January of 1959, Cuba welcomed the first of the Cuban Revolution, and had become a communist country under the rule of Fidel Castro as mentioned in “Document D”. The US, against communism, became much involved in Cuba during 1962, when
The book That Infernal Little Cuban Republic, focuses on the relationship between both Cuba and the United States. A lot of the contention between Cuba and the United States stems from the American view that every country is in need of our assistance. The author details how American officials asserted themselves into Cuba and with their presence in most cases did more harm than good in reference to the Cuban population. The book highlights that the U.S. government supported many policies in Cuba that were undemocratic leading to their citizens suffering politically, economically, and socially. After Castro took power the relationship between the two governments suffered immediately.
Post WWl, Russia was still not industrialized, suffering economically and politically and in no doubt in need of a leader after Lenin’s death. “His successor, Joseph Stalin, a ruthless dictator, seized power and turned Russia into a totalitarian state where the government controls all aspects of private and public life.” Stalin showed these traits by using methods of enforcement, state control of individuals and state control of society. The journey of Stalin begins now.
only increased because of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Because the CIA hurt Cuba and the U.S.’s foreign relationship, Cuba turned to the Soviet Union in the Cold War. Cuba’s ties with the U.S.S.R. drove the U.S. even further away from working with Cuba and created later tensions like the Cuban missile crisis. With more time, the U.S. and Cuba relations worsened, and it all started because of the CIA’s plan to overthrow Castro. Only now in 2016, has a U.S. president visited Cuba.
Introduction: Cuba from 1959 was a Dictatorship under the control of Fidel Castro. Castro’s Cuba was a communist Cuba, he nationalised all the companies that America owned and made them Cuban, as well as finding friendship in the Soviet Union, leading to the Americans to enforce a trade embargo with hopes of it forcing Cuba into becoming a democracy and not a communist state which many believed to be the reason behind the Cuban Missile Crisis between America, Cuba and the Soviet Union in 1962. Fidel Castro’s rule started off in 1959 by benefitting the people; in the first years he increased the literacy rate to a state where illiteracy was virtually eradicated, he abolished legal discrimination, provided full employment, electricity to the
Process of Findings The first part of this report will discuss the evidence pertaining to the “genuinely concerned, pragmatic” side to Joseph Stalin’s leadership. Stalin was a leader who was honoured and praised by many of his people in the USSR for various reasons. He was portrayed on propaganda posters as a kind, caring and genuinely concerned leader particularly towards children who were the future of the USSR (Source A). By Stalin being portrayed as a leader who shows genuine concern and care for the children of his country, it propagates the message that children and the entire population of the USSR will have an “enlightened future” under his leadership13 (Source A), and would in turn help Stalin gain more support for himself.
In January of 1959, Fidel Castro came to power. The United States’ attempted to overthrow Castro with the Bay of Pigs Invasion, a CIA operation to overthrow Fidel Castro by landing 1200 disgruntled Cuban exiles in the Bay of Pigs. The attempt fails miserably and is a huge embarrassment for Kennedy, who then vows to bring down Castro. After the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, Castro looked to the Soviet Union for protection. According to document D in 1962 “The soviets began shipping 40,000 troops, 60 missiles and 158 nuclear warheads to communist Cuba.”
It is true that Spain was treating Cubans exceptionally harshly. However, after the United States took control of Cuba, it did little to ameliorate the treatment of the Cubans, although before and during the war the U.S. government had promised the American public and Spain that it would. The true drive for taking Cuba away from Spanish control was to guarantee implementing the Monroe Doctrine ensuring America’s hegemonic expansion. America’s true motivations can be seen in the Platt Amendment truly giving any freedom the United States had promised Cuba into the hands of the American government. The fact was that America was not ridding Cuba of an oppressor.
Firstly, Cuba and the Soviets already had a very bad relationship with the United States. Research shows that, “Another key factor in the Soviet missile scheme was the hostile relationship between the United States and Cuba.” (“Cuban Missile Crisis”) The quote makes the statement in the second sentence true. The United States did not agree on how the government in Cuba was run and tried to overthrow it before but did not win.
America’s first intervention in Cuba dated back to the 1898 Spanish-American war (S.Foner, 1972). Historian Pérez argues that imperialist intentions for benefitting US national goals were behind the intervention (Pérez, 1998). Whereas L. Hoganson disputed it to sympathy for Cuba as their fight against Spanish colonials exemplified their American Revolutionary war (Hoganson, 1998). Nevertheless, Cuba encountered imperialistic rule under the Platt Amendment as it gave the US permission to form US provisional government in 1898-1901 (S.Foner, 1972), 1906-1909 and 1917-1922 (Guerra, 2005). In addition, the US held power over Cuba through puppet presidencies of the Liberal parties and the Auténtico who relied on US sugar companies for stabling the
The Cuban Missile Address is delivered October 22nd, 1962 in the Presidential office through a major radio and television address (Podell, Anzovin, and States United 705). Historically, it is worth mentioning that United States had attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro, who was at the time Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba, in at least two occasions known as the Bay of Pigs Operation and Operation Mongoose, because of his communist regime and close relationship with the Soviet Union (Pious). Then, after the Bay of Pigs incident, Fidel Castro urged Nikita Khrushchev, the Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to send support and weapons to Cuba, because of the fear of another attack to his person/regime, Nikita did by sending missiles capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction, hence, this major crisis that lasted 14 days ending October 28, 1962 (Deinema and Leydesdorff). In addition, the target audience for this speech is the American people as President starts his speech with the phrase, “Good evening, my fellow citizens” (Kennedy); however, the secondary audience would be the Cuban people, whom he describes as captive people, the Soviet Union leaders, whom he directly addresses and even quotes, and Fidel Castro of course (Kennedy). As noted above, the cultural, socio-political context is important to understand the seriousness of this crisis and
Late president Nikita Khrushchev (from USSR), agreed to assist Castro and took immediate action. He installed missiles in Cuba, which the US thought was a threat to the security of their nation. In summary, I think that this was a defensive move by the Cubans. I most definitely agree with
It is essential to know that during this time, the United-States of America had influence over Cuba and backed Batista’s government. Those factors influenced Castro’s rise to power as Batista’s response against opposition did not prove to be efficient enough to stop Castro rise to power as guerrilla warfare, a war tactic used by Castro which was a forceful technique and a determining factor in his rise to power. As stated by Leo Huberman and Paul. M.Sweezy , this success also relied on the participation of the Cuban population: "the peasants in increasing numbers joined the rebel army or organized the various civilian links and services which are so crucial to the success of a guerrilla movement. " The successful guerrilla war is a direct cause in Fidel Castro’s rise to power as it was effective and linked to ideology as the guerrilla movement rested upon the Cuban peasantry and its cooperation.
However, these can be addressed in more ways than one- the essential one being revolutionary spirit. This theme connects all of Castro’s decisions, and remains prevalent in contemporary Cuba’s culture. From naming of policies, down to how children start their days at school. It is evident that without the Cuban population’s support, there is no way that the fool who led the Moncada Barracks attack would’ve established a near forty-year long
Our views are not calculated or ‘preferred-choices’, we just follow what is expected from us in our social setting and usually we do so without thinking. Our day to day life is a sum up of involuntary actions where the society structures our daily schedule and we heartedly keep following it without extensive thinking. Assumption: While Cuba and Canada share a similar balance of military power and are located alongside the United States, Cuba is regarded as a foe and Canada a close ally by America, evidently not simply on the basis of material distribution of capabilities but as a consequence of ideational structure of friendship and enmity which attach greatly different meaning to Cuban and Canadian military power for the United
