How the Cubans view themselves
in Western Media
A Prospectus
For History 299
Dr. Ganaway
April 21, 2010
Introduction
As a young child, I remember living in New York during the latter part of the
Cold War years. In school, we had “bomb drills” in which time we got under our desks
and took cover in case of a bomb or missile hitting the city. The apartment building that I
lived in had a “fallout shelter” downstairs underneath the building to house survivors of
nuclear war and spare them the effects of radioactivity. In my pre college studies, I
didn’t learn much about the politics behind the United State’s foreign relationships with
Cuba and the former Soviet Union and the Cold War itself. The basic premise that was
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One that I will focus upon in
my paper is a document dealing with the CIA’s plan to overthrow Castro that dated
April 12, 1961. Many of the personal interviews that I will use will come from Miami
based newspapers. To get a national prospective, I will use national newspapers and
Magazines such as Time, Life, and The New York Times.. In a New York Times editorial,
an American was outraged that asylum was denied to Fidel Castro’s two sisters but not to
Batista. The article One article from the magazine Time that I will use in the study is
titled Dynamic Boss takes over a US neighbor. This article is from January 12, 1959. The
photos show signs of contradiction on the part of Castro. He made many promises to
supporters and the media that he did not intend to keep. “He stated that he would not
become communist”. The picture shows triumphant soldiers in the capital city of Havana.
Citizens that were overjoyed about the revolution marched in the streets. The anonymous
writer is shows a bit of distrust in the words of the new leader. The writer assesses the
state of events in which he or she had witnessed with the words of the new leader.
“Castro claims that he is a moderate…But people against the revolution are being
murdered”. I will also use the book Beyond representational correctness: rethinking
criticism of popular media by
Thirty-seven years to the date April 20th, 2017, Fidel Castro enacted the policy of the Mariel boatlift, in which he’d allow Cubans seeking to emigrate to the United States to do so by departing at Mariel. This number would eventually eclipse 125,000 people seeking asylum and refuge from Cuba, and the regime in which at one point they felt represented or directly opposed their own viewpoints. The first wave of Cuban exiles being the extremely wealthy, in direct opposition to Fidel Castro’s regime for a race-less society, and a single-class economy, government, and social order. The ultimatum being set at you’re with the revolution or you’re not, this encouraged former supporters of the now ousted Batista, to seek refuge in the United States.
Cuba “held an economical potential that attracted American business interests and a strategic significance for any Central American canal” (Goldfield, Abbott and Anderson, p 638). Cuban rebellion “erupted again in 1895 in a classic guerrilla war… [and] American economic interests were seriously affected” (book pg638). The Spaniards started confining the locals to concentration camps “where tens of thousands died of starvation and disease” (book pg 638). This gained a lot of publicity throughout America as journalist’s were reporting the harsh treatment, which helped persuade our nation to intervene. Furthermore, this led to growing tension between Spain and
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.
Another reason forimplementing the embargo on Cuba concerns the corrupt communist government andUS hopes of promoting a transition to a democratic system. On February 3, 1962,President Kennedy was confident that “Castro was moving toward theestablishment of a to! talitarian regime in alliance with the Soviet Union”(DeVarona 7). This raised a huge national defense issue since Cuba is only 90miles from US soil. The US government claims that the transition from communismto democracy will help Cuba flourish, as other democratic countries in thewestern hemisphere have. (“Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of1996”).
that he would not allow any reforms to be made, unless he approved of them.
In Contesting Castro, the author, Thomas Paterson, attempts to give reasons for what caused the disconnect between the United States and Cuba. He supports his reasoning by giving his readers many different accounts, quotes, and views from the people who were involved in the many different problems that led up to the severed relationship. After reading through the book, Paterson does an excellent job of explaining the sometimes-complex circumstances that led to the United States and Cuba not having a relationship.
In the article I have found that throughout the rule of Fidel Castro he has proven to be a very poor leader that turned many of his citizens away from him. During his rule in Cuba he did many controversy actions that caused Cubans to flee to America, his family to leave him, and blockades to be put on him.
The relationship between Castro and Khrushchev was cemented between 1959-1962 as the Soviets gained Castro’s trust by buying Cuban sugar crops two years in advance, as well as accepting trade and economic assistance (Nathan 38). The Soviet surface to air missiles (SAMs) began being shipped to Cuba in the spring of 1962, in response to the U.S. Jupiter missiles placed in Turkey (Nathan 75). Eventually, the two nations would sign the Russia-Cuba Pact in August, 1962, and the shipment of Soviet medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) began (Nathan xxiv). “Fidel Castro accepted the Russian arguments that Cuba needed to accept missiles for its self-defense. Castro did not accept the logic but, as a member of the Soviet Bloc, felt Cuba had a duty to sustain socialism….(Nathan 76).”
about Cuba: the Castro brothers, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The
When Fidel Castro took over Cuba by means of a revolution, he quickly established his government as the first openly Communist government in the western hemisphere. He petitioned the Soviet Union for aid, which was cheerfully given him. These events went against our current policies, as well as the Monroe Doctrine, which established us as the police force of the western hemisphere. Ninety miles away from the greatest bastion of Capitalism was now residing its greatest foe. This tense situation was brought to a boiling point by the arrival of
US foreign policy in Latin America is greatly influenced by its interactions with Cuba during the late fifties. With the efforts of Fidel and Raul Castro, and other Marxist revolutionaries such as Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, the corrupt and tyrannical caudillo
Cuba is the country best known for being at the center of the Cold War conflict between the U.S. and Russia because of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviet Union’s strategy, and the anticipated U.S. response to the Russian strategy, is described in an October 19, 1962 telegram from Andrei Gromyko, Russia’s Foreign Minister, to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union [Virtual Archive]. The Central Committee was the highest organization within communist Russia. Gromyko seems to have written the telegram to inform the Central Committee that the Russian strategy in aligning itself with Cuba seemed to be working. In the telegram Gromyko expressed his belief that “a USA military adventure against Cuba is almost impossible to imagine” because of “assurances given to us that the USA has no plans for in Cuba (which undeniably commits them in many respects)” (Gromyko). Instead, Gromyko believed that the U.S. efforts would be to try weakening Cuba by obstructing its economy, thinking that over the long term Russia would not be able to continue supporting Cuba with foreign aid in order to offset U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba (Gromyko).
The Cold War began in 1947 and was, obviously, a war fought between the Western and Eastern Blocs. The Western Bloc consisted of the United States and the allies in the National Atlantic Treaty Organization (which was formed 2 years after the war had started). The Eastern Bloc consisted of the Soviet Union (now Russia) and other communist countries like Cuba. The reason the Cold War got its name as a war that cold is because there were no large battles ever fought, it was a war of technological advances that paved the way for the types and usage of technology that our government and the governments of other countries empower today in their militaries. For this research paper the focus will primarily be on the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba. The aim of this paper is to answer the research question of “How did the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis affect the Cold War and the 3 major countries that participated in the war”? Both positive and negative effects of the war will be discussed and researched and at the end, there will be a final understanding of what truly occurred because of the Cold War and if there really were any true loser or winner.
wanted to be leader and thought he was the best for the job. Already he had
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.