Tail-Gunner in the Pilot's Seat 2.0

Wolfpaw

Banned
Bulganin and Khrushchev really had us going there for a while. I mean, we all believed that line he was feeding about how the Commies were going to make Europe glow green if we didn't let Nasser have his way. So when the Tail-Gunner decided to stick with our friends, decided that we weren't going to help out some Red stooge, we waited for the world to blow up. And we waited. And waited. And we waited some more.

Before long, we all started to figuring out that the B and K Show was talking through their hats. Yeah, we got a little worried when they put a couple more tanks into East Germany and Austria, but it's not like they did anything with them. The Reds made a lot of noise when Nasser was booted out by his own guys, but you didn't have to be Einstein to see that they weren't willing to end the world over some two-bit Arab what fancied himself the next Mussolini. Part of me feels bad for Nasser, but, I mean, you trust the Soviets, well...you get what you pay for.


—James “Jim” McEvoy quoted in Better Dead than Red: An American Memoir by Studs Terkel
 
Last edited:

Wolfpaw

Banned
At the same time that Lansky was attempting to make gambling professionals out of the youth of Havana, out in the Caribbean Sea a thirty-eight-foot yacht named Granma bobbed in turbulent waters. On board were Fidel Castro, his brother Raúl, Che Guevara, and seventy-nine others representing the vanguard of the 26th of July Movement. They too had a scheme that involved the youth of Cuba, one with a solitary goal: revolution.

Everything about Castro's latest undertaking made it look like another misguided enterprise, though the original plan was solid enough. The seventy-nine men and women had been culled from a highly trained squad of nearly one hundred and fifty rebels in Mexico. The rebels were in constant contact with rebel cells in Cuba, particularly a sizable group in Santiago led by a motivated young revolutionary leader named Frank País. The plan was for Castro and his group to sail ashore and attack military targets in Oriente Province, while at the same time in the capital city of Santiago, País would lead a rebellion. Eventually these two groups would come together, and the 26th of July Movement would control all of Oriente. The plan was then to build a unified rebel army that would work its way across the island, winning the hearts and minds of the people, before swarming Havana and unseating the Batista regime.

Problems began with the choice of boat. The Granma was a weathered vessel that Castro had bought from an American living in Mexico City. The yacht was equipped to hold a maximum of twenty-five people safely. Three years earlier, the boat had sunk during a hurricane, but Castro had had a number of people working on it to make it seaworthy. By late November the Granma still wasn't completely ready, but Fidel was determined to deliver on his promise to launch an attack by the end of the year. On November 25, the rebel contingent left Tuxpan, on Mexico’s Gulf Coast, and headed out to sea singing the Cuban national anthem and the 26th of July march. Before long, they ran into strong winds and rough waters.


There were few experienced sailors on the ship, and almost instantly the rebels became violently ill. Che Guevara, the group’s medic, searched frantically for seasickness pills, but none were to be found. In his Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War, Guevara wrote, “The entire boat took on an aspect both ridiculous and tragic: men with anguished faces holding their stomachs, some with their heads in buckets, others lying in the strangest positions, immobile, their clothing soiled with vomit." Another account described crew members “shitting in their pants.”

At one point the boat began to take on water. It appeared as though there was a leak, so despite there being precious little food on board, the crew began throwing rations and supplies into the ocean to lighten the load. It was then discovered that what they had thought was a leak was actually an open plumbing faucet that could easily be closed: the food had been thrown overboard unnecessarily.

[FONT=&quot]The Granma listed off-course. The trip was supposed to take five days, but by the fifth day the boat was still far south of Cuba.

[/FONT]
—Excerpt from Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba . . . and Then Lost It to the Revolution by T. J. English
 
Last edited:
The article sounds promising hinted that Cuba will be saved, the title of the book is ominous though. I can guess how McCarthy would deal with Reds 100 miles away from Florida.
 
The article sounds promising hinted that Cuba will be saved, the title of the book is ominous though. I can guess how McCarthy would deal with Reds 100 miles away from Florida.

Aracnid

As you say it sounds like there's going to be a revolution. However it may be, if the problems with Grandma aren't OTL, that it will have different leaders, which might have some significant effects on it's direction? With the Soviets looking distinctly weaker and a more aggressive US anti-communist President it might be a more socialist rather than communist government that emerges and keeps it's distance from the Soviets.

Steve
 
¡ Hi !, first Puerto Rico, now Cuba, what next the island of Haiti or Jamaica, in some time the USA goverment be beginning to hate all the islands of the world. Good work by the way:D;):).
In another ideas, how are doing Artur Miller, Charles Bukowsy, Noam Chomsky and all the writters critics of the establisment and the represion, are free to writing his critics or are in jail or living in Europe:rolleyes::cool:, thanks and good day:).
 
BUMP!

I was just thinking about this TL, and how I DEARLY hope this returns. Don't let this die, it's too good of a TL to deserve such a tragic fate.
 
Top