{"product_id":"the-americano-fighting-with-castro-for-cubas-freedom-9781565124585","title":"The Americano: Fighting With Castro For Cuba's Freedom","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Why do I fight here in this land so foreign to my own? Why did I come here far from my home and family?Is it because I seek adventure? NoI am here because I believe that the most important thing for free men to do is to protect the freedom of others.\" William Morgan  in a letter to Herbert Matthews at the New York Times  When William Morgan was twenty-two years old  he was working as a high school janitor in Toledo Ohio. Seven years later  in 1958  he walked into a Rebel camp in the Cuban Jungle to join the revolutionaries in their fight to overthrow the corrupt Cuban president  Fulgencio Batista. They were wary of the broad-shouldered  blond-haired  blue-eyed americano but Morgans dedication and passion  his military skill and charisma  led him to become a chief comandante in Castros armyhe was the only foreigner to hold such a rank  with the exception of Che Guevera.  Vicious battles in the jungles were followed by victorious revelry in the cities. Morgan married a Cuban beauty. He single-handedly thwarted the Dominican Republics attempt to overthrow Castro. And he was chosen to work with Castro and other high ranking Rebels to improve the quality of life for all people. This man who had lived under the radar in America was now a Cuban hero on the watch lists of several governments  all of whom wondered whose side he was really on.  It all ended in 1961  when  at age thirty-two  Morgan was executed by firing squad  at the hands of Fidel Castro.  Journalist Aran Shetterly takes us back to an era when democracy could have flourished in Cuba. He interviewed Morgans friends and family and former Cuban Rebels  and examined FBI and CIA documents in search of the truth. What emerged was the true story of a young man who had never fit in but finally found his place in the world by fighting another countrys war.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647886352437,"sku":"ByrdShop_1565124588","price":34.74,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781565124585.jpg?v=1781698827","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-americano-fighting-with-castro-for-cubas-freedom-9781565124585","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}