Summary

Part 3 of Miami opens with Chapter 8’s exploration of Miami Cubans’ hatred for John F. Kennedy after what they viewed as the president’s betrayal of their fighters in the 2506. Raul Masvidal, a powerful Miami Cuban who lost the mayoral election mentioned earlier in the book, explains that by attempting to gain Kennedy’s support in a lobby for Radio Martí, he alienated many Cubans who felt even that was too much of a friendship. Jorge Mas Canosa, a powerful Miami engineering contractor and founder of the anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation, elaborates on the views of Kennedy held by many Cubans, saying that Kennedy had stood at the Orange Bowl in Miami in 1962 and promised to return it to the Cubans in a “free Havana” (74).

Masvidal was involved in training camps across the Keys which were run by the CIA and, after...