Fidel Castro: The Quintessential Communist
By Alan
Caruba
My foremost
memory of Fidel Castro dates to 1961 during the Cuban Missile Crisis when, as a
young soldier, the Second Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Georgia was put on
full readiness in the event the U.S. had to invade Cuba. I was informed that I
would remain in the Army “for the duration” thereby extending my enlistment. Happily, the
crisis was resolved in 13 days, but everybody was holding their breath.
I had begun
to hear of Castro as he pursued his efforts to overthrow the Cuban dictator
General Fulgencia Batista who had overthrown an elected government. Throughout
my college years, 1955-1959 at the University of Miami I had become friends
with the sons of wealthy Cubans who were sent to the U.S. for a higher
education. There were discussions as to whether they should return if he was
successful. I knew nothing of Batista beyond the fact he was a dictator, but I
harbored doubts about Castro even then. It was during the Cold War and anything
that suggested a communist revolution made me wary.
Castro had
been born into a wealthy family in 1926 and had drifted into the communist
orbit like so many who thought it would bring "social justice" to the masses. He
was intellectually gifted and had attended the law school at the University of
Havana. The talk at that time was all about nationalism, anti-imperialism, and
socialism.
He would
engage in a number of unsuccessful coup attempts and even ended up in one of
Batista’s jails, but was released in a 1955 amnesty. He went to Mexico where he met
up with a psychopath named Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Returning to Cuba in 1956
with his brother Raul and a group of insurgents, they eventually fled to the
mountains of the Sierra Madre. From there they mounted a number of successful
military campaigns until Batista’s government collapsed in 1959.
The media
made no mention of Castro’s communist beliefs for a long time, portraying him
as some kind of Cuban Robin Hood, a man of the people. All that gave way to his
affiliation with the Soviet Union and by 1961 outgoing President Eisenhower cut
off all diplomatic relations and his successor, John F. Kennedy, inherited the
CIA’s plans to put their own insurgents in Cuba to overthrow Castro. The Bay of
Pigs invasion was a total fiasco. By 1962 Castro’s reliance on the Soviet Union
led to the installation of offensive missiles and, as they say, the rest is
history. It was a miscalculation by then-Soviet Premier, Nikita Krushchev.
The media
kept reporting about things such as Castro’s creation of 10,000 new schools and the improvement in
Cuba’s healthcare system, but what was happening was Castro’s positioning
himself as the leading anti-American spokesperson in Latin America and
encouraging revolutionary movements there and in Africa and Asia.
Meanwhile,
Cubans did what they could to escape a prison nation. In 1980 alone, 120,000
fled when Castro let Cubans living in exile—mostly in Miami—to
claim freedom for their relatives who wanted to leave. Castro also packed the
boats with prison inmates, mental patients, and other social undesirables.
The collapse
of the Soviet Union in 1991 took down Cuba’s economy with it. In 2001 Cuba
suffered massive damage from Hurricane Michelle and President George H.W. Bush
offered humanitarian aid in the form of food. To deal with energy needs, Castro
ordered thousands of Cuban doctors be sent to Venezuela in exchange for oil
imports.
By 2008
Castro’s deteriorating health caused the then 81-year-old dictator to turn the
day to day running of the nation over to his brother who was 76 at the time,
but he retained power as the First Secretary of the Communist Party.
Castro
remains one of the world’s most despicable despots and Cuba’s jails are filled
with anyone who openly expresses any opposition to his regime. Others were
simply shot. Two Americans are being held hostage these days.
I will break
open a bottle of bubbly when I hear the news that he is dead. I will do the
same for Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
© Alan
Caruba, 2012
***************************
Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning
Signs" and shared on dozens of news and opinion websites. His blog
recently passed more than 1.7 million page views. If you love to read, visit his
monthly report on new books at Bookviews.
For information on his professional skills, Caruba Editorial Services is the place to go! You can find
Alan Caruba on both Facebook and Twitter as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment