How US Tried to Whack Castro

Despite several assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, the Cuban president stepped down Tuesday on his own terms. The CIA came up with at least eight sometimes-kooky ways to oust the leader, CNN reports, most of which were not carried out:

• Chemical attack on the air of his radio station.
• Cigars treated to cause disorientation or his beard to fall out.

• Thallium salt, used as a depilatory, placed in his shoes so he'd lose his beard.
• Poison pills to be delivered to a Havana restaurant Castro frequented.
• Poison pills, again, delivered through the Cuban mafia post-Bay of Pigs.
• A fungus-infested skin-diving suit to produce tuberculosis and skin disease.
• Booby-trapped mollusks at his favorite beach.
• Assassination by a disenchanted member of Castro's inner circle.

(More Fidel Castro stories.)