BELLWORK

1. BELLWORK • Explain Castro’s rise to power. • Why did tensions between the US and Cuba increase after Castro came to power? • Why was the Bay of Pigs invasion a failure? • Describe the causes/effects of the Cuban Missile Crisis. • THINKER: To what extent do you think the US pushed Castro into a relationship with the Soviet Union? Explain!

2. Fidel Castro President of Cuba (1959-2008) Leader of the Communist Party of Cuba (1961-2011)

3. Castro’s Early Life

4. Colombian Revolts (Bogotoza) led to 10-year Civil War, La Violencia “I joined the people; I grabbed a rifle in a police station that collapsed when it was rushed by a crowd. I witnessed the spectacle of a totally spontaneous revolution... [T]hat experience led me to identify myself even more with the cause of the people. My still incipient Marxist ideas had nothing to do with our conduct – it was a spontaneous reaction on our part, as young people with Martí-an, anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist and pro-democratic ideas.” • — Fidel Castro on the Colombian Revolts, 2009

5. Fidel and his first wife, Maria Diaz-Balart

6. Fidel and Marxist Ideology “Marxism taught me what society was. I was like a blindfolded man in a forest, who doesn't even know where north or south is. If you don't eventually come to truly understand the history of the class struggle, or at least have a clear idea that society is divided between the rich and the poor, and that some people subjugate and exploit other people, you're lost in a forest, not knowing anything” • — Fidel Castro on discovering Marxism, 2009

7. Castro being arrested after attack on Moncada Barracks

8. Isla de la Juventude (Presidio Modelo Prison)

9. Arrival in Cuba on La Granma

10. Guerilla Warfare • The thickly forested mountain range of the Sierra Maestra, from where Castro and his revolutionaries led guerrilla attacks against Batista's forces for two years. • Castro biographer Robert E. Quirk noted that there was "no better place to hide in all the island”

11. Fidel's brother Raúl (left) and friend Guevara (right) in their established camp.

12. Batista launched Operation Verano

13. Castro (right) with fellow revolutionary Camilo Cienfuegos entering Havana on January 8, 1959 after Batista’s overthrow

15. Castro Comes to Power “We are not executing innocent people or political opponents. We are executing murderers and they deserve it.” • — Castro's response to his critics regarding the mass executions, 1959

16. Che Guevara

17. Agrarian Reform “Radical agrarian reform, the only type that could give land to the peasants, clashed directly with the interests of the imperialists, the large landholders and the sugar and cattle magnates. The bourgeoisie was afraid to clash with those interests but the proletariat was not. In this way the course of the revolution itself brought the workers and peasants together. The workers supported the demands of the peasants against the large landholders. The poor peasants, rewarded with ownership of land, loyally supported the revolutionary power and defended it against its imperialist and counter-revolutionary enemies.“ • Che Guevara, First Leader of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (1960)

18. Social Reform • Education • Healthcare • Vaccinations • Construction of Infrastructure • Water Sanitation • Homelessness • Elderly Care • “Dialogue with the People”

19. Deterioration of US-Cuban Relations • In the 1950’s, Americans owned 90% of Cuba’s mines, ranches, oil, and sugar. • 1959: Agrarian reform – bans land ownership by foreigners • 1960: Five-Year Treaty between Cuba and USSR (sugar, machinery, arms) • Training of La Brigada begins • Castro seizes Texaco & Esso oil refineries • Eisenhower reduces sugar quota • Castro takes US industrial property & nationalizes banks • US implements embargo • Castro takes an additional 166 US companies • 1961: Castro cuts embassy staff and declares himself socialist • Bay of Pigs Invasion & Operation Mongoose • 1962: additional US embargo • Cuba signs trade agreement with China & USSR • Cuban Missile Crisis

20. Bay of Pigs Invasion • When JFK became President, he made a goal to solve the problem “of a communist satellite on our very doorstep.” • The U.S. refused to accept Castro as leader • Castro developed close ties with the Soviet Union. (SU offered economic aide) • Kennedy agreed to a CIA plan that involved training a group of Cubans to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro. • The CIA trained these Cubans in Guatemala Kennedy addresses La Brigada (anti-Castro Cubans)

22. The Bay of Pigs invasion took place on April 17, 1961. An airstrike failed to destroy Cuba’s air force and Cuban troops proved to be a strong match against the 1,500 U.S. invaders. The invasion was a total disaster and eventually Kennedy accepted defeat. Bay of Pigs

25. By 1962, the Soviet Union had missiles stationed in Cuba. The U.S. had missiles stationed in Turkey. This brought the world on the brink of nuclear war. After 13 days of caution, President Kennedy and Khrushchev agree to remove their missiles. Cuban Missile Crisis

29. Cuban Missile Crisis Discussion • Why did Khrushchev place missiles in Cuba? • “It was high time America learned what it feels like to have her own land and her own people threatened.”

30. Spreading a global revolution • There is often talk of human rights, but it is also necessary to talk of the rights of humanity. Why should some people walk barefoot, so that others can travel in luxurious cars? Why should some live for thirty-five years, so that others can live for seventy years? Why should some be miserably poor, so that others can be hugely rich? I speak on behalf of the children in the world who do not have a piece of bread. I speak on the behalf of the sick who have no medicine, of those whose rights to life and human dignity have been denied. • — Fidel Castro's message to the UN General Assembly, 1975 • 1970-1979 • Castro considered Africa to be the “weakest link in the imperialist chain” • Angolan Civil War • Mozambique • Spent time with Gaddafi in Libya • Supported communist government in Yemen • Anti-apartheid movement in South Africa • Somalia • Ethiopia • Argentine junta in Falklands War

32. “The Special Period” (1990-2000) • We do not have a smidgen of capitalism or neo-liberalism. We are facing a world completely ruled by neo-liberalism and capitalism. This does not mean that we are going to surrender. It means that we have to adopt to the reality of that world. That is what we are doing, with great equanimity, without giving up our ideals, our goals. I ask you to have trust in what the government and party are doing. They are defending, to the last atom, socialist ideas, principles and goals. • — Fidel Castro explaining the reforms of the Special Period

33. Castro in Havana in 2003; in front of a statue of national hero, Jose Marti

34. Castro’s Decline • Due to failing health, Castro delegated his presidential duties to Raul on July 31, 2006 • George Bush: "One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away“ • Castro, who is atheist, sarcastically replied: "Now I understand why I survived Bush's plans and the plans of other presidents who ordered my assassination: the good Lord protected me" Poster advertising a Mass to pray for Castro's health that was posted on a wall in Bogotá, Colombia, in 2007

35. Castro’s Continued Involvement in Foreign Affairs • Argentina • Iran • North Korea

36. Other failed Cold War CIA Missions…. • Operation Gold (1954) • Tap into landline communication of the Soviet headquarters in Berlin by digging a tunnel into the Soviet-occupied zone • Operation Northwoods (1962) • Create public support for war against Cuba by faking terrorist attacks, bombings, and phony evidence to implicate the Cuban government • Operation Mongoose (1961) • Removing communists from power in Cuba and starting an internal revolt; place pro-US sympathizers in power. Included eight assassination attempts on Castro • Acoustic Kitty (1965) • Plant microphones/antennas in cats in order to spy on the Soviet embassy • Siberian Pipeline Sabotage (1982) • Faulty equipment sold to USSR; led to explosion of Siberian pipeline