Lee Swan Island.Indd

Lee Swan Island, its radio history AWA Review including the CIA and the revenge of United Fruit 2010 Bartholomew Lee

ABSTRACT Swan Island, between Honduras and Cuba (Figure 1), amounts to just over three-square Swan Island in the miles of very little: coral, palms and big igua- Caribbean, once a pi- nas. But from the standpoint of radio, it does rate lair, can tell many have “location, location, location” and some related radio stories. It very interesting radio tales to tell. United Fruit shows a century of com- Company used it ﬁ rst as a wireless telegraphy munications technol- relay station circa 1911. In 1960 through 1968, ogy in the real world of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) commerce, geo-politics, used it as a propaganda and clandestine station war and weather. Unit- against Cuba on short wave and in the broadcast ed Fruit Company put band. As Radio Swan, it broadcast anti-Castro Swan Island to work programming and operational messages for as its long wave spark the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. Then wireless relay station for as Radio Americas, it broadcast propaganda its sea-borne commerce to Cuba, all of which was preceded by a little in bananas and sugar. known CIA pirate radio operation on Swan Swan Island thereafter Island in the previous decade. provided an ideal site for researching the Carib- bean hurricanes. In the Cold War, Latin Ameri- can insurgencies sur- rounded Swan Island. In opposing them, the American Central Intel- Fig. 1. Swan Island on the Horizon, c. ligence Agency, with re- 1922, occupied by United Fruit since 1909, markable connections to named after Pirate Captain Charles Swan of the Cygnet in the 17th Century. (Radio Broadcast, Vol. United Fruit, once again 1, No. 1, May, 1922 [1]) put Swan Island to work -- for “black ops” and Real pirates based themselves on Swan Is- propaganda. The CIA land long before radio pirates. Captain Charles enjoyed Swan Island’s Swan, sailing his smuggling ship (and later advantages for nearly outright pirate) Cygnet, visited in the late 17th four decades of covert Century while working for pirate Henry Mor- action. Now, Swan Is- gan. Swan Island is about as far from other land once again provides places as an island in the Caribbean Sea can be. a sunny, peaceful lair The somewhat grandiosely called Grand Island for its big Iguanas, with is the one usable island in a group of three. It is an occasional visit from barely big enough for the small airstrip put in amateur radio opera- for the CIA about 1960. Sea Captain Alonzo Ad- tors. ams originally claimed it for the United States as a guano island, bird guano being a valued fertilizer in the 19th century. The Boston family

Volume 23, 2010 115 Swan Island of Sumner Smith owned the island, each. Today, Latin America exports having acquired it from Captain about 17 million metric tons of ba- Adams. Its central location made nanas a year. it ideal for a relay radio station and United Fruit imported boat- for broadcasting to nearby coun- loads of bananas and considerable tries, as well as for the earlier Ca- sugar from Central American coun- ribbean pirates. See Figures 2 & 3, tries known, in O. Henry’s phrase, for a map of its ocean location and as “banana republics.” As a verti- a map of its minimal geography. cally integrated enterprise, United Bananas are central to Swan Fruit planted the producing trees Island’s radio history. In the early and sugar cane. Then it managed 20th century, bananas had become the plantations for export, and then the fruit of choice, largely as a result it provided the transportation to of promotion by the Boston Fruit American markets. It also opened Company, which evolved into the schools and medical facilities and United Fruit Company and then employed many tens of thousands Chiquita Brands. Only bananas of people. It operated railroads (and oranges) were available year and provided regional communi- round. A “bunch” consists of many cations and transport. It owned “hands” of individual bananas; a million and a half acres of land each banana is a fi nger. “Banan” but cultivated only 365,000 acres, means fi nger in Arabic; early glo- as of 1922, and employed 67,000 balization at work. In 1922, United people in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Fruit asserted that it had imported Cuba, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama 284,000,000 bunches of bananas and the Canary Islands, and in the in the last ten years, and that it did United States. [1] a $10,000,000 a year Latin Ameri- To appreciate the role of Swan can mercantile business. Adjusted Island in intrigue as well as com- for infl ation that is $130,000,000. merce, the United Fruit Company [1] Today, the per capita American should be understood to have had consumption is about 25 pounds three subsidiaries at various times:

Fig. 2. The Caribbean Sea, S w a n I s l a n d (arrow) in its midst, South West of the Caymans and Cuba, North east of Guatemala, enjoying only ‘Location, Location, Location’ (Google Maps) 116 AWA Review Lee tions in nearby countries closer to Guatemala City. The utility and location of Swan Island in the 1954 operation likely made Swan Island the prime candidate for the site of the 1961 operation that became Radio Swan.

SWAN ISLAND AS UNITED Fig. 3. Swan Island, as shown on a current navigational map showing the FRUIT COMPANY’S CENTRAL 1961 airstrip, beacon and structures. WIRELESS RELAY STATION Untoward delay in the distri- 1) the company known as Wire- bution of tropical bananas caused less Specialty Apparatus Company, great loss. Wireless telegraphy Inc.; made itself indispensible at sea, 2) the country known as Gua- circa 1909, (see Figures 4 & 5, Mar- temala; and coni state-of-the-art shore and ship 3) “the company” known as the stations). United Fruit saw its ad- CIA, the United States Central In- vantages for coordinating its exten- telligence Agency. sive “Great White Fleet” of banana The CIA ﬁ rst landed on Swan boats. It could maximize efﬁ ciency Island in 1954, in a little known and provide weather warnings. The episode in the ether wars. It set up range of long-wave spark systems a “black-ops” radio broadcasting was, however, limited. This ne- network including a powerful Swan cessitated relay stations. United Island transmitter, to effect the Fruit created a network of wireless CIA-sponsored overthrow of the stations extending from the inte- elected government in Guatemala riors of the countries hosting its – and it worked, although largely plantations such as Guatemala, to executed by propaganda radio sta- the gulf coast of the United States,

Fig. 4. A wireless telegraphy shore station of the ﬁ rst decade of the 20th century; a spark gap on an induction coil to the right, Leyden jar condensers to the left, clock center, inker for record- ing received signals and in front of it, a coherer detector, and to the left of the Fig. 5. A Marconi ship station (Empress coherer, the tuner for reception. This is of Britain, callsign MPB), tuner to the a reconstruction of the Marconi station left, as reconstructed at the British at Lizard Point, Cornwall, UK; curator Museum. (Photo Bart Lee, 2002) David Barlow. (Photo Bart Lee, 2005).

