Cold War #294 – Castro’s First Swing: The Moncada Misfire (Cuban Revolution #19)

In this episode, Cam and Ray bring their trademark banter and historical nerdery to the story of Fidel Castro’s first attempt at revolution — the ill-fated 1953 Moncada Barracks attack. What starts as a coup joke about Batista’s boredom quickly spirals into a lively mix of history and comedy. We follow a 26-year-old Fidel as he decides that ballots and lawsuits won’t topple a corrupt regime, so he turns to bullets instead. The episode explores his planning, paranoia, and sheer audacity as he leads a small group of poorly armed men in a doomed assault on one of Cuba’s largest military garrisons. Along the way, the boys detour into mobsters, Catholic apostles, ham-radio fanatics, and whether Ray actually has friends who play pool. By the end, we’re left with Fidel’s first great failure — the Moncada disaster — and the foreshadowing of the revolution to come.

You can listen to Cold War #294 – Castro’s First Swing: The Moncada Misfire (Cuban Revolution #19) online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Cold War #294 – Castro’s First Swing: The Moncada Misfire (Cuban Revolution #19) is an episode from Cam & Ray's Cold War Podcast by Cameron Reilly & Ray Harris.

This episode is 27:37 long.

This episode was published on Oct 8, 2025.

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