the newshour's robert macneil, who was in havana at the time, asked fidel castro about the missile crisis in a 1985 newshour interview. >> when the crisis was at its very height, did you personally think that nuclear war was a possibility one of those days? did you believe that? >> ( translated ): yes, i believed that was a possibility. >> and did you... what did you feel about your role in having brought it to that point? >> ( translated ): it was not me. it was the united states that led us to that point. it was the united states. >> sreenivasan: castro put down dissent, economic conditions worsened, emigration to the united states surged. exiles and their families filled american cities and prospered in places like miami's "little havana." these immigrants became a force in american politics, standing against any efforts to lift the embargo or reopen diplomatic relations. ( cheers ) all the while, castro endured. he rallied his faithful supporters in the capital with his trademark hours-long, fiery speeches full of nationalist and socialist rhetoric. >> ( speaking spanish ) >> sreeniva

support, which helps keep >> yang: finally tonight, an excerpt from an interview done by our own robert macneilhe late fidel castro. conducted in 1985, macneil asks castro to describe how the cuban missile crisis began. castro said that after the bay of pigs invasion in 1961, cuba and the soviet union feared additional invasions into cuba by the u.s. >> ( translated ): the soviets had that concern and we naturally had the same concern. >> reporter: this is after the bay of pigs? >> ( translated ): yes, after the bay of pigs. they asked us what measures we thought could offer cuba some guarantees. the most sure one was the fact that an aggression against cuba mean an aggression against the soviet union. that was the thesis that we put forth. the concrete idea of the missiles was theirs. i explained it and we accepted it, but without any hesitation because we were being harassed. an invasion had just taken place. the pirate attacks were continuing, constantly. constant mention was being made of an invasion against cuba. >> reporter: when the crisis was at its very height, did you personally think