Episode 1 The Company

They're dreadfully fond of beheading people here.

The great wonder

is that there's any one left alive.

Ugh!

Ugh!

Ugh!

Perhaps now you will tell us your rank.

My rank...

My rank...

..is go to hell.

Hello. My name is Elizabet.

I am to be your guide.

Outside Spain, this is the largest collection of Coellos in the world.

Is there any truth to the notion that Coello was both influenced by Rubens

but actually stole most of his style and passed it off as his own?

I have heard of the theory, of course.

But to date, there is no evidence to support it.

-You were followed on your way to the museum.

-Who are they?

The Allamvedelmi Hatosag - what the Hungarians call the AVH.

-AVH Secret Police.

-You're not Hungarian?

No, I'm English. My husband was Hungarian.

I saw the AVH men through my office window,

a car and at least three people on foot.

It must be standard procedure for them to keep tabs on foreigners.

We're going out a way out the AVH doesn't seem to watch.

What happens when the Hungarian Secret Police realises

I'm not coming out the front door after the museum closes?

They're scared of their superiors, so they shan't report you missing.

They'll simply go back to your hotel and wait for you there.

We've seen it many times before.

So what's an English girl doing mixed up in a Hungarian uprising?

I'm doing this because of my husband.

-How does Arpad Zelk feel about his wife being an operative in the resistance?

-I'm not married to Arpad.

I married another Hungarian.

He was interrogated by the AVH two years ago.

He didn't survive.

I'm sorry.

He and Arpad shared a prison cell together.

One night, the guards brought my husband back to the cell.

He'd been beaten to within an inch of his life.

Arpad couldn't save him - he just had to sit there and watch him bleed to death on a cold stone floor.

When he was released, Arpad came to tell me everything.

I didn't... I didn't mean to pry.

Of course you did.

You're an agent of the CIA.

Jack McCauliffe, let me introduce you to Arpad Zelk.

It's an honour to meet such a distinguished poet.

As I compose my poems in Hungarian,

my distinction resembled that of a bird

chirping at the top of his lungs in a soundproof cage.

My friends, fighters in the resistance.

Please, sit down, Mr McCauliffe.

Magyar Torkoly. A brandy made from the skins of grapes after they've been crushed to make wine.

Egeszegedre.

Cheers. Egeszegedre.

And now, if you please, Mr McCauliffe,

what message do you bring to us from the United States of America?

HE CLEARS HIS THROAT

-My superiors would like you to postpone your uprising.

-How long?

Somewhere between a year and 18 months.

The United States cannot be drawn into a war with the Soviet Union.

We need more time.

Radio Free Europe has spoken endlessly in its broadcasts about rolling back communism.

-We have been listening.

-Radio Free Europe is not an organ of the United States government.

If you please, who pays for Radio Free Europe?!

Mr McCauliffe, let me try to explain what life is like in Hungary.

We live in a country sick with what we call... ..Esengofrasz?

Doorbell fever.

Everybody lives in terror that the AVH will ring their bell at midnight

and take them away for questioning or torture.

Hungarian people will no longer live in fear of their own government,

fear that their children might be taken away, their parents, brothers and sisters, never to return.

Your people will listen to you.

You have influence.

No, you don't understand. You don't understand!

I cannot postpone what will happen any more than I can control it!

Two Soviet tank units have been observed 40 miles outside Budapest.

They could be here in an hour.

Russia needs your country for their ballistic missiles if they're

to menace NATO's southern flank in Italy and Greece.

They will be forced to intervene.

Thucydides wrote that

three things push men to war...

honour, fear,

and self-interest.

If we go to war, for Hungarians it will be a matter of honour and fear.

We cling to the view that America will be motivated by self-interest.

This is not a river of hatred, of revolt, this is a waterfall of emotion.

Why are you helping him?

Let's say, Mr McCauliffe, your wife was taken from you in the middle of the night.

I don't have a wife.

But you've been in love, surely?

Let's say your love was taken from you in the middle of the night.

And when you asked why they were doing this, they said that she was an enemy of the people.

And what if your three-year-old daughter was taken from you...

because they said you were no longer fit to raise her? What would you do?

Where's your daughter now?

THUNDER RUMBLES

I am forbidden to see her for more than one day per year.

She lives in the countryside on a collective farm.

She's eight-years-old now.

It's been 206 days since I last saw her.

We intervene in Hungary, we risk starting something that can't be stopped.

I don't like staring into the barrel of a gun.

We're talking about a future more insidious than fascism, Allen.

The Soviets are too vested in Hungary to back down if we assist with the revolution.

They'll have to crush it, and then we'll be responsible for starting World War Three.

If we don't take a stand here,

we run the risk of dividing the world into two halves.

The one half communist, the other half democratic.

