Fidel Castro ruled communist Cuba for 58 years. In that time, the United States made plans over and over again to take him out, and deprive the country of its revolutionary icon and leader. He died last year at age 90 of natural causes.
According to one 2006 documentary for Britain’s Channel Four, the government of the United States hatched no fewer than 638 separate plots to kill “the Beard.” Of course, not all those plots got out of the planning stage, and it goes without saying that none of them succeeded (unless they finally got him at 90), but some of the ones that did get within striking distance were absolute clinics in how not to kill a communist strongman.
Some of these plans failed because of bad luck or planning, some failed for unforeseeable reasons or sudden changes of circumstance, and some of them failed because they were just stupid. These are five of the most ridiculous.
These plots involved LSD, the Mafia, and smuggling poison or bombs inside ridiculous disguises. Read about some of them at All That is Interesting. -via Nag on the Lake