Political Changes In Cuba

The Cuban Revolution was touchy topic for the United States and Cuba. America’s alienation of Cuba didn’t help when communism from the USSR was brewing over the revolution. When the revolution gained Castro as its leader, the worry and hatred from the United States was unbearable, especially when the Soviet Union landed in Cuba to interest Castro in its aid. The US’s fear of communism, Fidel Castro, and aid from the Soviet Union was significant because it changed the US’s political role in Cuba during the Cuban Revolution.

Many of these factors had either been introduced or improved by Castro and just the idea of having a country that is third world having these factors so long ago is an indication of how beneficial Fidel Castro was to Cuba. The extent to which the US — a superpower — felt threatened by a third world country like Cuba is also an indication of how beneficial Fidel Castro was to Cuba. This source further explains how under Castro there were food shortages, increased rationing and growing scarcities. The introduction of sanctions under Castro’s rule is said to have been damaging because the source these sanctions upset and disadvantaged the middle-class and therefore were a social disadvantage. This source also explores how the suspension of US exports under Castro was damaging as these badly affected people like retail merchants, manufacturers and industrialists and many of them found it difficult to remain in Cuba. Therefore, this particular policy under Fidel Castro proved to be both socially and economically

After it became officially globally acknowledged that Cuba was in fact a communist state and was being led through a dictatorship run by Castro, it did not take long before powerful enemies and essential allies were formed. The act of seizing all foreign land with none or very little compensation was received with great hostility amongst those who lost in their property through this process, and probably the reaction that had the biggest impact on Cuba’s economy was that of the US. Castro’s communistic policies did not of course help calm this resentment and also took part in leading to the establishment of trade embargos with Cuba from the US. This meant that Cuba would now lose a very valuable buyer of their precious sugar, [5] but they did however gain another one, a powerful nation that shared quite similar Marxist ideals and were quick to form an alliance with the Cubans, the USSR.

During the Cold War, relations between Cuba and the United States were icy. Cuba was allied with the USSR, America’s enemy, and was well within their sphere of influence. With events like the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis happening on their soil, Cuba was at the center of the Cold War. Between ideological differences and their alliance with Russia, Cuba became an enemy of America as well. It took the efforts of ten American presidents, six Popes, and countless other actors, but Cuba and America are finally in the process of normalizing relations. There is still work to be done, but the path is clear and the time is right. However, one cannot simply ignore the last fifty years. In that time, millions of lives were affected by the lack of social, economic, and political ties between the U.S. and Cuba. In this paper, I will analyze the last fifty years of U.S. - Cuban relations by looking at the involved actors, their means, and their values and interests through the lenses of two paradigms, realism and constructivism.

However, the revolution, led by Fidel Castro, brought hope for those who supported the fight against the repressive government in the island, but it also brought a red signal of danger and fear of Cold War to other countries in America, especially for United States. Even though the revolutionary Fidel Castro was friend with the Soviet Union, Cuba never played a big role outside of the island. Nevertheless, United State anti-communism policy encouraged a violent anti-revolutionary reaction that spreader all over Latin America in the 60’s and 70’s.

When John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of America, gave the orders to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro, America was expecting a victory. The American population expected Cuba to be destroyed. They thought Cuba could not stand up to the United States. What they didn’t expect was that Cuba would put up a fight. The Bay of Pigs invasion was a deciding factor in the Cold War that gave Cuba and the Soviet Union strength, and decreased morale and confidence in the Americans.

US-Cuban relations have not been the friendliest since the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Only recently during President Barack Obama’s second term in office did the US really try to resolve the Cuban issue and only then did it become such a priority. US-Cuban relations have always been a mixed bag of plenty of good and evil deeds. The US needs all the allies it can get and it needs to refocus in Latin America. Cuba is no real challenge to American power but Cuba represents a sore spot for American foreign policy. The US must work as one with Cuba in order to normalize relations with Cuba and bring Cubans into the 21st century. There are plenty of Cuban-Americans who want desperately to see family and friends on the island and the US must work together with Cuba to achieve these goals. Cuba has been a hot topic of debate ever since the Cuban Revolution and it continues to be one which is why there is no better time to study Cuba. Cuba has a long cultural history which makes it interesting to study and now that the US is finally working with the Cuban government on normalizing relations, more scholars will be traveling to Cuba. More information about Cuba and the Cuban culture will become available as the US moves to being better neighbors. This is important for researchers and others to gain new insights on Cuba which have not been available for the past fifty to sixty years. The renewed Cuban-American relations and the so-called, “Cuban Thaw”, is the right approach by President

“There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil” (Rand, 1957). As senior enlisted leaders it is important that we understand how to deal with conflict resolution. This paper will examine Cuba’s background, former and current government, strategic importance, and possible future direction.

