The beautiful island of Cuba, once a hotspot for American tourists in the 1940's and 1950's, is now an oppressed nation of 11 million people governed by a ruthless communist dictator. In this gripping episode of "War Stories with Oliver North," you'll see how Fidel Castro brought a country together with promises and hope, and then tore it apart in one swift grab for power.

You'll witness how Castro committed this ultimate betrayal through a campaign of murder, mayhem and lies to his fellow countrymen. Learn how as a Catholic schoolboy, who once wrote letters to President Roosevelt, Castro rose to command an army of idealistic revolutionaries to overthrow Fulgencio Batista. You'll bear witness to Castro's 1959 victorious entrance into the city of Havana from the man who rode alongside him. In a rare firsthand account, Oliver North interviews Huber Matos, one of Castro's most trusted commanders. Matos was betrayed, tortured and jailed by Castro for 20 years.

You will meet the brave men who fought for the freedom of Cuba only to be abandoned at the last minute by President John F. Kennedy in the debacle known as the Bay of Pigs. You'll go inside the ensuing Cuban Missile crisis and see how a nuclear holocaust was narrowly avoided between America and the Soviet Union. From the pilot himself, you will hear him retrace the mission of a U-2 spy plane that provided the proof the world needed that ballistic missiles were aimed at the United States.

And you'll hear from the ordinary Cuban citizens who fled from their beloved homeland in search of freedom. This is the story of a people who have struggled, fought, and continues to hope for the inevitable day when Cuba will be free again.

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