Fidel

Introduction Without question Fidel Castro is one of few leaders who stand the test of time. Many have loved him just as many have wished for his imminent death. Fidel Castro’s leadership to most people outside of Cuba is not well known. Overall perception of Fidel Castro is not a good one. Due to the infamous Cuban Missile Crisis, Fidel is seen as a tyrant to the United States. Another minus to his leadership was the 125,000 people (Minster, N/A) who left Cuba for the United States. Additionally, he does not allow freedom of speech in Cuba and extremely limited free enterprise. All these things happen because he view Cuba as a country should not live for incentive but for each other. Fidel learn that his view was called Marxism – Leninism. Using Marxism – Leninism as a guide to lead the people of Cuba, Fidel has done some good . His accomplishments are lowering the infant morality rate, improving literary for Cubans and maintaining healthcare for the people of Cuba. The world has never seen anyone like Fidel Castro, for over 50 years he has: successfully overthrow Fulgencio Batista corrupt government, keeping the relationship that Cuba had with the United States at a distance, maintaining free healthcare plus education despite a way below economy and help other countries who were in revolution of their own.
How Fidel Rose to Power Fidel was a young lawyer from Havana when he ran for the Cuban House of Representative in 1952, of the Ortodoxo Party (Staten, 2003). However that same year Fulgencio Batista seized power of the Cuban government ending the election process that year. This made Fidel Castro bitter and upset because it was Batista’s influence that made him want to run for the Cuban House of Representative.. In Cuba at the time, prostitution, and gambling were normal occurrences (Staten, 2003). For those reasons, Fidel organized an attack creating his own army of 123 to 138 men and women against Batista Moncada’s Army Barrack in Santiago de Cuba on July 26th 1953. (Simkin, n/a). This attempt failed because he was out numbered ten to one and poorly armed. (Staten, 2003). When the fight was over, Fidel his brother and the other rebels were captured. Eighty of Fidel’s fighters were captured, tortured and killed by Batista’s army. Luckily Fidel’s Captain Pelleticr was ordered to kill Fidel upon his arrival to prison, but refused and sent him to civil court so the media could protect him from any cruel and unusual punishment (Simkin, n/a). In court Fidel represented himself which lead to his famous “History will Absolve Me” speech. (Minster, N/A). The speech made him a hero to the poor of Cuba. The highlight of the speech was that he was doing his civic duty by taking up arms against the corrupt dictatorship of Batista. He explains the reason why that Cuba was deep into poverty and crime was because Batista allow it. If Fidel when have overthrown Batista on July 26 1953 he would have put in place “Five Revolutionary Laws”: the restoration of the Cuban 1940 Constitution, 30 percent profit sharing for workers in large enterprises, 55 percent of the company profit would go to the sugar workers, and all property that was obtained by corruption would be confiscated (Henken, 2008). With everything that Fidel said he, his brother and other the rebels who survived the attack on July 26th 195, were sent to prison. While in prison Fidel would give out information to comrades telling them to continue the attack on Batista. However they would not stay for long because on May 15, 1955, they were given amnesty from Batista because of pressure from the Cuban people and the approval from the United States (Simkin, n/a). After his release from prison, Fidel defaced President Fulgencio Batista any way he could by using radio broadcasting and/or newspaper articles. Since none of Fidels plans seemed to work in starting a nationwide Cuban rebellion, Fidel and his rebels went to Mexico to map out their plan to overthrow President Fulgencio Batista (Simkin, n/a). While in Mexico the rebels form a name the “26th of July Movement” showing respect to the first day of rebellion in 1953. A very important person named Ernesto “Che” Guevara joined the 26th of July Movement, and became one of Fidel’s closest friends. After almost a year in Mexico, on November 25, 1956, Fidel and 81 of his men left for Cuba to continue the revolution (Sierra, N/A). What they did not know was Batista was waiting for them. When the 26th of July Movement landed in Cuba, they were attacked by Batista forces, out of the 82 men, only 12 survived the attack. This included the Castro brothers and Che Guevara. The survivors would go on to hide in the Sierra Mountains attempting to attract new members, collect weapons and stage guerrilla attacks on military targets (Minster, N/A). In the mountains Fidel would use radio broad casting and interviews from reporters in order to reach out to the people of Cuba so that they were on his side (Staten, 2003). Bastia, wanting to get rid of Fidel once and for all, according to Minster, sent a large number of his army to the Sierra Mountains in the summer of 1958 (Minster, N/A). The number of men Bastia had was no match against the determined fighters they were up against. (this doesn’t sound like your work) After numerous attacks on the army, the 26th of July Movement gave their knockout blow when “Che” Guevara and 300 men defeated a much larger force in December of 1958 (Minster, N/A). Fidel officially completed the revolution on January9th, 1959where he was met by thousands of Cubans in Havana the country capital. The world is yet what type of leader Castro will be, is he going to lead Cuba to a land of despair or to elite status. However in order for Castro to have been successful in over throwing Batista he had to be a charismatic and transformational leader. Both types of leadership main focus is about a better future. He gave the men and woman something to fight for, which was a better and safer Cuba.
