Fidel Castro Essay, Research Paper

Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro was the Cuban Prime Minister from 1959 to 1974, and then became president of Cuba in 1974. Castro is still president of Cuba today.

Castro was born on August 13, 1927 in Mayari. His father was an immigrant from Galcia, Spain. He attended Catholic schools as a child. In 1945, he went to the University of Havana. He got his degree in law in 1950. He married Mirta Diaz-Balart in 1948, and he then divorced her in 1954.

He first got power in 1959, after Cuba s former leader, Fulgencio Batista fled from Cuba. Castro was considered Cuba s maximum leader. In 1976, he became president, the first secretary of the Cuban Communist party, and the commander of the armed forces.

Castro also tried to become part of Batista s dictatorship. Castro ran for the Cuban House of Representatives in 1952, but the troops of Batista ended elections and democracy in Cuba. Afterwards, he led a revolution against Batista, and he eventually succeeded on January 1, 1959. Then Castro took control of the government.

At first, Castro seemed to be a good leader, but as time passed, he started to become more and more radical. Castro started to execute and imprison thousands of political opponents, he started nationalizing industry, collectivizing agriculture, and established a one party socialist state, which then began to drive many first and second class citizens out of Cuba. Castro created a one-class system in Cuba. He was also very hostile toward the U.S. During Bastista s rule, he was friendly to the U.S. The U.S. then got rid of all the American-owned companies in Cuba and attempted to overthrow Castro in 1961 by sending Cuban exiles in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, but the attempt was failed. The U.S. and Cuba have not been trading anything at all with Cuba since Castro has been prime minister and president because of the embargo.

In May of 1962, Fidel Castro agreed with the Soviets to secretly install nuclear missile base o Cuba. On October 12 of 1962, President Kennedy was shown photographs of the missile installations under construction. He then announced the discovery of the missiles on October 22. This started the Cuban Missile Crisis. The U.S. believed that if any missiles were fired upon the U.S. from Cuba, the U.S. would fire back at the Soviet Union. After three weeks, the USSR agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba. Castro was not informed about the agreement, which made him very irate, but it freed Cuba from the threat of U.S. military intervention. Castro then began to develop the economic and social policies that he promised during the revolution.

Castro used international confrontation with the U.S. for his international principle. He was supported by the Soviets at first. He then also gained support from Ghana in 1961, Algeria in 1962, and Angola in 1965 by sending aid and then soldiers to these countries. The fight with Angola became a full-fledged war, but Cuba eventually won. Then Cuba was recognized as one of the world s most significant military powers.

Castro also got Cuba involved in the revolution in the Western Hemisphere. In 1967, a man named Che Guevara went to Bolivia to try to start another revolution, but the Bolivian army captured and executed him in less than a year. In Nicaragua, Castro commited over 5000 military advisors, medical technicians, teachers, and agricultural experts to aid the Sandinista Liberation Front, or the FSLN in 1979. Castro did not make the Sandinistas follow his example of antagonizing the U.S., and he also supported their mixed economy policy, democratic government, and international nonalignment. Insurrection began in El Salvador in 1979. Castro advised the combatants that he would not get involved in the struggle unless the military factions united under one ideological front. After the struggle, Castro and the Soviets then shipped weapons and arms to El Salvador s Faribundo Marti National Liberation Front, or the FMLN, and Castro also provided a place for revolutionary planners.

Through the 1980s, Castro saw himself as an important leader looking for independence from the wealthier, more powerful nations of the world. He was president of the Non-Aligned Nations Association from 1979 to 1982, and it made Cuba the focus of international youth conferences.

I chose to research Fidel Castro because I wanted to find out more about him. I have heard many things, about him, and from what I heard, he is a person that almost everyone dislikes. I wanted to find out as many things as I could about him to see what he did to make so many people dislike him. I don t like him either, and I hope that his presidency in Cuba will end soon.

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