And we may never be able to penetrate the iron curtain once it's slammed shut.

This is the one that made him famous.

It's called "E for Ertelmisgei" which means "Intellectual in Hungarian."

When he was released from prison, he was 29-years-old,

and this poem had been passed from hand to hand, until half of Hungary seemed to know it by heart.

CROWD LAUGHS

CROWD JOINS IN

BELL RINGS I'd like to discuss a very promising proposition for two champions.

Those who do not want to enter this world can leave now, without embarrassment.

For those who choose to stay,

welcome to the company.

THUD! Ugh!

You are an employee of the American Central Intelligence Agency, a member of

the Soviet Russia Division in Mr Frank Wisner's Directorate for Operations.

Since 1952 you have worked in Berlin under the guidance of Harvey Torriti.

You must have me confused with somebody else.

Perhaps now you will tell us your rank.

My rank...

HE COUGHS

..is go to hell.

Bring him.

SHE SCREAMS

NO!

NO!

My name is Jack McCauliffe.

I'm an officer of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. My pay grade is GS-15.

No-ooooo!

-And what message did your government bring Arpad Zelk?

-Leave her alone and I'll tell you!

-What message did you bring from the Americans?

-NO!

What message did you bring Arpad?

The message was...

..if you choose to revolt,

the United States government will lend

its full and complete support...including...

its full military might.

Jim, if we are not here to protect the world

from despots and dictators, then shoot me now, because my life's work's for nothing.

Well, Frank, subtlety and patience is far more lethal to the communists than blunt force.

We're here because one of our own is in trouble.

The Hungarian government has officially denied any knowledge of Jack McCauliffe's whereabouts.

The Secret Police have him locked up. We have to push harder!

You sent him in without diplomatic immunity.

Can't claim to want a man back that you supposedly never sent in there in the first place.

Jim, he's a colleague of yours.

Are you that cold? You'd just let him rot in some communist prison?

-Jack knew the risks of the mission.

-Regardless, he's an American citizen.

To go hat in hand to the Hungarians and ask for our man back is not an idea I'm willing to entertain.

We can come down hard if they're snatching Americans up off

the streets of Budapest?! We've got to act, Allen!

-Or we wait.

-Doing nothing isn't much of a plan to put into effect.

Mr Kritzky, I'm not sure I've heard your voice in this room before.

I'm not sure I like it.

Jack has made a lot of sacrifices for the company.

-Leaving a man in the cold isn't something I'm going to keep quiet about.

-Kritzky's right.

We're not going to let one of our agents rot in prison.

OK, well, it's the Russians who are behind it, of course.

If the KGB sneezes, it's the AVH that catches the cold.

We're getting nowhere with the Hungarian secret police.

On the other hand, the KGB does have a vested interest in preserving

the modus vivendi between two intelligence services.

So how should we approach the KGB?

Well, I've got a hunch that Mr Kritzky already has a plan.

The Sorcerer can contact his KGB counterpart in Berlin and point out

the disadvantages to both sides if they allowed their

satellite countries to start taking scalps.

ENGINE ROARS OVERHEAD

So, Oskar... You don't if I call you Oskar, do you?

You've never thought about defecting, have you?

Torriti, for this you bring me out in the freezing cold?

Ooh, don't loose your water, chum, I'm just pulling your leg.

Man, you Russian's oughta lighten up a little bit.

Maybe get laid once in a while.

No, the only reason I mention defection is because I'm concerned about your family.

-What about my family?

-Well, suppose you kick the bucket, Oskar.

Would your family get a pension?

If you are threatening me, I must inform you there are

two sharpshooters with your head in their telescopic sights.

Well, if I don't make it off the ice, Oskar, you can bet your ass you won't make it off either.

ENGINES ABOVE

I'm concerned what would happen to your family if we start killing each other off.

By "we" I mean the KGB and the CIA.

After all, we're not mafia clans, we're civilized organizations

who happen to be on either side of a divide, and we don't see eye to eye on things like...

..you know, what makes free elections free, and not being afraid of being woken up

in the middle of the night and dragged off to some Siberian labour camp, that kind of thing.

We must be careful to - well, that is your KGB and my CIA - not to hurt each other's people.

AEROPLANE ENGINE DROWNS SPEECH As far...

As far as I know, we are not hurting any CIA people.

You don't know very far because one of my people's in your custody right now.

But I am given regular updates of all activities in Moscow and Berlin.

This particular person fell off our radar screens, hasn't been seen for two days in Budapest.

Ah, Hungary! HE CHUCKLES

I'm afraid that complicates matters, Harvey. The Hungarian AVH is completely autonomous.

Autonomous, my ass.

The KGB runs the AVH, like it runs every other intelligence service in eastern Europe.

You KGB guys take a crap, the AVH flushes the toilet.

