Fidel Castro

It was past two o'clock in the morning of April 3, 1959. Fidel Castro had been talking on television and radio for four hours and was still going strong. A half million Cubans-perhaps a million-glued to their sets would get little sleep before beginning their daily chores. Words tumbled out in an earnest, high-pitched voice as he moved back and forth over a score of topics. He spoke extemporaneously, the rambling and verbosity amply compensated by the impact that the free play of a nimble mind and ebullient personality could produce. The informality of the bearded young guerrilla leader turned statesman-in-shirt-sleeves was contagious.

Much of what Fidel Castro said in these early days did not stand the test of time. Thus, in a matter of months three of the four cabinet officers held up as examples of moderation had defected; and two years later, when Fidel Castro officially proclaimed the Revolution to be socialist and, shortly thereafter, Marxist-Leninist, there was no longer any point in refuting the charges of communism. Yet on the key issues of the Revolution-the radical transformation of Cuba's social and economic structure and the assertion of national self-determination-Fidel Castro revealed over the years a fundamental consistency of purpose. The conditions under which the implementation would take place, which in turn would affect its velocity and form, could only be matters of speculation.

One condition, however, was already clearly taking shape: a confrontation with the United States. Fidel's acceptance of this challenge was unequivocal, unwavering-and reckless. It lent credibility to the claim that he was heading Cuba into a "real revolution." Neither Fidel Castro nor anyone else at the time could suspect that in the womb of the "real revolution" the seeds of other confrontations lay dormant, those with China and the Soviet Union.

In the early morning hours of April 3, 1959, Fidel Castro made a remarkable prediction that any sober listener undoubtedly dismissed as the product of an overheated imagination. Yet the Cuban Revolution, generator and center of the world-shaking missile crisis, did not fall very far short of being "one of the greatest political events in history." But perhaps of more enduring significance for Cuba, a small nation submerged in the backwash of history, the Revolution lifted it into the limelight and gave it a place in the sun.

Viewed against the background of Cuban history, the only thing unique about Fidel Castro's insurrection was that it succeeded. Not only the aims but also the method and, we might even go so far as to say, the style and temperament of the Fidelista uprising to a large degree were shaped by the traditions of nearly a century of frustrated struggle for national independence. In this respect, the experience of Cuba differs substantially from that of continental Latin America, a fact that helps explain why the Fidelista phenomenon appeared in Cuba rather than elsewhere.

Under provisions of the Platt Amendment, American intervention took place in 1906, 1912, 1917, and 1920. In 1934, following the overthrow of the Machado dictatorship and a violent upsurge of Cuban nationalism, the United States agreed to revoke the Platt Amendment. The Guantanamo naval base, however, remained, although with the advance of military technology its strategic significance gradually disappeared. Twenty-five years later its continued presence helped Fidel Castro to mobilize Cuban patriotism behind his regime.

Many years later Fidel Castro had to face these problems in unexpected ways. Sugar, the single product, remained the pillar and the bane of the new socialist economy. When trade with one "single country"- the United States-ended, Fidel Castro discovered that he had to cope with the problem of political dependency on another single country-the Soviet Union-which took its place.