F.C. Schaefer's Blog, page 16

Planning for the 1964 Cuban invasion.

In my new novel, ALL THE WAY WITH JFK, John F. Kennedy survives that terrible day in Dallas and lives to run for re-election in 1964. All the Way with JFK: An Alternate History of 1964. There were a lot of What Ifs to be considered, one of them being the revelation of a connection between Lee Harvey Oswald and Castro’s Cuba and the political implications it would have for America. No definitive proof has ever been unearthed linking the President’s assassin and Havana, although, like a lot of things having to do with the Kennedy Administration, there is a lot of smoke in the air, enough of it to make a lot of people suspicious as to where the fire might be found. In ALL THE WAY with JFK, an investigation of the assassination attempt in Dallas reveals that Oswald met with members of Castro’s intelligence service in Mexico City only weeks before the events of November 22nd. This sets off an escalating crisis, one that includes a military buildup for a possible invasion of Cuba. In the following excerpt, one on the planners for the invasion recounts what happens when Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko visits the White House in the midst of the crisis.

Excerpt:

We paid no attention to such noise in the basement of the White House, what we did pay attention to was Andrei Gromyko’s arrival in Washington on February 13th, for a two-hour meeting in the Oval Office with the President. Gromyko was one stone-faced bastard, never letting on what he was thinking; less than two years earlier he had sat in the same room and denied there were missiles in Cuba.

This time it was John Kennedy who was holding cards he wasn’t showing.

The Soviet Foreign Minister sat there and listened as the President prevailed upon him to pressure their fellow Communist to turn over the three suspects in the assassination attempt and come clean about its complicity in the crime. Over and over he made this point so no one would ever say that the President did not go the extra mile for a peaceful resolution.

Gromyko told the President the Soviet government expected the United States to abide by all agreements made concerning Cuba - period. If the United States wanted to take the matter to the United Nations, all well and good, it was none of Moscow’s concern - otherwise hands off.

The meeting in the Oval Office solved nothing, but to the world, it appeared as if President Kennedy was searching for a peaceful solution. But as the days ticked by, more of Operation Plan 365 went into effect: General Hamilton Howze, whose father had charged up San Juan Hill with Teddy Roosevelt, was given command of the 101st Airborne the day after Gromyko left Washington; Howze had previously been in charge of the 82nd and would have been the senior officer in command on the ground if we’d gone into Cuba in October of ’62. Now it appeared as if he would be given a second chance and to those watching in Havana, there was now another combat ready officer added to the Southern Command. By the 25th of February, there were twice the number of destroyers and cruisers in the Caribbean as had been the first of the month; more would arrive by the first day of March. By then at least three more fighter wings had moved to bases in Texas and Florida. Day by day, the unmistakable military buildup proceeded.

My book, BIG CRIMSON 1: THERE'S A NEW VAMPIRE IN TOWN, can be found on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3GsBh2E
and on Smashwords at: https://bit.ly/3kIfrAb

My alternate history novel ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964 can be found on Amazon at: http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m
and on Smashwords at: http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH

Visit my Goodreads author's page at:
http://bit.ly/2nxmg

Visit my Amazon author's page at: https://amzn.to/3nK6Yxv

Getting the dirt on JFK.

My latest novel, ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964, deals with an America where President Kennedy survived the events of November 22nd, 1963 and lived to run for re-election the following year. As we now know, JFK had more than a few skeletons rattling around in his closet during his administration, including a history of extramarital sex and a secret medical file, both of which could have destroyed his political career if they had become known to the public while he was in office. In my book, a fictional Texas oil tycoon named Wade Harbinson (a composite of several real life individuals), decides to go fishing for dirt on the President in order to ensure his defeat. However, Harbinson decides he’s going to need a some help in order to pull off his scheme, so he reaches out to another powerful man.

Excerpt:

It comes down to having to fight fire with fire, and when you go after big money, you go get bigger money. So I made a few calls and got in contact with a man whom I had known for a quarter of a century, but had not seen in the flesh since about 1954: a fellow Texan named Howard Hughes. There are few men I admire as much as my late Daddy, but Howard is one of them; he’s a man who understands completely what a buck can do for you. After catching up some old friends and commiserating on the sorry condition of our beloved country, I explained to him the purpose of my call; I had a proposition to make, one only a certain type of individual would be able to take me up on. Said proposition being his: in return for derogatory and extremely damaging information about the President of the United States, I was willing to pay the sum of one-half million dollars. It would go without saying, but I would be sure to reiterate that this information must come with fully documented proof, the kind which would hold up not only in a court of law, but in the court of public opinion. It must be unimpeachable. So much so, that the minute John F. Kennedy was to concede defeat on the evening of November 3rd, I would sweeten the deal with another half million.

What I needed from Howard was a name of someone with the connections to pull this thing off, while at the same time, affording me and the Goldwater campaign the right amount of insulation from any and all acts which might cross certain legal and ethical lines, and bring the wrong kind of attention from either the vultures in the press or the proper legal authorities. There are those who might blanch at my actions, but I saw it as nothing more than doing my due diligence as a member of the Goldwater for President campaign; those Kennedys were known for playing rough themselves and turnabout is always fair play.

“Wade, I applaud you for doing this,” was Howard’s reply when I explained the purpose of my call, “and there is nothing I’d like more than seeing that son of a bitch who’s ruining this country get tossed out on his ass, I mean he’s proposing laws that would mix the races-disgusting. But old Joe taught those boys well; it won’t be easy getting anything on them; for some reason, they inspire a lot of loyalty. And they do know how to buy silence.”

