Trained to Kill

The Inside Story of CIA Plots against Castro, Kennedy, and Che

by Antonio Veciana; Carlos Harrison

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Pub Date Apr 18 2017 | Archive Date Apr 18 2017

Description

Antonio Veciana fought on the front lines of the CIA’s decades-long secret war to destroy Fidel Castro, the bearded bogeyman who haunted America’s Cold War dreams. It was a time of swirling intrigue, involving US spies with license to kill, Mafia hit men, ruthless Cuban exiles—and the leaders in the crosshairs of all this dark plotting, Fidel Castro and John F. Kennedy.

Veciana transformed himself from an asthmatic banker to a bomb-making mastermind who headed terrorist attacks in Havana and assassination attempts against Castro, while building one of the era’s most feared paramilitary groups—all under the direction of the CIA.

In the end, Veciana became a threat—not just to Castro, but also to his CIA handler. Veciana was the man who knew too much. Suddenly he found himself a target—framed and sent to prison, and later shot in the head and left to die on a Miami street. When he was called before a Congressional committee investigating the Kennedy assassination, Veciana held back, fearful of the consequences. He didn’t reveal the identity of the CIA officer who directed him—the same agent Veciana observed meeting with Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas before the killing of JFK.

Now, for the first time, Veciana tells all, detailing his role in the intricate game of thrones that aimed to topple world leaders and change the course of history.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Advance Praise

“Trained to Kill is one of those essential books that ‘our free press’ is all too likely to ignore, because of all the awful truth between its covers—especially its shattering confirmation that David Attlee Phillips of the CIA did introduce the author to Lee Harvey Oswald just weeks before the assassination of John Kennedy. While thus exploding the old myth of Oswald as ‘lone gunman,’ this chilling memoir also sheds new light on Che Guevara’s murder, Operation Condor, and the fanatic amorality behind the management of US covert operations.” —Mark Crispin Miller, professor of media, culture, and communication at New York University and author of Fooled Again: The Real Case for Electoral Reform

“Antonio Veciana’s Trained to Kill is one of the most important historical documents to have emerged in the U.S. in the past decade. This inside story of the CIA plots to kill Fidel Castro, President John F. Kennedy and Che Guevara not only makes for riveting reading, it also shines a stark light on the darkest corners of U.S. covert operations in the 1960s and ’70s. In one of the most dramatic episodes in a book filled with them, Veciana confirms that his CIA handler—a smooth and ruthless rising star at the agency named David Atlee Phillips—was also running Lee Harvey Oswald. This is a real history of American power, one that is destined to disturb and enlighten any citizen who can handle the truth.” —David Talbot, founder of Salon and New York Times bestselling author of The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government

“As was once said about him and the words in these pages confirm, Antonio Veciana is one of history’s most important individuals. Whether as the CIA’s point man in Havana in post-revolutionary Cuba, the mastermind behind the legendary anti-Castro exile group Alpha 66, or the unwitting witness to Lee Harvey Oswald’s meeting with his CIA handler at an office building in Dallas days before the JFK assassination, Mr. Veciana’s unflinching and courageous confessional memoir definitively answers so many of the baffling questions raised by CIA’s operations in the twentieth century—and his answers both illuminate and disturb.” —Fernand R. Amandi, Bendixen & Amandi International

“Antonio Veciana had a compelling mission in life, to help free his countrymen from a ruthless dictator. His long, painful path towards freedom intersected with my husband’s passion to help solve the mystery of the death of President Kennedy. Veciana’s startling revelation that he saw his CIA mentor, Maurice Bishop, with Lee Harvey Oswald, led my husband on his own mission to identify Bishop.” ―Marie Fonzi