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CASTRO’s DIRGE
by David E. Meadows , 2005

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT MILITARY.COM, August 04, 2006

During the Cold War era, when a communist leader was about to die those in power believed in taking certain steps to prepare the public for his demise. No death was ever immediately announced; there was a routine for letting the public prepare for the dawn of dirge music.

The routine was a lot like the old joke about the brother who goes on vacation and asks his sibling to watch his cat and check on their mother. First day away, the brother calls and asks his sibling, ‘How’s Mom?’ ‘Mom’s fine.’ ‘How’s the cat?’ ‘The cat is fine.’

Second day on vacation, same questions with same answers. Third day, the brother asks, ‘How’s Mom?’ ‘Mom’s fine.’ ‘How’s the cat?’ and his sibling relies, ‘The cat died.’

The brother loved the cat and after calming down tells his sibling that in the future he needs to use more tact in breaking bad news. Bad news should be gently broke in three stages. On the first telephone call the sibling should say something like, ‘The cat is on the roof’ – On the next telephone call say something like ‘The cat fell off the roof and broke his leg’ - then on the third tell the person the cat took a turn for the worse and died. It’s a gentler way to break the news for it prepares the listener for the bad news. You get the picture?’ The sibling said he did.

So, the brother calls back the next day and asks, ‘How’s Mom?” The sibling pauses for a moment and then answers, “Mom’s on the roof.’

It was the same scenario in the Cold War countries. Dictatorships are similar. Many times the people had no idea the leader was even sick, much less on his deathbed. The transition started something along the lines of informing the public the leader was in the hospital for routine tests or a slight illness. The public would know he was sick. Then, the powers would let the public know that some sort of transfer of power had occurred, but there was nothing to worry about, the great leader would soon be back at the helm.

This slow release of news and the movement toward the death of a communist leader or a dictator allowed the hanger-on’s to gauge whether there was going to be riots, a revolution, or cheering in the streets. When they were certain they knew what was going to happen and had made preparations for it, the public would wake up one morning to the radios and televisions playing dirge music as the announcement of the great leader had taken an unforeseen turn for the worse and during the night had kicked the bucket.

Castro is on the roof. Every day he remains in the hospital puts the dirge music closer to greeting the public when they wake one morning. Then, we can lift the embargo, discover out if he was involved in the Kennedy assassination, find out when Cuban cigars will be imported, and watch a massive wave of refugees head toward Florida. Even if he should linger on, the shifting of leadership means Castro fell off the roof. The dirge of the Castro regime has already started warming up for the dawn.

David E. Meadows / SixthFleet.Com David E. Meadows Washington D.C. E-Mail readermail@SixthFleet.Com