In the course of the October Crisis I spent the most impressive moments of my life beside Fidel. Most of the time I was at his side.  There was an instant that we thought the military attack by the United States was imminent and Fidel made the decision to put all the media on alert.  In a few hours the people were in combat positions.  Fidel`s faith in his people was impressive, as was the faith his people and we, the Soviets, had in him.

Fidel insisted greatly on preparing the cadres from top to bottom. He was always telling us that the time would come when the military would take second place and the economy would take first place, but at that time the most important thing was to survive, to save the Revolution. Fidel is, without any argument, one of the political and military geniuses of this century.