Sino-Cuban Fallouts and Make-Ups

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.

The method applied by Zedong focused on uniting China under one belief in order to implement communist ideas in the country, widely changing the country’s structure. (Doc 7). At his defense trial, Cuban revolution leader Fidel Castro appealed to those struggling in his country. He spoke to those who hoped for a brighter future and who have been betrayed by their country. By addressing their battle, Castro urged them to fight for a better Cuba. His relentless and undying commitment ultimately granted Castro his wish for a revolution. (Doc 8). An additional document consisting of a diary entry from a Chinese citizen during the communist revolution would create a clearer vision as to how convincing Mao Zedong truly was.

For more than 50 years following its independence, Cuba was governed by a succession of elected and authoritarian leaders, culminating with rule of Fulgencio Batista, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1952. Batista ruled as a brutal dictator and was overthrown by resistance groups led by Fidel Castro on January 1, 1959. Castro began his more than 45 years as Cuba’s leader by promising democratic rule, but he quickly began to stifle dissent often by imprisoning or executing opponents. Relations between Castro and the U.S. deteriorated quickly in 1959 and 1960 as he courted the Soviet Union, the U.S.’s adversary in the Cold War, and began confiscating Cuban property owned by U.S. corporations and citizens.

To achieve this diplomatic strength, Richard Nixon first turned toward China. For decades, China had posed unique opportunities to America. However, these opportunities shriveled when in 1949, Mao Zedong established the People’s Republic of China, a communist republic aligned more with the USSR than with the United States. Given America’s animosity towards the Soviet Union, this animosity extended itself to the People’s Republic of China and to Mao Zedong. Just over twenty years later, though, even though Mao still held considerable power, the USSR and China began to drift apart.

The foreign policy of the United States toward Cuba over the past fifty years has caused many problems for the Cuban society and its people, and relations between the two nations have been at odds for decades due to the harsh foreign policy stance of the United States toward Cuba. The United States has considered Cuba as its enemy ever since July 1960 when Fidel Castro’s new revolutionary government changed everything. Castro seized privately owned land in Cuba, nationalized several privately owned companies (most of which were subsidiaries of U.S. businesses), and heavily taxed American products which led to U.S. exports being reduced greatly,

“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Mao Zedong, the dictator of China during the Chinese revolution, stated. Mao Zedong and Fidel Castro were both very monumental believers in war tactics, especially guerilla warfare which is a tactic in which smaller, irregular armies or civilians use military tactics to go against a larger army.. The Cuban and Chinese revolutions consisted of blood, famine, abuse of power, and, on contrast, unity. Fidel Castro led the Cuban revolution as a substantial declaration of independence from dictatorship. However, many historians debate on what accelerators of the revolutions were most impactful. The Chinese and Cuban Revolutions were both heavily rooted by substandard economic state where the government was not able to pay the

Fidel Castro’s Cuban Revolution is still discussed today in many households and academic facilities as one of the most important events that contributed to the current state of many Latin American nations. Due to the importance of this event, it is considered as an emotionally fueled topic for anyone who is associated with the Latin American identity. Many discussions are based on an emotionally fueled response, which give rise to two main arguments. The first of which is that Fidel is a hero amongst Cubans and Latin Americans for revolting against the authoritarian dictatorships prevalent in the region. The counter argument states that Fidel was an even more cruel dictator, who tainted Cuba, along with other Latin American nations. However, both arguments are too simplistic, and do not encompass the common facts that have been outlined in this school of thought. The political critics and theorist that have contributed to the academic discussion include Thomas Wright, Jorge Casteñeda, Peter Winn, and Che Guevara. All have interesting opinions and arguments about the Cuban Revolution, each with a different perspective. After analyzing this school of thought, the Cuban Revolution benefited Latin America as a whole in its early years, as it finally included agrarian reform in the main discussion, and it created the leftist platform that contributed to the “Pink Tide.” However, in the long term, Castro’s regime became more authoritarian and crippled its citizens’ political

Another consequence of the United States withdrawing her hand from barring the totalitarian grip of Communism was the 1950s insurgency of Communist Fidel Castro in Cuba. In 1959, after years of conflicts with the incumbent

From the time, Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba tensions ran high between the Cuban government and the United States government. Relations between Cuba and the United States grew during Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. Not as much during the Eisenhower administration as the Kennedy administration did tensions between between the two countries intensify. Kennedy faced many a different situations as President. He faced such situations like the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Tensions have mounted high for a long time between Cuba and the United States.

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.

From a global standpoint, the situation between Cuba and the United States was only increasing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. As Castro became more communist, he began to develop a strong economic and military relationship with the Soviet Union. As Castro and the Soviet Union developed this relationship, one might ask why Cuba was willing to give up some of its autonomy to the Soviets. After all, the Cubans had just broken free from United States’ control and finally had full and complete sovereignty; why after this revolution would Cuba immediately revert back to a system where a superpower had power over them? From a realist perspective, Cuba had much to gain in terms of relative power from this relationship. Not only did they become allies with one of the world’s largest superpowers, thus giving them increased security, they also received several weapons shipments from the Soviets. Hence, Cuba came to look stronger and have more relative power by this relationship with the Soviets. Realists also note that the USSR benefitted from this relationship; in a time when the US and USSR were going tit-for-tat in terms of power and arms, the USSR successfully expanded their power bases to the Western Hemisphere, bringing communism and the Soviets closer to the US and expanding their power relative to the United States. This

In 1940 to 1944, communist Fulgencio Batista withheld power as the president of Cuba and then from 1952 to 1959, United States backed dictator until fleeing Cuba because of Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement. Socialist Fidel Castro governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President from 1976 to 2008. Fidel Castro’s intent was to provide Cuba with an honest democratic government by diminishing the corrupt way in which the country was run, the large role the United States played in the running of Cuba as well as the poor treatment & the living conditions of the lower class.