MEMO: IG OFFICER INTERVIEW WITH ROSS CROZIER, PW SECTION, MIAMI BASE, 25 MAY 1961
Originator: CIA
From: WITHHELD
To: THE RECORD
Document date: 06/02/1961
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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2022 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992

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2 June 1961

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

SUBJECT: Interview with Ross Crozier, PW Section, Miami Base,

25 May 1961

c...d tues

1. Crozier, a contract agent, said that all five members of

the PW section speak Spanish fluently and between them have 45 years

of area knowledge. He has a Costa Rican wife. The other members

are Kent and Patton., He arrived in September 1960. He was in Cuba

from 1954 to 1958 and in March 1958 spent one month with the Castro

forces in the Sierra Maestrde Mountains. He was travelling with the

newspaper contingent under the cover of a representative of Public

Surveys Institute of Dallas, Texas which, he said, was conducting a

survey for the American 1959 investment policy in Cuba: He then

spent two years in Mexico working on CP penetration and international

Communism.

He left there in March 1960 owing to domestic marital

difficulties.

He has never had any Headquarters experience.

2. Crozier said that his chief matters were three: (a)

sixty foot cruiser called "Theano" or more recently "Sandpiper"

which has been fitted out as a radio boat with a one kilowatt

Collins transmitter for broadcasting propaganda on the medium and

long-wave bands. It has a 25-mile radius and cruises ten to 15

miles off the Cuban coast. Its first broadcast was made ? Octnaer

1960 (this is project AMHOSE). The ship broadcasts scripts/are

prepared.at WAVE based on themes approved in Headguarters.

Special

matters are edited in Headquarters.

To date they have broadcast

three or four times lasting an hour each time, the places being too

near Havana and elsewhere on the coast.

The boat has made two

other trips, one of supply and one for infiltration, and six trips

that have aborted as a result of bad weather. He has no way of

knowing the effectiveness of these broadcasts. They have been

pushed by Headquarters.

The crew be former Cuban Naval personnel.

"Theano"

is kept at Islamorada and has received no publicity.

It was purchased for $28,000 by Headquarters, as it was built in

1928 it is of wood and its engines needed replacement and overhaul.

He does not know why this old ship was bought. It is in good

condition now.

He has spent the bulk of his time on two groups, one of

students, known as DRE, and a labor group called FORD: During

the first few months of his stay in Miami he was pulled off his

work frequently in order to use his Spanish in FI and training

The DRE at first was not built up but by January 1961

they were running propaganda teams into South America. Crozier's

duties were to act as case officer to the organization in every

phase.

He supervised training in safehouses and then conducted

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operations for infiltration of DRE agents into Cuba for AGIT

propaganda activities.

Twenty-trained agents with instructions,

guidance and funds were thus infiltrated. They subsequently

went with 50 student leaders into the Sierra Maestrde Mountains

and were ready to rise up.

Crozier said that the total number

of students there was 1200 to 2400. They did not rise up at the

time of the strike. Delivery of arms had been unsuccessful owing

to the prohibition of overflights for the last three weeks prior

to the invasion. He knows that of the 20 trained agents he sent

in two or three are now under arrest, six in political asylum

and Il or 12 are in hiding.

He feels that these DRE agents are

one of our best assets. They are capable as a guerrilla force

the country people more than any other

movement we me lee how been entrate to at at o

political manner and this appeals to the peasants. At first the

infiltration operations were conducted by the PM section who,

however, did not always have the reception ready. Then he shifted

to getting an entry made legally from Mexico. This man then set

up four reception points and Crozier used his own boat, 1.e.,

the "Askatutd" that he had borrowed.

The PM section let him get away

with this.

Cooperation with them is good. Now all such matters

are in the hands of the maritime section. The DRE executive

committee exercised pressure on its members either to infiltrate

or to go to the camp and train for the strike force. At present

the committee, existing of 15 or 20, is still in Miami, plus 100

others.

He does not have the figures on the numbers in the

Cuban organization. The group have a good reputation in Cuba and

later emigrees have spoken admiringly of the training received by

the members in Miami. He thinks that there are probably four to

ten thousand members in Cuba, mostly men.

Their leader was Albert

Murro. It present we are paying this organization $5,000 a month.

4. FORD, the labor organization, was formerly a sector of the

Frente.

We took it over as an affiliated organization. Other

affiliates being the women, lawyers and teachers.

FORD is more

numerous than the students and was organized under the Frente out

of dissidents of the CTC.

His duties were similar to those for the

DRE. FORD's operations have been on a smaller scale. They sent

three trained infiltrators, with funds, into Cuba in January 1961

for the purpose of organizing the labor opposition clandestinely.

These three men are now in asylum. The results have been

disappointing.

The future of this group is not as bright as DRE.

The men are older, more political and'not as receptive to guidance,

but their propaganda activity has been effective.

For example,

protests to the Red Cross.

They send out propaganda teams to the

South America and Europe and they liaise with state-side organizations.

The themes of their propaganda are presented by the base to them or

they submit their own themes for comment by the base. We are now

paying them $8,000 a month; $5,000 for salaries, $1,500 for operations,

$1500 for expenses.

RaDe Shea : Conti.

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5.

Crozier had several weighty criticisms to offer:

a. The strike force should not have been used except to

ignite the three redoubts (Sierra Maestre, the Cristo, and another).

We should build up stockpiles of arms while we train people to

infiltrate in bunches of about six to 20 to go directly into the

mountains and gradually to work up to a guerrilla war.

We should

also eventually build an air head, that is, a secure area for air

drops so that the accuracy of dropping on a Dz would not be imposed.

o. too much stress was placed on running tight operations,

that is, in avoiding loss. From September 1960 to date, in our boat

operations experience involving 28 vessels we have never lost a single

boat or a single man. This proves that we could have gone beyond

what was done. The operations could have been more daring in quantity

and in the terrain chosen. We could have supplied more arms and

other equipment and could have hit more targets. This excessive

caution vas due partly to directives received from headquarters.

With reference to air drops, we have never made a

single successful air drop for the reason that U.S. pilots were

not used. In the operations carried out, no pilot was lost

therefore no U.s. pilot would have been lost had they been used.

d. Counter-terror should be employed against the Communist

leaders in Cuba and against official personnel. There are only ten

or 20 leaders at the top of the Castro organization. If these few

were killed off, it would be extremely hard to fill their positions.

This action should be carried out by European commando-type operations

involving no Cubans.

is Sher

Robert D. Shea

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