But it isn’t suicidal bravado? Even Fidel nearly pushed the button during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The world has been very lucky that he didn’t, and it even scared JFK into rethinking the entire nuclear escalation with the USSR. There is a reason why a nuclear-armed US dared not fuck with Stalin, Mao and Fidel.
29 points
It’s worth noting that Fidel couldn’t have pressed the button even if he wanted to, because the nukes were under the direct control of the USSR. At one point he did sendt a telegram to Khrushchev saying to launch the nukes if the US invaded Cuba, and IIRC Robert MacNamara later recounted that Fidel told him he would have approved of the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