Volume 23, 2010 117 Swan Island especially Florida and New Orleans off his biography). He then joined and up to Boston. United Fruit the Boston company in 1907. Pick- sited one station on Swan Island. ard invented and developed nu- It had initially leased some of the merous mineral crystal detectors island from Sumner Smith’s Swan for reception of wireless signals, Island Company of Boston to grow and contributed the technology of coconuts. Figure 6. the point contact junction, known United Fruit sought reliable colloquially as the “cat’s whisker.” wireless apparatus in the dawn of Wireless Specialty Apparatus de- the radio age. Good gear was hard tectors and wireless sets, especially to fi nd, and often had to be hand- its IP-501 receivers, were known crafted to specifi cations. Wireless in their day for their reliability, Specialty Apparatus Co., Inc., and are known to this day for their (WSA) was a then “high-tech” com- quality and collectability. pany with an excellent reputation United Fruit bought WSA in and it was conveniently located 1912 so it would have a source of in Boston. One of its principals reliable and increasingly power- was Greenleaf Whittier Pickard, ful radio equipment. See Figure an outstanding Harvard educated 7. United Fruit enjoyed the ad- engineer who had worked for vantages of this equipment at sea American Wireless Telephone and and shoreside. Figure 8. United Telegraph Company briefl y, circa Fruit also took advantage of the 1902, then American Telephone skills and diligence of its corps of and Telegraph Company (AT&T) competent, innovative and clever until 1906, and who then consulted wireless operators. [2] briefl y for Lee de Forest (although he seems to have left that episode

Fig. 7. Cover of a catalog, circa 1922, Fig. 6. Swan Island Boundary Marker of Wireless Specialty Apparatus 1912: “Boundary of Property Leased Company, a Subsidiary of United Fruit to the United Fruit Co Dec 10, 1912” Company; UFCO Steamship Pastores (From Tom Kneitel, Dec., 1985 [8]) is on the cover. (Author’s collection). 118 AWA Review Lee United Fruit soon developed (RCA, beginning in 1919) including one of the earliest successful radio American Marconi, Westinghouse, networks that carried public traffi c General Electric and AT&T, in 1921 as well as its own. See Figure 9 for included United Fruit Company an image of a United Fruit Wire- and its subsidiary WSA in an ex- less frank. As of 1913 the network change of traffi c facilities. became the Tropical Radio and Swan Island had beckoned a Telegraph Company, also head- decade earlier, circa 1909, as an quartered in Boston. ideally centrally situated relay sta- United Fruit so dominated tion site. Swan Island could com- Latin American communications municate with the nearby coun- with state-of-the-art technology tries of Latin America to the West and an integrated radio system and with Cuba to the North East, that the founders of the Radio the Canal Zone to the South and Corporation of America monopoly New Orleans to the North. It could also relay traffi c and especially hurricane and storm warnings to and from Unit- ed Fruit ships at sea and to United Fruit operations West of it. By 1911 Wireless Specialty Ap- paratus spark transmitters sparked away, and very tall antenna masts rose above Grand Swan. United Fruit also had the foresight to em- ploy Edison Cell battery backup power both in its vessels and at its stations. Some of the worst hurricanes on record with winds estimated at 200 knots by reliable observers have battered United Fruit’s commercial region centered on Swan Fig. 8. A United Fruit Company banana boat and its wireless room, circa 1921 (from Radio Broadcast, May, 1922 Island. The bat- [1]) teries proved

Volume 23, 2010 119 Swan Island

Radio Stations: Call Letters: New Orleans, Louisiana WNU Burrwood, Louisiana WBU Fort Morgan, Alabama WIO Swan Island, Caribbean Sea US [United-Swan] Tela, Honduras UC Puerto Castilla, Honduras UA Tegucigalpa, Honduras UG Port Limon, Costa Rica UX Almirante, Panama UB Santa Marta, Colombia UJ

In the days before federal regu- lation and in the unregulated Caribbean, the fi rst letter of a self- Fig. 9. A pre-paid 1912 ‘stamp’ for a assigned callsign often represented UFCO Wireless Service message; in the company, e.g., D for De Forest 1913 this was renamed Tropical Radio Wireless, P for Pacifi c Wireless, Company, which with Wireless Spe- cialty Apparatus became part of RCA and here, U for United Fruit, and in 1919 when it absorbed United Fruit a second letter often related to its Company’s radio operations. (Author’s site. Caribbean stations circa 1912 collection). were: KW at Key West operated by De their worth but ultimately the tall Forest with a two kilowatt spark rig masts always fell down. More than and an audion detector receiver, once, all that was left on Swan Is- M at Havana, Cuba operated land were a few stone or concrete by Marconi with a ten-inch induc- buildings, everything else having tion coil transmitter and a Fleming been fl attened or swept out to sea. Valve receiver, The scale of United Fruit’s ra- TD at Trinidad, Cuba with a dio undertaking may be judged Telefunken ½ KW spark and crys- from the number of stations and tal detector receiver, the high power WSA equipment US at Swan Island operated for that was largely identical in each United Fruit’s Tropical Wireless station. According to a defi nitive Telegraph Company with a one May, 1922 article about United KW spark transmitter and WSA’s Fruit Company and its Wireless Perikon crystal detector but also Network in the fi rst issue of Radio an electrolytic detector. Broadcast magazine (probably Two of the ships of the day were written by United Fruit’s already the tug SS Rescue, callsign RSQ, effective public relations depart- with a Massie Wireless Telegraph ment) [1], the land stations were: Company ten-inch induction coil and crystal detectors, and the ba- Radio Stations UFCO 1922; nana transport SS Olinda, callsign note that callsigns for Central OA, with a United Wireless Tele- American stations start with “U” graph Company half KW spark, for United plus a second letter, and and crystal detectors. [3] These two of three US station’s callsigns vessels may have had radio opera- end in “U”: tors aboard from the companies

120 AWA Review Lee that supplied the equipment such E. Jay Quinby, (Commander, USN, as Massie, just as Marconi opera- Ret.) wrote an exciting, if hyper- tors went to sea on various compa- bolic fictionalized reminiscence nies’ vessels. Marooned in Paradise [3] about Wireless Specialty Apparatus service by wireless man “Jack Fog- Company proudly displayed its gerty” on Swan Island circa 1912, equipment including that installed where the iguanas were said to on Swan Island in its catalogs. Fig- reach fi ve feet in length: ures 10 & 11. The Radio Broadcast “… DAMN the tropics and DAMN article also shows the equipment at Fred Muller back there in Boston work ashore and at sea. Similarly, for talking him into accepting Thomas Edison published an il- this assignment at Swan Island, lustrated promotional “Letter” [4] which he described as a “veritable about the use of his batteries by tropical Paradise in the Caribbean United Fruit’s wireless stations, Sea.” Muller hadn’t mentioned the on ships and on land. See Figures inevitable malaria, the poisonous 12 & 13. vipers, the loathesome [sic] crea- Operations at the inland sta- tures that crawled by night and tions, and island stations such as the clouds of winged pests that Swan Island, initiated, relayed swarmed by day and raised itch- and received a great deal of traf- ing welts to torture a man’s soul fi c. Some of it was distress traffi c hour by hour, day by day, night with lives at stake at sea. During by night.” hurricane season, the lives of the Then, the CQD of the storm-dis- station operators themselves were tressed SS Olinda rouses malaria- at stake. One of the old operators, fevered operator Foggerty (sine JF)

Fig. 10. From the WSA catalog, a 5 KW quenched gap spark transmitter working on Swan Island circa 1920.

