Operation Peter Pan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Operation Peter Pan (Operación Pedro Pan), was an operation coordinated by the United States government, the Roman Catholic Church, and Cuban exiles in which over 14,000 children were brought from Cuba to the United States. It took place between December 26, 1960 and October 23, 1962. The operation was designed to transport the children of parents who opposed the Communist government, and was later expanded to include children of parents concerned by rumors that their children would be shipped to Soviet work camps. [1]

1 The operation
2 Propaganda
3 Aftermath
4 See also
5 External links

An American Catholic priest, Father (later Monsignor) Bryan Walsh liaised with Washington to coordinate visas for the children. Pan Am flights took the children to Miami, Florida, which, in the Operation's jargon, was referred to as "Never-Never Land"; the children became known as the "Peter Pans." The proposals of the operation were that the children were to be joined by their parents within a matter of months.

In 1961, the United States closed its embassy in Cuba in preparation for the Bay of Pigs invasion. In response to the invasion, Cuba reached a deal with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to host nuclear weapons in the country, leading to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. During the crisis, the US government cancelled flights between the two countries; this had a dramatic effect on the operation, reportedly leaving up to eight thousand children in Miami still awaiting their parents.

When it became obvious that the parents would not soon be coming to the United States, the Catholic groups collected the children from Miami camps and dispersed them among orphanages and foster families throughout the country. Some alternate routes were discovered. Parents would fly to a third country (often Mexico or Spain) from Cuba and would have to wait in limbo to obtain a visa that would allow them to travel to the United States. The United Kingdom allowed Cuban children to fly to Jamaica with British visas, then fly directly to the United States. Although Operation Pedro Pan was meant to be a clandestine program, the Cuban government discovered it, but allowed the program to continue.

Many observers and participants of Operation Pedro Pan have speculated that the operation was contrived by the United States to strengthen anti-government actions and activity in Cuba. Cuban radio reportedly made references to fears that the new government would remove children from their parents, one such broadcast in 1960 is said have stated "Cuban mothers, don't let them take your children away! The Revolutionary Government will take them away from you when they turn five and will keep them until they are 18." [2] Professor Maria de los Angeles Torres, herself a "Peter Pan child", attests that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) initiated the visa waver program and deliberately spread the rumors that Cuban children would be taken from their parents by the Cuban government. The CIA has denied this claim. [3]

Nelson P. Valdes, a University of New Mexico sociology professor who left Cuba at 15, said he later became convinced that the airlift was a Washington-concocted plot to drive wealth and knowledge from Cuba. [4]

In 1962, the US government commissioned a documentary film created for the children who came to Miami, called The Lost Apple. The film was anti-communist in nature, explicitly naming Cuban premier Fidel Castro as being responsible for the parents' non-appearance. According to Torres, then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy approved making the documentary as part of the US government’s campaign against Communism. [5]

One of the most famous of the "Peter Pans" was Florida Senator Mel Martinez. The charitable organization "Operation Pedro Pan Group" was created to help needy children and preserve the history of the Pedro Pan exodus.