ABSTRACT
In late 1956, Fidel Castro sailed for Cuba from Mexico with 81 other expeditionaries. Their landing was supposed to coincide with an uprising by the 26th of July Movement in Santiago de Cuba, the country’s second city. But the rebellion occurred before Castro could land, and it was crushed by the Army. When the expedition debarked near the town of Manzanillo, it was quickly decimated by government troops. Castro and his tiny remaining band fled into the nearby Sierra Maestra Mountains. This article, published in the Marine Corps Gazette, describes the 2-year campaign that followed.