Oskar, what would happen if

I were to reach inside my jacket now, pull out my handgun,

and shove it up against your Stalin-loving Russki-gut?

THEY LAUGH

I would say it would be a form of suicide.

Looks like your sharpshooters lost their competition of hide and seek against my crew.

HE COCKS GUN Harvey...!

-How would you like a new blow hole, Oskar?

-REPLIES IN RUSSIAN

-GUN CLICKS

-Aw, damn.

-I forgot to load it.

-REPLY IN RUSSIAN

Anything happens to my guy, Oskar, I'm loading this gun and I'm coming after you.

-SHOUTS IN RUSSIAN

-My guy doesn't come back, your wife starts collecting your pension!

WATER SPLASHES

SHOUTS FROM OUTSIDE

CROWD CHANTS

Let me begin by expressing my regret at the -

what shall I call it -

the zeal with which some of my Hungarian colleagues questioned you.

You handled yourself admirably under interrogation.

Even under duress, you stuck with your story.

There's no story.

The United States government will stop your tanks at the border.

Our courtesy extended to you does not apply to the English national

who was taken into custody the same night as you.

She told us everything that was said in the meeting between yourself and Arpad Zelk.

We know the truth.

Where is she?

She continues to be interrogated.

My Hungarian colleagues are hoping to put their hands on Arpad Zelk before the...

..the demonstrations in the city grow any larger.

EXPLOSION OUTSIDE

LOUD SHOUTS FROM CROWD

GLASS SMASHES

That's not what I'd call demonstrations.

That's a full fledged revolution going on.

THEY SHOUT

TYRES SQUEAL

GUN SHOTS

I'm an American! Don't shoot! I was their prisoner! Don't shoot!

Don't shoot, I was their prisoner! Don't shoot!

GUN SHOTS

-Where is Elizabet?

-She's still inside.

SOLDIERS CRY OUT

Elizabet?

SHE SOBS

Jack, I think I told them who you were.

It's over now. It's over.

SHE PLEADS

-I have information that could be of help to your Central Intelligence Agency.

-How did you know I was CIA?

How did you know I worked for Wisner? That I was in Berlin with Karidi?

Take me into your custody.

Protect me from them and I will tell you everything.

I think you're outta luck, buddy.

You have a mole in your CIA!

That is how I know. The mole.

-Who?

-I can give you information that you can surely use to find out his identity.

If he's telling the truth, he has information that could be vital to the CIA.

I can help you, McCauliffe! Protect me! Protect me! Protect me! Protect me!

HE GIVES OUT A LONG CRY, THEN GUN SHOT

NEWSREEL: Hatred, smouldering for a decade, erupts without warning,

the flames of liberty and revenge against tyranny leap high.

With uncontrolled fury, crowds set fire to Russian flags and put Soviet books to the torch.

The Red Star is sent tumbling into the gutter.

Budapest is in revolt.

Word comes of shooting on the other side of the city, and the rebels, armed now, run to the scene.

GUNFIRE

A quiet park has become a no-man's land.

They are showing the world that freedom is worth dying for.

You know how to drive a tractor?

-I could try.

-Good, then you can try to drive that.

Elizabet!

GUNFIRE

Fire!

-SOLDIER PLEADS

-After years of being "comrades", we have suddenly become "citizens."

Arpad! Arpad, listen to me. You've got to take back control or you're going to force the Soviet's hand.

You stop now and you can still negotiate.

-No negotiation.

-They'll destroy you. and everything you fought for

unless you take control and stop the killing.

You think you can have half a revolution, one without bloodshed?

The Russians will not invade, for the same reason they didn't invade Yugoslavia.

They know our young people are ready to die for the revolution, and they

will take a lot of young Russian soldiers with them.

You're asking me to control years of oppression, torture and terror.

I couldn't stop it even if I wanted to.

Firing!

For God's sake, Arpad, take these people prisoner!

No negotiation.

If we're the only country sending supplies to Austria, the Hungarians are gonna wish they'd never left.

10,000 beds set up in shelters all across Vienna won't be enough.

ENGINE SPLUTTERS

-What the hell is that, Frank?

-It's from McCauliffe!

From Jack? Read it!

"Freedom fighters under-supplied against T-34 tanks

"Will fight to death for their cause.

"Urge powers that be to back up Hungarians. McCauliffe."

HE LAUGHS

You're gonna have to convince Cockroach Alley to help the Hungarians on your own, Frank.

We promised these people that we would support them.

We've got to send in troops to back them up!

Ike is absolutely adamant about not sending in troops or tanks to help the Hungarians.

Most of these revolutionaries,

they're students.

-Kids, Allen!

-We know we're not sending in tanks, but do the Russians need to know that?

Yes. If the Russians believe the United States is sending

air cover and tanks, that could give the Hungarians just the amount of time they need to hold out.

