William Alexander Morgan William Alexander Morgan ( April 19 , 1928 – March 11 , 1961 ) was a United States citizen who fought in the Cuban Revolution . He was one of about two dozen U . S . citizens to fight with Castro ' s forces and one of only three foreign nationals to hold the rank of Comandante in the revolutionary forces . Upbringing . Morgan was born in Cleveland , Ohio , to Alexander Morgan and German - American Elira Morgan ( née Ruderth ) . and was raised in Toledo , where he was often in trouble with the law . He joined the Army after World War II and married to Darlene Edgerton in 1947 . The marriage was annulled after a year and a half . He was stationed in Japan , where he fathered a son with a German - Japanese hostess named Setsuko Takeda . He was court - martialed in 1948 . He is said to have been skilled with firearms and was rumored to have been a Central Intelligence Agency operative , though there are no public records or witness interviews to support the claim . On May 11 , 1954 Morgan married Ellen Theresa May Bethel in Miami . They had two children , Anne Marie ( 1956 ) and William A . Morgan , Jr . ( 1957 ) . Cuban Revolution . Morgan went to Cuba in 1957 . He opposed the Batista dictatorship and led a guerrilla force of the Second National Front of the Escambray ( Segundo Frente Nacional de Escambray or SFNE ) that operated against Batista ' s soldiers in the Escambray Mountains in central Cuba . In 1958 , he wrote a statement to explain his participation in Castro ' s revolution , " Why I Am Here " . It said in part : In December 1958 , Che Guevara joined forces with Morgan ' s group and the " Revolutionary Directorate " guerrillas of the Escambray mountains . Together they captured the city of Santa Clara on 31 December . Twelve hours later , Batista fled Cuba . Morgan and his men occupied the city of Cienfuegos on January 1 – 2 , 1959 . In January 1959 , he told a reporter that " all I ' m interested in is settling down to a nice peaceful existence " but worried how U . S . authorities would respond to his military activities in Cuba . In March 1959 , officials of the U . S . embassy in Havana warned Americans that participation in foreign military service could jeopardize their citizenship . In August 1959 , Morgan helped to foil a coup attempt orchestrated by opponents of the revolution in Trujillos ' s Dominican Republic by pretending to cooperate and then divulging the plot to Fidel Castro . In September 1959 , when most of the two dozen U . S . citizens who had fought with Castro ' s forces had returned to the U . S . , the U . S . State Department revoked his citizenship , a move Morgan promised to contest . It is sometimes claimed that Morgan orchestrated the March 1960 explosion of the French arms ship " La Coubre " , but there is no evidence to support this . Post - revolution and death . Morgan married a Cuban , Olga María Rodríguez Farinas , who was also a revolutionary and together they had two daughters . Throughout the struggle against Batista , Morgan was vocal about Castro ' s anti - communist beliefs . When asked during interviews about Castro ' s political beliefs and where the new Cuban government was leaning , he remained firm in his belief that Castro was not a communist and that Cuba would become capitalist parliamentary democracy . As Castro began to reveal his socialist leanings , Morgan became distressed , as did other members of the SFNE , who believed in a democratic Cuba . Morgan was arrested in October 1960 and charged with plotting to join and lead the counter - revolutionaries who were active in the Escambray Mountains . Morgan was shot to death by a firing squad on March 11 , 1961 . He was 32 years old . Two months later , on 1 May 1961 , Castro declared Cuba a socialist nation . His wife was tried with him " in absentia " . She was found guilty of co - conspiracy and sentenced to 30 years in prison . She was released after 12 years . She left for the United States during the Mariel boatlift . In a series of interviews with the " Toledo Blade " in 2002 , she admitted that she and her husband had begun running guns to anti - Castro guerrilla s because he was disenchanted by Castro ' s pro - Soviet leanings . She also said she wanted Morgan ' s U . S . citizenship restored and his remains returned to the United States for reburial . The newspaper stories prompted two Democratic members of the United States House of Representatives , Charlie Rangel and Marcy Kaptur , to travel to Cuba in April 2002 to meet Fidel Castro and ask him to return Morgan ' s body and Castro agreed . In April 2007 , the US State Department declared that Morgan ' s US citizenship was effectively restored , nearly 50 years after the government stripped him of his rights in 1959 for serving in a foreign country ' s military .