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Fig. 11. The WSA catalog’s picture of the Swan Island station and four towers, circa 1920. to action. But then the stormwind to everybody by wireless through- takes down an antenna guywire out the rescue. In the process JF and Jack and a native helper have manages to talk the operator of the to reconnect it in the near hur- Olinda, and old acquaintance, into ricane gales. Then the relay of the replacing him on Swan Island, tell- distress call meets weather chal- ing him that the Swan Island girls lenges before getting to Cuba but are beautiful: “… ask Fred Muller, ﬁ nally reaches the rescue tug SS he will tell you about them.” It’s Rescue out of Key West. SS Rescue quite a story; it rings true. saves the Olinda from the rocks Later operators at Swan Island just in time, with everybody talking may have, at least occasionally, en-

Fig. 12. The Edison Company’s 1915 picture of the UFCO Swan Island station, looking from the North. (Edison promotional “Letter” [4])

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Fig. 13. UFCO’s Swan Island station’s motor –generators working on emergency battery power; from the Edison Company 1915 promotional “Letter” about such battery operation. (Edison promotional “Letter” [4]) joyed the place more … or at least SWAN ISLAND AS WEATHER United Fruit seems to have wanted CENTRAL it to seem that way. See Figure 14. The United Fruit Company wireless operation on Swan Is- land became an ofﬁ cial weather

Fig. 14. Happy Swan Island wireless operators enjoying island duty at the radio station on Swan Island, or so United Fruit would have one believe, above right: “In spite of loneliness and perils, the Swan Island radio men are not always depressed.” Left caption reads; “View of the Radio Station, once the haunt of Buccaneers in the days of the Spanish Main.” (Radio Broadcast, May, 1922 [1])

Volume 23, 2010 123 Swan Island station in 1914. With the coming K8CX, (used here by permission) of vacuum tube CW technology tells the story of the Swan Island after 1920 as well as short wave amateur radio stations and that of point-to-point radio circuits, relay the weather station. [6] One of the stations had little role to play in the more interesting cards, a club sta- Caribbean. Swan Island receded tion [8], plays on the pirate theme. to the background as a hurricane- See Figure 15. observing weather station between In 1946, the FAA had installed a 1928 and 1932. The Weather non-directional navigation beacon Bureau placed observers on Swan radio station for guidance of Carib- Island during the hurricane season bean air traffi c, callsign SWA. [5] in 1938, and more permanently in In 1953 KS4AU’s Swan Island QSL 1940. [5] card (Figure 16) shows affi liation Weather observations became with PAA, Pan American Airlines, increasingly precise, and the hope “on the route of the Flying Clip- of accurately predicting hurricane pers.” Pan Am started out as a paths and strengths provided am- Caribbean air carrier in 1927 and ple justifi cation for research. The became the American national weather stations operated on Swan airline fl ying world-wide. Pan Am Island employed radio links of may have maintained a communi- their own. But many of the weath- cations installation or, inasmuch ermen were also amateur radio as it was a primary user, it may operators. The FCC at fi rst issued have maintained the air naviga- KD4 callsigns, then KS4 callsigns; tional beacon on Swan Island. Swan Island became a very rare DX The 1963 QSL card of W3ZQ/ (distant) entity for amateur radio KS4 (Figure 17) says “site of the operators collecting countries and U.S. Weather Bureau Hurricane jurisdictions contacted over the Upper Air Sounding Station (sup- air. A series of QSL verifi cation ported by FAA communications).” cards collected by Thomas Roscoe, The FAA radio station used the callsign WSG and communi- cated with Mi- ami by radio- teletype. [8] Although weather can be exciting enough in that part of the world, clandestine radio is what really put Swan Island on the historical map.

Fig. 15. Swan Island Amateur Radio Club (according to Tom Kneitel [8]), operator James Takaki, KH6BCB/KS4 in 1968, remembering Captain Swan. Takaki had a Hawaiian call, and had also operated as F7BY, probably also on government service. These QSL card images were collected by Thomas Roscoe, K8CX, http:hamgallery.com; this one KS4CC via K8CX from OE1HGW.

124 AWA Review Lee (NOT SO) COLD WAR RADIO ON SWAN IS- LAND Radio Swan’s role as a CIA anti-Castro station in 1960 before, during and after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, has long been of interest to historians of Fig. 16. “On the Route of the Flying Clippers” “PAA” (Pan geo-politics and American Airways) says KS4AU’s 1953 QSL card. Via historians of ra- K8CX from W8UAS. dio. [7] Radio historian and journalist Tom Phillips. [11] The CIA called its Kneitel, K2AES, wrote extensively campaign PBSUCCESS and the pro- about Swan Island radio [8] as paganda broadcasters called them- early as 1968, the year he visited its selves, in Spanish, The Voice of later Radio Americas incarnation. Liberation, La Voz de Liberacion. But Radio Swan had its origin In Guatemala at the time, Unit- in the astonishingly successful ed Fruit “… functioned as a state 1954 CIA clandestine radio sta- within a state, owning Guatemala’s tions beaming propaganda and telephone and telegraph facilities, more into Guatemala. The sta- administering its only Atlantic har- tion on Swan Island was set up bor, and monopolizing its banana by CIA ofﬁ cers E. Howard Hunt, export” as well as all the railroad later of Watergate fame, [10] and track (887 miles), and it controlled propaganda specialist David Atlee 40,000 employees. [12] United Fruit grew a lot of bananas in Guatemala then. It owned a lot of land that it kept in reserve, paid little in taxes, and opposed what many con- sidered appro- priate reforms. And therein hangs a tale. The Boston roots of United Fruit ran deep. It operated from Fig. 17. W3ZQ/KS4 QSL card from 1963: “Site of the U.S. Weather Bureau Hurricane Upper Air Sounding Station (Sup- Boston and ran ported by FAA Communications)”; Via K8CX From W2GGE. its Revere Sugar

Volume 23, 2010 125 Swan Island Refi nery at Boston. [1] Boston is temala becoming what Allen Dulles also that place where “[in] the land described as a `Soviet beachhead of the bean and the cod, the Lodges in the western hemisphere.’ Dulles’ talk only to Cabots, and Cabots talk concern reverberated within the only to God.” In fact at the time of CIA and the Eisenhower admin- the CIA’s Guatemalan operation, istration, in the context of the the American Ambassador to the anti-Communist fears of the Mc- United Nations was Henry Cabot Carthyist era. Arbenz instigated Lodge (who presumably could talk sweeping land reform acts that to himself if need be). He was later antagonized the U.S.-based mul- Richard Nixon’s 1960 running- tinational company United Fruit mate [13] and a stockholder in Company, which had large stakes United Fruit. [14] United Fruit in the old order of Guatemala, and connected to the U.S. Government lobbied various levels of U.S. to at the highest level: take action against Arbenz. […] The “The American Secretary of operation, which lasted from late State John Foster Dulles was an 1953 to 1954, planned to arm and avowed opponent of Communism train an ad-hoc `Liberation Army’ whose law firm of Sullivan and of about 400 fi ghters under the Cromwell had represented United command of a then-exiled Guate- Fruit. His brother Allen Dulles was malan army offi cer, Colonel Carlos the director of the CIA, and was Castillo Armas, and to use them in a board member of United Fruit. conjunction with a complex and The brother of the Assistant Sec- largely experimental diplomatic, retary of State for InterAmerican economic, and propaganda cam- Affairs John Moors Cabot had once paign. The operation effectively been president of United Fruit. Ed ended the experimental period of Whitman who was United Fruit’s representative democracy in Gua- principal lobbyist was married to temala known as the `Ten Years of President Eisenhower’s personal Spring,’ which ended with Arbenz’s secretary […]” [15] offi cial resignation.” [16] Both Dulles brothers owned Radio propaganda and radio stock in United Fruit. [16] “black ops” brought success to the One summary explains the CIA’s operation PBSUCCESS. Radio CIA’s Guatemalan operation, code- historian Don Moore has called named PBSUCCESS, thus: the CIA’s Guatemalan radio opera- “The 1954 Guatemalan coup tion, La Voz de Liberacion, “The d’état was a covert operation orga- Clandestine Grandaddy of Central nized by the United States Central America.” [17] Intelligence Agency to overthrow The CIA landed E. Howard Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, the dem- Hunt and David Atlee Phillips ocratically-elected President of (Figure 18) and their equipment Guatemala. Arbenz’s government on Swan Island in 1953. According put forth a number of new policies, to Hunt this was done to imple- such as seizing and expropriating ment the propaganda campaign unused, unfarmed land that pri- by means of radio. [18] Hunt also vate corporations set aside long reported that shortly after land- ago and giving the land to peas- ing, a boatload of Guatemalan ants, that the U.S. intelligence “students” tried to come ashore community deemed Communist to stop them, but Hunt persuaded in nature and, suspecting Soviet them otherwise. He did not say infl uence, fueled a feared of Gua- exactly how they were persuaded,

