're feeding
the entire city of Cienfuegos.

There isn't
any food supplies.

They're starting to move
because of the general strike

and because of the bad condition
of the roads

after we blew up
the bridges.

Bill, you've only been married
for about a month now.

How did you happen
to meet your wife?

Well, she came up
to the mountains running

with the secret police
behind her.

She was working
in the revolutionary movement,

put a couple of bombs
down into the city,

and the secret police wanted
to take off her head.

So she came up here
and worked as my secretary,

and then from there,
why, we got married.

SALLAH:
Olga was actually getting upset

because he wasn't spending
any time with her.

But he couldn't.

He took a very real,
serious mission

when he took on Cienfuegos
to keep order.

And he took great pride in that.

NARRATOR:
Morgan had not slept for days,

and after a year
in the mountains,

he was looking forward, he said,
"To a shave and a long sleep."

GRANN:
It's a very American notion

that you can shed your history
and reinvent yourself.

When he comes down
from the mountains

and people are touching him,
he's astonished.

He feels this enormous emotion.

They don't care
about who he was.

They don't care who he was

back when he was running
with the mob in Toledo.

You know,
none of that matters anymore.

He gets a call
from his hometown paper,

The Toledo Blade.

And that's probably,

for him, that's the call
he'd been waiting for

because now he has a chance
to show his parents, "I made it.

Look what I am right now."

(people cheering)

NARRATOR:
Fidel Castro entered Havana
on January 8, 1959,

to thunderous acclaim.

He had promised a return
to democracy, free elections,

and respect
for individual freedoms.

REPORTER:
Dr. Castro, it is reported that

you feel that your role
in the revolution is about over

and that you plan perhaps
to return to civilian life.

Is this true,
and if not,

how soon do you think it will be
before you can do that?

If for my country
this is necessary,

I renounce to any position.

I would gladly renounce
to any position,

because sincerely,

I don't ambition power,
money, nothing.

Only to serve my country.

(applause)

NARRATOR:
Behind the scenes, Castro worked
to consolidate his power

around his closest confidantes,

including his brother Raul
and the Marxist Che Guevara.

Menoyo and his Second Front

were excluded from important
government positions.

They had done their job,
they were successful,

but certainly,
they weren't being invited

to be part
of what was coming next.

They were being left out.

NARRATOR:
From Cienfuegos,
Morgan watched tensions rise.

As soon as he arrived
at his suite

in the Capri hotel in Havana,
he was drawn into the fray.

In March, an American,
the name of Frank Nelson,

came here
and got in contact with me.

And he said,

"I have some people who want
to give you a million dollars."

And I'll be very blunt about it,

I said, "Fine, but who
do you want me to kill?"

Frank Nelson, in a way,
is a ghost from his past

because he's connected
to some of the mob figures

who knew
"good ol' Billy Morgan."

That's how they called him.

Now, the mob,
you have to understand,

was very upset with Castro
because he was threatening

to close all their casinos
and shut down their playpen.

SALLAH:
Nelson delivers a message
to Morgan, and that message is,

"Would you be willing
to execute, kill,

assassinate Fidel Castro?"

NARRATOR:
The idea originated with the
Dominican Republic's president,

Rafael Trujillo.

Known as one of Latin America's
most brutal dictators,

Trujillo had given refuge
to Batista

after his flight from Havana.

Morgan immediately told the
Second Front commanding officer,

Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo.

GRANN:
Morgan saw the Second Front,
himself, Menoyo,

as a counterbalance to Che,

and that they could play
that important role.

And I don't think,

even though they were signs
they were being marginalized,

they hadn't lost complete faith
that that would be the case.

NARRATOR:
Morgan and Menoyo
went to see Fidel.

REDONDO (translated):
Fidel was immediately
interested.

One million dollars
is a lot of money.

In 1959, $1 million
was like $20 million today.

So, who's behind all of this?

NARRATOR:
In late May, on Castro's orders,
Morgan flew secretly to Miami.

SALLAH:
The first meeting that we know
that's documented in FBI records

is in the Dupont Plaza Hotel

at least two months after
he meets with Fidel Castro.

In the meeting is
the Dominican consul in Miami,

an old mafia chieftain
from Cleveland,

and the former police chief
in Havana.

And they start to talk.

And now this plan of just
an assassination attempt

is now growing into a takeover
of the country, a coup.

NARRATOR:
The plan had three parts:

an uprising by Batista's
supporters in Havana;

an insurrection
in the town of Trinidad

led by Menoyo and Morgan;

and an invasion force
dispatched by Trujillo

from the Dominican Republic.

When Morgan informed him
of the plot,

Castro decided to set a trap

to crush the Batista
loyalists in Cuba

and teach Trujillo a lesson.

