Why is fidel castro important




















In , Castro nationalized all U. This prompted the United States to end diplomatic relations and impose a trade embargo that still stands today.

Their plans ended in disaster, however, partially because a first wave of bombers missed their targets and a second air strike was called off. Ultimately, more than exiles were killed and nearly everyone else was captured. Castro publicly declared himself a Marxist - Leninist in late Ostracized by the United States, Cuba was becoming increasingly dependent on the Soviet Union for economic and military support.

After a day standoff, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove the nukes against the wishes of Castro, who was left out of the negotiations. In return, U. President John F. Kennedy publicly consented not to reinvade Cuba and privately consented to take American nuclear weapons out of Turkey. After taking power, Castro abolished legal discrimination, brought electricity to the countryside, provided for full employment and advanced the causes of education and health care, in part by building new schools and medical facilities.

But he also closed down opposition newspapers, jailed thousands of political opponents and made no move toward elections. Moreover, he limited the amount of land a person could own, abolished private business and presided over housing and consumer goods shortages.

With political and economic options so limited, hundreds of thousands of Cubans, including vast numbers of professionals and technicians, left Cuba, often for the United States.

From the s to the s, Castro supplied military and financial aid to various leftist guerilla movements in Latin America and Africa. Meanwhile, relations with many countries, with the notable exception of the United States, began to normalize. Two years later, in , he permanently resigned. In , U. Castro died on November 25, , at the age of But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!

Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Relations began spiraling down, until their final break in January Nuclear Crisis In December , only a few months after the U. Shortly thereafter he asked the Soviet Union for weapons, advisers, and even Soviet soldiers. The Soviets proposed a different defense -- medium-range ballistic missiles.

Castro agreed. When in October American U-2 spy planes photographed missile sites in Cuba, the world approached the brink of a nuclear confrontation. As the tensions of the Missile Crisis escalated, Castro wrote Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev urging him to use the missiles and to sacrifice Cuba if necessary.

Kennedy to withdraw the missiles, without consulting Castro. Castro was infuriated to discover that the Soviet Union would treat Cuba just as the United States had -- as an insignificant island in the middle of the Caribbean. Covert War In the end, Castro emerged a winner. Yet the Cuban revolution continued to face threats, as a U. And the economic embargo the U. Committed to World Revolution Castro was fiercely committed to creating his own revolutionary world and to fight imperialism whenever and wherever the opportunity arose -- in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East.

When his revolutionary goals clashed with those of his Soviet benefactor he nevertheless pursued them. Among Kremlin officials he became known as "the viper in our breast. Defeat and Betrayal Castro's world revolution eluded him. His guerrilla armies were defeated by U. Most poignantly, in Bolivia, Che Guevara, Castro's chief instrument of world revolution, met his death in Castro's Choice Then, fifteen years after the triumph of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro made what was perhaps the most important choice of his life, one which would determine the future of Cuba-U.

In , just as the normalization of relations between the U. Angola After five centuries as a colony of Portugal, Angola in West Africa was due to receive its independence in November The country edged toward civil war as three separate groups bid to rule the country.

However, the attack failed and Castro was captured, tried, convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. While incarcerated, Castro renamed his group the "26th of July Movement" and continued to coordinate its activities through correspondence. In Mexico, Castro met with other Cuban exiles, as well as the Argentinian rebel Ernesto "Che" Guevara , who believed that the plight of Latin America's poor could be rectified only through violent revolution.

He joined Castro's group and became an important confidante, helping to shape Castro's political beliefs. On December 2, , Castro returned to Cuba aboard the boat Granma with little more than 80 insurgents and a cache of weapons near the eastern city of Manzanillo.

In short order, Batista's forces killed or captured most of the attackers. Over the course of the next two years, Castro's steadily growing forces waged a guerrilla war against the Batista government, organizing resistance groups in cities and small towns across Cuba. Castro was also able to organize a parallel government, carry out some agrarian reform and control provinces with agricultural and manufacturing production.

Beginning in , Castro and his forces mounted a series of successful military campaigns to capture and hold key areas throughout Cuba. Combined with a loss of popular support and massive desertions in its military, Batista's government finally collapsed under Castro's efforts, and in January , Batista himself fled to the Dominican Republic.

At the age of 32, Castro had successfully concluded his guerrilla campaign to take control of Cuba. It quickly gained the recognition of the United States, and Castro himself arrived in Havana to cheering crowds and assumed the post of commander-in-chief of the military. Meanwhile, hundreds of members of Batista's government were tried and executed. Castro implemented far-reaching reforms by nationalizing factories and plantations in an attempt to end U. Among these reforms, it was announced that the new government would base compensation to foreign companies on the artificially low property values that the companies themselves had negotiated with past Cuban governments in order to keep their taxes low.

American companies soon felt the negative effects of such measures, leading to a significant strain in relations between the Cuba and the United States. During this time, Castro repeatedly denied being a communist, but to many Americans, his policies closely resembled a Soviet-style control of both the economy and government.

Castro hired a renowned public relations firm to help promote his tour, but President Dwight Eisenhower refused a meeting with him. That May, Castro signed the first Agrarian Reform Act, which limited the size of land holdings and forbade foreign property ownership. On the surface, the intent was to develop a class of independent farmers. In reality, this program led to state land control, with the farmers becoming mere government employees. By the end of , Castro's revolution had become radicalized, with purges of military and government leaders — including President Urrutia — and the suppression of any media critical of Castro's policies.

Castro's government also began to establish relations with the Soviet Union. In February , Cuba signed a trade agreement to buy oil from the Soviet Union and established diplomatic relations. When U. The year proved to be pivotal in Castro's relationship with the United States.

On January 3, , outgoing President Eisenhower broke off diplomatic relations with the Cuban government. On April 14th, Castro formally declared Cuba a socialist state. Three days later, some 1, Cuban exiles invaded Cuba at the remote Bay of Pigs in an attempt to overthrow the Castro regime.

The incursion ended in disaster, with hundreds of the insurgents killed and more than 1, captured. Though the United States denied any involvement, it was revealed that the Cuban exiles had been trained by the Central Intelligence Agency and armed with American weapons.

Decades later, the National Security Archive revealed that the United States had begun planning an overthrow of the Castro government as early as March The invasion was conceived during the Eisenhower administration and inherited by President John F.

Kennedy , who reluctantly approved its action but denied the invaders air support in the hopes of concealing a U.

Castro, in turn, was able to capitalize on the incident to consolidate his power and further promote his agenda. On May 1st he announced an end to democratic elections in Cuba and denounced American imperialism. Then at year's end, Castro declared himself a Marxist-Leninist and announced the Cuban government was adopting communist economic and political policies.

On February 7, , the United States imposed a full economic embargo on Cuba. In the wake of the Bay of Pigs incident, Castro intensified his relations with the Soviet Union by accepting further economic and military aid. In October , his increasing reliance on Soviet support brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

Hoping to deter another U. Khrushchev justified the move as a response to U. Jupiter missiles that had been deployed in Turkey. However, an American U-2 reconnaissance plane discovered the base construction before the missiles were installed and President Kennedy responded by demanding the removal of the missiles, with orders for the U.

Navy to search any vessels headed for the island. Over 13 anxious days of secret communications between Khrushchev, Kennedy and their agents, the Soviets agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for the United States' public agreement not to invade Cuba.



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