Early Years As Leader Fidel Castro became Prime Minister of Cuba after former Minster Jose Miro resigned from his position in February 1959 (A+E Networks, 2012).) In the beginning as leader of Cuba, Fidel wanted to reform the factories, plantation and the people living on the Caribbean Island. Fidel envisioned a Cuba where everyone would work together creating a country of people having enough food to eat, books to learn and money to spend. With help from Che Guevara,. Castro called this vision “The New Man’s Theory”. Cubans should no longer work for personal benefits but for the common good of everyone (Nosotro, 2010). Believing in what the theory representative, Fidel Castro signed the First Agrarian Reform Law in May of 1959 (Staten, 2003). That law limited the size of land an owner could have which was 1,000 acres any land owner exceeding the limit the government would take the extra land (Staten, 2003). Fidel and his government would then give land they took from the farmers and give it to former farm workers. The law was made to create a class of independent farmers (N/A, Fidel Castro, 2012) In fact the very first farm that this happened to was Fidel’s own family farm. This act demonstrates how serious Fidel was about his New Man’s Theory. Like the New Man’s Theory is important to Fidel so was the way he views his people. Before Fidel became Prime Minster, prostitution, gambling and (what is a Cuban past time) cockfighting was a normal occurrence in Cuba (Staten, 2003). During the year of 1959 Fidel outlawed all of them. However his main goal during the year of 1959 was to stop the monopoly the United States businesses had on Cuba. Castro was still using his charisma in order to get support but was becoming an autocratic leader. Tax policies were altered to favor Cuban over foreign (primarily U.S.) investment and small businesses over larger entities. In March of 1959, U.S. owned Cuban Telephone Company was nationalized by the Cuban Government (Staten, 2003). That was only one of many businesses nationalized by the government. The reason for this was mostly because of Castro hater growing up and while the America family lived in grace other Cubans suffer trying to find something to eat (Staten, 2003). Fidel increased the tension between the two countries when he and his government started to form a relationship with the Soviet Union. In 1960, the Soviet Union and Cuba signed a Five year trade agreement in which: Cubans gave one million tons of sugar annually to the Soviet Union and in return the Soviets would give crude oil and the 100 million dollars in credit (Staten, 2003). Most of the oil refineries at the time in Cuba were owned by the United States. in response to the oil coming from their enemy, the U.S. oil refineries refused to refine the Soviet oil (N/A, Fidel Castro, 2012). As a result Castro nationalized all U.S. oil refineries and places them under government control. (N/A, Fidel Castro, 2012).The tipping point between the two nations was on January 3, 1961 when the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba (N/A, Fidel Castro, 2012). When Fidel took over the oil refineries, it was the last straw for President Dwight Eisenhower. No longer worried about the United States, Fidel announced Cuba was now a Socialist country on May 1, 1961 (Timeline: Post-Revoluiton Cuba, 2004). Castro then stated his new belief as a Marxist- Leninist in which he implemented communist economic and political polices (Brayton, N/A). Marxism – Leninism is the belief that for a country to be successful there must be a dictator who believes in everyone one getting a fair share through the government and that the country help other underdeveloped countries. Between 1959 through 1961 the economy in Cuba was doing well. The economy was growing 10 percent per year and their main export, sugar was greater than the average form prior year 1950 through 1958 (Staten, 2003). Wealth was being redistributed among the middle class and the lower class in Cuba. But when the Untied States ended all trade with Cuba in February 7, 1962, Fidel had to rely heavily on other communist countries (N/A, Fidel Castro, 2012). These activities only increased the relationship between the Soviet Union and Cuba. Both countries would later sign a military pact so if the United States invaded Cuba that would lead to a war with the Soviet Union (Henken, 2008).The relationship Fidel had with Soviet Union leader, Nikita Khrushchev, was so good that Fidel agreed to have nuclear missiles controlled by the Soviet Union in Cuba. Fidel wanted to believe that Cuba and the Soviet Union were equal parties but that was not the case after the infamous Cuban Missile Crisis. Mid- October 1962 the missile was discovered by the U.S. spy plane (Henken, 2008). In order to contain and make sure Cuba would not receive anymore missile, the United States put an illegal blockade round the island only allowing food, medicine and medical supplies (Henken, 2008). This time period was name the Cuban Missile Crisis but the Cuban never had any control on any of the missile on their island. Without even meaning with Fidel, Khrushchev and John Kennedy agreed to remove the missiles they had in Cuba. Due to the fact that he wasn’t in the discussing between Khrushchev and Kennedy, Fidel find out that the Missiles were being taken away from Cuba. This gave Fidel disconcerted feelings toward the Soviet Union. Because Fidel did not fully trust the Soviets like before he spend the remainder of the decade (Henken, 2008).
