![]() The mass arrest and detention of Subregion One VC cadre was the largest operation of its type during the war and, for all intents and purposes, broke the VC hold on its stronghold of An Tinh. Rodríguez flew above the village in a Loach light helicopter and marked target houses holding VC suspects with orange smoke, and the PRU then went in and emptied the houses of occupants, lined them up, and identified suspects with the assistance of a former VC leader who had been captured before he began to co-operate with the CIA DeForrest identified him as "Ba Tung." The operation netted 28 VC cadre who had been living openly among the South Vietnamese but were working to assist the North Vietnamese overthrow their southern neighbors. In 1970, after the Cambodian incursion, Bien Hoa CIA Spymaster Orrin DeForrest worked with Rodríguez, whom he described as "the CIA's hotshot pilot," and his PRU in rolling up the Viet Cong stronghold of An Tinh in South Vietnam. Rodríguez was in frequent contact with him regarding arms for the Contras. Shackley became Bush's top aide for operations when he directed the CIA, and Gregg later became National Security Advisor for Vice-President Bush. The Walsh Report states (Chapter 29): "During the Vietnam War, Gregg supervised CIA officer Felix Rodriguez and they kept in contact following the war." Rodríguez also reported to Ted Shackley during the Phoenix Program. They were CIA-sponsored units that worked for the Phoenix Program. In 1971, Rodríguez trained Provincial Reconnaissance Units (PRUs). ĭuring the Vietnam War, Rodríguez flew over 300 helicopter missions and was shot down five times. He was codenamed Lazarus after his survival of the Bay of Pigs operation. He was awarded the Intelligence Star for Valor by the CIA and nine Crosses for Gallantry by the South Vietnamese government. During his career with the CIA, he also went by the nom de guerre "Max Gomez" after Máximo Gómez, the Dominican general who fought in the Cuban War of Independence. The last photograph of Guevara alive includes Rodriguez standing by his side, but according to Dino Brugioni, a former senior official at the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC), it is a photomontage. In 1967, the CIA again recruited Rodríguez to train and head a team to hunt down Che Guevara, who was attempting to overthrow the US-backed government in Bolivia and to replace it with a communist government. Bolivia ĬIA authenticated the picture of Che Guevara and Félix Rodríguez and recognizes it as original. Using his familiarity with the country, he was able to gather critical intelligence, which was used in the planning and preparation of the invasion. He clandestinely entered Cuba a few weeks before the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. ![]() Rodriguez participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion as a paramilitary operations officer with the CIA's Special Activities Division. In September 1960, he joined a group of Cuban exiles in Guatemala, supported by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to receive military training. He graduated in June 1960 and went to live with his parents in Miami, where thousands of Cuban exiles had moved. ![]() The invasion of Cuba was a failure, and Rodríguez went back to Perkiomen. He attended the Perkiomen School in Pennsylvania but dropped out to join the Anti-Communist League of the Caribbean, which had been created by Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo with the intention of ending communism in Cuba. His uncle was the Minister of Public Works during Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship. Rodriguez came from a wealthy family of land owners in his native Cuba. 8.2 Cuba: Che Guevara, Bay of Pigs Invasion, Central America. ![]()
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