JM-WAVE

JM/WAVE was the CIA's clandestine station in Miami, Florida, established in 1961 in the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs invasion to serve as the operational headquarters for anti-Castro covert actions. At its peak during Operation Mongoose in 1962, the station employed over 400 CIA officers and had several thousand Cuban exile agents on its payroll, making it temporarily the second-largest CIA station worldwide after headquarters in Langley, Virginia.¹

Establishment and Cover

JM/WAVE was physically located at the University of Miami's South Campus in Coral Gables, occupying a cluster of buildings under the commercial cover of "Zenith Technical Enterprises, Inc." The cover company appeared in the Miami business directory and conducted enough legitimate business activity to support the fiction. The station also maintained a network of front companies that operated boats, aircraft, and commercial vehicles used in operational support.

The station was one component of a broader Miami-area anti-Castro infrastructure that included multiple Cuban exile organizations, paramilitary training facilities throughout South Florida and elsewhere, and maritime and air assets for clandestine operations against Cuba.¹

The Shackley Era

Ted Shackley, who later became one of the CIA's most consequential officers in Southeast Asia and Latin America, served as JM/WAVE chief from approximately 1962 to 1965. Shackley had previously worked under William Harvey in Berlin and was assigned to Miami when Harvey was chief of Task Force W, the CIA component of Mongoose.² Harvey was appointed to Task Force W in early 1962; the Mongoose titles are the CIA project officer role and the Task Force W command.³ When Harvey was removed from operational control of Cuba operations in January 1963, when Desmond FitzGerald replaced him as chief of Task Force W,² Shackley continued as station chief through the period of Mongoose's wind-down and the subsequent reduced covert operations period.

Under Shackley, JM/WAVE operated extensive maritime raiding teams (the "cowboys," as station personnel called them) that conducted boat raids against Cuban coastal targets, intelligence collection missions along the Cuban coast, and infiltration/exfiltration operations for agents inside Cuba. The station also coordinated with the large and fractious Cuban exile community in Miami, attempting to channel exile groups' energy into CIA-directed operations while managing the political conflicts among exile factions.¹

Operations

JM/WAVE's operational activities fell into several categories:

Maritime operations: Small fast boats conducted raids on Cuban coastal installations, refineries, and shipping. The raids were intended to damage Cuba's economy and demonstrate the vulnerability of the Castro government, but their practical impact was limited.

Intelligence collection: Cuban refugees arriving in Miami were systematically debriefed; agent networks inside Cuba reported on military dispositions, economic conditions, and political developments; and aerial photography supplemented human intelligence.

Exile organizational management: The station provided funding and direction to multiple Cuban exile groups including the Democratic Revolutionary Front (FRD) and its successor the Cuban Revolutionary Council, Brigade 2506's survivors, and various smaller organizations. Managing competing exile factions and their political agendas within CIA operational requirements was a persistent challenge.

Assassination planning: The CIA-organized crime assassination plots against Castro, run through Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana by Harvey, were coordinated at least in part through JM/WAVE's Miami presence.¹

Wind-Down

Following the October 1962 Missile Crisis, Operation Mongoose was suspended and the no-invasion pledge reduced the strategic rationale for large-scale covert operations against Cuba. JM/WAVE continued in a reduced capacity through the mid-1960s. Shackley left in 1965 for Laos, where he commanded the CIA's covert war against the Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese. The station was formally closed in 1968 as the Cuba threat receded from the top of U.S. intelligence priorities.

Many of the Cuban exile personnel trained and organized through JM/WAVE remained in the CIA network for years afterward. Some appeared in later operations, including the Watergate burglary (the "plumbers" included several veterans of the anti-Castro operations) and, according to various accounts, in aspects of Central American operations in the 1970s and 1980s.⁴