After Fidel Castro’s death Friday evening, the condolences of North American leaders began to roll in. President Obama described the Cuban dictator as “a singular figure” in history while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remembered the Marxist as “a larger than life leader.”
The two leaders might have been much less charitable if Nikita Khrushchev had followed Castro’s advice more than five decades ago. At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Castro urged the USSR to launch a nuclear first strike against the United States.
In an October 1962 letter, the communist dictator urged the Soviet Union not to wait for the US to reach for the nukes.
“If the imperialists invade Cuba with the aim of occupying it, the dangers of their aggressive policy are so great that after such an invasion,” Castro wrote, “the Soviet Union must never allow circumstances in which the imperialists could carry out a nuclear first strike against it.”
After the failed Bay of Pigs US-backed invasion, the USSR sent numerous medium and intermediate range misses to the island nation.
Deploying those warheads during a second American-backed invasion, Castro explained, would be “would be the moment to eliminate this danger forever, in an act of the most legitimate self-defense. However harsh and terrible the solution, there would be no other.”
Just 90 miles from Florida, Castro’s suggestion would bring nuclear war to America’s footstep. It would have ensured almost certain destruction of both Miami and Havana.
“I understand that these moments, when the results of your superhuman efforts are so seriously threatened, must be bitter for you,” Castro wrote before leaving no question on his commitment to the nuclear option.
“But, at the same time, we are serene and ready to confront a situation which we see as very real and imminent,” Castro concluded.
Khrushchev ignored Cuban calls for nuclear first use. After negotiations with President John F. Kennedy, he agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba in 1962. The United States did not begin to lift its embargo of Cuba until Obama took office.
