American Strategic Deception Bureau

　Later, in the brothel owner's office, Fili saw Deputy Director Bissell, whose clothes were rather disheveled and there were lipstick marks on the back of his neck.

　Uh, I wonder if there is a naked woman curled up under the director’s desk?

　Pretending not to notice any traces of romanticism on the Deputy Director's part, Fili then reported in a businesslike manner on his trip to Guatemala. He described the "spirited" training of the 2506th Ranger Brigade and its severe shortage of troops (in fact, it only had half a brigade of people). He also submitted an urgent application report on behalf of the brigade's US military advisers requesting that the CIA send more recruits as soon as possible to fully staff the brigade.

　Finally, Captain Ferry King asked cautiously.

　"Deputy Director, I've completed my preliminary investigation of the 2506th Commando Brigade of Cuban mercenaries stationed in Guatemala. However, where are the other four brigades of Cuban mercenaries stationed? I plan to investigate their status shortly."

　Then, he received a stunned answer from Deputy Director Bissell...

　Author's words: PS: Although the Battle of the Bay of Pigs was a joke, the combat effectiveness of the Cuban Brigade is really not a joke.

　Despite the complete intelligence leak, the loss of air superiority, and the exchange of fire with the defenders as soon as they landed, these more than 1,000 people still fought with Castro's nearly 20,000 people on the beaches of the Bay of Pigs for three days and three nights, enduring enemy bombing and tank crushing, and were forced to surrender only when their ammunition ran out.

　Although the mercenaries were outnumbered, outnumbering the enemy to 13, the revolutionary army suffered more casualties than the mercenaries.

　Either the mercenaries are too strong, or Castro's army is too weak.

　Later, most of the 1,000 remnants of the Cuban Brigade participated in the Vietnam War after returning to the United States. Among them, there were 6 colonels, 19 lieutenant colonels and 9 majors, which shows their meritorious service and combat effectiveness.

　Chapter 16: Five brigades of mercenaries received the empty wages of four and a half brigades?

　"Four more brigades of Cuban mercenaries? Where are these four more brigades?"

　After hearing Captain Ferry King's question, CIA Deputy Director Richard Bissell frowned and said in confusion, "The agency has already stuffed almost all of its recruited Cuban mercenaries into the 2506th Commando Brigade! How can we possibly create four more brigades?"

　"What? No?! That's not what I heard at the training base in Retalhuleu!"

　Fili was stunned when he heard this. "Shouldn't the Cuban mercenaries recruited by the CIA have five brigades with a total strength of 15,000?!"

　"Ah, that's just a rhetoric to fool the Cubans and make them more confident about the upcoming battle."

　Deputy Director Bissell waved his hand dismissively, but Firi was caught off guard and almost collapsed from laughter.

　By the time he came to his senses, his head was spinning and he didn't know how to describe the feeling of despair.

　Hey, Mr. Deputy Director Bissell, you are such a great liar!

　Not only did he fool all the officers and soldiers of the Retalulewu training camp, he also fooled me, the contractor of the lying prince Xirik!

　Besides, aren't you and Team Leader Estelian's appetites a bit too big?

　Out of five brigades of mercenaries, you ate up four and a half brigades by collecting their salaries without working, leaving only half a brigade of actual troops!

　Not to mention, the American officers serving as advisors to the 2506th Commando Brigade were also kept in the dark.

　Colonel Hawkins, along with a group of professionally trained American staff officers, meticulously worked out a combat plan to attack Cuba with five brigades!

　But you told me that there are not five brigades available, only half a brigade, and that the troops in Florida are all ghost troops...

　This is outrageous! How can we fight the next war if we are still eating up the salary without working to this extent?

　——At this moment, Firi had already vaguely guessed why Castro in a certain time and space was able to thwart the US armed intervention.

　“Ahem, initially, when we were formulating the Pluto Plan, we did have a massive plan to recruit five brigades.

　However, due to the bureau's tight funding and lack of manpower, we had no choice but to reduce the size of the mercenary force and recruit only one brigade..."

　Knowing that Fieri had some relationship with the future new president, Deputy Director Bissell thought about it and continued to reveal some useful information.

　Anyway, except for the newly arrived Captain Ferry King, the main members of the Cuban Special Task Force knew the true recruitment and organization of mercenaries, and it was impossible to keep it secret from the people in the bureau.

　Even if the deputy director kept it a secret, Fieri could easily find out from his colleagues once he returned to CIA headquarters.

　Instead of doing that, it would be better to tell him the truth directly and do him a favor.

