| September 27 |  |
Editor says, do you remember what you were doing when you heard that Lee Harvey Oswald had shot Fidel Castro? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the July 2011 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1963, on this day an American plot to assassinate Fidel Castro was foiled by Senor Eusebio Azcue the Cuban consul in Mexico City.
Saving Fidel CastroA short, blond impostor claiming to be former US Marine Lee Harvey Oswald visited both Cuban and Soviet embassies.
But a suspicious consulate employee Sylvia Duran had raised concerns with Azcue because of the unusual nature of an application for an "in-transit" visa to travel through Cuba to the Soviet Union. Under US Regulations, Cuba was not permitted as a final destination and moreover Oswald had only recently returned from the Soviet Union after defecting in 1959.
The CIA's Mexico City Station sent cables to headquarters in early October, reporting the visit. Investigators soon discovered that the visitor was an underworld hitman who on April 10th had assassinated U.S. Major General Edwin Walker, an outspoken anti-communist, segregationist, and member of the John Birch Society. But the trail continued, leading eventually all the way up to President Nixon who was still smarting over the Bay of Pigs Fiasco, the bungled CIA operation that would eventually lead to his impeachment.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Mary Ferrell Labels: Kennedy, Fidel Castro, Lee Harvey Oswald, Cuba, Dallas.
~ I think Nixon was smarter than to come up with such a convoluted plot. His reaction to the Bay of Pigs fiasco was "I'd have just gone on in," and his reaction to Operation Eagle Claw was "_Eight_ helicopters? Why not a hundred? It's not like we don't have them!" Its a good point you make sir, my counter suggestion is the plausible deniability angle e.g. that his aides bungled it, he merely stated a desire for Castro to be removed
Comment from Alan Abramowitz on Facebook: Oswald was recruited by the CIA. He was never a hitman just a patsy. With Nixon in the White House there'd never be any plots against the President.
~ I agree. What bungled the bay of pigs was the un willingness to send in the Marines and air cover. Nixon would have done it and it would have changed everything.
~ Doesn't make any sense -- Was it Oswald or not? No - it was the LHO double that in our timeline was creating the false, patsy trail
~ No, what “bungled the Bay of Pigs” was the way Eisenhower holdovers among Kennedy’s advisers first sold JFK n the idea that minimal U.S. support of the exile invaders would be enough because the Cuban people and even the Cuban military would rise in righteous rebellion against Castro as soon as the exiles hit the beaches, then--when that, naturally enough, didn’t happen--claimed it had always been understood that a full-bore U.S. military intervention would be needed. Kennedy felt he had been suckered and refused to go ahead.
~ If Bay of Pigs had gone through, it may have been enough to push the Soviet Union over the edge in Turkey. A major escalation for the Cold War, which could easily turn hot.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
