FINAL WARNING: The Communist Agenda
the) propagation of Fidel’s ‘heretical’ ideas.” Because Castro was
perceived as being “unpredictable, volatile, undisciplined,” he was
being blamed for the Soviet’s failure in Cuba, and Khrushchev decided
he had to cut his losses and withdraw from the country. However,
leaving voluntarily would give the impression that they were admitting
failure, so the scheme was hatched to get rid of Castro “as a result of
American aggression.”Initially, an uprising was planned that would have unseated Castro and
replaced him with Anibal Escalante, a trusted Party ally. However,
Castro discovered the plan and neutralized it by expelling the
ringleader, Soviet ambassador Mikhailovich Kudryavtsev. A frustrated
Khrushchev then hit on the idea of provoking Kennedy to invade Cuba.
The idea was that Castro would be overthrown, and when no missiles
would be found, the American government would be embarrassed.
According to González: “Khrushchev’s carefully conceived plans had
not counted on the unexpected and apparently irrational behavior of
President Kennedy.” González writes:“...Finally, Soviet developments in Cuba were so blatant and
political pressures in the U.S. so strong, that Kennedy was forced
to act. But, when he announced the blockade of the island, he
unexpectedly stated that the American actions were not directed
against Cuba, but against the Soviet Union. Kennedy’s behavior
was so surprising that Khrushchev was caught completely off
balance and panicked before the possibility of a nuclear
confrontation which he had not anticipated and for which he was
not prepared ... Fortunately for the world, Khrushchev was
enough of a political realist to recognize when a gambit had been
lost...Khrushchev never understood why Kennedy had acted in
such an irrational and foolish way, by not attacking Cuba and,
thereby, allowing Castro to stay in power.”On December 2, 1961, Castro proclaimed: “I have been a Communist
since my teens.” On December 11, 1963, the New York Times printed
one of President Kennedy’s last interviews, in which he said: “I think
we have spawned, constructed, entirely fabricated without knowing it,
the Castro movement.” In 1979, the New York Times published a letter
from the former U.S. Ambassador to Cuba, Earl E. T. Smith, in which
he said: “Castro could not have seized power in Cuba without the aid