126 AWA Review Lee reveals the site or sites of origin of the broadcasts. Moore goes on to say: “Although it was never used, a reserve transmitter was set up on Swan Island (which seven years later would be the site of the CIA’s famous anti-Castro clandestine, Radio Swan).” [17] E. Howard Hunt, who had landed on Swan Island with Phillips, Fig. 18. According to E. Howard Hunt, wrote: “From neighboring Hon- above left, the CIA landed him and duras, our powerful transmitter David Atlee Phillips, right, on Swan Island in 1953 to set up a high power overrode the Guatemalan national propaganda shortwave radio station radio, broadcasting messages to to be used against Guatemala. He re- confuse and divide the population ported that they had to repulse “Gua- from its military overlords.” [10] temalan students” who objected. [18] “[O]ur powerful transmitter” may suggest the high-powered Swan but Phillips provided propaganda Island installation with multiple expertise throughout the exercise directional antennas mounted on while Hunt was the presumably high towers. Phillips says that the fully-armed initial operations man. transmitter was “Too distant from There also must have been at least Guatemala City for conventional some of a Navy Construction Bat- medium wave signals, [so] it [had] talion (SeaBees) on site given the to be on the short-wave band.” [11] size of the radio station and its Moreover, according to Phillips, towers and the transmitter’s ten short-wave radio was popular in kilowatts output on shortwave in Guatemala for a variety of reasons. the 49 meter band. (AM broadcast stations typically The CIA ofﬁ cers who have writ- enjoy a daytime range of 50 to 150 ten about Guatamala have always miles although at night this range been subject to agency censorship. extends considerably farther. [19] So, suppression of Swan Island’s Swan Island is about 200 miles exact role in the overthrow of East of Guatemala.) Most of Nica- Guatemala’s government is pos- ragua is more than 200 miles from sible, perhaps by reason of the Guatemala, and Honduras borders diplomatically sensitive and long Guatemala, about 100 miles from pending Honduran claim to the Guatemala City to the West. Look- island. Hunt in his 2007 book says ing at the relative distances, Swan that the main CIA “channel” was Island cannot be ruled out as an “stationed across the Honduran operational site. [11] border…” [10] According to Moore, The broadcasts sowed confu- the broadcasts came primarily, if sion and despair among the Arbenz not entirely, from Nicaragua: “CIA government and the Guatemalan technicians set up a complete radio Army. It was classic psychologi- base camp on a remote Nicaraguan cal warfare. According to Hunt, farm. Additional transmitters it was all recorded in Miami and were located in Honduras, the then transmitted in proximity to Dominican Republic, and even Guatemala. [10] in the US embassy in Guatemala The broadcasts featured “radio- City.” Moore is relying heavily on games,” the kind of funkspiel so Phillips’ account, but Phillips never effective for the NAZIs against the

Volume 23, 2010 127 Swan Island British Special Operations Execu- government agencies of the day, tive (SOE) in Holland. La Voz de thrived as a successful sovereign in Liberacion told The Big Lie, little a challenging world. America had lies, shams, disinformation, and competed throughout the world claimed fake battles won, fake de- with other sovereignties such as sertions and the like. The funkspiel the NAZIs, and in the new Cold convinced Col. Arbenz that the War, faced the Soviet Union. In invading Guatemalans (who were the case of Guatemala, the CIA was ragtag U.S. sponsored insurgents, merely the high-technology tactical and see Appendix for some of their operator that emphasized propa- radio equipment) would defeat his ganda radio more than regiments regime. His duly-elected govern- of infantry. The CIA did not work ment capitulated and many of its for United Fruit; the CIA worked members ﬂ ed. The coup d’etat, en- for “America, Inc.” abled by black ops radio, succeeded Irrespective of the success of so well that it surprised even its PBSUCCESS, in this period, Swan originators in the CIA. Accord- Island remained as vulnerable to ing to Phillips, a British diplomat hurricanes as earlier. In particu- concluded that: “The soldiers had lar, a Navy man wrote this report nothing to do with it. The war was about Hurricane Janet in 1955 (see won by that radio station.” [11] Figure 19 for her track): United Fruit avoided expropria- “ … on September 15 … [a]t tion, “U.S. interests,” co-incident 1100 hours, from our closed re- with those of United Fruit, were treat, we heard the giant twin radio served, and Guatemala suffered towers crash to the ground after from decades of bloody unrest, being knocked from their founda- as did much of Central America. tions by the 100-knot wind …” [21] Arbenz and his circle may well A P2V Neptune hurricane re- have been communists, and he did search aircraft with eleven aboard import a shipload consisting of a ﬂ ew into Janet east of Swan Island. thousand tons of East Block arms. It radioed in its position, and then Later CIA analysis, however, sug- was lost and “never heard from gests that the Soviet Union played again” after its report of “Veloci- little if any role in these events. ty estimated 200 knots. Beginning Nonetheless, “black ops” radio penetration.” [21] The following had proved its worth. [20] United recollection by a crew member in Fruit got what it wanted. The new the Navy’s 1955 search and rescue ruler, Col. Armas, ruled by “kow- operation for that P2V shows what towing to United Fruit” according a hurricane can do: to Phillips. [11] “As we approached Swan Is- From a present day perspective, land we could not contact them it can look as though United Fruit by radio until we got close, as the manipulated the CIA into doing only power and radio they had its dirty work for it in Guatemala, was an emergency transceiver that albeit most of it was done blood- was operated by hand cranking a lessly by radio. A realpolitik point small generator in the unit that of view, however, may make more was called a Gibson Girl. Because sense. The deeply interconnected the sea state was too great to land, post World War Two American and there was no way to get near institutions, such as big business the island with beaching gear, as companies using new techniques of we did not have wheels, and even public relations, big labor, and the if we did have wheels there was

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Fig. 19. The CIA overthrew the Guatemalan government, Swan Island’s radio stood down, and then Hurricane Janet came by in 1955 with 200 knot winds, blowing down all antenna towers.

