CW 314 — The Coffins of United Fruit

Eisenhower signs off on a covert plan to overthrow Castro in March 1960.... a plan which, to be clear, is literally titled "Program of Covert Action Against the Castro Regime." Subtle. Meanwhile Cuba starts nationalising US oil refineries, Washington cuts the sugar quota, and Castro responds by reading the expropriation of 26 American corporations aloud at a baseball stadium at midnight while handling a dove like James Brown with a cape. The coffins of Esso, Shell and United Fruit are eventually carried to the sea and hurled in, in the hope the Gulf Stream takes them back to Florida. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices