ROBERT Kennedy Jnr was barely out of kindergarten, his brother, Michael, not long out of nappies when their Uncle Jack warned Fidel Castro in October 1962 to remove Soviet nuclear missiles from Cuba, or else.
At the weekend, nearly 34 years on, Robert and Michael, sons of Robert F. Kennedy, sat before the Cuban leader in Havana and politely suggested he remove a Soviet nuclear energy reactor from the Caribbean island. Or, at least, turn it into a hotel.
The Kennedy brothers were in Cuba as part of a private delegation of US energy and environmental safety experts, concerned that the unfinished but already outdated Soviet built reactor at Juragua could cause a Chernobyl style disaster that could affect Florida and the south eastern United States.
At a news conference in Miami on Monday night the brothers said they thought Dr Castro might be prepared to give up the reactor, abandoned for lack of funding after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Meanwhile, asked whether he might consider turning the nuclear plant into a tourist centre call it the Atomic Hotel, suggested one delegate a straight faced Dr Castro reportedly replied That's a very good idea. It has a wonderful view and is surrounded by crystal clear water. Maybe it will end up being a kind of 20th century pyramid, like the ones in Egypt.
Delegates said Dr Castro revealed during the late night meeting what he was doing when he heard the news of the assassination in 1963 of John F Kennedy he had been in the resort of Varadero, chatting to a French journalist, who had been acting as a informal messenger between the two leaders, when Cuban radio flashed the news.
He made no mention of claims that he himself had been behind the assassination.