no runway on the island at the time. What we did see when we got there was the islands covered Fig. 20. Che Guevara and Fidel Cas- with downed coconut trees that tro. In the Cuban Revolution – 1959 – declared communists took over Cuba. were laid out like match sticks and Cuba expropriated United Fruit’s and clearly lined-up indicating how the other U.S. interests on the island, wind blew them down. There were and imprisoned and executed many also ﬁ ve (5) huge radio transmit- thousands of Cubans. Some 9,389 ters, ﬂ at on the ground and parallel Cubans have been listed by name as to each other, and also indicating murdered by Che and Fidel and “the Revolution.” (“The Revolution is not the direction of how the hurricane a dinner party” said Mao Tse Tung.) winds blew over the island.” [22]

Volume 23, 2010 129 Swan Island

RADIO SWAN TAKES ON CASTRO, of discussion in the radio hobby, AND FAILS as well as among historians, about Within fi ve years after Guate- Radio Swan, whose short wave mala’s coup ousted the communist and medium wave broadcasts sympathizers of Guatemala, Cuba could be heard throughout the played host to the related com- United States. Once again the CIA, munist insurgency of Fidel Castro. courtesy of the U.S. Navy, landed Che Guevara, who had been in CIA offi cers including David Atlee Guatemala and who had seen what Phillips. The CIA, courtesy of the black ops radio propaganda could SeaBees, installed transmitter do, played a major role in Cuba – for the medium wave broadcast Hunt later regretted letting him band at 1160 kHz at 50,000 watts escape Guatemala. Figure 20. This power (50 KW), and another for time, the Soviets enthusiastically short wave at 6 MHz at 3,000 to embraced the Cuban Revolution, 10,000 watts (10 KW). Once again Monroe Doctrine or not. Needless large antenna towers arose. The to say, the Cuban Revolution also CIA took the big transmitter out expropriated properties of United of a technically ineffective propa- Fruit. But the 1961 American ganda operation in West Germany. attempt to oust Castro failed as Philips is likely to have suggested spectacularly as the Guatemalan Swan Island as a result of his 1954 effort had succeeded, and the operations there. Cuban Missile Crisis followed 18 Philco Corporation had a divi- months later. sion that could put a turnkey radio La Voz de Liberacion provided station wherever the government a model for a propaganda and wanted it and they did so. [7, 11] black ops campaign against Cuba, Operated by 15 Philco engineers of and Swan Island played a central its “Tech Rep Flying Squad” [23] in role. There has been a great deal wheeled trailers, (Figure 21) Radio Swan took to the air. A CIA internal memorandum tells the story: “Brief History of Radio Swan. “1. On 17 March 1960, Presi- dent Eisenhower approved a covert action to bring about the replace- ment of the Castro regime. Within the propaganda framework of that program, an important objective was to create and utilize a high- powered medium and short wave radio station. CIA was asked to provide such a station, outside the continental limits of the United States, and have it ready for operation within sixty (60) days. Fig. 21. CIA offi cer David Phillips got “2. Swan Island, in the Carib- another radio station up on Swan bean, was chosen as an appropri- Island in 30 days, with help from the ate site. The United States Navy Navy. (Illustration from Tom Kneitel, furnished CIA with splendid sup- Popular Communications, Dec. 1985. port: within sixty days, equipment p. 20 [8]); see also Clandestine Con- fi dential [7]. had been brought from Europe, a

130 AWA Review Lee landing strip was cleared on the air-time on Radio Swan. [26] island, and the station was able to One summary provides inter- go on air on 17 May of the same esting detail, with Boston and year, precisely on schedule. United Fruit once again involved: “3. Originally it was planned “In 1960, Radio Swan com- that Radio Swan would be a clan- menced unlicensed transmissions destine station utilizing a “clas- in May as a commercial radio sta- sifi ed missile and space project” tion … operating with a power of as cover. Just prior to inaugura- 50,000 watts on AM 1160 [kHz] tion, however, it was decided the and on shortwave with a power station should be a commercial of 7,500 watts on 6000 kHz. The one. This was at the request of the importance of this island was in Navy, which reasonably argued its location and proximity to the that should their participation in island of Cuba, because on March construction of a black facility be 17, 1960, U.S. President Dwight known, explanations would be D. Eisenhower had approved co- diffi cult. vert action to topple the regime “4. Using a ‘commercial’ station of Fidel Castro in Cuba. As early for the tactical and strategic tasks as October 30, 1960, the Castro envisaged for Radio Swan is not, government sent reconnaissance of course, the most desirable way fl ights over Swan Island and the to support a covert operation. The Caribbean Coast of Guatemala … only practical method of operation Swan Island was claimed by the is to “sell space.” Thus, program governments of both the United time on Radio Swan was sold to States and Honduras, although the various Cuban groups. These in- island was in the de facto hands of cluded organizations of workers, personnel acting on behalf of the students, women, two publications U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in exile, two radio stations in exile, (CIA). The person who claimed and several political groups. There ownership in the press was Sum- were also programs created and ner Smith of Boston. He was both controlled by CIA. Programs (on the president of Abington Textile tape) were produced in New York, and Manufacturing Works and a Miami, and later, on Swan Island.” stockholder in Gibraltar Steamship [24; (page 1 of 5) ] Company of New York City. Boston, the land of the bean, “While the Federal Communi- cod and United Fruit, provided the cations Commission (FCC) claimed CIA with the initial programming that it had no jurisdiction over the and broadcasting for its Cuban station, the address of Radio Swan propaganda operation from short was in care of the Gibraltar Steam- wave station WRUL. [25] The ship Company in New York, which principal of WRUL in Boston was was a CIA proprietary company. Walter S. Lemmon. WRUL had The station later claimed to be played a role in World War Two owned by Vanguard Service Corpo- American shortwave broadcast- ration. Its president was Thomas ing, and Lemmon was well con- D. Cabot, a former president of nected in Washington. In April, the United Fruit Company and a 1960 WRUL began broadcasting US State Department executive in anti -Castro programming. It then the Truman Administration. The linked up with Radio Swan, provid- station also used a post offi ce box ing programming for that station. in Miami, Florida. A company of Lemmon’s also sold “The AM transmitter in use by