Fidel 1963-80 Nearly 250,000 Cubans fled the island from his first days as leader until October 1962 (Staten, 2003). Most of the Cubans that left were made up of the upper and the middle class. The reason they left was not because of the free health care that they would recvice or the countrywide education that Fidel government provide for the Cuban people but because of the lack of financial gain and political freedom in the country. In 1963, it was a one man government controlled by Fidel Castro (Minster, N/A). Castro still had the support of the Cuban people but within the government no one had a voice. All other the political parties that were established had to be discontinued. (A&E Television Networks, LLC, 2012) Even those Cuba still was heavily dependent on the Soviet Union it didn’t stop Fidel from trying to stabilize the economy his own way. Fidel invested most of the economy in the social works program. He wanted to believe that the only way for the Cuba to no longer heavily depend so much on the Soviet Union was through The New Man Theory. Fidel Castro and his government own about 63 percent of the farm land in Cuba (Staten, 2003). Volunteers would work on the farm as government employees. Private Farmer would have to sell their good to the government at a low price and volunteer to work on the government own farms as well. In the capital of Cuba close to twenty-five percent of the owner who had their shop nationalize went to work on the government’s farm (Staten, 2003). From 1963 to 1970 the average Cuban received ration food, guarantee employment, free healthcare, education and social security. Fidel Castro grown as a leader throughout the 1970s, he learned that in order to improve the economy that he must work with other countries. So after improving relation with other American States countries Cuba was re-admittance into the Organization of American States in 1975 (Bourne, 1986) In spite of the fail economy so far Castro still support revolutionary causes in other countries. When the Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973 having Israel against Egypt and Syria Castro sent 4,000 Cubans troops to prevent Israeli forces from entering Syrian territory (Bourne, 1986) In 1975 Castro sent nearly 36,000 Cuban troops to Angola in support of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) (Anon, Piero, Peter, & George, 2010).It was that same year that Fidel Castro government became the first National Congress of the Cuban Communist Party turning Castro from Prime Minster to President During the war Ethiopia and Somalia War Castro sent approximately 17,000 troops in support of the Ethiopians in 1977 (N/A, Ethiopia-Cuba, 2010). Fidel Castro grown as a leader throughout the 1970s, he now knows that in order to improve the economy that he must work with other countries.
Castro Relaxes Regulation During the 1980 Fidel Castro would start to go away from his radical way of leading Cuba, but a more stable way. In March 1980 Castro loosen up the government control on private markets by letting framers sell their own good above the country’s prices (Timeline: Post-Revoluiton Cuba, 2004). However due to the price of sugar going down many the economy continue to suffer. As a result many Cubans start to flee the country. So April 15, 1980 Fidel Castro allow any Cuban who wanted to leave the country they could (Pike, 2011). Over 125,000 Cubans migrated from Cuba to the United States (Pike, 2011). Fidel Castro used this opportunity to allow Cuban federal prisoners to also leave the Country of Cuba. Over 1,700 exiles were jailed in the United States (Glass, 2009).When thousands of Cubans left the economy started to pick up. Castro relaxes the rules and regulation that he had put on forgiven investor, private business and farmers. (Staten, 2003). A new threat occurs to Fidel Castro when Ronald Regan became President of the U.S. Regan would increase the money and military aid to any country that was fighting against communism (Staten, 2003). Fidel Castro took that action as precaution, since he was a Marxist – Leninist Castro had Cuba on red alert in case of an U.S. invasion on October 31, 1981 (Timeline: Post-Revoluiton Cuba, 2004). In 1983 Cuba was heavily supporting another Marxist government in the small country of Grenada. That same year a military coup funded by the United States overthrew the government in Grenada and place a puppet government in its place (N/A, Cuban and US Invasion of Grenada, 2011). Angered by the defeat Castro would go on to compare the U.S. to Nazi, Germany (Bourne, 1986). During the fight in Grenada Castro control Cuba in a laissez-faire manner. Consequently leading to a recession aganin in 1984 because framers would sell the state- run enterprise their worst crop then sell their best crop on their own, the increasing of the black market and stealing or diverting resource for the government (Staten, 2003). This lead to an end of the relax regulation back to the strict policies. During the end of the 1980s the Soviet Union was under a reform lead by Mikhail Gorbachev in which he allowed increase freedom of the press and economic liberalization (Coltman, 2003). This made Castro very upset because one he tried this and failed economically and two Castro knew that is was a threat for the aid that the Cuba heavily dependent on from the Soviet Union (Staten, 2003). Castro knew the only way to continue; aiding countries in military distress or keep the Cuban economy from complete ruins was with the financial military aid the Soviet’s gives Cuba.
