The Alaska businessman and perennial political candidate who wanted to invade Cuba

Part of a continuing weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story.

In December 1958, a brutal Cuban dictator friendly with the United States, Fulgencio Batista, was deposed by forces led by Fidel Castro, who became a brutal Cuban dictator not friendly with the United States. From 1959 to 1962, when flights between the U.S. and Cuba were suspended, nearly 250,000 Cubans fled the island nation. This mass emigration included many of the country’s wealthiest residents, people with the means and motivation to seek a counterrevolution.

The exiles had many friends and allies, but a notable Alaskan was also in their corner. This man organized a small — very small — group of like-minded individuals. For a few days in late 1960, they could be seen training on the Anchorage park strip, preparing themselves for military action. David Newton Boyer was going to invade Cuba.

Boyer was born in Tennessee in 1915 and grew up on a farm in southern Illinois near Cairo. At the age of 18, he joined the Illinois National Guard. During World War II, he served in the Army and reached the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1952, after serving again during the Korean War, he moved his family to Alaska, first living in Anchorage. In May 1953, they relocated to a homestead at Anchor Point. He built up several businesses, including the Colony Inn in Ninilchik and the David Newton Boyer Hotel in Kenai, also known as the Kenai Hotel. Though he did not attend law school, he engaged in a lengthy, acrimonious and ultimately losing battle to allow him to take the Alaska bar exam.

Other than his hotels and attempt to invade Cuba, Alaskans knew him for his many failed political campaigns, including runs for the state House in 1954 and 1958, the U.S. House in 1960, governor in 1961, and the Seward-Kenai-Cook Inlet Borough in 1963. At the 1973 Alaska Democratic Convention, Boyer nominated himself as a candidate to fill the U.S. House seat left open by Nick Begich Sr.’s death but received zero votes. During the 1960s, a reporter described Boyer as “Alaska’s Perennial.” Said Boyer, “I never became too discouraged by losing to run again. Abe Lincoln came from a log cabin too, and he lost seven times before finally being elected president.”

(An aside, the common story of Lincoln persevering through repeated election losses is heavily embellished. While he did lose several elections, he also served four terms in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1834 to 1842 and one term in the U.S. House from 1847 to 1849. In 1854, he won another term in the Illinois House but declined to take the seat in favor of a U.S. Senate run.)

Boyer had strong opinions and was not shy about sharing them, no matter how extreme or silly. Any publicity garnered was a bonus. For example, he was particular about his middle name and could be offended when others left it out. While running for governor in 1962, he issued a news release condemning the minimal press coverage for his campaign. Among other slights, he noted that his middle name was missing in some articles. Comparing himself to the other candidates, he wrote, “I have homesteaded — they haven’t. I use my middle name — they don’t. You know my middle name was after my Uncle Newt who lived in Eastern Tennessee. He died at the age of 96, in his 45-room home all on one floor, with his little brown jug in bed by his side. He used to drink a little — ride his mule to the mountains to pick huckleberries — and drink a little more.”

In 1963, he asked Nelson Rockefeller for funding to connect the Alaska Railroad, Canadian National Railway, and Illinois Central Railroad, thus connecting Seward to Chicago. It was a fine dream if heavily hampered by reality. Aside from the extreme distance between the Alaska and Canadian railroads, Bower lacked any preexisting relationship with the wealthy Rockefeller.

That same year, he ran a promotion to determine his facial hair. “How do you like to be greeted by Dave Boyer — clean shaven or with beard?” declared one advertisement. Respondents could choose beard, no beard, or to accept him no matter how long it had been since his last shave. His daughters preferred him without bristles. To register their opinion, readers could send ballots to his Kenai hotel. There were no prizes other than the gains from clever marketing.

In 1964, he wrote to Sen. Bob Bartlett and proposed Alaska buy the Alaska Railroad for a single dollar but require the federal government to partially subsidize it for another 50 years. His valuation was somewhat low; the state paid $22 million for the railroad 21 years later. In 1965, he recommended a recall for Alaska Sen. Ernest Gruening for being “lax on the job” as regards communism. The former territorial governor did lose his next primary and ended his Senate term in 1969.

Facial hair shenanigans and unlikely business plans were nothing compared to his most fantastic scheme. While managing his hotel, overseeing several other business interests, and running against incumbent Rep. Ralph Rivers in the Democratic primary, Boyer decided he also wanted to invade a foreign country. Sometime around November 1960, he sent a letter to the leader of the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front, a group of Cuban exiles determined to overthrow Fidel Castro. The letter declared, “I MAY BE interested in organizing a group of Alaskans, Texans, Tennesseans to support your counter-offensive in and on the shores of Cuba against the Communist forces. I contemplate an independent command, which I will personally hand pick, organize, train, staff and command.”