I pressed my case, telling Howard it was our duty to the country to leave no stone unturned; my reasoning must have worked because he told me to sit tight while he made some inquiries and then he’d call me back. My friend and fellow Texan proved to be true to his word when my phone rang at three the next morning and he gave me a name.

That was how I ended up in a back room of the Carousel Club in Dallas Texas, sitting across a table from a man named Vance Harlow.
 

My book, BIG CRIMSON 1: THERE'S A NEW VAMPIRE IN TOWN, can be found on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3GsBh2E
and on Smashwords at: https://bit.ly/3kIfrAb

My alternate history novel ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964 can be found on Amazon at: http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m
and on Smashwords at: http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH

Visit my Goodreads author's page at:
http://bit.ly/2nxmg

Visit my Amazon author's page at: https://amzn.to/3nK6Yxv

The dirty underside of an America where Kennedy lived.

My book, ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964 deals with an America where John F. Kennedy survived the events in Dallas on November 22, 1963 and lived to run for re-election the following year. I want to share an excerpt from my story where Marine Colonel Martin Maddox, a military aide to the President, is secretly meeting with a pair of Mafia Kingpins in order to get their cooperation ahead of a planned invasion of Cuba in the spring of ’64 because Castro and his secret police have been have been implicated in the attempt on the President’s life, not to mention giving sanctuary to a trio of Oswald’s accomplices who were in Dallas on November 22nd. The Mafia have assets in Cuba which could be very helpful to the Administration, but there is bad history between these men and the Kennedy brothers and there is a price to be paid if the mobsters are to give the government what it wants.


Excerpt:

And that is how I met Carlos Marcello and Santos Trafficante, the “assets” who were in a position to do the United States government a big favor, and who expected a big favor in return. There were two other men in the room as well, I recognized Frank Ragano’s name as Trafficante’s lawyer, while the other’s name, David Ferrie, was familiar, only later would I remember where I’d first heard it. Bannister, Ragano and Ferrie, remained standing after I was beckoned to a seat, it was clear by their body language who was in charge. They did the talking, while Marcello and Trafficante sat and occasionally nodded as terms and conditions for a deal was laid out, if anything needed to be clarified with the bosses, it was done in hushed whispers.

The bottom line was this: the employees at the Capri hotel in Havana, formerly the property of Marcello, Trafficante and their many associates, and who were still receiving stipends from their former bosses, would lend their valuable assistance to the United States government in an attempt to contact one of the hotel’s present guests, General Alexander Andreyev, commander of all Soviet forces in Cuba. In this way, these mobsters were helping to mitigate the loss of life, both American and Soviet, when, due to recent events, the imminent American invasion occurred. For their patriotic service, the United States government would make sure Marcello, Trafficante and their many associates got back all the property stolen from them by Fidel Castro, property which included not only the Capri, but the Tropicana nightclub, the Havana Hilton, and a sugar plantation near Camagüey, which Marcello insisted be included on the list; all to be returned once the island was liberated from the Communists by the US military. Not only that, but the United States Justice Department and all of its many branches would cease all of its myriad investigations and prosecutions of Mr. Marcello, Mr. Trafficante, their families, friends, business partners and associates immediately upon the freeing of Cuba from the vile Communist tyrant presently oppressing the island.

That was it in a nutshell.

When these terms were agreed to at last, and Marcello and Trafficante had nodded their assent, everyone stood and the two mobsters walked to the middle of the room, where Marcello thrust his hand forward. “You tell that Goddamn Bobby he gonna be able to slip a message to those fuckin’ Russian bastards just fine, just fine,” he said as I pumped his hand. “We got our own private line to de island, we know more than those CIA Boy Scouts. And when all dis is over, and Castro is in hell, we all gonna get together in Havana, have a high old time and drink mojitos. Let the bygones be bygone.” There was the merest of a smile as he spoke, with absolutely no mirth in it.

Then it was Trafficante’s turn to shake my hand. “Bobby will leash his dogs, and all stolen property will be returned,” he said as he leaned in close. “Everyone gets what they want; everyone go home happy. You understand?”

“Yes, sir, I do understand completely.” Mr. Trafficante very much liked being referred to as “Sir" and it was true, I completely understood, but not in the way they thought. This whole Devil’s deal was predicated on an American invasion of Cuba, and Commander Almeida’s coup would make such a possibility a moot point. Marcello and Trafficante would make good on their half of the deal on the eve of the coup, while we would never have come through on our part because all those lucrative properties in Havana would never be ours to hand over. We were coming out of this thing a winner all the way around…or so I thought at the time.

Marcello insisted we have a glass of J.T.S. Brown to celebrate everybody getting what they wanted and he refused to let us leave without dinner at the Town and Country’s restaurant on the house. That is where I found Harlow when my business was done, enjoying a drink. I wanted to leave right away, but he insisted I sit and enjoy Marcello’s hospitality - the man would be insulted if I didn’t. So I sat there and dined among the oblivious tourists and watched the TV above the bar; Walter Cronkite was giving the news and even though the sound was muted, I was able to follow the stories on the latest fruitless negotiations with Castro to extradite the three conspirators; images of President Kennedy and the Beard making speeches suddenly gave way to tape of the Beatles, whose recording sales were breaking all records. As well I knew, my twelve-year old daughter had cried for days when we refused to buy their album for her, but that age is just too young to be exposed to rock and roll so much; but the story on the British invasion made me realize how this thing had taken me far from home.

I am an indie author and my latest novel is ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964. It is available at the following:
http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m on Amazon
http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH at Smashwords

And the first book of my vampire trilogy, Big Crimson 1: There's a New Vampire in Town, is available for order on Amazon at https://amzn.to/3GsBh2E.

Visit my Goodreads author's page at:
http://bit.ly/2nxmg