Volume 23, 2010 131 Swan Island Radio Swan had been used by Ra- service called Radio Havana Cuba. dio Free Europe and it was taken to “In March 1961 Radio Swan Swan Island by U.S. Navy person- announced that it would no longer nel. At fi rst all broadcasts of this sell its airtime for political pro- pseudo-commercial radio station gramming and the station changed were in the Spanish language and to an all-news format while infus- it was announced on air as Radio ing its broadcasts with coded mes- Swan, la Voz Internacional del sages. The station described itself Caribe, with its initial commercial as assisting those who are fi ghting programming coming on tape re- Castro within Cuba and it began cordings from anti-Castro political transmitting on fourteen frequen- groups in exile. cies. The CIA issued a press release “Cuba responded to the broad- claiming its anti-Castro broadcasts casts by setting up a jamming sta- were now being beamed by seven tion to block the transmissions of radio stations as well as Radio Radio Swan and initiated La Voz de Swan. During the Bay of Pigs In- INRA, or The Voice of INRA which vasion of Cuba, which took place represented the National Institute between April 15 - April 19, 1961, of Agrarian Reform with an anti- it became obvious to all concerned American message. This action that the purpose of the station was was followed on January 3, 1961, to assist in the landings. But fol- by a break in diplomatic relations lowing the abortive invasion, Radio between both countries that had Swan suddenly changed format been initiated by the USA. Follow- again. While its tone remained an- ing this action, Cuba commenced ti-Castro its programming did not broadcasting to the USA and to the promote an uprising against the world, with a new international Cuban government. Then, the station changed its format and name. Radio Swan became Radio Ameri- cas and it remained on the air until May 1968 when the station closed down and its AM transmitter was trans- ported to South Vietnam to assist in the wars Fig. 22. A 1966 QSL card from Radio Americas. Radio Swan of South-East fi rst broadcast to Cuba along the same lines as the radio pro- Asia.” [27] paganda against Guatemala. Before and during the 1961 CIA Radio Bay of Pigs invasion, Radio Swan provided both operational Americas freely and disinformation transmissions. President Kennedy denied disclosed on its air support to the insurgents and Castro’s forces repulsed QSL card (Fig- them. Radio Swan continued as a propaganda station, as Radio Americas (“purposelessly” said CIA offi cer David Phil- ure 22) that lips [11]). Courtesy Hank Tester and Harry Helms via Thomas it operated at Roscoe, K8CX. 50 KW AM on

132 AWA Review Lee 1160 kHz from two vertical tow- sources [see, e.g., 27]. Phillips ers, presumably phased to beam goes on to say: “A team of civilian to Cuba. For shortwave, with a contract technicians and a single nominal 7.5 KW RCA transmit- CIA security offi cer manned Swan ter, it employed a full wave dipole Island.” That transmitter took antenna, again with directionality its programming primarily from to Cuba. CIA studios in Miami under the Phillips says the operator was aegis of the “steamship company.” a CIA proprietary company called The CIA security offi cer on Swan “Gulf [sic; Gibraltar] Steamship Island, with only a side-arm, Company,” which he says was “… once had to play host to invading the only corporation available in Honduran “students” asserting the CIA’s secret portfolio….” and sovereignty. Happily they were which he knew owned no boats. more interested in partying than Sumner Smith, who asserted that conquest. [11] After the failure of he owned Swan Island, was a the Bay of Pigs operation (and the stockholder of Gibraltar Steam- subsequent Missile Crisis), Radio ship Company according to several Swan as Radio Americas nonetheless continued on the air for seven years. According to CIA officer Phillips: “Radio Swan continued to broadcast purposelessly.” [11] Cuban exiles continued agitation (see Figure 23); nothing more hap- pened except lots of mutual spying, short wave numbers stations send- ing coded messages (or pretending to), and exile harassment of Cuba (Figure 24) and Cuban harassment Fig. 23. Cuban exiles continued (and of exiles. continue) anti-Castro agitation. This To this day, Radio Havana may courier label dates from the 1960s in be heard nightly in the 49 meter Miami. It may refl ect a shipping circuit band, on 6000 kHz, the old fre- among CIA radio –related installations. quency of Radio Swan, in sort of a short wave radio time warp. Fidel and Raul Castro remain dictators devoted to communism, while the Soviet Union, as Karl Marx himself predicted for the State after the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, just faded away.

MORE WEATHER, MORE INTRIGUE; SWAN ISLAND’S Fig. 24. An honorary press card for COLD WAR CODA a noted SWL DXer and writer, Gerry Swan Island remains. The Unit- Dexter. This Radio Swan in Hondu- ed States turned it over to Hon- ras claimed to be a successor oper- duras in 1972, after a lawsuit with ated by Cuban exiles, but went off the air when communists took its antenna Sumner Smith’s family, reserving down in 1976 with explosives. From the right to operate (at least) the [7] Gerry Dexter, CLANDESTINE weather station, run by NOAA, CONFIDENTIAL at p. 29. the National Oceanographic and Volume 23, 2010 133 Swan Island

Atmospheric Administration. the station’s antennas in 1976, and Amateur radio operators on Swan it went dark. [29] Island go on the air as Honduran In the 1980s the CIA, despite stations. Figure 25. They now use Honduran sovereignty, used Swan the HQ8 identifi er. Figures 26 & 27 Island for a base for supplying Con- Swan Island’s central position tras dedicated to the overthrow of has enabled it to assist in rescues. the elected Sandinista government These include the one reported for in Nicaragua. Private supporters of 1912 and the SS Olinda. In 1975 the Contras also used Swan Island, NOAA awarded its Gold Medal for presumably with the blessing of the lifesaving to two of its weathermen CIA. Headlines of the day reported who responded to an SOS: events such as: PLANE SUPPLYING “1975 Gold Medal -- Spencer Ben- CONTRAS CRASHES; 11 BELIEVED KILLED nett and Randolph Moore, Islas del IN NICARAGUA; PLANE STRUCK BY MIS- Cisne Meteorological Station, Hondu- SILES. [30] The Reagan adminis- ras -- Messrs. Bennett and Moore are tration’s CIA attempt to continue recognized for heroic action during a to fund Contras through dealings storm, December 10, 1974, on Islas del with Iran caused the great Iran- Cisne (Swan Island), a tiny weather Contra scandal in 1986. observing outpost in the Caribbean. The Contras also used clandes- During this storm they rescued 19 tine radio stations in Honduras. As shipwrecked fi shermen at a great risk a Nicaraguan military intelligence to their own lives. The Honduran offi cial reported in June of 1989: fi shing vessel Lucky Girl encountered “ … add the military role played heavy seas about 20 miles northwest by the contra radio stations. 15th of of Islas del Cisne. The hull ruptured September Radio, Radio Libera- and the ship began to sink rapidly. The tion and the Radio System of the Captain sent an SOS and then ordered Resistance continue functioning in all hands to abandon ship. The SOS Honduras. What is even more im- was picked up by the Swan Island portant is the system of command Meteorological Station, and person- through the radios, the military cir- nel there responded immediately. The cuit between Tegucigalpa and the Swan Islanders launched two small Strategic Command and between motorboats into the rough seas to seek the latter and the units along the survivors of the Lucky Girl. Demon- border. That whole network has strating superb seamanship in heavy remained intact….” [31] seas in outboard motorboats, they Swan Island remained in the successfully searched out and towed center of Central American in- to Swan Island eight dugout canoes, trigue even in the late 1980s: containing nineteen men. Because of “[A] small station … was their courage, not a single life was established on Swan Island in lost.” [28] support of a variety of operations Radio Swan, however, had a which were being conducted as short-lived ghost or two. In 1975, part of our support for the CIA’s another anti -communist Radio efforts in Nicaragua. This facility Swan took to the air, [Figure 23] was centered on an airstrip, which on 6186 kHz and medium wave. It was used as a base of operations claimed a relation to Swan Island’s for pilots who were dropping sup- Radio Swan, although it broadcast plies to the rebels, which the CIA from Honduras. Its principal had was supporting. The communica- been an anti -Castro insurgent at tions setup for this facility was the Bay of Pigs. Explosives took out something that we called a fl yaway

134 AWA Review Lee package. Basically it consisted of a brothers still rule the Cuban So- HF [high frequency] transmitter/ cialist Paradise, although they have receiver[,] a PC-based commu- discontinued the daily “free lunch.” nications terminal and a KG-84 Poor people remain abysmally encryption device.” [32] poor, and very unhappy. One can A similar but satellite-enabled still listen to Radio Havana Cuba “ﬂ yaway package” saw service in on 6 MHz, with Radio Marti from Haiti in 1994 and in Bosnia. [33] Florida in counterpoint. But the After a while, with the demise of glory days of Swan Island have giv- the Soviet Union, most of Central en way to satellite communication America sorted itself out, com- and internet propaganda. Maybe munists to the left. In Venezuela, now the iguanas of Swan Island, Hugo Chavez is everything Col. Ar- as well as visiting amateur radio benz ever wanted to be, but he has operators, will be able to ﬂ ourish oil instead of bananas. The Castro in peace. “Have a banana.”