　"Are the funds for the Cuban Special Task Force... tight?"

　Fili looked around the office of more than 100 square meters, which was filled with Persian carpets, crystal chandeliers, carved furniture, classical oil paintings and other luxurious furnishings. He then recalled the magnificent decoration of the state-owned brothel, which did not look poor at all.

　"Well, the funding the Cuban team received was certainly not small. But the cost of waging a war is even greater!"

　Although he noticed Fieri's strange look, Deputy Director Bissell remained calm and replied nonchalantly, "Besides, the CIA's battlefields are spread all over the world, and there are too many places to spend money. Occasionally diverting some funds is unavoidable..."

　——Although the spies in the movies are all wealthy and powerful, in reality, the CIA always feels that it is short of money.

　At the end of the Cold War, the CIA had "only" 14,000 regular employees. However, it had to support hundreds of thousands of informants worldwide, a 6,000-strong private army of CIA operatives, and 120,000 credentialed personnel (temporary workers with CIA credentials). Not to mention the rampant corruption and corruption that plagued the agency due to its covert operations and the inability to audit accounts. Each of these was a massive black hole devouring funding!

　In short, since the establishment of the CIA, all directors and managers have felt that they do not have enough money and are stretched thin everywhere.

　But the problem is, just like any bureaucracy hates layoffs. For the CIA, cutting costs is impossible, and layoffs are a joke—how many people are needed to suppress the rebellion of communists around the world? Therefore, open source is the only correct way out.

　Thirty years from now, the CIA, while having a much larger staff and numerous times more overhead, would have already established a global network of drug trafficking, smuggling, and other illegal businesses. With regular contributions from South American drug lords, African warlords, arms dealers, European and American mafia bosses, red-light district madams, and human traffickers, the CIA's finances would have been somewhat more comfortable thanks to this complex profit-sharing network.

　But it was still 1960, the early days of the Cold War. The CIA had only been established for a dozen years. Domestically, it was being suffocated by FBI Director Hoover, and its overseas operations were just beginning. While the number of employees spending money was not as high as it would later be, the revenue streams were even more scarce.

　At this point, the CIA's core intelligence work was still largely unprofessional, often outmaneuvered by the Russian KGB and confined to its Latin American backyard. As for its sideline money-making ventures, they were even more unstable and immature, leaving its accounts riddled with holes.

　Under these circumstances, after finally securing tens of millions of dollars from the government by establishing the Cuba Task Force, it was only natural that Director Dulles and Deputy Director Bissell would deduct their own commissions and then embezzle a large portion of the funds to fill holes elsewhere.

　"Also, since Vice President Nixon lost the election, our Cuba Task Force has not received any new funding. If the Cuba Task Force wants more funding, it will probably have to wait until the change of government in January of next year."

　Deputy Director Bissell continued, "Before this, to avoid a funding crisis, we must conserve our expenses as much as possible... Specifically, the bureau has stopped recruiting Cuban mercenaries since last month, and we don't expect to resume recruitment in the future..."

　Firi only needed to think about it for a moment before he immediately understood why the Cuban Special Task Force suddenly stopped receiving funding.

　——In the spring of this year, when the "Pluto Project" was just beginning to be planned and established, it was led and promoted by Vice President Nixon.

　Nixon's thinking at the time was that he was a virtual sure-winner as Vice President in this year's presidential election. Once he took office the following year, he could use the credit and glory of overthrowing Castro's regime and "recovering" Cuba as a "good start" to his presidency.

　Who knew that the Democratic Party on the other side would come up with a black

　John F. Kennedy defeated the Republican candidate Nixon in the general election.

　Therefore, after losing the election, Vice President Nixon naturally had no motivation to continue promoting the "Pluto Project" during the rest of his term.

　Because no matter how hard they try, the mercenaries cannot launch an attack on Castro's revolutionary regime in Cuba before he leaves office.

　On the one hand, the CIA was not ready yet, and on the other hand, President Eisenhower would not approve such a hasty and reckless combat operation.

　--President Eisenhower, who will retire in two months, like all other old men who are about to retire, just wants to go through the last period of his career smoothly and finish his last journey peacefully. He does not want to cause any big trouble in these few dozen days.

　As for turning Eisenhower into a wartime president and directly re-elected by declaring war on Cuba - this idea is really too crazy!

　First, Cuba is not qualified to make the United States formally declare war on it; second, this breaks the rules, and the masters on Capitol Hill will never agree to it.

