Communism In Cuba Essay, Research Paper

The year is 1959 and the place is Cuba. It is January 1st and Batista, the

president of Cuba has just fled the country fearing Fidel Castro, a Cuban

revolutionary who mounted a rebel force called the 26th of July Movement against

Batista. Castro assumes power on the 16th of February and establishes a

dictatorship. Communist Rule In Cuba So far, the Soviet leader, Khrushchev is in

question of what political track Castro is deciding to take. Russia themselves

have only one connection with Fidel which is his brother Raul who is no doubt a

full communist. The Communist Party of Cuba at this time has no contacts with

Castro quite yet. Unfortunately, Raul never showed his true feelings for

communism to his brother, Fidel. This causes quite a predicament for the Soviet

Union to make them seen and heard by Cuba. Smartly, Russia sends Anastas

Ivanovich Mikoyan, who held business contacts in the US, to the states as a

guest of the Russian ambassador. Fidel hears of Mikoyan?s arrival in the US

and invites him to visit Cuba. Although Mikoyan is traveling throughout the

island, looking things over, Castro still has not identified himself as a

Communist quite yet. In May of 1960, diplomatic relations between Russia and

Cuba are established following Mikoyan?s visit to the island. One reason why

Cuba has turned to Russia is because the US had cut off their oil supplies and

imposed an economic embargo on the island because of the naturalization of US

owned companies and citizens by the Cuban government. This calls for a massive

oil shipment from the Soviets but unfortunately, Russia was unable to handle

such a demand because of their limited overseas shipping capabilities.

Subsequently, Russia puts an order for extra oil tankers from Italy, a

capitalist country. When Italy agrees to the business proposition, the US is

infuriated that another capitalist country was willing to help a communist

country. Italy saw it as nothing more than an opportunity to make extra money,

regardless of opposing economic systems. Back in Cuba, Castro has begun to make

enemies for himself. The many policies he has instilled angered many who fought

beside him in the revolution to overthrow Batista and many didn?t approve of

the socialist reforms he made such as the naturalization of businesses and his

collectivization of agriculture. Castro felt he needed protection against the

United States and because Cuban forces mainly used small arms and guerilla

warfare, Russia sent in tanks, artillery and attack planes as well as

instructors on how to use the new technologies. The former Russian ambassador in

Cuba was then replaced after Khrushchev soon realized that he worsened relations

with Cuba instead of bettering them. A journalist replaced him by the name of

Alekseyev who was friendly with Fidel and his brother, Raul. Alekseyev was seen

to be much better suited for his position and worked well with the Cuban

government because he was already known and trusted by them. By the early

1960?s, Castro has openly endorsed Communism with his many appointments of

communist leaders in key positions of the Cuban government. As time, went on,

Cuba became increasingly dependent on military and economic aid provided by the

Soviet Union. Russia made up much of the Cuban trade interactions including the

purchase of sugar and nickel. The American government became aware of Cuba?s

growing success and began to wonder if Cuba would act as an example of

successful Socialism, persuade other countries in the Western Hemisphere to

revert to a socialist form of government or even serve as a base for

anti-American propaganda. The United States was more threatened than ever by

this socialist island nation on the rise. The Cuban Missile Crisis The date is

October 14th, 1962. U.S. spy planes are making a pass over Cuba, particularly,

an area where much activity is spotted. A Soviet-managed construction site is

visible and photographs are taken of the site. It is soon confirmed that the

first of many medium/intermediate range ballistic missiles have been spotted.

Frantically, President Kennedy secretly meets with his advisory staff to

question the approach. On October 22, Kennedy announces a naval blockade aimed

at preventing offensive missile weaponry into Cuba on Russian ships. Inspections

of ships in Cuba by U. S. personnel were also made. The Russian strategy was to

install missiles in Cuba without the Americans knowing it. They would then

discover them only to find that it is too late to act upon it. The Soviet Union

saw installing missiles in Cuba as a very wise course of action seeing that US

missiles were stationed in Italy, Turkey as well as West Germany which were

pointed towards mother Russia. Also, even if the US would try to neutralize the

missile installations in Cuba, they would not be capable of neutralizing all of

them. The main objectives for the Soviet Union were to prevent any type of

invasion by the United States and to stabilize the ?balance of power.?

Something that both the US and the Soviet Union shared was their fright of world

war and even nuclear war. This is arguably the only time in history where the

threat of nuclear war is possible. Things began to become very tense for both

sides. President Kennedy became aware that the American army is pressuring the

US government to use force against Cuba. This situation escalates so much that

the president feels he is in danger of being overthrown by his own military. The

exchange of messages between Khrushchev and Kennedy begin to become more

frequent as tension rose. A final demand was made against the Soviet Union to

dismantle the missiles immediately. Both sides wanted to end the argument

peacefully and to avoid war. Word came from the Soviets that they were willing

to take down the missiles in Cuba if the US promised that they would not invade

Cuba. Kennedy agreed to the terms but wanted an inspection team to verify the

dismantling of the missiles. During the evacuation of Soviet missiles, a

American U-2 spy plane was shot down by the orders of Castro which caused much

commotion in the states. This caused a total outpour of negative propaganda

towards the Cubans and the Soviets. Afterwards, though diplomatic relations with

the Soviets and the US began to settle, relations with Cuba and Russia began to

worsen. The Cuban government saw the dismantling of the missiles to be a

?moral defeat? for the Soviet Union. Wisely, the man who jumpstarted the

Soviet-Cuban relationship, Mikoyan, was once again called upon and sent back to

Cuba to discuss matters with Castro. Once the disputes were settled with Cuba,

and Mikoyan returned to Russia, Khrushchev decided to write Castro a letter

pertaining to his feelings on the recent crisis. He mentions the main objective

of keeping Cuba a socialist country was successful in which no threat of

invasion is posed towards the island nation. The Aftermath of the Crisis In the

late 1960?s, Castro focused on revamping the agricultural system in Cuba. His

primary objective was to dominate the international sugar market with modern

machinery and technology. Because of the blockade on Cuba, the world sugar

prices suffered much inflation but returned to normal after other countries

elevated their sugar production to meet the demand. Cuba established a goal to

produce ten million tons of sugar crop by the year 1970, which marked Lenin?s

100th birthday. Khrushchev mentions that Kennedy was a great loss for the

Americans and identified him as a true ?statesman.? He also feels that if he

lived through his term, that relations between the Soviet Union and the United

States would have been better because Kennedy wouldn?t have allowed the US to

be defeated in Vietnam in the later years to come. I feel that the Cuban missile

crisis served not only as another example of how nuclear war is in fact possible

but also allowed interaction between opposing systems of government that were

both seeking to expand their influence on third world countries. For Russia,

they have succeeded in guaranteeing that Cuba would not be invaded but they have

compromised their balance of power with the United States for those missiles

served as the only nuclear threat to the states where as the US had missiles

positioned in various places in Europe and the Middle East all pointed towards

the Soviet Union. Khrushchev has also lost face with China where they see him as

a coward in retreating. The people of the United States saw this as their own

victory with the removal of the nuclear threat.

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Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, 1998 ed. Khrushchev, Nikita. Khrushchev

Remembers. USA: Little, Brown and Company, 1970. Rubin stein, Alvin Z. Soviet

Foreign Policy Since World War II: Imperial and Global- Second Edition. Boston,

MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1985.