Fig. 25. HR6SWA, Swan Island, Honduras, 1975. Note the sufﬁ x SWA is the same as the FAA Bea- con callsign. On Sept. 1, 1972, the United States yielded Swan Island to Honduras, keeping the right to operate on the island. Via K8CX from K8CX .

Fig. 26. This is the DXpedition HQ8R logo for 2008 IOTA (Islands on the Air) operation from Swan Island. www. hondurasdx.com .

Fig. 27. The most recent (2008) QSL card from Swan Island, HQ8R; Peace at Last.

Volume 23, 2010 135 Swan Island REFERENCE NOTES deleted/SwanIsland/. KS4CC 1. United Fruit Company and its was the 1968 Swan Island club Wireless Network, in RADIO station, according to Tom Kneitel, BROADCAST magazine ([ﬁ rst issue] note 8 below. Vol. 1, No. 1) May 1922, at p. 377. 7. See Gerry Dexter, CLANDESTINE This article reads as if written C ONFIDENTIAL, Universal by United Fruit, one of the ﬁ rst Electronics, Columbus, Ohio, 1984, companies to see the advantages Chapter: “Swan Island” at p. 22ff; of “public relations” : land stations “Alice Brannigan” (pseudonym), and callsigns of UFCO, p. 398. Radio Swan: At Last, (Most of) the 2. UFCO wireless operators circa Story, Popular Communications, 1911 had effected a crude but June, 1999, p. 8; and also very sensitive regeneration circuit “Alice Brannigan” (pseudonym), invented by Paul E. Wallace in WRUL, The Forgotten New York using a de Forest Audion ‘Voice of Freedom,’ Popular in the “Wallace Valve Detector” Communications, June, 1996, p.12; configuration that de Forest and also would himself soon adopt as his Doran Platt, Swan Island, Electric RJ-4 . The young Edwin Howard Radio, February 2000 [see note 23 Armstrong heard the Wallace below]; regenerative circuit in operation see also, e.g., Swan Island DX in the summer of 1911 and the next Association, year invented regeneration as we http://www.qsl.net/sidxa/history. know it. The Wallace device sailed html on UFCO ships SS Santa Marta, SS 8. Tom Kneitel [K2AES], EI Visits Almirante and SS Carillo, installed Radio Americas, Electronics by wireless pioneer Robert H. Illustrated, July 1968; Marriott, and also served at the Tom Kneitel, Inside the CIA’s UFCO wireless station in Colon in Secret Radio Paradise, Popular the Panama Canal Zone. Gerald F. Communications, November Tyne, The RJ-4 Mystery, Antique (Part One), 1985, http://pl703. Wireless Association Monograph pairlitesite.com/Stations/Swan. (New Series) No. 1 (1978). pdf 3. Society of Wireless Pioneers, KS4CC as the club station, p. 19 FAA station WSG, p. 19 SPARKS BOOK OF THE WIRELESS Philco Tech Rep flying squad PIONEERS, Vol. III ([‘Tales’] ed. William A. ‘Bill’ Breniman), 1974 at engineers, p. 18, and p. 45; E. Jay Quinby, (Commander, December (Part Two), 1985, http:// USN, Ret.) Marooned in Paradise, pl703.pairlitesite.com/Stations/ p.36. Swan-II.pdf 4. Edison Company “Letter” of navigational beacon callsign SWA, 1915, an illustrated advertising p. 20 pamphlet, now in the California 9. Gerry Dexter, CLANDESTINE Historical Radio Society Radioana CONFIDENTIAL, note 7 above. collection of the Maxwell Memorial 10. E. Howard Hunt, Wikipedia, Library at the radio station KRE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._ building in Berkeley, California. Howard_Hunt. Hunt was of an 5. D. E. Keith, “Swan Islands, admirable old-school view, that Honduras” http://www.tarleton. of CIA Director Richard Helms, edu/~dekeith/swanislands.html in effect: “when the President A very interesting overview. told you to do something, you 6. Thomas Roscoe, K8CX has collected did it and it was legal.” Hunt and put on the web the QSL card never understood how he could images, http://hamgallery.com. do what he was trained to do, for The image of KS4CC comes via the government who trained him K8CX originally from OE1HGW, to do it, and end up in prison. He http://hamgallery.com/qsl/ was the right guy in the wrong

136 AWA Review Lee

place at the wrong time. It was little Atheneum, 1977); this book is consolation to him as late as 2007 almost a CIA -approved “charm that now nothing is legal. offensive” and Atlee founded the See generally E. Howard Hunt, Association of Former Intelligence UNDERCOVER, Berkeley Pub. Corp. Ofﬁ cers (AFIO) to explain the work & G.P. Putnam & Sons (1974). they do. overrode the Guatemalan national short wave radio popular in radio from Honduras , p. 100; Guatemala, p. 41 E. Howard Hunt, AMERICAN SPY, war won by that radio station, p. 52 Wiley (2007) (adopting a great deal kowtowing to United Fruit, p. 53 of text from UNDERCOVER) turnkey radio operation, p. 90 radio “channel” (transmitter) in too distant, p. 42 Honduras, p. 75, Honduran students, p. 98ff confusion and despair, p. 77 Radio Americas broadcasting E. Howard Hunt said in an purposelessly, p. 112 interview: 12. Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen “Interviewer: Going back to the Kinzer, BITTER FRUIT – The Story of Guatemalan army, did it surprise the American Coup in Guatemala you that they didn’t fight the (Harvard, 1981; 1999) at p. 12. invasion...? Estimates of the Guatemalan dead “Howard Hunt: Yes. Nobody had in the following decades range as anticipated that. Did it surprise high as 100,000, mostly Mayans. me that they did not ﬁ ght? Very 13. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., Wikipedia, much. We all anticipated an armed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ struggle - not of great proportions Henry_Cabot_Lodge,_Jr. In or of long duration, but we did retrospect, Lodge was a man of anticipate that, we anticipated integrity and valor. some bloodshed. ***when I 14. John Simpson, “Guatemala, started seeing the cables coming Cuba and the Assassination,” in, describing what was happening Education Forum (UK), http:// in Guatemala, I was just overjoyed, educationforum.ipbhost.com/ and I found it hard to believe that index.php?showtopic=5945). Like there had been no bloodshed, the writing of books in the Book no armed confrontation. Castillo of Ecclesiastes (12:12), there is no Armas only had about 140 people end to the conspiracy theories of working for him, a ragtag group the Kennedy assassination, most if there ever was one, but then involving CIA personnel including we had done the same thing in E. Howard Hunt. another part of the world a few 15. United Fruit Company, Wikipedia, years earlier. People don’t have http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ to be in spiffy uniforms: they can United_Fruit_Company ... just so long as they can form a 16. Operation PBSUCCESS, Wikipedia, military presence and impress the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ population.” Operation_PBSUCCESS (Source George Washington 17. Don Moore, The Clandestine University National Security Grandaddy of Central America, Archive, http://www.gwu. Monitoring Times, April, 1989, edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/ and http://www.pateplumaradio. interviews/episode-18/hunt3. com/central/guatemala/vozlib. html) Hunt is referring to the CIA’s html; this page of Moore’s Iran operations a couple of years PateplumaRadio website presents earlier. much of David Atlee Phillips’ 11. David Atlee Phillips, Wikipedia, chapter on the Guatemalan CIA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ operations without attribution David_Atlee_Phillips. See but also a great deal of other generally David Atlee Phillips, information. Moore later THE NIGHT WATCH (New York, suggested to the author that his