　Otherwise, once a precedent is set, any president can find a soft target to declare war on after losing the election, and then invalidate the election results!

　Therefore, President Eisenhower, whose political career was entering the countdown, had no intention of lingering, let alone the slightest intention of causing trouble.

　In this case, if Vice President Nixon continued to promote "Project Pluto" and devoted himself to overthrowing the Castro regime, wouldn't that be a generous gift to President Kennedy, who would take office the following year? Would Kennedy have the glory of a war victory upon entering the White House?

　Could Nixon have such a broad perspective of "tolerance for the sake of the country"? Could he have such a broad mindset of "a prime minister with a broad mind"?

　——Just based on the despicable behavior of Nixon, who was already the president in the Watergate scandal more than ten years later, who dared to defy the world and secretly hired someone to eavesdrop on his opponent... Well, I guess the current Vice President Nixon would not be so magnanimous.

　So, it was only natural that Vice President Nixon, after losing the 1960 election, immediately gave up and refused to provide any further support for the CIA's "Cuba Strategy," resulting in the Cuban Special Task Force being unable to receive further funding before the end of the administration...

　In fact, according to gossip, Vice President Nixon, in his revenge against Kennedy, did more than just tantrum after losing the election. He was said to have secretly leaked much of the intelligence regarding Project Pluto and Cuban mercenaries to major media outlets!

　The purpose was to give Castro on the island of Cuba a heads-up, and to also create some trouble for Kennedy who was about to take over the plan...

　However, before President Kennedy officially took office in January of the following year, Vice President Nixon was still the highest person in charge of the Cuban strategy. As long as he did not take action, no one could obtain funding and other support for the Cuban Special Task Force.

　——This shows the bad luck of the "Pluto Project" or Castro's strong luck.

　But before Vice President Nixon lost the election in early November, he had secured between $25 and $30 million for the CIA's Cuban Special Tasks Group's "Project Pluto," a truly substantial sum in 1960.

　In terms of purchasing power, it is roughly equivalent to US$200 million at the beginning of the 21st century, which is enough to launch countless coups in African countries.

　But the problem is that if one wants to recruit a large number of soldiers in the United States and launch a national-level overseas war, this money is really pitifully small.

　If the CIA continues to recruit 15,000 Cuban mercenaries as planned, the monthly salaries, food and other living expenses alone will cost a full $4 million. Adding the cost of purchasing weapons and ammunition, the monthly cost will be no less than $8 million!

　——Although the CIA can pick up airplanes, cannons, etc. directly from the Pentagon warehouse, it still has to pay or put them on credit.

　Even the CIA agents do not have the authority to move things directly from the US military warehouses for free!

　It is obvious that after a considerable portion of the bureau's funding was secretly misappropriated and supervisors at all levels embezzled a lot of money, the current CIA Cuba Special Task Force cannot afford to support 15,000 troops - not even for two months!

　"Besides, even if the bureau had ample funding, it wouldn't be able to recruit that many Cubans willing to fight in the United States.

　In making our plans, we seem to have overestimated the Cuban exiles’ desire to return home and their courage to fight…”

　Deputy Director Bissell spread his hands and explained to Firi another difficulty he was facing - the manpower was not as sufficient as he had imagined.

　First, because the United States wanted to avoid sending troops directly to Cuba, it could only recruit Cuban refugees to serve as mercenaries and serve as a pioneer in intervening in Cuba.

　Then, as the largest settlement of Cuban refugees in the United States, after experiencing many large-scale escapes and a long period of reproduction and development, by the 21st century, there will be 1.5 million Cuban refugees living in Florida, including many congressmen, politicians and celebrities.

　For example, the famous political rookie Senator Marco Rubio, actress Cameron Diaz who starred in "Charlie's Angels", etc.

　But the problem is that at this time in 1960, the large-scale migration of Cuban refugees to the United States had only just begun.

　Therefore, there are only 250,000 Cuban exiles in the entire United States today, and the number of Cubans in Florida is about 150,000.

　Among them were officials of the Batista warlord regime, criminals who fled Cuba due to the revolutionary regime's crackdown on organized crime, former Cuban revolutionary leaders who left because of ideological disagreements with Castro, and ordinary people who fled Red Cuba purely because of the influence of American propaganda.

　At first glance, this force seemed to be quite formidable, and the CIA thought it could easily recruit a large number of volunteers from it.

　But the problem is that even so, it is too exaggerated to recruit 15,000 Cubans from these 150,000 to serve as soldiers and fight.