Outlast the Russians, maybe.

If that's the best we can do...

Start radio traffic.

Make sure the Soviets are listening.

PHONE RINGS

Hello...?

Sasha.

TAPPING AT THE DOOR

LOUDER KNOCK AT DOOR

Da?

GUN FIRE IN DISTANCE

GUN SHOTS

GUNFIRE

SCREAMING

Jack! come this way. I know a way out, come!

Through this alley way, I know a way to Kilian barracks!

Stone walls, three metres thick!

Where is America now, huh? Huh?!

It's over, isn't it?

It won't be over for Arpad until he is dead.

Until everyone is dead.

Are you willing to die for this?

Why do you care, Jack?

You can go back to the CIA, to America.

This isn't even your country!

But it's my daughter's country!

And I'll fight for her freedom, for her future

so that she doesn't have to live in fear of imprisonment, of torture.

And I'll stand at her father's side to do that.

RUMBLING

Here's another one. "Mongolian units searching neighbourhoods block by block, house by house,

"hunting for ringleaders of rebellion."

"Thousands of freedom fighters being thrown into boxcars and carried off in the direction of the Ukraine."

They're putting people into concentration camps.

Here's one from the Associated Press correspondent in Budapest.

"Under heavy machine gunfire, any news about help? Quickly, no time to lose."

Maybe you should get some shut-eye, sir. You haven't slept in days.

This is from a Hungarian reporter. "SOS. Fighting very close now.

"Don't know how long we can resist.

"Rumours circulating that American troops will be here within one or two hours.

"Is it true?"

Kritzky, this country isn't being overrun.

It's being exterminated.

ARTILLERY FIRE

MACHINE-GUN FIRE

-We are seconds away from a shell coming through that window and killing everybody!

-I know!

I will negotiate our surrender.

GUNSHOT

SHE SCREAMS

SHE CRIES OUT FURIOUSLY

Come with me. Come! Come!

But it's as good as cold-blooded murder, Allen.

Murder!

For six years - six years!

- we encouraged the Hungarians and the surrounding Soviet satellite countries

to rebel against the Russian chokehold.

We sent countless messages across Radio Free Europe,

spent millions creating covert capabilities for just such an occasion.

-I know, Frank.

-Stockpiled arms across Europe.

Trained emigres by the thousands. And what do we do?

We offer damn pious phrases from Eisenhower.

"The heart of America goes out to the people of Hungary."

We told these people to rise up and break free of their Communist chains

-and now we're turning our backs on them!

-Calm yourself, Frank.

'Mr Director, I wish to state for the record

'that everyone in this room... Hell, everyone in Washington itself,

'is culpable in the deaths of these freedom fighters.

'We will, all of us,

'have blood on our hands.'

I tried to warn you, Frank.

It's your methods that brought us to this place.

You know, despite your personality, I have respect for you, James.

But I hope you're wrong.

I hope to God we never have to see the world through your cynical eyes.

There you go.

There! It's Jack!

Jack!

You made it.

How are you feeling?

They gave me something for the pain.

Still don't see why I have to lie on this bed.

You've been through a hell of a lot.

Just rest.

It wasn't supposed to end this way.

I read through the notes of the debriefing team in Vienna

and I'm particularly interested in your suspicions regarding a mole in The Company.

The AVH colonel who interrogated me,

he knew that I was assigned to Frank Wisner's Operations Directorate,

that I was in the DDO's Soviet Russia Division.

He knew that I'd worked in the Berlin station, that I worked under Torriti.

I believe there is a mole.

I believe it is the same Sasha who gave you up to the Russians,

who in turn then informed the Hungarian secret police.

The Wiz is retiring, Jack.

I didn't know that.

Hungary broke them.

Apparently, he feels personally responsible for the deaths of thousands

and no-one can dissuade him from this idea.

ELECTRIC SURGE

Can't keep up with you any more.

That desk job's got you soft.

I've been meaning to tell you...

..how sorry I am about Hungary.

What Ike did was wrong. He should have supported the rebels.

That's already yesterday's news.

With that stuff at the Suez Canal, nobody remembers Hungary.

Nobody'll remember what happened in Budapest.

It'll go down as a footnote in history.

-You don't know that.

-Sure I do.

So do you, Leo. Let's row.

Have someone bring me the 424 file on Jack McCauliffe, please.

Mr McCauliffe? I welcome you to the rear end of the planet Earth.

Humidity, 100%, mosquito population in the billions.

Malaria is a problem, as is Chagas disease and dengue fever.

So, where'd you learn to speak English so well?

Fort Benning, Georgia.

Advanced course in infantry tactics.

I understand you've been training your troops for some time.

Cuban kids learning to strip M-1s and put them back together again blindfolded.

The mortar teams learning to bracket their targets.

