C Is For The CIA And Castro... A-Z Challenge 2017

Castro. Public Domain

Ladies and gentlemen, today I continue my A-Z Challenge on the theme of spies and spying.

I would like to present to you some of the CIA's attempts, during the Cold War(another C), to assassinate the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro - or, failing that, to embarrass him. Communism was a huge fear in the U.S. at the time, what with the Soviet Union having as many nuclear weapons as they did, and what did they have next door? Another Communist country! 

Given that Fidel Castro lived long enough to die of old age in the 21st century, you can assume he survived. But again, there must have been CIA members with too much time on their hands, time enough to come up with over-the-top ideas. (Don't even get me started on the telepathy thing they tried against the Soviet Union!)

Castro seems to have avoided the exploding cigar the CIA sent him, and the powder that was supposed to make his beard, of which he was proud, fall out and the drug that was supposed to be pumped into a studio where he was making a speech, to make him look stupid.

The next idea was to present him with a poisoned wetsuit that was to kill him when he next went scuba diving. Fortunately, the diplomat who was supposed to hand over the wetsuit decided his country couldn't afford the trouble it would cause and swapped the wetsuit for a clean one. 

It must have made Castro feel invulnerable when all those plots against him failed. There's no doubt he was a survivor! 

Tomorrow: The Dabneys in the Civil War.