cuba

Fidel Castro

Liss, Sheldon B. Roots of Revolution: Radical thought in Cuba. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987,

The document that I chose is the picture of Fidel Castro and his band of revolutionaries at a secret camp somewhere in Cuba. The picture was taken in 1957, on January 1st 1959 Castro and his army took over the authoritarian government of Fulgencio Batista. In the picture all the men are holding rifles and look like they have been fighting in their Guerilla warfare style. Guerilla warfare is where you use your surroundings to your advantage. It often uses sneak attacks, ambushes, hit and run tactics and is known to be extremely brutal. Guerilla warfare does not require a big well trained army, which works to Castro’s advantage because it allowed him to arm the peasants who were fighting for revolution.

January 1st 1959 is one of the most important days in Cuba’s history and has had substantial effects on many other countries. When Castro over took Batista’s government Castro was gaining in popularity, especially with the middle class and peasants who wanted change. Two of the countries most affected by the take over were the Soviet Union and United States. After the take over the Soviet Union paid one hundred million credits for Cuban sugar, it’s primary export. Over the next few years Castro and the Soviet Union became closer. On December 2 1961, Castro publicly announced that he was a Marxist-Leninist and would remain that way until the day died. Cuba became the first Communist country in the Western Hemisphere, and this worried the United States who was in the midst of the Cold War with the Soviet Union In October of 1960 The United States declared a trade embargo against Cuba. Then on January 3, 1961, the United States broke all diplomatic relations with Cuba. This pushed Cuba closer to the Soviet Union and led eventually to the Cuban missile crisis. The United states has been obsessed with the idea that the Soviet Union is using Cuba as a surrogate foster of Marxist subversion throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America

The Cuban revolution is seen as a bad thing to Americans, but it did give the Cuban people some social gains. Castro was always liked my the peasants and middle class because he promised to improve their living conditions. Two areas that improved were health care and education.