1963 spy swap with Castro

In April 21, 1963, three emaciated Americans walked out of Cuba’s La Cabana prison and flew to freedom, released in a prisoner exchange after being held for 949 days under brutal conditions. The three men were undercover CIA officers, who the Cuban authorities had caught seemingly red-handed in a bugging operation. The Fidel Castro regime put them on trial, convicted them of “activities against the security of the Cuban state” and threw them in jail. But throughout their ordeal the trio had clung grimly to their cover story that they were tourists, a cover that their alias documents—driver’s licenses, visas and credit cards—backed up. The Cubans never even discovered their real names: David L. Christ, Thornton J. Anderson, Jr., and Walter E. Szuminski.

     Click HERE to read more on this story.

Robert Morton writes about the intelligence community and is author of the Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster in the Caribbean and Florida Keys spy thriller series.