May he rest in peace
RAWALPINDI: Upon Fidel Castro’s demise, the BBC mentioned that he had extended his hand of friendship to United States president Dwight Eisenhower, but was snubbed. Back then, there were other great leaders who trusted the US and sought help from its government. For example, after World War II, Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh requested the Americans to help him throw out the French. There were other prominent examples of trust in the US at that time. Prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh of Iran threw out the British after it was discovered that a coup was being planned against him. His advisers told him to also throw out the Americans as they were involved in a conspiracy against him but he refused because he did not believe the Americans would plan anything against him. Former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser requested the Americans to help him build the Aswan Dam but this request was turned down by the Americans. Our own Quaid-e-Azam sought American aid supporting the fact that the image of the US in the late 1940s and 1950s was apparently quite different.
Nonetheless, its leadership never quite got along with Fidel Castro, who held the record for the greatest number of assassination attempts against him, estimated at about 600. May he rest in peace.
M Hasham Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2016.
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