The logistics of the endeavor were based more on hope than anything solid. He also wrote to the Anchorage Daily Times, stating, “I would like a force of 3,000 made up of one-third Texans, and one-third Tennesseans. All men.” He believed that the entire operation, from concept through completion, would take less than a year. At most, he estimated that a year of training and campaigning would cost $52,650,000. That total included monthly salaries of $250 each and a $10,000 bonus paid after the coup.

When Castro seized power, he nationalized property from foreign companies, including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Texaco, and several movie studios. Boyer wanted companies like these to fund his campaign. Once Castro was removed, the companies would recover their lost assets and thus profit from the transaction. As he put it, the cost “seems a very small amount for a recovery of $4 billion.” As optimistic as he was, Boyer had not obtained any such assurances on funding.

The call for recruits went out in Alaska, with their first assembly scheduled for Dec. 5, 1960, on the Anchorage park strip. So, there Boyer was, on a chilly Monday morning. Though only one other man joined him that day, Boyer was not discouraged. Within a few days, around a dozen men were running back and forth on the park strip for exercise. He claimed his overall force then included somewhere from 50-70 volunteers.

A dozen men running around an Anchorage park in winter, training to topple a Communist country, surely appeared ludicrous to many Alaskans. One letter to the Daily Times pleaded, “If you must continue to give publicity to the antics and comments of one David Boyer, please publish said material on the ‘funny page’ where it belongs.” However, there is no doubt that Boyer was fully committed to the project. Without corporate support, he began selling parcels off his Anchor Point homestead to fund the venture.

Despite some setbacks, by March 1961 he was raising funds and troops in Phoenix, Arizona. In the face of initial adversity, his ambitions had remarkably soared. Instead of 3,000 troops, he now wanted 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers, including 3,000 paratroopers. Rather than limiting himself to recruits from just three states, he was now open to any Americans. He wrote to President John F. Kennedy but received no response. Boyer told the Arizona Republic, “I see this as a definite tacit approval of my plan,” a highly questionable understanding of the situation.

The putative army also gained a name. As the force consisted of “Volunteers from Tennessee, Independents from Texas, and Pioneers of Alaska,” they were the Volunteer Independent Pioneers, or Boyer’s VIPs. By the beginning of April, he claimed 2,000 men had volunteered, busy enough that 20 secretaries were needed to handle the paperwork.

Though still far from his goals, this moment was the campaign’s peak. Sometime around early April, the endeavor was shut down. Years later, Boyer said, “Then, Kennedy sent word to us that if we stepped three miles off American soil, we would not be granted re-entry, ever. So, we had to disband.”

Boyer’s VIPs, however unlikely to topple Castro, could have interfered with the actual American-supported plan to unseat the dictator. On April 17, 1961, days after Boyer’s campaign was disbanded, nearly 1,500 CIA-backed Cuban exiles landed on the south coast of Cuba, the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Hampered by blunders in planning and execution, and President Kennedy’s decision to withdraw aerial support, the operation was a dismal failure.

Boyer died on June 4, 2000, at the Anchorage Pioneers Home and is buried at the Fort Richardson National Cemetery. Long journeys, extraordinary peaks and deep valleys marked his life. He once said, “My three marriages and race for public office were tremendous disasters — but all the rest of it has been real fun.”

[Correction: This story has been updated to correct that Abraham Lincoln had won another term in the Illinois House — but declined to take the seat in favor of a U.S. Senate run — in 1854, not 1954.]

Key sources:

Atwood family papers, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage.

“Boyer Lists Amount of Money He Needs.” Anchorage Daily Times, December 3, 1960, 9.

“Boyer’s Troop Workout Notable for Absences.” Anchorage Daily Times, December 5, 1960, 1.

“Boyer Urges Unit to Fight in Cuba.” Anchorage Daily Times, November 29, 1960, 1.

Bruce, Donald D. “Stop, Please.” Anchorage Daily Times, December 15, 1960, 4.

David Boyer obituary. Anchorage Daily News, June 7, 2000, B-9.

“Kennedy Will hear of Boyer Brigade.” Anchorage Daily Times, December 9, 1960, 11.

Piser, Robert. “Castro Opponent in Valley Recruiting Invasion Army.” [Phoenix] Arizona Republic, March 10, 1961, 17.

Warren, Naomi. “Whatever Happened to David Newton Boyer?” Anchorage Times, July 9, 1983, B-5, B-6.