The relationship between the United States and Cuba is rocky, to say the least. The fear
of communism in the United States was at an all-time high throughout the 1950s. Since
the end of World War II, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. had been in a Cold War that threatened
much of the developed world. And then Cuba took center stage.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, much of the turbulence between the two countries
stems from the actions of Fidel Castro, the former Prime Minister and President of Cuba.
In particular, the conflict was due to Castro's establishment of a socialist, Soviet Union-allied
state in 1959 following the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista's U.S.-backed regime in Havana. Events
like the Cuban Missile Crisis continually stoked fears of violence throughout the United
States through the 1960's. Castro, a Marxist–Leninist, had a starkly
different vision for Cuba than the American dream centered around capitalism, and this
divide would fuel a violent rift between the two nations that continues to this day. In
the eyes of America, Castro was a threat to global stability, a threat that needed to
be extinguished. Yet others have noted the corruption of Batista's rule, which has been
likened to a dictatorship. As always, history is much more complicated than a simple battle
between good and evil. Historian Louis A. Pérez described the United
States' disdain for Castro in his paper Fear and Loathing of Fidel Castro: Sources of US
Policy Toward Cuba, as deeply rooted in a loss of power. He described that loss of power
by the U.S. as a "trauma." America ultimately took matters to the extreme
when it tasked the CIA with assassinating the revolutionary Cuban leader. The agency
concocted several secret missions to take out Castro, but one of the most strange and
diabolical plans would have used an exploding seashell, triggered by touch, in his favorite
scuba diving spot. Although the plot never came to fruition, it remains a glaring example
of the tensions between America and Cuba amid the Cold War.
The exploding seashell might be the wildest plot, but many others were also incredibly
bizarre. The agency once tried to kill Castro with an exploding cigar laced with botulinum
toxin, one of the most poisonous substances in the world. Ultimately, the plan failed.
After they were delivered to an unidentified person, the whereabouts of the cigars disappeared
into history. There were several other CIA plots to kill
Castro. They included a contaminated scuba diving suit, two hired mobsters, and a femme
fatale who was coaxed into taking her lover's life. The head of the Cuban secret service,
Fabian Escalante, said that there were 634 attempts on the dictator's life made by the
CIA and Cuban exiles. Escalante went further, breaking down the
attempts made by each presidential administration. "Eisenhower, 38. Kennedy, 42. Johnson, 72.
Nixon, 184. Carter, 64. Reagan, 197. Bush Sr., 16. Clinton, 21."
The plots to assassinate Fidel Castro started right after the 1959 revolution, during the
presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, and continued to as recently as the year 2000. Often the
current presidential administrations didn't even know about the CIA's plots. However,
according to Pérez's Fear and Loathing of Fidel Castro paper, the U.S. perpetually,
quote, "pursued a policy to remove Fidel Castro from power," regardless of the politics of
the various administrations. Getting rid of Fidel Castro has always been a goal.
That rabid need for revenge might be because of how Pérez describes the United States'
relationship to Cuba before Castro's take over. He portrays Cuba as a:
"…background for honeymoons, a playground for vacations, a brothel, a casino, a cabaret,
a good liberty port — a place for flings, sprees, and binges."
The ability of Castro and his regime to take control of their small island nation, a nation
that the powerful U.S. considered its playground, and shape it as the antithesis to American
ideals was not something the U.S. government could stomach. Yet their many failed assassination
attempts just added to the nation's humiliation at being bested by Fidel Castro.
Castro eventually died in 2016 at the age of 90 from natural causes. Before his 90th
birthday, Castro mused on what he called his fate, saying:
"Soon I will turn 90 years old, never would such a thing have occurred to me and it's
not the outcome of any effort; it was fate's whim. Soon I will be like everyone else. To
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