SHETTERLY:
Fidel Castro said to Morgan,

"Draw it out.

"Let's see everyone
who could be involved

or might get involved in this."

SALLAH:
Morgan and Olga
and their entourage,

along with key people
that Fidel plants with them,

are now moving
into this opulent home,

million dollar home,
in Havana.

He's gonna have microphones
in the lamps.

He's going to have reel-to-reel
tape recorders going

so that not one word uttered
in any room

will not be tape recorded.

And then Morgan has to now
bring in the Batistianos--

those that were
supporting Batista.

And they have to play everyone

as if they're going along
with this plan.

NARRATOR:
Morgan flew once more to Miami
on July 27

to firm up details
and gather weapons.

Acting on a tip
from an informant,

the FBI was waiting.

Bureau director J. Edgar Hoover

had been monitoring
the conspiracy from the start,

convinced that Castro
was a communist

and needed to be removed.

Pulled in for questioning,

Morgan told the FBI that he was
in Miami on personal business,

but he confirmed that
he'd been approached

by a foreign government

with an offer of one million
dollars to overthrow Castro.

SHETTERLY:
J. Edgar Hoover got the Miami
field office watching this,

paying attention,
seeing what will happen.

Clearly, Hoover thinks that
there may well be

an important conspiracy
happening here.

SALLAH:
They firmly believe that Morgan
is working against Castro.

They really believe that Morgan

had aligned forces
with Rafael Trujillo,

who was an American ally
at the time.

NARRATOR:
But Morgan doubled-crossed
Trujillo.

The day he returned to Havana,

Morgan arranged to meet
the conspirators at his house.

As Castro arrived,
they were all arrested.

Immediately,
Castro, Morgan, and Menoyo

flew to the town of Trinidad

to act out the second part
of the plan: the insurrection.

(explosions)

GRANN:
They've got fake bombs
going off, fake fusillades.

They got a radio where they're
communicating with Trujillo

and sending out false reports.

This is the Cold War, right?

I mean, this is the beginning

of this kind of enormous
spy games and tricks

and mirages and counter ploys
and ploys.

NARRATOR:
When the first transport plane

carrying men from the Dominican
Republic landed in Trinidad,

Castro decided to put an end
to the operation.

SALLAH:
Castro surrounds the plane.

There are shootouts.

Some of the men are dead
from both sides.

They end up getting
a ton of weapons from Trujillo.

They had already identified
more than a thousand people

that were going to be involved
in this coup attempt,

and he started making arrests
all over the island.

GUERRA:
I don't think that
there's any doubt

that Morgan and Gutiérrez Menoyo

helped the revolution survive
in that moment

and also really unmasked

the degree to which
there were forces opposed

that had tremendous power
behind them.

NARRATOR:
On August 15,

Fidel Castro revealed
the details of the conspiracy

on Cuban television.

(speaking Spanish)

SALLAH:
Morgan and Castro are
at center stage.

The international media
is there,

of course, the U.S. press.

And Morgan is now
the central figure

in this international
conspiracy.

We went down to Las Villas
and started a fictitious war.

We started turning off
telephones and lights

and shooting shots in the dark
and all those kinds of things

so that everybody...

REPORTER:
This is all just last week.

That's right,
it's all been a fake.

It's all been a big show
for Trujillo,

and he fell for it.

He started it,
he paid for it,

he's furnished the guns for it,
he's made the contacts for it,

his embassy has been in it
up to its neck,

and he believed it.

SALLAH:
He's truly enjoying the moment.

He helped save a regime
that he believed in.

He's a hero.

He's doing autographs.

People are begging him for just
a few moments for interviews.

SHETTERLY:
Morgan's sense
of his own importance

probably made things
more dangerous for him.

I think he had a big ego,

and I think that becoming
a celebrity

after the Trujillo conspiracy

was not necessarily
healthy for him.

I think he thought

that he was probably
as big a figure

as anyone else in Cuba
at that point

and had real power.

And what he didn't realize is
that he really didn't.

NARRATOR:
Just days after Castro's
press conference,

the U.S. State Department
revoked Morgan's citizenship.

GRANN:
It's really Hoover
working behind the scenes

who helps get his citizenship
stripped

in very unusual circumstances,

because he hadn't actually
technically broken

any American laws.

SHETTERLY:
J. Edgar Hoover thought that
they had a serious attempt

to get Castro out.

When it turns out
to be a double-cross,

clearly Hoover feels betrayed.

GRANN:
Morgan saw himself
and the revolution

in kind of American terms.

And then when he lost
his citizenship,

it was a profound blow
to that sense.

It also was a deeper problem

in terms of his own
personal survival.

NARRATOR:
In September 1959,

Los Angeles television reporter
Clete Roberts

arrived at Morgan's house

for an interview
with the American comandante.

