Did Fidel actually want to or just want to have them defensively?
I know Che was all about nuclear accelerationism though. I thought they disagreed.
Screenshots from Fidel’s autobiography, tldr (at least as I read it) is that Fidel wanted Cornman to nuke the US if there was any invasion of Cuba.
Fidel wrote to cornman on 26 october (27 october in russia) telling him to send nukes if he thinks an invasion is going to happen
Cornman wrote back on the 28th, basically telling fidel to chill bc he wants peace
And Fidel wrote again to Cornman the same day telling him that he will not chill cuba is in danger
Cornman replied on the 30th with a lotta platitudes (Cornman thought he won the missile crisis lol) but most relevant here is him saying fidel’s “send the nukes” idea was wrong
Fidel’s reply (Oct. 31) shows what he thought of Cornman’s ‘victory’:
Thank you!
That was helpful. Yeah, it seems he didn’t want preemptive strikes but defensive or retaliatory was more his style, which matches what I remembered.
Yep, Fidel was super-pissed when cornman pulled the missiles out without telling him (as was part of the deal with kennedy), and it strained Cuba-USSR relations for a while. Its hard to fault any party there tho, planetary nuclear annihalation avoided.
Castro did send a message to Moscow indicating he was willing to sacrifice the island to nuke the US, but I think it’s pretty clear he was just frustrated with the fact that the USSR and US weren’t involving Cuban leadership enough in general, and was basically just trying to get Moscow’s attention. At least that’s what I remember, it’s been a long time since I read about it though
Well not “sacrifice”, but more defense as per the logic of mutually assured destruction. IE, If you nuke me, you suffer the consequences of also getting nuked, so don’t you dare.
