"I'm a goner," said President Anastasio Somoza to U.S. Ambassador Thomas Whelan the night Somoza was shot down by a 27-year-old gunman (TIME, Oct. 1). "They got me this time, Tommy," he added. Rushed from Nicaragua to the Canal Zone, the 60-year-old strongman withstood a four-hour bullet-removing operation and later a windpipe incision to ease his labored breathing. But he never fully regained consciousness in the U.S.-owned Gorgas Hospital. Late last week, just seven days after the shooting, he began to sink fast. A few hours later, as he had foreseen, Tacho...
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