ROBERTS:
Mr. Morgan and I are sitting

in what you might call
an armed camp.

I can hear voices
just outside the window here

of the guards,
the men who are guarding him.

There are more machine guns
lying on the table here

just in back of Russ Day
and the camera

than I've seen
since I was in Hungary.

There must be a price
on your head, Bill.

Half a million dollars
at the moment,

if they can deliver me alive
to Santo Domingo.

That's what Trujillo
is offering for you?

That's the going price
in Miami right now.

I imagine it'll go up
over a period of time.

How does it feel to have
a half million-dollar price

on your head?

Well, it isn't too bad.

They have to collect it,
and that's going to be hard.

GRANN:
Morgan always has
a certain bravado,

and he maintains
a lot of that bravado,

but I also see somebody already

who is being buffeted by forces
that are extremely powerful

and are whirling him
to some degree.

ROBERTS:
We're beginning to hear...
and you know what's coming.

You know what I'm going
to talk about.

We're beginning to hear that

there's Communist influence
around here.

The Cuban people
are not Communist.

They would never go along
with a Communist government

under any circumstances.

Their history shows that.

Over a period of time,

they've always been
pro-democratic very strongly.

They're individualists.

NARRATOR:
30 miles from Havana
at an abandoned fishery,

Morgan put in place his own
vision of the revolution:

a business venture
with the Cuban government

to raise frogs for export,
their legs sold as a delicacy.

RAFAEL HUGUET:
So William became a civil,
if you may, comandante

growing frogs.

But he was so proud of the frogs
he was growing.

And it was funny
because at one time,

he had an argument
with one of Castro's guys,

and he says,
"What are you saying?

My frogs have more cojones
than your soldiers!"

SALLAH:
Morgan wasn't as disappointed
as people like to think he was.

He had a little daughter
by then, Loretta,

and his wife Olga
was relatively happy.

So at that point in time,
Morgan is at least trying

to find a way
to live in Cuba in peace.

SHETTERLY:
I think Morgan is still
holding on to a shred of hope

that this revolution is going
to follow the values and ideals

that he had hoped for.

That it was going to respect
the individual freedoms

that were so important to him.

But he began to see a bunch
of things that he didn't like.

He saw Comandante Huber Matos
be arrested

for saying that Communists
were taking over the government

and put in jail.

He saw newspapers closed
and nationalized.

GUERRA:
The Soviet vice-premier
swoops into Havana,

and, surprise, he's there
for almost three weeks,

and he signs a $100 million
trade agreement

with Fidel Castro.

That changed everything
for a lot of people,

because now they start thinking,

"We can't trust
this government.

Something is happening here."

OLGA MARTINEZ (translated):
We were lied to, betrayed.

I didn't know anything
about communism or socialism,

and it was staring me
in the face.

Che Guevara running
the national bank,

nationalizations,
jails filling up with prisoners.

I didn't fight for that,

and I would point it out
to William.

Of course, he saw it, too.

(thunder rumbling)

NARRATOR:
By the spring of 1960,
war had returned to Cuba.

In the Escambray mountains,
an insurgency had taken hold.

Led by former anti-Batista
revolutionaries

angry about the socialist
direction of Cuba's government,

the rebellion was joined
by coffee-growing guajiros.

GUERRA:
Peasants are absolutely opposed

to what they understand
as communism.

And what they see it
as doing to them

is taking what little they have.

OLGA MARTINEZ (translated):
We did not establish
the Escambray front,

but among those who had risen up
in arms were good people.

We were the rear guard.

We had to help
in any way we could.

SHETTERLY:
Morgan had been so vocal
about the fact that

this was not going to be
a communist regime

that when things
started to change

in late 1959 and early 1960,
was he going to stand up

for what he said
that he had been fighting for?

Or was he going to turn his back
on those ideals

and go along with the flow

of what Castro is trying to do
at that point.

OLGA MARTINEZ (translated):
William never delivered arms.

He couldn't.

He would have been recognized.

I did.

I'm a woman and I could do it.

NARRATOR:
In March, convinced Castro
was headed toward communism,

President Dwight Eisenhower
authorized the CIA

to begin training 1,400 Cuban
exiles for an invasion.

The landing site in central Cuba
was thought to be

near the mountains
of the Escambray,

where the CIA planned
for the exiles

to join up with local rebels.

SALLAH:
It's a well-known fact
that the CIA delivered arms

to the Escambray mountains
several times,

and some of those drops were
directly for Morgan's people.

So there is reason to believe
that William Morgan

had connections to the CIA
during that period.

NARRATOR:
Morgan's activities
soon escalated

from simply moving weapons

to establishing a guerilla group
of his own.

SALLAH:
June is the turning point.