Me, all of us, we're in this thing for keeps.

We are going to win

or we are going to die.

My orders are to act as a clearing house between you and Washington.

You tell me your problems and I'll send along the ones that need solutions.

First, the CIA has to screen the recruits better in Miami before they get here.

Last week, I got a man who is a convicted murderer

and a retarded kid who thinks Castro is a brand of sofa.

Once they're here, we can't send them back because they know we exist.

All right. Screen recruits, got you.

SOLDIERS CHANT IN THE BACKGROUND

I was promised portable showers but they never came.

Your military advisers and Mr McCauliffe are washing in the swimming pool.

They put up a sign saying "Officers Only".

My men have nowhere to wash.

If we're gonna be working together, you better start calling me Jack.

OK, Jack.

Data suggests 75-80% of Cuban army personnel disagree with Castro's political system

so the officers are ready to rebel and bring their troops with them.

Now, on the march to Havana,

they will grow in number, picking up disgruntled Cuban military and non-military personnel.

By the time they get to Havana, they'll be large enough to scare Castro out of Cuba.

We estimate the invading brigade will double in size in four days,

at which point they will break out of the beachhead.

And if they can't break out?

They'll take to the Sierra Maestra and go guerrilla, like Castro and Che Guevara did.

What about Castro? I don't see him rolling over so easily.

We have other plans on that end, Allen.

My father-in-law, who is tight with Truman and Ike, mentioned to me over the weekend

that he knows something is up with Cuba and even mentioned Trinidad Beach.

Now, if Phil Swett knows where we're landing, then other people probably do too.

It might be time to start looking for a new landing site.

Yeah, start looking, Kritzky.

Look at these men!

Proud fighters, ready to storm the beaches to take back their homeland.

-Thanks to you, Jack, they will do it with honour.

-Thanks to me?

Many of these men left the only world they ever knew.

They have not felt part of something in a very long time.

Roberto, America will supply you with B-26s.

We'll train your pilots, we'll give you a lifetime supply of M-1 ammo.

We will help you covertly, not overtly.

You have to do the rest.

Still serving the cheap stuff, Kritzky. Just how I like it.

My pay grade doesn't allow me to get anything better.

Dick Bissell is setting up a general capability within The Company known as "Executive Action".

Its prime objective is to disable foreign leaders.

Disable or disappear?

Sometimes one, sometimes the other.

The plan has changed with Castro.

-At first they wanted him disabled or discredited.

-And now?

Exactly. The boys who were previously in charge of this operation

weren't the sharpest tools in the shed.

-The kind of people who move their lips when they read.

-You guys don't do that?

If I told you about some of their plots...

Tell me, so I don't make the same mistakes.

One plan placed an asset at the hotel that Castro was known to frequent.

The asset was to dust Fidel's boots with thallium salts to make his beard fall out.

But he never put his boots out to be shined.

Another one was to somehow foul the ventilation system in Castro's broadcasting studio with LSD

and the idea was that he would start slurring his words

and ramble on during one of his marathon orations to the Cuban people.

But, the only person who was affected was the poor lab rat

who volunteered to see if it worked.

Dusting his wetsuit with fungus spores that would give him a chronic skin disease.

Planting an explosive device in a rare seashell where Castro liked to dive.

BOOM! He's chicken of the sea.

Filling his underwater breathing apparatus with tuberculosis.

Just shoot the bastard.

Our assets in Cuba say everyone is living in fear of Castro's secret police chief, Pineiro.

The entire country is dropping dimes on one another.

People are disappearing in the night.

Has to be something where the person we recruit can get away safely.

-That's where you come in.

-Don't worry.

Bissell's "Executive Action" plan is in safe hands.

TRANSLATED FROM RUSSIAN:

Over angry Cuban protests, the United States retaliates by cutting off its imports of Cuban sugar.

Castro seizes more Unites States property.

The Unites States and Cuba have reached the point of no return.

In Washington, the administration is now convinced

it is in the United States' national interest to get rid of Fidel Castro.

Bang!

You just won a one-way trip to spy heaven.

What's that all about, Harvey?

Mother is ruining The Company with his damn suspicions.

-News to me.

-A lot of good people have been passed over for promotion

because they're on Angleton's short list of possible moles.

They are all going over to the private sector.

Let's get back to reality, huh?

Our Cosa Nostra associates.

These jokers have nothing to lose by helping the agency, Harvey.

Rosselli and Giancana help knock off Castro.

Now, whether they succeed or not, whether they even try or not,

gives them immunity against prosecution with the Attorney-General, Bobby Kennedy.

I don't want a paper trail on this.

No memos. I don't even want a phone call.

You set up a slush fund of cash to work with and we never speak together in public again.

Johnny Rosselli.

