How Did Castro Come To Power

Following the ending of the second world war in 1945, another conflict arose between the united states and communist russia, where America and its allies struggled to keep the communist Soviet Union from expanding into Europe, Asia, and Africa. This war had many long-term causes which were the Western democracies became scared of communism, America refused to recognize the USSR after the bolshevik takeover for 16 years, WWII enraged stalin because America and the British had waited so long to open a front in France, which would have relieved pressure on the Soviet Union from the attacking Germans, and The United States terminated Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union before the war was complete. In order to protect his country from another

potential threat, Stalin created buffer zones across the continent which resulted in the spreading communism. This spread by Stalin would soon lead to others trying to follow in the ways of communism, and lead to more potential crisis for America.
Cuba was the next to follow in Russia’s footsteps and soon became communist following the overthrowing of the batista government in 1956. This was conducted and led by Fidel Castro, following his release from prison and return from fleeing into mexico, along with 81 other expeditionary members of his rebel force.

Castro and his expeditionary used guerrilla warfare tactics and little by little Castro began gaining power. By January 1st 1959 Batista had fled the country and the communist revolution had begun in cuba . The attack on the army barracks in 1953 increased Fidel Castro's prominence among those opposed to Batista. Castro went to the United States and gathered $9,000 in contributions from Cubans there, before complaints from the Batista regime resulted in the US taking away his visa, forcing him to leave. Castro also received donations from Puerto Ricans, Costa Ricans, Venezuelans and from Cuban businessmen who hoped that Castro would end corruption and mismanagement. In 1958, Batista launched a major military offensive against Castro, sending a force of some 10,000 against him. But his troops performed poorly in the mountains. fortunately for Castro Batista's forces were not highly technologically advanced and they were unable to completely outgun Castro. Batista's forces were more exposed than Castro's rebels who were waiting for them, striking when they

wanted to and then withdrawing. Communications between the various army units was poor, while Castro's communications were superb. Morale among Batista's troops fell. From them Castro acquired more weapons, including a tank, and more people imagined a Castro victory on the horizon and a Batista defeat. Following the rise of Castro, JFK organized a training for the Cuban exiles that numbered around 1,400. This training would enable them to fight back against Castro and overthrow his rule ending communism in Cuba. This plan however was botched on the actual day of invasion. Despite attempts to keep the invasion plan on the down low, word of the invasion spread throughout the states, and Castro learned of the plan as early as 1960. The original plan of invasion was to bomb two of Castro’s airfields, while a 1,400 man invasion force would sweep in and surprise attack Castro under the cover of the night. The first mishap of the plan occurred when eight bombers left nicaraugua to bomb the air fields. The planes were old planes from WWII that had been painted to appear as cuban planes. The bombers missed many of their targets and word was spread abou the painted aircrafts. Kenedy decided to cancel the second airstrike that would follow. Over the course of the following day, CAstro ordered 20,000 troops to advance towards the rebels position. Kenedey called then for an air umbrella where six unmarked american planes would take off in order to help aid the rebels. These bombers arrived oer an hour late and the rebels were crushed later that day. The exiles were either killed, escaped at sea or were captured by Castro’s forces. This failure of an invasion would lead to another attempt to overthrow castro called opeartion mongoose, which aimed to destabilize the cuban government and assassinate Castro.