Fidel Castro was a Cuban dictator who instilled deep fear in to the hearts of US policy makers. The reason for this was because he was a Communist and had successfully established a Communist state in the Western Hemisphere. He took power during the Cold War and was cooperating with the Soviet Union, the United States’ greatest enemy. The fear of a nuclear attack became so much more real, as shown in the Cuban Missile Crisis due to Cuba’s close proximity to the United States south. Castro ruled in Cuba for nearly 50 years and during that time dealt with many attempts to take his life. In 1975, an United States congressman was investigating activities of the CIA in Cuba, and uncovered at least eight “plots” that the CIA had put together in order to assassinate Castro between 1960-1965. Between March and August 1960, the CIA had a plan to ruin his speeches by putting an LSD-like chemical in the air in his broadcasting studio. Ultimately, they chose not to as they hadn’t done enough research on the chemical. On November 22nd, 1963, a CIA official ordered for a poison pen to be used in order to kill Castro. The CIA also frequently targeted cigars and there are notes saying that on one occasion, they injected the cars with a chemical that causes temporary disorientation, in hopes that Castro would smoke one before a speech. In 1961, an unidentified person in Cuba was given a box of Castro’s favorite cigars that were injected with a toxin so strong, they would kill a person the minute the cigar was put in their mouth. Although, the cigars were clearly never delivered to Castro. There was also a plot to destroy Castro’s iconic beard using thallium salts, although it was set to occur while he was on vacation, and he ended up cancelling his trip. The threat of Communism made US officials go a little crazy, and led to the planning of plots such as the ones above. They would do anything to ruin Castro’s reputation and get him out of power.