Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) has ruled Cuba since 1959, when, leading the 26th of July Movement, he overthrew the regime of Fulgencio Batista and transformed Cuba into the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere.

Early years in power

On January 1, 1959, Castro's forces took Havana. On January 5 the liberal José Miró Cardona created a new government. On January 8 Castro himself entered Havana. Miró's resignation allowed Castro to take control of what was now called the Revolutionary government, on February 16. He also became head of the armed forces. Initially the United States was quick to recognize the new government. On April 15 Castro went on a famous twelve day unofficial tour of the U.S., where he met Malcolm X, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru while staying in a cheap hotel in Harlem. He subsequently visited the White House and met with Vice President Richard Nixon. Castro's economic policies had caused some concerns in Washington that Castro was a Communist with an allegiance to the Soviet Union. Supposedly, Dwight D. Eisenhower snubbed Castro, giving the excuse that he was playing golf, and left Nixon to speak to him. Following the meeting, Nixon remarked that Castro was "naïve" but not necessarily a Communist. Castro spent two days in Canada, initiating a friendship with future Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Related Topics:
January 1 - 1959 - Havana - January 5 - José Miró Cardona - January 8 - February 16 - April 15 - Malcolm X - Egyptian - Gamal Abdel Nasser - Indian - Jawaharlal Nehru - Harlem - White House - Vice President - Richard Nixon - Washington - Soviet Union - Dwight D. Eisenhower - Golf - Canada - Pierre Trudeau

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Friction with the U.S. soon developed when the new government began expropriating property owned by major U.S. corporations (United Fruit in particular), proposing compensation based on property tax valuations which, for many years, the same companies had managed to keep artificially low. In May, following Eisenhower's ban on the importation of Cuban sugar into the U.S., Cuba nationalized some $850 million worth of U.S. property and businesses. Castro consolidated control of the nation by nationalizing industry, expropriating property owned by Cubans and non-Cubans alike, collectivizing agriculture, and enacting policies which he claimed would benefit the population. These policies alienated many former supporters of the revolution among the Cuban middle and upper-classes, who made up roughly half of the Cuban population. 7% later migrated to U.S. forming a vocal anti-Castro community in Miami, Florida.

Related Topics:
Corporation - United Fruit - Importation - Sugar - Nationalized - Agriculture - Miami, Florida

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On July 17, the provisional President of Cuba, Manuel Urrutia Lleó, resigned and was replaced by Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado, which strengthened Castro's position. He became Prime Minister in February 1960. In the same month Cuba signed an agreement to buy oil from the USSR. When the U.S.-owned refineries in Cuba refused to process the oil, they were expropriated, and the United States broke off diplomatic relations with the Castro government soon afterwards. To the concern of the Eisenhower administration, Cuba began to establish closer ties with the Soviet Union. A variety of pacts were signed between Castro and Soviet Premier Khrushchev, allowing Cuba to receive large amounts of economic and military aid from them.

Related Topics:
July 17 - Manuel Urrutia Lleó - Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado - Prime Minister - 1960 - Expropriated - Soviet Premier - Khrushchev

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Bay of Pigs

:Main article: Bay of Pigs Invasion

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On April 15, 1961, the day after Castro described his revolution as socialist, four Cuban airfields were bombed by A-26s bearing false Cuban markings. These bombing runs were the beginning stages of the Bay of Pigs invasion. The United States staged an unsuccessful attack on Cuba on 17 April, 1961. Assault Brigade 2506, a force of about 1,400 Cuban exiles, financed and trained by the Central Intelligence Agency, and commanded by CIA operatives Grayston Lynch and William Robertson, landed south of Havana, at Playa Girón on the Bay of Pigs. The CIA assumed that the invasion would spark a popular uprising against Castro; the operation itself was expected by Castro, however, and in anticipation the government rounded up thousands of anti-Castro Cubans and imprisoned them, most under threat of death should the invasion succeed. Part of the invasion force that made it ashore was captured, while President Kennedy withdrew support for the invasion at the last minute, by cancelling several bombing sorties that could have crippled the entire Cuban airforce. The cancellation also prevented U.S. Marines waiting off the coast from landing in support of the Cuban exiles. Two U.S. supplied support ships, the Houston and the Río Escondido, were sunk by Cuban propeller-driven aircraft. Nine people were executed in connection with this action while Castro attributed the failure of the invasion to his leadership. In a nationally broadcast speech on December 2, Castro declared that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba was going to adopt Communism.

Related Topics:
April 15 - 1961 - Socialist - A-26s - 17 April - Central Intelligence Agency - Grayston Lynch - William Robertson - Playa Girón - Kennedy - December 2 - Marxist-Leninist - Communism

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On February 7, 1962, the U.S. imposed an embargo against Cuba, which included a general travel ban for American tourists. This has been repeatedly cited by Castro as a major factor in Cuba's economic troubles.

