Gerry Droller

Gerard "Gerry" Droller (1905? - 1992) was a German CIA officer involved in the covert 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état and the recruitment of Cuban exiles in the preparation of the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961.

Gerry Droller
Born
Gerald Droller

1905 (1905)?
Germany
Died1992 (aged 86–87)
NationalityGerman
OccupationCIA official
Espionage activity
AllegianceUnited States
Service branchCIA
CodenameFrank Bender
CodenameGerry Drecher[1][2]
CodenameMister B
CodenameDon Federico

Biography

Gerard Droller was born in Germany. He worked with Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the Maquis in France during World War II.

On 21 April 1959, Droller had a three-hour meeting with Fidel Castro in a hotel room in New York City after the latter's visit to Washington.[2][3][4]

In June 1960, Droller was sent to Miami, as Chief Political Action (C/WH/4/PA) under Jacob Esterline to help organize the overthrow of Fidel Castro in Cuba. Adopting the name Frank Bender, he posed as a wealthy steel tycoon. His main task was to recruit and organize the political leaders of anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the Miami area, assisted by E. Howard Hunt alias "Eduardo". He recruited Manuel Artime who became the leader of Movimiento de Recuperación Revolucionaria (Revolutionary Recovery Movement), (MRR), and later Brigade 2506. During 1960 and 1961, Droller organized the setting up of training camps for Cuban exiles at Useppa Island, Florida, and at Retalhuleu, Guatemala by arrangement with Guatemalan president Miguel Ydigoras. He helped recruit Cuban exiles into a paramilitary force subsequently named Brigade 2506 that, with considerable finance from the CIA, carried out the abortive invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs on 17 April 1961. He did not speak Spanish, and he was not universally liked by the Cuban exiles.[5][6][7]

gollark: That's nice. Does it contain Macron?
gollark: Esobot is *so* optimal.
gollark: The PIERB are fine with it. I don't know *what* your "board"'s problem is.
gollark: I'd just have to add you to the list of acceptable IRC bridge targets, reload the IRC link, and manually link the link.
gollark: By implode, I mean discard it.

See also

Notes
  1. Szulc (1986) (possible transcription error of Castro narrative?)
  2. Anderson (1997), p.417 (1959)(quote)On April 21, after giving a talk at Princeton, Fidel agreed to a meeting with a CIA official who had asked Lopez Fresquet to act as go-between. They spoke in private for over three hours. The CIA man, Garry Drecher, a German-American emigre who used the alias of "Frank Bender," told Lopez Fresquet afterward that he was convinced Castro was an "anti-Communist" and that they had agreed to exchange information about Communist activities in Cuba.(endquote)
  3. Thomas (1971), p.431
  4. Szulc (1986)
  5. Kornbluh (1998), pp.20,212
  6. Rodriguez (1999), p.16
  7. Wyden (1979), p.32

References
  • Anderson, Jon L. 1997. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life. ISBN 0-553-40664-7 ISBN 0802135587
  • Kornbluh, Peter. 1998. Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report on the Invasion of Cuba. The New Press. New York. ISBN 1-56584-494-7 ISBN 978-1565844940
  • Rodriguez, Juan Carlos. 1999. Bay of Pigs and the CIA. Ocean Press Melbourne. ISBN 1-875284-98-2
  • Szulc, Tad. 1986. Fidel - A Critical Portrait. Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-172602-6
  • Thomas, Hugh. 1971, 1986. The Cuban Revolution. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London. (Shortened version of Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom, includes all history 1952-1970) ISBN 0-297-79037-4 ISBN 0-297-78954-6
  • Wyden, Peter. 1979. Bay of Pigs - The Untold Story. Simon and Schuster. New York. ISBN 0-671-24006-4 ISBN 0224017543 ISBN 978-0-671-24006-6
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