Wednesday, December 1, 1965: Freedom Flights

A new chapter in the long, often dangerous and always dramatic exodus of Cubans from their Communist homeland opens today with the start of a refugee airlift. The first plane, a Pan American World Airways DC7C, will leave Miami's International Airport at 7 a.m., carrying only its crew and two officials of the U.S. Public Health and Immigration departments. It will return three hours and 35 minutes later from Varadero, Cuba, with 90 refugees, the first of up to 100,000 expected in the new wave of immigration.

     -- Associated Press, December 1, 1965: @

     -- "First Cubans Begin Flights to US Haven" (AP, December 1): @

     -- "First Refugee Plane Lands" (AP, December 1): @

The last of more than 260,500 Freedom Flight refugees from Fidel Castro's Cuba limped off a plane here yesterday.

     -- Associated Press, April 6, 1973: @

-- 1965 photo from Public Health Image Library, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Resources
* "The Cuban Experience in Florida: Revolution and Exodus" (State Library & Archives of Florida): @

* Freedom Flight Memories and database (The Miami Herald): @

* "In Search of Freedom: Cuban Exiles and the U.S. Cuban Refugee Program" (University of Miami Libraries): @ 
* "Cuban Migration to the United States: Policy and Trends" (Ruth Ellen Wasem, Congressional Research Service, 2009): @

* "An Historic Overview of Latino Immigration and the Demographic Transformation of the United States" (David G. Gutierrez, National Park Service): @

* "Freedom Tower, Miami, Florida" (National Park Service): @

* "The 'Other' Boatlift: Camarioca, Cuba, 1965" (U.S. Coast Guard): @
* "The Cuban Refugee Program" (William L. Mitchell, Social Security commissioner, March 1962): @

* "Cuban Refugees in the United States" (John F. Thomas, The International Migration Review, 1967): @

* "Analysis of Federal Expenditures to Aid Cuban Refugees" (U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 1971): @ 
* "Cubans in the United States" (Pew Research Center, 2006): @

* Photos (The Miami Herald): @

* Photos (University of Miami Libraries): @

* Cuban Research Institute (Florida International University): @

Books

* "Desperate Crossings: Seeking Refuge in America" (Norman L. Zucker and Naomi Flink Zucker, 1996): @

* "Calculated Kindness: Refugees and America's Half-Open Door, 1945-Present" (Gil Loescher and John A. Scanlan, 1998): @
* "Cubans in America: A Vibrant History of a People in Exile" (Alex Anton and Roger E. Hernandez, 2003): @
* "Encyclopedia of Cuban-United States Relations" (Thomas M. Leonard, 2004): @

* "Americans at the Gate: The United States and Refugees During the Cold War" (Carl J. Bon Tempo, 2008): @
* "International Migration in Cuba: Accumulation, Imperial Designs, and Transnational Social Fields" (Margarita Cervantes-Rodriguez, 2011): @

* "American Immigration: An Encyclopedia of Political, Social, and Cultural Change" (James Ciment and John Radzilowski, editors, 2015): @ 

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