Related Topics:
February 7 - 1962 - Embargo against Cuba

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Cuban Missile Crisis

:Main article: Cuban Missile Crisis

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Tensions between Castro and U.S. heightened during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, which nearly brought the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. to direct confrontation. Khrushchev conceived the idea of placing missiles in Cuba as a deterrent to a U.S. invasion. After consultations with his military advisors, he met with a Cuban delegation led by Raúl Castro in July in order to work out the specifics. It was agreed to deploy Soviet R-12 MRBMs on Cuban soil; however, American U-2 reconnaissance discovered the construction of the missile installations on 15 October, 1962 before the weapons had actually been deployed. The U.S. government viewed the installation of Soviet nuclear weapons 90 miles south of Miami as an aggressive act and a threat to U.S. security. As a result, the U.S. publicly announced its discovery on 22 October, 1962, and implemented a quarantine around Cuba that would actively intercept and search any vessels heading for the island.

Related Topics:
R-12 - MRBM - U-2 - 15 October - 1962 - Miami - 22 October - Quarantine

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In a personal letter to Khrushchev written on 27 October, 1962 (url), Castro urged Khrushchev to launch a nuclear first strike against the United States if Cuba were invaded, but Khrushchev rejected any first strike response (pdf). Soviet field commanders in Cuba were, however, authorized to use tactical nuclear weapons if attacked by the United States. Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for a U.S. commitment not to invade Cuba and an understanding that the US would remove American MRBMs targeting the Soviet Union from Turkey and Italy.

Related Topics:
27 October - 1962 - Tactical nuclear weapons - MRBM - Soviet Union - Turkey - Italy

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Relations with the outside world

Following initial U.S. hostility, the establishment of diplomatic ties to the Soviet Union, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuba became increasingly dependent on Soviet markets and military and economic aid. Castro was able to build a formidable military force with the help of Soviet equipment and military advisors. The KGB kept in close touch with Havana, and Castro tightened Communist Party control over all levels of government, the media, and the educational system, while developing a Soviet-style internal police force.

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Castro's alliance with the Soviet Union caused something of a split between him and Guevara, who took a more pro-Chinese view following ideological conflict between the CPSU and the Maoist CPC. In 1967, Guevara left for Bolivia in an ill-fated attempt to stir up revolution against the country's government.

Related Topics:
Chinese - CPSU - Maoist - CPC - 1967 - Bolivia

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On 23 August, 1968 Castro made a public gesture to the Soviet Union that reaffirmed their support in him. Two days after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Castro took to the airwaves and publicly denounced the Czech rebellion. Castro warned the Cuban people about the Czechoslovakian 'counter-revolutionaries', who "were moving Czechoslovakia towards capitalism and into the arms of imperialists". He called the leaders of the rebellion "the agents of West Germany and fascist reactionary rabble." In return for his public backing of the invasion, at a time when many Soviet allies were deeming the invasion an infringement of Czechoslovakia's sovereignty, the Soviets bailed out the Cuban economy with extra loans and an immediate increase in oil exports.

Related Topics:
23 August - 1968 - Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia - Imperialists - West Germany - Fascist

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On November 4, 1975, Castro ordered the deployment of Cuban troops to Angola in order to aid the Marxist MPLA-ruled government against the UNITA opposition forces, which gained the support of the government of South Africa. Moscow aided the Cuban initiative with the USSR engaging in a massive airlift of Cuban forces into Angola. On this, Nelson Mandela has remarked "Cuban internationalists have done so much for African independence, freedom, and justice." http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela Cuban troops were also sent to Marxist Ethiopia to assist Ethiopian forces in the Ogaden War with Somalia in 1977. In addition, Castro extended support to Marxist Revolutionary movements throughout Latin America, such as aiding the Sandinistas in overthrowing the Somoza dictatorship in 1979.

Related Topics:
November 4 - 1975 - Angola - MPLA - UNITA - South Africa - Nelson Mandela - Ethiopia - 1977 - Sandinista - Somoza - 1979

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When Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited Cuba in 1989, the close relationship between Moscow and Havana was strained by Gorbachev's implementation of economic reforms. "We are witnessing sad things in other socialist countries, very sad things," stated Castro in November 1989, in reference to the reforms that were sweeping such communist allies as the Soviet Union, East Germany, Hungary and Poland. The Soviet Union had subsidized the Cuban economy for decades, paying $1.23 per pound for sugar while the world market price of which had been steady between 17 and 22 cents per pound. According to Castro, "the sun vanished from the horizon when the Soviet Union collapsed." Cuba entered what it called the "Special Period". http://www.ucobserver.org/archives/may00_cvst.htm. The effects were immediate and devastating.

Related Topics:
Mikhail Gorbachev - 1989 - East Germany - Hungary - Poland - Sugar

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Criticisms of the United States

Castro remains a vocal critic of United States policies, speaking against the continuing economic embargo and U.S. attempts to topple his government. Recently, he has harshly condemned U.S. travel sanctions, which severely limit travel between the U.S. and Cuba. Castro also opposes the growing costs of servicing foreign debt.

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Castro claims that, during the Cold War, the United States engaged in a variety of covert, and often deadly attacks against Cuba in order to weaken the entire country as a way of weakening Castro's government. Between 1960 and 1965, the U.S. government made plans to assassinate him:; he has accused the CIA of, among other things, having his Havana broadcasting studio sprayed with a mind altering chemical, poisoning his cigars, dusting his boots with a chemical that would cause his beard to fall out, and planting an explosive seashell in the area where he was known to scuba dive. (Vail 108). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/244974.stm

Related Topics:
1960 - 1965 - Assassinate

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