Fidel Castro's communist regime during the Cold War

Thèmes abordés

Castro's era - Cold War - Caribbean Island - Soviet Union

Résumé du document

During the Cold War emerged the communism in the island of Cuba with the takeover of a charismatic leader, Fidel Castro. After his «coup d'état» which has removed Batista, the former lawyer managed to impose his vision to Cuban people and to the world; despite American attempts to remove the Cuban communist regime.

How did Fidel Castro impose Cuban communism to Cuban people during the Cold War?
We will see how Castro took the leadership of Cuba after removing Batista; then his international policy and the relations with the outside world and finally his policy in the island of Cuba and his popular image

1945. It's the end of the 2nd World War and the defeat of Nazism. The winners are the USSR, the USA, the United Kingdom, and France; but the end of the war sees the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as the dominant powers in the world. However, since Potsdam (July 1945), the mistrust is growing between the two powers. As the relationship between the USA and the USSR deteriorates, the Cold War begins.

Extraits

[...] How did Fidel Castro impose Cuban communism to Cuban people during the Cold War? We will see how Castro took the leadership of Cuba after removing Batista; then his international policy and the relations with the outside world and finally his policy in the island of Cuba and his popular image I / THE TAKEOVER (1945-1959) 1. The international context : tensions between the two blocks 1945. It's the end of the 2nd World War and the defeat of Nazism. [...]

[...] They took refuge in the Maestra Sierra where they organized a guerrilla against Batista's army. But Batista made a serious mistake by not pushing them back to the sea : he had said that nobody could survive in the Maestra Sierra, but Castro and his forces manage to do it. With the popular support, almost 800 men joined the Movement. This revolutionary movement was very popular besides in the United States, where Castro was introduced as a democratic hero. The Government of the United States, worried about the brutality of Batista's regime cancelled the American military aid brought to him and saw Castro as an alternative to Batista. [...]

[...] Castro, personally present on the battle field, gained more popularity near Cuban people. December 2 of the same year, at a televised intervention, Castro is said as being a Marxist-Leninist and announces that Cuba adopts Communism. During the Sixties, several other attemps were failures. The exiled anti-castro cuban, financed and equipped by the CIA, tried to imitate the castrist revolution, joining violent gangs which operated in particular in the Sierra of Escambray, an area clos to Trinidad. But the population was not raised and the civil losses were heavy. [...]

[...] In 1955, at Mexico City, he met Fidel Castro, the leader of the 26th July Movement. He was one of the 82 men who went to Cuba with Castro in November 1956, on a small yacht called «Granma» ; and one of the 12 men who survived the first attacks of Batista's forces. They organized the guerrilla against the regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista who was under American influence. started in the guerrilla as a doctor, but he quickly got a more important rôle. [...]

[...] From there, he launched the offsensive in Santa Clara. Batista was exiled in Saint-Domingue before the triumphal arrival of the guerilleros (known as Barbudos) in La Havana in 1959. Che Guevara was largely inspired by the Marxist theories and analysed how to set up the Cuban socialist economy, and he contributed to make the island of Cuba closer to the Soviet block by the signature of economic agreements. Nowadays, the figure of Guevara is very popular in Cuba and all around the world; its representations are extraordinary numerous. [...]