The person to whom we owe the most for this book is Olga Goodwin, widow of William Morgan, who carried this powerful story in her heart for more than half a century. She not only spent endless hours with us during the research phase of the project, but she trusted us with her private memoir—hundreds of pages—that she wrote shortly after arriving in this country during the Mariel boatlift in 1980. The rare details that she recalled of her life with Morgan proved invaluable and provide a much richer perspective of one of the most compelling characters of the Cold War.
We are grateful also to writer and historian Aran Shetterly, whose book on Morgan, The Americano, helped uncover Morgan’s role in history and bring his accomplishments to the public’s attention.
We credit the men who served with Morgan in the Second Front, most notably Roger Redondo and Dr. Armando Fleites, for the long interviews they granted us during the research and writing of this book. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to fully appreciate Morgan’s military achievements during the revolution.
We are grateful to others who shared their memories, including the late Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, Ramiro Lorenzo, Domingo Ortega, Jorge Castellon, Hiram Gonzalez, and Michael Alvarez.
We recognize author and former journalist Lee Roderick, whose tape-recorded interviews in the 1980s with key people who knew Morgan—including Second Front rebels now deceased—were indispensable in chronicling key events in his life.
We also recognize several historians with vastly different political backgrounds who helped us gain a greater understanding of Morgan by virtue of those differences. They include the indefatigable Enrique Encinosa, Antonio de la Cova, Louis A. Perez Jr., and Juan Antonio Blanco.
This book originated with stories that Michael Sallah pursued as a reporter at the Toledo Blade beginning in 2002. To that end, we offer our heartfelt thanks to the publisher and editors at the Blade for their support of that coverage and allowing us to reprint several photographs of Morgan for this book.
Toledo attorney Gerardo “Opie” Rollison provided us with critical support and wise counsel. In addition, we offer our gratitude to attorney Jon Richardson, who worked behind the scenes to ensure that Olga’s story would be told.
Others, as friends or colleagues, provided tremendous spiritual and journalistic advice during crucial stages in the writing of this book, including Johnnie Harmeling; the Reverend Ricardo Mullen, OSA; David Nickell; Kevin Maurer; and Ronnie Greene.
A number of other journalists pursued stories about Morgan over the years. David Grann’s elegant piece in the New Yorker in 2012 provided rich details about Morgan’s life in Cuba. Miami Herald stalwarts Alfonso Chardy, Amy Driscoll, and Manny Garcia, who is now executive editor of the Naples Daily News, provided continued coverage that eventually led to the posthumous restoration of Morgan’s citizenship and renewed efforts to return his remains to America for reburial.
Adrian College professor of Spanish Don Cellini, National Journal reporter Alexia Fernandez Campbell, and Roger Redondo Ramos (son of Roger Redondo) translated interviews and documents indispensable in telling this story.
We stand indebted to the work of former Palm Beach Post editorial director Randy Schultz, whose illuminating 1979 series on Morgan provided important insights into his character.
We are grateful to our book editor, James Jayo, for recognizing the importance of this work and Morgan’s critical role in one of the most significant revolutions of the twentieth century. We also give thanks to our literary agent, Scott Miller of Trident Media Group.
Lastly, but most importantly, we are forever indebted to our wives, Judi Sallah and Suzyn Weiss, and children, who spent many long nights and weekends without us as we pursued the story. Without their love and patience, this book would not have been possible.