I hope the last-minute switch in the meet didn't piss you off, but I like Brooklyn better than Manhattan.

It's good tradecraft.

-What's tradecraft?

-Taking precautions.

Oh, precautions.

Precautions.

Precaution is how come I'm still alive.

So, Mr Rosselli, how's business since you lost the Sans Souci casino in Havana?

Well, it's not nearly as good as it was before the Cubans went Commie!

I take it you'd like to see the Communists gone?

Evaporated from the planet would be better.

I don't understand Commies.

I mean, what the hell they got against free enterprise?

CAR ENGINE BACKFIRING, SOUNDING LIKE GUNSHOTS

Bang, bang!

You just won a one-way trip to birdy heaven.

What if I told you the interests I represent would be willing

to open a discussion about removing your problem in Cuba?

Ha-ha!

You want the Cosa Nostra to knock off Castro, eh?

My orders come from the very top.

Casinos opening up, tourists flooding in.

I'm as patriotic as the next guy.

If whacking Castro is good for my country, it's good enough for me.

Hold it! Don't move, Eugene.

Don't move!

Now why did you hesitate, why didn't you go upstairs?

A sign, huh? Well, you know what, there's nowhere to run.

All right? Cos we know everything.

Your buddy Max Kahn is all locked up.

Now, lose the groceries. Get your hands on your head.

OK. Inside of this bag there are components for nitroglycerine.

Now, if I drop the bag, they might find one of our pinkies...

-Get your damn hands on your head.

-OK.

-Get your damn hands on your...

Hold it! He's on the move!

He's on Wisconsin, moving toward 34th! He's on foot!

Hold it!

-Forget your shoe, buddy?

-Yeah. I sort of ran away from an angry girlfriend.

BUS DRIVER LAUGHS

You know what I miss?

Cuban freakin' cigars.

Now, that is reason enough to whack the son of a bitch.

So how do you see this hit?

I imagine some of your associates might waylay Mr Castro and gun him down.

I don't see using guns on Castro, for the simple fact that no-one pulling off the hit could get away

with all them bodyguards or whatever around.

How do you see it?

Castro likes milkshakes.

-Milkshakes.

-Now he always offers to pay for them milkshakes,

but nobody never takes his money.

Someone could, say, spike his milkshake and escape by sea in a fast boat.

It might work.

"Might work"? It's golden, pal.

You give me the right poison,

I'll get someone in Havana to put it in Castro.

These are U2 photographs taken yesterday of the Bay of Pigs.

It's a 13-mile stretch of beach.

As you can see, there's three causeways leading down from the swamps.

If the invasion force is gonna succeed, they have to secure those causeways.

The air strip is a godsend.

It's long enough to handle B-26s.

Air strikes could plausibly look Cuban from D-Day onward.

Once we secure the beaches, then planes could take off from that air strip.

Castro's troops?

Around 100 militiamen from the 338th Militia Battalion in five barracks, one motor pool and a radio shack.

-No armour, no artillery.

-And if the brigade needs to fall back?

If push comes to shove, Kennedy'll have to send in the cavalry.

Sir, Kennedy specifically told Director Dulles

he would never authorise overt American intervention.

Let me tell you something, Kritzky.

You wanna be a great president, you gotta to be a wartime president. Kennedy will back the rebels.

You mark my words.

Hello, Gene Lutwidge.

KNOCK ON DOOR

What can we do for you, Mr Toretti?

Torriti.

You can get me an Alka-Seltzer.

Oh, my, do you have an upset stomach?

No, I want you to arrange for someone else to have an upset stomach.

-How upset do you want this person's stomach to become?

-I'd like their stomach to stop functioning.

Which would suggest you don't want to give anyone time to pump his stomach.

You got it, doc.

No, no, no. I'm afraid an Alka-Seltzer's far too big.

The smaller it is, the easier to slip it into a liquid without anyone noticing.

-You do want the perpetrator to get away with the crime, I take it?

-That would be a good idea.

-Timetable?

I was thinking...

hurrying but not rushing.

That's nicely put. The hustle without the bustle.

The haste without the waste. Would that everyone in the CIA function the way you do, Mr Torretti.

-Torriti.

-Rapido, rapido.

We have to take precautions. This line is unsecured.

'I have some very interesting news for Starik that can't wait for dead drops.

'You're going to have to remember what I tell you, then encode it and send it immediately.'

-What's the news?

-'It's about a certain island-nation

'south of Florida.'

D-Day minus two.

So far, so good, Jack.

-What's your problem now?

-When is the last time you heard of a troop ship going into combat

crammed with 1,000 tons of ammunition below deck?

Jack, Castro only has 16 operational warplanes.

Our B-26s are going to destroy them on the ground long before we hit the beaches.

I hope you're right.

I know why I'm here.

I know why my boys are here.

But why are you here?

