Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro

In 1959, a rebel, Fidel Castro, overthrew the reign of Fulgencia

Batista in Cuba; a small island 90 miles off the Florida coast. There have

been many coups and changes of government in the world since then. Few if

any have had the effect on Americans and American foreign policy as this

one.

In 1952, Sergeant Fulgencia Batista staged a successful bloodless coup

in Cuba . Batista never really had any cooperation and rarely garnered much

support. His reign was marked by continual dissension.

After waiting to see if Batista would be seriously opposed, Washington

recognized his government. Batista had already broken ties with the Soviet

Union and became an ally to the U.S. throughout the cold war. He was

continually friendly and helpful to American business interest. But he

failed to bring democracy to Cuba or secure the broad popular support that

might have legitimized his rape of the 1940 Constitution.

As the people of Cuba grew increasingly dissatisfied with his gangster

style politics, the tiny rebellions that had sprouted began to grow.

Meanwhile the U.S. government was aware of and shared the distaste for a

regime increasingly nauseating to most public opinion. It became clear that

Batista regime was an odious type of government. It killed its own

citizens, it stifled dissent. (1)

At this time Fidel Castro appeared as leader of the growing rebellion.

Educated in America he was a proponent of the Marxist-Leninist philosophy.

He conducted a brilliant guerilla campaign from the hills of Cuba against

Batista. On January 1959, he prevailed and overthrew the Batista government.

Castro promised to restore democracy in Cuba, a feat Batista had failed

to ac...

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longer; measured American responses might have appeared well deserved to an

increasing number of Cubans, thus strengthening Cuban opposition to the

regime instead of, as was the case, greatly stimulating revolutionary

fervor, leaving the Russians no choice but to give massive support to the

Revolution and fortifying the belief among anti-Castro Cubans that the

United States was rapidly moving to liberate them. The economic pressures

available to the United States were not apt to bring Castro to his knees,

since the Soviets were capable of meeting Cuban requirements in such

matters as oil and sugar. I believe the Cuban government would have been

doomed by its own disorganization and incompetence and by the growing

disaffection of an increasing number of the Cuban people. Left to its own

devices, the Castro regime would have withered on the vine.