　Because, after deducting the women, children, the elderly and the weak among Cuban Americans, it is almost the level of one in four or one in three!

　If this were to happen, what a war of aggression and militarism it would be!

　Moreover, the CIA is not the Pentagon and has no power to carry out forced conscription among Cuban exiles. It can only use salary to induce people to apply.

　However, military service is inherently risky. Many Cuban exiles fled to the United States to escape the war. Many have already acquired U.S. citizenship and secured stable jobs. Some have even bought homes, opened businesses, and established businesses in the United States.

　How could Cubans like these, who already have a good life in the United States, go to the battlefield and risk their lives just for a few dollars in military pay?

　Even those Cubans who are not doing well in their lives may not be willing to give up their peaceful lives in the United States and risk their lives for military pay.

　So, after recruiting more than a thousand people, the CIA was unable to recruit more Cuban exiles willing to serve in the military in Florida.

　In fact, because there were too few authentic Cubans recruited temporarily, the CIA had to find a way to second some Hispanic American officers and soldiers, who were "voluntarily" forced to join the 2506th Commando Brigade, and finally put together a half-brigade lineup for the Cuban mercenaries.

　If the CIA wants to create another four brigades of Cuban mercenaries, it really can only rely on conscripting men... and it may not be possible!

　Therefore, starting from November 1960, the CIA's Cuban Special Task Force stopped recruiting soldiers and kept the 2506th Commando Brigade at a size of about 1500 people - this number of mercenaries only required $11 in maintenance costs per month, which was completely affordable financially.

　As for how to defeat Castro in Cuba with only one-tenth of the original planned force, that is another question...

　-

　In short, because of both the embezzlement of funds and the overestimation of the number of Cuban exiles in the United States, the CIA was unable to recruit enough troops. So, the original plan to recruit five brigades, 15,000 men, was reduced to only half a brigade, 1,500 men, thus earning four and a half brigades of empty salaries...

　At the same time, in order to avoid damaging morale, the CIA never told the truth to the Cuban mercenaries who had already been recruited.

　I'm afraid they still thought they had five brigades of troops until they set foot on the beach of Cuba.

　But in fact, their total strength is only one brigade, or to be exact, half a brigade.

　——The recruitment of subsequent personnel has been completely cancelled, and the CIA has no intention of replenishing even the half-strength of the 2506th Commando Brigade!

　Well, Captain Ferry King admitted that the above-mentioned "rationalization measures" taken by the CIA did have various frustrations.

　But the problem is that the available strength of the Cuban mercenaries has suddenly plummeted to only one-tenth, which is still a cruel reality.

　So, how could the 2506th Commando Brigade, which had only 1500 men at most and was half-strength short of its original strength, possibly defeat Castro, who had an army of 30,000?

　Not to mention, until now, all the Cuban mercenaries of the 2506th Commando Brigade, the American military advisers assigned to them, and the American officers and soldiers mixed in with them, all really believed that there were four brigades and more than 10,000 follow-up troops behind them to cooperate with them in this Cuban attack!

　But they don’t know that the truth is that half of the brigade at the Retalhuleu training base is already the entire lineup of the “Free Cuba Fighters”!

　—The disparity in numbers was already enormous, with a force ratio of twenty to one, and our commander was still making plans based on completely faulty intelligence...

　The battle plan was made according to 15,000 troops, but after the battle started, only 1,500 people could carry it out!

　This kind of rotten battle, where a blind man rides a blind horse, cannot be won even if the "Desert Fox" Rommel, who is good at defeating a larger force with a smaller one, is in command!

　The Cuban invasion has already been wrecked, yet we're still pushing forward? Deputy Director Bissell, what are you thinking?

　So, even though he knew it might upset Deputy Director Bissell, Firi still raised the following question:

　How could they defeat Castro's 3 Cuban troops if they only had the 1500 Cuban mercenaries of the 2506th Commando Brigade?

　Then, in order to make the deputy director of the CIA on the opposite side tell the truth, Firi secretly gestured, tore open a homemade scroll, and used the extraordinary ability given to him by the Prince of Lies, Xirik, to cast a level 1 spell to assist in deception - "Charm Human".

　The effect of this spell is mainly to increase the other party's favorability and make the other party regard you as a close and reliable friend and partner.

　In this case, some things that you are unwilling to say to strangers can be induced to be revealed.

　If you're lucky and make the other person fail their opposed Charisma check, you can even get them to do something they'd rather not do.

　For example, you might be fooled by a super salesperson and end up spending money without thinking, buying something you didn't want...