That's when he learns about
the existence of Soviet trainers

coming over to work
with the Cuban army.

Now he realizes Castro

not only forged diplomatic
relations with the Soviets,

he is now bringing Soviet
military advisors over to Cuba.

SHETTERLY:
Morgan was a person with big
dreams and a vivid imagination,

and I think that
he could convince himself

that he was capable
of almost anything.

He keeps telling people that
there are 3,000 to 5,000 men--

he often says 5,000,

sometimes when he's being
a little more realistic,

he says 3,000 or 4,000--

who will follow him,
whatever he tells them to do.

FLEITES (translated):
He wanted me to be
the political chief.

He was the military chief.

And I said,

"I won't take up arms with you
in the Escambray

"because even though I don't
agree with Fidel Castro,

"it's not the right time.

And besides, your group
has been infiltrated."

NARRATOR:
Castro deployed
tens of thousands of men

against less than one thousand
in the resistance

and planted two informants
in Morgan's security detail.

GRANN:
He knows that some
of his friends

are starting to be rounded up,
so he knows the risks.

He was deeply worried
about his family,

and you can see
where he is trying

to assure possible places

for them to go into exile,

and you can see communiqués
and letters

that reveal that
he has that concern,

so he knows how dangerous it is.

(translated):
We knew we were in trouble,
deep trouble.

I was pregnant with Olguita,
and there we were,

towards the end,
waiting for whatever came.

What can happen to you?

You can go to prison
or be executed,

because they executed
anyone then.

GRANN:
He had lived much of his life
in disrepute

and with shame
and with dishonor.

He wasn't prepared to walk away

or abandon
what he had become in Cuba

and the revolution that he had
fought for that had remade him.

NARRATOR:
On October 21, 1960, two weeks
after the Cuban government

learned that a group of exiles
was preparing to invade Cuba

at the Bay of Pigs,

Morgan was called
to a meeting in Havana.

OLGA MARTINEZ (translated):
We had plans for dinner at 7:30.

When I saw it was 4:00,
then 6:00,

and William wasn't home,

I said to myself,
"Something smells bad here."

NARRATOR:
Morgan had been betrayed
by Castro's spies.

He was arrested
and taken to La Cabaña prison.

Olga was placed
under house arrest.

Two months later,
on December 31,

she was taken
to see her husband.

SALLAH:
He told her to escape,

and she assures him that
she's going to be getting out,

that she has a plan,

she's been working on it
for a long time,

and she's going
to see it through.

OLGA MARTINEZ (translated):
His peace was knowing that
our daughters and I were safe.

I was wearing the blue dress
that he loved so much.

I gave him a hug and a kiss.

HENRY RAYMONT:
The trial was a sham,
because in important cases,

Fidel had already told the jury
what sentence to mete out.

I would go to La Cabaña
and witness the trials.

Three out of five jurors
were asleep.

That gives you a very good sense
of how the trial went.

He had already been condemned,

and he wanted
to talk to someone.

It was a dungeon.

He was alone in the cell.

He did not seem even nervous--
totally relaxed.

And he gave me a letter
to his mother.

NARRATOR:
"Dear Mom, I know this will come

"as a thing very hard
for you to understand,

"but I have made my peace
with God

"and can accept whatever happens

with my mind clear
and my spirit strong."

Loretta was always there
for him,

so it's no surprise when
she sees the end for her son

that she would try to do
whatever she could

to save her son's life.

That meant going to members
of Congress,

trying to get through
to the Cuban government,

writing the White House,

even to go to the highest
hierarchy of the Catholic church

to try to do whatever they could
to intercede and save her son.

NARRATOR:
"My actions and my life
I leave for others to judge,

"and to you and Dad,
I leave my love and respect.

I hope you forgive me,
as you always have."

(gunshots)

OLGA MARTINEZ (translated):
9:30 in the evening, March 11.

He said goodbye to me.

I didn't know he was dead.

I saw him in my room.

He kissed me on the cheek.

I felt the warmth.

That was his goodbye.

GUERRA:
When Morgan was shot,
he had been conspiring

against what he thought of
as a revolution betrayed.

But I think he didn't regret
a moment of the time

that he had spent in Cuba
or all that he had done,

and I think there were
many, many Cubans

who still remain grateful
to him.

GRANN:
Castro had no interest
in telling Morgan's story.

He wanted him to be forgotten,

he wanted him erased
from history.

And the CIA and the FBI

classified all the files
about Morgan.

And so telling his story
seemed deeply important

in that you're recovering a part
of history that had been lost.

SALLAH:
In his lifetime,
he had failed numerous times.

That failure drove him to Cuba,
to the revolution,

to his own heroism,
and his own death.

But there was a redemption
in that

because in the end,

William Morgan became the person
that he wanted to be.