Noam Chomsky: Invading Cuba

I can just imagine the conversation between Kennedy and the Mexican Ambassador in the early 60's...

KENNEDY: Mr. Ambassador, I'd like to talk to you about the security threat posed to both of our nations by the Communist state of Cuba.
AMBASSADOR: ...I'm sorry, could you repeat that Mr. President?
KENNEDY: Cuba, Sir. I'd like President Mateos to support me in declaring Cuba a mutually shared national security threat to both of our nations.
AMBASSADOR: Mmmmmm... Well, Mr. President. I really believe it would be more of a national threat for us to tell our people that Cuba might attack us. I think that they would all die laughing, sir. Cuba is no threat to us.

Turning the Tide: Invading Cuba: "Cuba was officially regarded as a security threat to the US until 1998, and when the Pentagon decided that maybe the US could survive a Cuban assault, the Clinton administration insisted that the threat must be defined as 'negligible,' but still real.

Back 40 years ago when Kennedy tried to get Latin American governments to join the US in declaring Cuba a security threat to the hemisphere, the Mexican Ambassador refused, saying that if he told Mexicans that Cuba was a threat to their security they'd all die laughing. Fortunately we are much more cowardly here. So who knows, maybe somewhere hidden in a cave they are doing something that could harm us.
...
Kennedy didn't make a clear promise not to invade Cuba again, and immediately reinstituted the terrorist war against Cuba when the missile crisis was over, continuing until his assassination. The charge about bioweapons was made by the Bush administration at a time when they were riding high, before the Iraq debacle"