the cuban revolution

[trakstr02]

What were the aims of the 26th of july movement?

[Clanad]

The immediate aim, ostensibly, was to force the resignation of Batista, and vault the Ortodoxo party into power. But more importantly was Castro's desire to unite the various factions who opposed Batista in a coordinated Revolucion, with Castro as the principa and an installation of communism...

[jake-the-peg]

Not quite sure about the last bit Clanad.

As I recall the "socialist nature of the revolution" was not declared by Castro until 1961two years after the revolution, and just after the disasterous bay of Pigs attempt by Kennedy to overthrow the Castro regieme.

During this period Castro denied being a communist. Unfortunately on a trip to the states Eisenhower refused to even see him which effectively pushed him into the arms of the Russians.

You may think that Cuba would have gone that way anyhow but Eisenhower blew any chance of changing that anyhow.

[Octavius]

Jake is right, were it not for the arrogance of the American politicians at the time, Cuba might have been an obsequious annexation of the USA. Castro held high admiration for the America dream and sought their support of his ideology for Cuba - that is until his visit to Nixon and the subsequent Bay of Pigs.

One of his peers was Eduardo Chibas who was a staunch anti-communist, a man who shot himself live on radio in the presence of Castro. Perhaps in the intervening years his leanings got him noticed by the grace and favour of the Russians, which seemed to imply that he would gain their support if he supported communism. Perhaps that was the turning point.

Either way you look at it Castro is seen as both a revolutionary leader and a man who was content to sell the loyalty of his nation to any super power who would listen. at the time of the July movement the Cuban communist party believed he was an ambitious usurper, working for the CIA.

[Clanad]

There was quite a lot of evidence as early as 1957 that Castro had ties to the Soviet Union that exceeded simply desiring economic aid. A former Ambassado to Cuba in the late 1940's provided information suggesting Castro's true intent in an interview with a respected journal stating "... `He is a fellow-traveler, if not a member of the Communist Party and has been so for a long time. He was a ring-leader in the bloody uprising in Bogota, Colombia in April, 1948, which occurred (and obviously was planned by the Kremlin) just at the time when the Pan-American Conference was being held in that capital, with no less a person than Secretary of State George C. Marshall present. The uprising was engineered and staged by Communists, and the Colombian Government and Colombia press subsequently published documentary evidence of Fidel Castro's role as a leader in the rioting which virtually gutted the Colombian capital." This supposition has been supported by other revelations, especially since Che's death many years ago.
Eisenhower believed it was in the best interest of unity in the western hemisphere, to display anattitude of non-interference as called for in the Ninth Inter-American Conference, held in Bogota, Colombia in April 1948, which led to the creation of the Organization of American States (OAS).
Additionally, Saul Landau who was a senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC said, following Fidel's announcement of his intent to install a Marxis-Leninist regime in 1961 "...Fidel Castro in 1968 explained to me that he had become a Marxist from the very time that he read the Communist Manifesto in his student days, (emphasis added) and a Leninist from the period when he read Lenin while in prison on the Isle of Pines in 1954."

[jake-the-peg]

Interesting area.

Personally I think Castro had definate marxist leanings. He certainally seemed close to Che Guevara but then there were other equally important figures in the revolution like Camilo Cienfuegos Who were not.

However the idea that Eisenhowre was persuing a policy on non-intervention is palpable nonsesence

A/ Following his rejection of Castro he imposed economic restrictions on Cuba and instigated the Bay of pigs debacle.

B/ America has a long history in interference in Cuba - in 1901 the Platt ammendment to Cuba's constitution gave the US the right to interfere in Cuba's affairs when the US deemed it necessary.

You can't necessarilly believe what Castro said about his early political leanings after 1961 as he was bound to say he was always a communist.

It's difficult to escape the conclusion that Eisenhower blew what little chance he had of influencing Cuba's development and set the US down a road where we now have the riddiculous state of affairs where China is a favoured trading nation and there is an Embargo against Cuba!

Mind you I am actually very grateful as I've just returned from a fabulous holiday there and working for a US company, it does give us Europeans a glorious bolt hole in the Carribean where we can enjoy a break away from Americans ;c)