Volume 23, 2010 137 Swan Island

information that the Swan Island 28. U.S. National Oceanic and CIA transmitter was a back-up only Atmospheric Administration comes from BITTER FRUIT (above, (NOAA), History, Hall of Honor, note 12). [1975], http://www.history.noaa. 18. Personal communication to the gov/hallofhonor/lifesaving_1955- author. 2000nws.html ) 19. DX Communication website 29. Gerry Dexter, CLANDESTINE http://dxcommunication.net/ CONFIDENTIAL, [note 7 above, Chapter: ambroadcastband.htm “Swan Island” at p. 28ff]. 20. Operation PBHISTORY, Wikipedia, 30. See, e.g., PLANE SUPPLYING CONTRAS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ CRASHES; 11 BELIEVED KILLED IN Operation_PBHISTORY N ICARAGUA; PLANE STRUCK BY 21. “Swan Song” by William L. MISSILES, by Bernard E. Trainor, Magnuson, who had served in Special to the New York Times; the Navy on Swan Island in 1955 Published: Monday, January 25, (from a collection of student 1988, and essays from the 1950s), http:// http://www.nytimes. libsysdigi.library.illinois.edu/oca/ com/1988/01/25/world/plane- Books2008-09/greencaldron/ supplying-contras-crashes-11- greencaldron2730univ/ believed-killed-nicaragua-plane- greencaldron2730univ_djvu.txt struck.html 22. George T. Damoff in 31. The Honduran offi cer is quoted WeatherMatrix: http://www. in the Sandinista publication and weathermatrix.net/education/ digital archive, Envio Magazine: swanisland/ http://www.envio.org.ni/ 23. Doron Platt and Michael D. articulo/2707) Stanley in WeatherMatrix: 32. Former CIA offi cer Kenneth C. Stahl, http://www.weathermatrix.net/ letter to Senator Lauch Faircloth, education/swanisland/ and Gerry February 26, 1998 in http://cryptome. Dexter, CLANDESTINE CONFIDENTIAL org/cia-gripe.htm) [note 7 above] and Tom Kneitel 33. GACIAC [Guidance and Control [note 8 above]. Information Analysis Center] Bulletin 24. This document can be found on Volume 19 No. 3, http://wstiac. the CIA website. http://www. alionscience.com/pdf/GACV19N3. foia.cia.gov/search.asp; search pdf for “Brief History of Radio Swan” which produces a Table of Contents of an analytical history of the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Cuban operations and planning I am grateful to the late E of 1961. That table says “History of Radio Swan” at p. 21, but there Howard Hunt for telling me about is multiple pagination within the otherwise unpublished aspects of document. The History is found the CIA operations on Swan Island. at page 131 ff. 25. The larger document at note APPENDIX 24 above discloses CIA use of The CIA provided to its 1954 WRUL as well as Radio Swan Guatemalan “insurgents” tacti- for anti-Castro broadcasting and cal radios such as the RS-1 High programming. Frequency Transceiver, with its in- 26. “Alice Brannigan” (pseudonym), terconnected transmitter, receiver WRUL, The Forgotten ‘Voice of and power modules. Freedom,’ [note 7 above]. 27. Pirate Radio in Central America…, “The RS-1 could be con- Wikipedia, sidered the ‘fl agship’ of cold-war http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_ U.S. clandestine radios. It’s de- radio_in_Central_America_and_ velopment started in 1948; and it Caribbean_Sea ) was used by the Agency for 12-15

138 AWA Review Lee years, and by the Army for several com/spyradio/rs1.html. additional years.... the RS-1 was The photos of the set and the valued long afterward for being receiver are from the McCollum functional and reliable,” accord- website of a radio in his collection. ing to Spy Radios historian Peter Those of the transmitter and its McCollum, at www.militaryradio. interior are photos from Dennis

RS-1 full set

RS-1 transmitter rt-3

RS-1 receiver rr-2b

RS-1 transmitter interior (1) RS-1 transmitter interior (2)

Volume 23, 2010 139 Swan Island Monticelli, AE6C, CHRS, of a radio during disaster recovery opera- in his collection. All photos used by tions in New York after the ‘9/11’ permission. terrorist enormity, he served as the Red Cross deputy communications lead from September 12 to Septem- ABOUT THE AUTHOR ber 21, (the ‘night shift trick chief’). He has served as the Liaison Ofﬁ - Bartholomew (Bart) Lee, cer for the San Francisco Auxiliary K6VK, xKV6LEE, WPE2DLT, Communications System (ACS – is a long time member of AWA and RACES) and as an ARES Emer- the California Historical Radio gency Coordinator. He presently Society, for whom he serves as serves as an ARRL Government General Counsel Emeritus. He has Liaison and Volunteer Counsel. enjoyed radio and radio-related ac- Bart is a litigator by trade, having tivities in many parts of the world, prosecuted and defended cases in in the last year in Greece and the both state and federal court. He UK. Radio technology and history also taught Law & Economics for have fascinated him since he made 20 years, including the economic his first crystal set with a razor history of telecommunications. He blade and pencil lead more than 50 is a graduate of St. John’s College years ago. He is especially fond of (the ‘Great Books School’) and the those sets of which it is said: ‘Real University of Chicago Law School. Radios Glow in the Dark.’ Bart is Bart’s son Christoffer Lee is also a a widely published author on legal licensed amateur radio operator subjects and most recently on the and is now ﬁ nishing law school. history of radio. He has, in many Bart invites correspondence at: forums, including most recently [email protected] the annual meeting of the Ameri- can Vacuum Society, written about and lectured on early radio technology, radio intelligence activities (‘episodes in the ether wars’) from 1901 into the latter 20th Century, wireless telegraphy especially Mar- coni’s early work, wireless develop- ments in California and the West Coast since 1899, short wave radio, radio ephemera including radio stamps, and radio in emergency and disaster response. Since 1989 he has made some 20 presenta- tions to the AWA conferences on his research interests including the development of television in San Francisco in the 1920s. The AWA presented its Houck Award for documentation to him in 2003 Bart Lee. Photo by Paula Carmody, and the California Historical Radio taken in Indonesia; copyright Bart Society made its 1991 ‘Doc’ Herrold Lee 2009. Award to him in connection with his work for the Perham Founda- tion Electronics Museum. In 2001,

140 AWA Review