Response to Revolution, by Richard E. Welch Jr., is an honest and unbiased look at America’s policy towards Cuba during the Cuban Revolution. It covers the general history of and preconceived notions about the revolution in depth and gives ample attention to both sides of the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba. In addition to this Welch analyzes the reactions of America’s various factions during the early years of the revolution. Upon taking this into a change of the status quo, and of one that only played the international game of politics on its own terms.

This is a brief examination into Cuba’s historical progression and their constant political struggles with the government, the people of Cuba, and

No country can escape the knocking of globalization, especially a small island nation that just recently opened the door to invite back in the world’s sole surviving superpower. The recent revival of United States-Cuba relations has put Cuba in a precarious situation, whereby the next few years will be extremely crucial in defining their new place in the global world system. However, with the implementation of much-needed economic reforms, advancement strategies, and the normalization of US-Cuba diplomatic ties, Cuba has the potential to thrive .

Castro was forced to look to the USSR for help, and, in 1960, the USSR signed an agreement to buy one million tons of Cuban sugar every year. Regrettably, the following year, because of their fear of the spread of communism, the United States backed an abortive invasion by Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs. In response, Castro proclaimed Cuba a communist state and began to ally itself with the USSR, asking Russia for weapons to defend Cuba against America. With the escalating tensions, the CIA began to make plans to assassinate Castro as part of Operation Mongoose. At least five plans to kill the Cuban leader were drawn up between 1961 and 1963. Unfortunately, in 1962, the Cuban missile crisis was ignited when, fearing a U.S. invasion, Castro agreed to allow the USSR to deploy nuclear missiles on the island. Subsequently, the U.S. released photos of Soviet nuclear missile silos in Cuba, to the American people, triggering a crisis, which took the two superpowers to the brink of nuclear war. In summation, the relationship between the two countries in the 1960’s, was an awkward and tense standoff between democratic and communist

One of the most famous and valuable changes that Castro made within Cuba during his ruling years was that he created the institution of universal health care allowing free access for all the people of Cuba which was a drastic comparison to the poor and inaccessible health services before 1959 by previous leaders. Soon after Fidel Castro began making changes to the economy the U.S. government initiated massive operations, operations that were conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to ‘get rid’ of Castro to discontinue any further plans in Cuba that would conflict with American interest and profit in Cuba. The CIA tried hundreds of times to kill Castro and one after the other each attempt ended in failure, many of these assassination attempts did not bother Castro in the least but one CIA-influenced attempt to usurp him of his title as the leader of Cuba created a vast animosity between Fidel Castro and U.S. government known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion which occurred from April 17-19, 1961. This was a botched attempt conducted indirectly by the CIA, in which exiles of Cuba who had landed in Florida fleeing from Castro’s reach were trained by the CIA operatives and

The Cuban revolution was a revolution of contradictions (Class notes, March 3rd). This highly debated revolution is said to have started in 1959 when Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries forced Fulgensio Baptista to flee the island allowing for a new revolutionary government, however others have argued it started in 1953 when Fidel Castro first attempted armed insurrection, or in the various failed rebellions of 1844 to 1933 (Chomsky, p. 15). Even the timeline of the Cuban revolution is prone to contradiction, as is so much and despite so many thousands of words devoted to the subject very little consensus has been gained. This topic is important because the Cuban revolution is still ongoing in Cuba, and through the march of time has endured where others have failed, remaining perhaps the most consequential revolution in history. Therefore it is important to try and examine Cuba, its origins, it’s history, and effect.

Castro’s involvement with the foreign and domestic politics during the early Cold War period greatly influenced the outcome of the Cuban Revolution. Without the actions taken by foreign powers like the United States and Russia, some events on the domestic front may have had very different results. It is important to understand how every nation’s foreign policies can influence more than just one other nation, and this was especially true for Cuba. It was this mix and chain of events which produced the communist Cuba that we are familiar with today.