10 Terrifying Government Plots That Nearly Succeeded

8. Poisoning Fidel Castro With A Milkshake

The Objective: Among many other assassination plots, in 1963 the CIA planned to kill Fidel Castro using a poisoned milkshake. The Plan: Fidel Castro was, among other luxuries, particularly fond of the milkshakes at Havana's Hotel Libre. Knowing this, the CIA arranged with the Mafia that they would smuggle a cyanide pill to a rebel Cuban opposition group. An inside man at the Hotel Libre would slip the cyanide pill into Castro's milkshake, after obtaining it from its hiding place in a hotel freezer. Why it failed: According to declassified documents, this was the closest the CIA ever got to killing Castro. Everything went to plan up until the assassin went to retrieve the pill after Castro ordered his drink. The pill had become stuck to the side of the freezer, and when the assassin desperately tried to pull it free, it tore open and spilled the poison. In a panic, the hit was called off.