In this third installment of our miniseries, Ground Zero: JM WAVE and the Cuban Question, we examine the dangerous two-track contradiction of U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba during the summer and autumn of 1963. While one hand of the United States government was quietly exploring diplomatic backchannels to Fidel Castro through UN diplomats and ABC News journalist Lisa Howard, the other hand was funding, arming, and launching anti-Castro exile commandos onto Cuban beaches under the secret war run out of the CIA’s Miami station. We explore how this jarring duality left the Cuban exile community feeling deeply double-crossed—echoing the bitter aftermath of the Bay of Pigs—as they watched federal agencies arrest non-sanctioned exile raiders on the water while state-backed operations received secret funding, fueling a mounting exile rage aimed directly at President John F. Kennedy.

We go inside the secretive world of "autonomous operations," where Washington approved U.S.-funded exile raids mounted strictly outside American territory—most notably Manuel Artime’s Robert F. Kennedy-backed AMWORLD project in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and Manuel Ray’s JURE organization. We expose the intense paranoia and bureaucratic infighting inside JM WAVE, detailing how station chief Ted Shackley ("The Blonde Ghost") dismissed AMWORLD as an exercise in futility, while fears that JURE was spying on the Miami station led to shocking directives authorizing exile boat crews to fire on rival exile vessels at sea.

Finally, we reconstruct the tragic narrative of Operation Tilt—the June 1963 Pawley-Martino raid. We trace how former Havana casino technician John Martino and exile Eddie Bayo convinced wealthy benefactor William Pawley, Life Magazine, and Senate investigators that Soviet military officers in Cuba’s Oriente Province were ready to defect with photos proving nuclear missiles remained on the island. We reveal how the CIA’s Miami station secretly backed the "private" expedition with weapons, a mother ship, a PBY flying boat, and CIA operatives David Sanchez Morales and Rip Robertson—culminating in a fateful night at Hogsty Reef in the Bahamas where ten Cuban exiles boarded a 21-foot motor launch, slipped into Cuban waters, and vanished forever, leaving behind an operation later written off as a con game and ten families with no answers.

I owe many of you a sincere and overdue apology. Over the years, I have always strived to be prompt in answering every single email I receive from listeners of JFK: The Enduring Secret. However, over the past 10 to 11 months, balancing a full-time consulting role alongside researching and producing the podcast during off-hours created an unintended bottleneck, leaving many of your thoughtful messages temporarily unanswered.

Following the overwhelming response and feedback during our Jack Ruby miniseries, I decided to conduct a thorough audit of my inbox. To my complete surprise and dismay, I realized just how many emails had accidentally slipped through the cracks during busy stretches. I want to assure you that hearing from you is never a burden or an obligation—it is a genuine joy, a source of intellectual stimulation, and something I deeply respect.

I am currently working my way through the backlog, including messages dating back into last year, and I promise that every single email will receive a personal reply in the coming days. If you sent me a message that has not yet received a response, please feel free to re-send it—that way, it will jump right to the top of my inbox so I can get back to you even faster. Thank you so much for your patience, your incredible support, and for being such a smart, respectful, and mindful audience.

I made some minor additions, deletions, and edits to Episode 360 and I also added a little something from President Kennedy himself at the end of the episode. Please remove your previous download (if it occurred before 1PM EST October 25, 2026 and replace it with the latest available download from your podcast provider. You can be sure you have the updated version of the podcast by checking for the Kennedy speech excerpt placed near the end of the podcast. My apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you! Jeff