Fidel Castro, man behind the assassination of JFK dies at age 90

Fidel Castro is dead at age of 90.  Former Cuban dictator, Castro the western hemisphere's first communist leader is now history.  Fidel assumed power following the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and immediately began eliminating his enemies via prison and the firing squads.  A failed attempt was made to over-throw the communist dictator by counter-revolutionary forces sponsored by the CIA in April 1961.  The coup failed because then U.S. President John Kennedy refused to provide air cover that had been promised to the 1400 men of the Democratic Revolutionary Front who had landed on Cuban beaches at the Bay of Pigs. 

The weakness shown by President John Kennedy in 1961, would lead Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev to believe he could move Russian R-12 MRBN, nuclear tipped missiles to that communist island in October 1962.  A action that was soon reversed during what was known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.   It was the perceived weakness of the American President that lead to the stand off between the Cold War enemies--the USA and the USSR.  A stand off, that for a short while brought the world to the brink of WWIII.  Fortunately an accommodation was reached between the two super powers with the Russians removing their missiles from Cuba and later the United States removing their ICBM's from Turkey. 

Castro, never forgave Kennedy nor Khrushchev for this back-handed slap in the face of his authority and many believe that Lee Harvey Oswald, the JFK assassin, who was a devout communist and a Castro supporter was either inspired by his love for the cigar smoking commie dictator or maybe encouraged by agents of the Cuban state to pull the trigger that fateful day in Dallas, Texas.  Today, a day that is being celebrated by thousands of free Cubans in Miami's "Little Havana" the final chapter in the life of Fidel Castro has been written with his death.