Communism In Cuba

The year is 1959 and the place is Cuba. It is January 1st and Batista, the president of Cuba has just fled the country fearing Fidel Castro, a Cuban revolutionary who mounted a rebel force called the 26th of July Movement against Batista. Castro assumes power on the 16th of February and establishes a dictatorship. Communist Rule In Cuba So far, the Soviet leader, Khrushchev is in question of what political track Castro is deciding to take. Russia themselves have only one connection with Fidel which is his brother Raul who is no doubt a full communist. The Communist Party of Cuba at this time has no contacts with Castro quite yet. Unfortunately, Raul never showed his true feelings for communism to his brother, Fidel. This causes quite a predicament for the Soviet Union to make them seen and heard by Cuba. Smartly, Russia sends Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan, who held business contacts in the US, to the states as a guest of the Russian ambassador. Fidel hears of Mikoyan’s arrival in the US and invites him to visit Cuba. Although Mikoyan is traveling throughout the island, looking things over, Castro still has not identified himself as a Communist quite yet. In May of 1960, diplomatic relations between Russia and Cuba are established following Mikoyan’s visit to the island. One reason why Cuba has turned to Russia is because the US had cut off their oil supplies and imposed an economic embargo on the island because of the naturalization of US owned companies and citizens by the Cuban government. This calls for a massive oil shipment from the Soviets but unfortunately, Russia was unable to handle such a demand because of their limited overseas shipping capabilities. Subsequently, Russia puts an order for extra oil tankers from Italy, a capitalist country. When Italy agrees to the business proposition, the US is infuriated that another capitalist country was willing to help a communist country. Italy saw it as nothing more than an opportunity to make extra money, regardless of opposing economic systems. Back in Cuba, Castro has begun to make enemies for himself. The many policies he has instilled angered many who fought beside him in the revolution to overthrow Batista and many didn’t approve of the socialist reforms he made such as the naturalization of businesses and his collectivization of agriculture. Castro felt he needed protection against the United States and ...

... middle of paper ...

...defeated in Vietnam in the later years to come. I feel that the Cuban missile crisis served not only as another example of how nuclear war is in fact possible but also allowed interaction between opposing systems of government that were both seeking to expand their influence on third world countries. For Russia, they have succeeded in guaranteeing that Cuba would not be invaded but they have compromised their balance of power with the United States for those missiles served as the only nuclear threat to the states where as the US had missiles positioned in various places in Europe and the Middle East all pointed towards the Soviet Union. Khrushchev has also lost face with China where they see him as a coward in retreating. The people of the United States saw this as their own victory with the removal of the nuclear threat.

Bibliography

Castro, Fidel. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, 1998 ed. Cuban Missile Crisis. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, 1998 ed. Khrushchev, Nikita. Khrushchev Remembers. USA: Little, Brown and Company, 1970. Rubin stein, Alvin Z. Soviet Foreign Policy Since World War II: Imperial and Global- Second Edition. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1985.