This page addresses what the Department of Defense and CIA termed the “Cuba Program” — the interrogation of American POWs in Vietnam by Cuban personnel operating under diplomatic cover in Hanoi.
Status: Reported and unverified, drawing on declassified government documents and a former POW’s own investigative report, which PIP presents largely in its own words.
Press and legal action
PIP points to two developments it says show renewed public attention on this subject: a Washington Free Beacon story reporting that the Obama administration was urged to press Havana on the Cuban interrogation of American POWs, and a Judicial Watch lawsuit against the Department of Defense for records on American POWs reported held captive in Cuba.
Who were the Cuban interrogators, led by “Fidel”?
PIP states that the FBI, the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community have been trying to confirm the identity of “Fidel” for decades, along with the real names of two associates known to American POWs as “Pancho” and “Chico.” PIP lists the following as clues to “Fidel’s” identity:
- Born approximately in the 1930s
- Over six feet tall
- Deep voice
- Resembled Sean Connery
- Bad temper
- Knew how to fix cars
- Familiar with American military slang and the U.S. Navy
- Appeared to have had paratrooper training, perhaps in the United States
- Familiar with the American Southeast
- Liked to drink
- Intelligent
PIP is careful to describe these as clues to an unidentified individual, not an identification.
Air Force pilot Earl Glenn Cobeil
PIP reports that Air Force pilot Earl Glenn Cobeil died after what it describes as “unspeakable torture” by the Cubans.
The Benge Report
Returned POW Mike Benge investigated the “Cuban Program,” and PIP draws on his report. According to the Benge Report, Cuban officials operating under diplomatic cover in Hanoi during the Vietnam War “brutally tortured and killed American POWs whom they beat senseless in a research program ‘sanctioned by the North Vietnamese.'” The Department of Defense and CIA dubbed this the “Cuba Program,” and it involved 19 American POWs, though PIP notes some reports state 20. Recently declassified CIA and DOD intelligence documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, describe the extent of Cuba’s involvement with American POWs captured in Vietnam. A Defense Intelligence Agency report states: “The objective of the interrogators was to obtain the total submission of the prisoners…”
According to former POW Air Force Colonel Donald “Digger” Odell, two POWs left behind in the camp “were ‘broken’ but alive when he and other prisoners were released [1973 Operation Homecoming]… They were too severely tortured by Cuban interrogators [to be released]. The Vietnamese didn’t want the world to see what they had done to them.” Reports state that POWs released during Operation Homecoming in 1973 “were told not to talk about third-country interrogations… This thing is very sensitive with all kinds of diplomatic ramifications.” PIP’s assessment is that the torture and killing of American POWs by the Cubans was, as a result, “swept under the rug” by the U.S. government.
PIP note: the bodies of the two men described above were returned by Vietnam after the war. PIP also states there are indications Havana may know about other American POWs who disappeared during the war — it directs readers to the Benge Report for further detail.
Senator McCain and Fidel Castro
PIP reports that Senator John McCain demanded the identity of the Cuban who tortured U.S. POWs, pledging in 2008: “We’ll get him and bring him to justice, too.” According to PIP, Fidel Castro responded by calling the senator a liar.
Request for information
Please contact us if you can help with any of the following.
- The real identity of “Fidel” and the other Cubans named in POW accounts (such as Cuban records, defector accounts or photographs).
- Information on what Havana knows about missing U.S. servicemen.
Write to contact@powinvestigativeproject.org. We treat every approach in confidence.