I was assigned, Roberto.

I heard you volunteered.

Why?

As a friend of mine once said,

the damn Goths are at the damn gate.

And someone's gotta man the gate.

And that someone is you, Jack?

Why not?

The invasion of Cuba is clearly a violation of several treaties, as well as American law,

which specifically prohibits enlistment and/or recruitment for foreign military expeditions,

as well as the outfitting of foreign naval vessels

for service against a country with which we are not at war.

In my view, Senator Fulbright, success is self-legitimising.

It legitimised Castro when he seized control.

It legitimised the founding fathers. I've always taken it for granted

that Washington and Jefferson would have been hanged as traitors

if the revolution had failed.

The United States is eternally condemning Moscow

for meddling in the internal affairs of sovereign countries.

Intervention in Cuba now will open the door for Soviet intervention anywhere around the world.

The Soviets are already intervening in many countries in the world, senator.

All right. No matter how Cuban the operation is made to appear, the entire planet will hold

the United States and the Kennedy administration accountable for it.

Are you speaking...

for the President?

No. But I am advising him strongly to end this madness before it starts.

If Cuba is so dangerous to the national interests, we should declare war and send in the marines.

The ships are already at sea, senator.

It's already begun.

'Six weeks after the secret meeting at the White House,

'Fidel Castro has publicly charged that the United States

'is training an army to invade Cuba.'

Now, planes from the aircraft carrier Essex, patrolling the airways between Cuba and the invasion fleet,

have seen no indication of increased air or sea activity on the part of Castro's forces.

Sir, we have new information here...

312th Cuban Battalion stationed off the Isle of Pines has cancelled all liberty leaves until further notice.

Could just be part of the general manoeuvres.

It worries me.

I have to be honest, Dick. Every time we see a detail

that would appear to warn us off the invasion,

we somehow manage to explain it away.

It's a blind spot we seem to have.

You have a suggestion, Ebby?

We may have to stop looking at the details,

and see if the entire operation itself isn't flawed.

I agree.

Castro will not scare off the way Arbenz did in Guatemala because...

we decide to land a brigade of emigres on one of his beaches. He's made of tougher...

stuff than that. Everyone in this room continues...

to try to find reasons to pursue this foolishness.

Yet no one will ask the bigger question.

Should we even carry out this operation?

And the worst of it?

The world will see this folly for exactly what it is. A CIA operation,

start to finish.

The Company is supposed to steal secrets

and then analyse the bejesus out of them.

Using the Company to do covertly what the government...

doesn't quite frankly have the balls to do overtly

will make it much more difficult for us to collect intelligence.

What business do we have to mount an invasion of a country

just because the Kennedys are pissed off at the guy who runs it?

Don't we have an army and a navy for that?

An air force? Marines?

If this invasion fails,

it will cripple the Company for years to come.

Ridding the hemisphere of Castro,

freeing the Cuban people from the oppression of Communism, is clearly legitimate.

You're forgetting one thing, Dick.

Sasha.

Oh, right. Your mole.

As long as Sasha exists, and he does exist, Dick...

..valuable information is being funnelled directly to our adversary, which means the Kremlin knows.

Which means...

Castro knows.

Ahem.

You know who I am, Arturo?

-You are Manuel Pineiro.

-You know my job?

My position in the Government?

Si.

Head of Castro's secret policia.

I have a difficult job.

It's hard to make friends.

It's good to...to know each other.

Hopefully, you and I can be friends.

For I already know much about you.

And your cousin's fishing boat, which he keeps at the port.

My cousin's boat is of no concern to me, senor.

Tsk, tsk, Arturo.

Friends do not lie to each other.

Empty your pockets, amigo.

How much were you paid to assassinate Fidel Castro?

I swear on the grave of my mother, I know nothing of this.

Who gave you your orders?

I received no orders, senor!

I swear this on the Bible!

The Bible?

These questions I ask you, Arturo Padron, they are rhetorical.

Do you know this word, rhetorical?

You know what it means?

It means you already know the answers.

Perhaps you would be so kind as to drink Senor Castro's milkshake?

Don't you like milkshakes?

Perhaps vanilla is not your flavour?

Since you are so keen on tossing around the good book,

perhaps you may remember one of my most beloved passages from the Bible.

"Woe unto that man by whom the son of man is betrayed!

"It had been good for that man

"if he had not been born."

Drink.

Agh! Agh!

First, I want to say that there will not be, under any conditions,

an intervention in Cuba by United States Armed Forces.

This government will do everything it possibly can,

and I think it can...

meet its responsibilities to make sure that

there are no Americans involved in any actions.

250 metres!

250 metres!

150 metres!

150 metres!

100 metres!

100 metres!

LOUD CRASH

We hit a reef! SHOUTING AND COMMOTION

Give me a knife!