The Special Period The fall of the Soviet Union happen between 1989 – 1991 With more support from the Soviet Union, Cuba saw an increase in unemployment, inflation, and decease in food (A+E Networks, 2012) During this time Castro told the Cuban people that they were in a special time were everything must be rationalized and monitor as if Cuba was in a war (Henken, 2008). Due to the fall of the Soviet Union, Castro was by himself. No longer does he have someone to turn to in order for him to continue his Marxist–Leninist ways. So Cuba as a result went through economic reform. The most significant reform was when the U.S dollar became legalized in August 1993 (Staten, 2003). Also showing just how moderate Fidel Castro had become, he put more power into the hands of the private market, and encouraged tourism (A+E Networks, 2012). Knowing that Cuba was in a depress state Castro allow capitalist method in order to bring the economy back. In 1995 Castro made sure that it was clear even with the change in polices toward the economy that Cuba was still sticking to his Marxist – Leninist beliefs (Henken, 2008). During the “Special Period” Fidel ask for the United States to lift the trade embargo which the U.S. refused (A+E Networks, 2012). The U.S. believed that it was only a matter of time before Castro gives up his communist ways. However that never happen and by mid 1990s Castro started to see improvement in the economy when the agricultural production grew by 17 percent in 1996 (Staten, 2003). Still under reform Castro allow Pope John Paul II to visit Cuba to help ease the tension with Catholic and have them be a part of Castro communist party in 1998 (Coltman, 2003). Since the beginning of the Special Period starting in the early 1990s and then ending in 2000, Castro went against his personal beliefs in order to help Cuba recover after the Soviet Union fell. Many thought that Castro would finally turn Cuba into a capitalist country but he never lost sight of his Marxist – Leninist view.
Today/Conclusion
The Special Period ended in during the 2000s when trade between Venezuela grew (Henken, 2008). Many times Castro has asked for the end of the United States embargo. Just like before the United States would decline the offer. So as the year went on in 2008 Fidel Castro gave full power to his younger brother Raul Castro as the President of Cuba. (Simkin, n/a). Looking back at nearly 50 years as Cuba leader Fidel Castro has rule with an open iron fist. In the beginning Castro had tight regulation and polices that never work and resulted enormous amount of aid form the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union went under Castro realize that his Marxist - Leninist principles were not the way to go. Allowing private markets to run help, but was limited in the communist country. Though Fidel had success at to providing free education as well as HealthCare and making the standard of living in Cuba better than any other Latin America country, he lead by personal and revolutionary beliefs that never met the goal he had hope for.

Works Cited
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Fidel Castro

Ikenna Okafor
Senior Research Project
Ap 12 B
October 29, 2012

Cited: Timeline: Post-Revoluiton Cuba. (2004, December 21). Retrieved October 20, 2012, from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/castro/timeline/index.html A&E Television Networks, LLC A+E Networks. (2012). Fidel Castro. Retrieved October 20, 2012, from Bio True Story: http://www.biography.com/people/fidel-castro-9241487?page=6 Anon, Piero, G., Peter, S Bourne, P. G. (1986). Fidel: A Biography of Fidel Castro. New York City. New York City: Dodd, Mead & Company. Brayton, R. (N/A). Fidel Castro: Life of the Cuban Leader. Retrieved October 20, 2012, from Watch Mojo: http://www.watchmojo.com/video/id/10324/ Coltman, L Glass, A. (2009, April 20). Castro launches Mariel boatlift, April 20, 1980. Retrieved October 28, 2012, from Politico: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21421.html Henken, T Minster, C. (N/A). About.Com Latin American History. Retrieved October 17, 2012, from The Cuban Revloution: http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/historyofthecaribbean/p/08cubanrevo.htm N/A N/A. (2011, December 17). Cuban and US Invasion of Grenada. Retrieved October 28, 2012, from The Cuban History: http://www.thecubanhistory.com/2011/12/cuban-and-us-invasion-of-grenada-2/ N/A Nosotro, R. (2010, September 3). Fidel Castro. Retrieved October 20, 2012, from HyperHistory.Net: http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b4fcastro12am.htm Pike, J Sierra, J. A. (N/A). The Landing of The Granma. Retrieved Noverber 17, 2012, from History of Cuba.com: http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/granma.htm Simkin, J Staten, C. L. (2003). The History of CUBA. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. October 29, 2012