Today, in 1953, Fidel Castro, Raul Castro and their rebel gang attacked the Cuban Army's Moncada Barracks in Santiago-de-Cuba. The large structure held a battalion of about 400 troops. Attacking a military barracks (in the dark) held by 400 (presumably) trained soldiers with 160 or so rebels traveling in numerous automobiles is not exactly evidence of military genius, although it does show a certain amount of courage and a good deal more foolhardiness.
As one might expect, the attack was a complete fiasco, resulting in the capture of about 50 rebels and the killing of 61 more. (Why couldn't the soldiers have killed, oh, a couple more ?) Fidel seems to have blown his cool completely -- crashing the car he was driving before the attack was even fairly underway. Unfortunately for Cuba and everybody else, the soldiers failed to kill Fidel or Raul, who learned well from their military mistakes: graduating with honors into the club of dictators six years later. History will condemn them.
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