-We're 50 metres off shore!

-He's dead!

We're afloat here!

GUNFIRE

Hombre...at last.

'This here's Whistlestop. Combat information centre reports,

'Castro still has operational aircraft.

'Expect y'all gonna be hit soon. Unload all troops and supplies, and take your ships to sea ASAP.'

What about air cover we're supposed to have over the beach?

'Combat information central has a sighting from one of our Seahawks.

'Enemy battalion, estimated 900 men,

'repeat, 900 men spotted approaching the middle causeway.

'One pilot counted 60, say, 60 vehicles,

'and a dozen Stalin Three tanks.'

He's onshore? I want his ass back on that boat, now!

What about Kennedy's promise of air support?

It was only to strafe Castro's air force planes on the ground.

Reports are saying there's as many as a half dozen of Castro's Sea Fury aircraft still operational.

They'll be sitting ducks.

Take cover!

So the units that are blocking the causeways had to retreat.

And now Castro's tanks have rolled unchallenged to within firing distance of the two landing beaches.

-Casualties are heavy.

-How many?

-100 dead, twice that wounded.

-Four of the National Guard pilots

who trained the Cubans in Guatemala took matters into their own hands.

They flew a sortie in two B-26s.

Both planes were shot down over Cuba.

Kennedy must authorise jets to fly combat missions over the beaches.

-He absolutely refuses.

-It would take them all of 45 minutes to clean up the causeways, Allen!

I've just come from the Oval Office. Kennedy said he will not commit

American armed forces into combat to save this mission.

Then everybody on that beach is as good as dead.

I'm aware of that, Dick.

Take him! Here.

Get them all off the beach!

Get the men off the beach!

OK, come on.

Jack, my men are going to be massacred in a matter of minutes!

Where's the damn air cover?

Grow a pair of balls, Bissell.

Go over Dulles' head. Go over the President's head if you have to!

This isn't some recon flight you can just bury in a report, Harvey.

It's the invasion of a damn country!

I'd be out on my ass forever.

-Maybe thrown in prison.

-Dick, please.

Jack is dead unless we get him some air cover now.

Whistlestop, need air cover!

Beach is compromised. Repeat, need air cover! Whistlestop...

do you copy? Whistlestop, need air cover!

Get your ass out of here, Jack!

-You can't help us any more.

-Damn it, Roberto, I'll leave when everyone leaves!

Jack, we don't need America's help any more!

Castro will capture you.

He'll tell the world we were led by American officers.

-He'll tell the world my men died for America, not for Cuba!

-I'm not leaving, Roberto!

I'll kill you myself before I let you fall into their hands alive!

I swear to you! I'll kill you!

I mean it, Jack! I'll blow your damn head off!

You'll just be another body floating in the surf.

They'll never know who you were!

Go, Jack! Go, now!

I'm sorry.

Don't take away our dignity.

It's the last thing we've got.

Vamanos!

Carpet Bagger, come in.

Carpet Bagger, this is Whistlestop.

Carpet Bagger, do you read?

Carpet Bagger.

This is Whistlestop...

Carpet Bagger, come in! Carpet Bagger...

Carpet Bagger, do you read?

At 3:45pm, Wednesday April 19th,

resistance ends.

All those who are not killed are taken prisoner.

In less than 72 hours, Castro has destroyed the brigade.

The American-planned financed, trained

and backed invasion of Cuba is now a total failure.

Oh, Jack.

Leo says you've been through hell.

Yeah, Adelle...I have.

It's a week's salary, so...

enjoy it.

Castro's conducting sham trials.

They'll be executing Roberto and dozens of his men within weeks.

Half of them aren't even 20 years old. They're just kids.

I know, buddy.

I'm sorry.

I'm turning in my resignation tomorrow, Leo.

No, you are not!

Want to let you know before I went to the Director.

Oh, yeah?

What are you gonna do without the Company?

Private sector.

Pays better.

-People you know don't die.

-Hey...

we set out to change the world, remember?

Listening to the recruitment speech, we were sitting on the edge of our seats, you and me.

Am I still on the edge of my seat, Leo?

-Are you?

-You're a true believer. You can't help it.

I'm not so sure.

The Distinguished Intelligence Medal is one of the Agency's highest honours,

awarded today to Jack J McCauliffe for courage above and far beyond the call of duty.

Jack McCauliffe, on behalf of the Company, I...

We want to thank you for your...

bravery, your loyalty, and unquestionable patriotism.

Please remember the Cuban rebel soldiers.

Remember how we failed them.

So we don't fail the same way again.

-Hear hear.

-SOMEBODY CLAPS

To you, sport!

To you!

You're a hero, Jack!

Jack McCauliffe. He's a damn hero!

That's great, Jack!

Woo! Ha-ha-ha!

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