7 most controversial UN speeches, from Ahmadinejad to Khrushchev

2. Fidel Castro, former Cuban leader, 1960

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro is not known so much for what he said to the UN General Assembly, but for how long he took to say it. At his first appearance before the body, when Castro was Cuba's prime minister, he spoke for 4-1/2 hours, the longest speech made before the General Assembly.

He used a bit of that time to lob insults at then-presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

"If Kennedy were not an illiterate and ignorant millionaire, he would understand that is is not possible to carry out a revolution supported by landowners against the peasant," said Castro, who left no one wondering whether that meant he preferred Nixon. "As far as we are concerned, both lack political brains."

Kennedy won the election, while Nixon prevailed eight years later. Castro became president in 1976, keeping that post until he resigned in 2008.

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