Cuban History and Government

On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro and his band of rebels overtook the Cuban government. Their Revolution was based on massive agrarian reform and equality throughout. It was not based on Communism or communistic ideals. The US government was against the rise of Castro and his people. They had been able to control the Cuban government by controlling the successive presidents, since the Spanish-American War early in the 20th Century. The rise of Castro was undertaken with a distinct anti-American flavor to it. Castro was able to expand his popularity by fusing the anti-American fever with massive reforms intended to give social and economic equality to all Cubans. The economic presence, of the US, within Cuba was great at the time of Castro’s rise. This would prove to be a problem for Castro and the Cuban citizen.

Need for economic help

Castro, in 1959, was not a communist, and Cuba was not a communist state. The US, now lacking any authority in Cuba, used communism in order to "fight" Castro and his policies. The first Cuban-Russian connection was purely economic in nature. The Soviet government decided to purchase $31.3 million worth of sugar over a two year span, which was considerably less than it had in 1957 alone, $47.1 million. [1] This could hardly be considered as a link to communism.

The Soviets main economic impact in Cuba was the crude oil it sent the island. When a group of US oil refineries decided they wouldn’t refine the Russian oil, Castro took the refineries over and nationalized them. This angered the US a great deal. Up to this point, late June 1960, Cuban nationalization had main pertained to the agrarian sector and mainly The United Fruit Company. [2]

The US response was to cut their request for 70...

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... of the cold war had also weakened Cuban national security." [33] The fall of the Soviet Union ended the Cuba’s relationship with its biggest economic, political, and military partner. The US, however, was still hostile toward the Cuban government and now Cuba was left alone in its fight against the US and capitalism.

With their communist allies now turning to capitalism, Cuba’s socialism is left alone to survive by itself in the 1990s. With the continual US economic embargo still on Cuba today and now support form Russia; Cuba today is left to find ways in which they can continue under socialism in a world of capitalists. The future of socialism within Cuba is uncertain. Their leaders are old and have been in power since 1959. Without Soviet protection and economic support, Cuba had to deal with the threat of the United States and the lack of economic support.