what's Cuba got to do, got to do with it?

"We created a Frankenstein, with those Cubans...."
Haldeman says wearily to Ehrlichman, in the movie Nixon.

The five Watergate Burglars were
James W. McCord, Jr.
Bernard Barker
Frank Sturgis
Virgilio Gonzalez
Eugenio Martinez.

Some of those people were Cubans.

In the movie All The President's Men, a Washington Post news editor looks at Bob Woodward's original break-in story & says, "We don't know what we've got here -- it could be a story, or could just be crazy Cubans!"

In the movie JFK,  there's some reference to Cubans --

and at some point while reviewing one of these films and recalling the others, the question exploded in my mind, "What is it with Cubans??!!  How come in the two biggest and harshest events that happened in America, during my youthful existence -- the assassination of President Kennedy, and Watergate -- somehow...Cubans keep popping up in the investigations and unfolding-of-the-story.  Why are Cubans attendant on all of these deals?"

It's got something to do with -- after the communist Castro took over and ousted Battista, then I think a lot of Cubans fled -- to Miami and whatnot, and the CIA must have tried to use some of them as double agents, or -- agents, or helpers of some kind.  And I think there were some of these Cuban refugees, or immigrants, who fervently hated communism and Castro, and would take part in covert operations to "get after" Castro.  The CIA saw that it could put some of that enthusiasm to use....

Those plots and plans started coming out in the news during the 1970s, and there was then a widespread perception that the CIA had gotten a little out-of-control.

(In Nixon, Sam Waterston as CIA director Richard Helms says it has never been "CIA policy" to accept communism in Cuba.  Anthony Hopkins as Pres. Nixon reminds him, "CIA policy.  The CIA has no policy except what I dictate to you.")

People Getting Carried Away
is an often-occurring problem in politics and a sometimes-occurring problem in government. 
The attitude of
"I need to do an excellent job and accomplish good things"
gives way to
"I must save the world, and -- maybe I'm God...!"

-30-