The Ghost of Operation Anadir

Nathalian Forsenko: Khrushchev admitted to Castro that it was not only the wish to protect Cuba, but also the attempt to improve the strategic position of the USSR. The plan was for an associate of Tony Verona, one of America's hand-picked upstanding Cuban exiles, to poison Fidel and if possible, his brother Raul and Che Guevara. Harvey gave Verona access to a rental van full of guns and explosives. Unlike the CIA's and Richard Bissell's Operation Zapata at the Bay of Pigs, the planners took its secrecy very seriously.