Post-Revolution

The Iron Curtain

Winston Churchill's "Sinews of Peace" address of 5 March 1946, at Westminster College, used the term "iron curtain" in the context of Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe:

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an "Iron Curtain" has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.”

Watch the following Clip from BBC documentary on the Bay of Pigs invasion, including interviews with Kennedy-administration officials (Bay of Pigs Invasion - A "Perfect Failure"). As students watch the video ask them to think about the following two questions:

1. Why did Kennedy plan for an attack against Cuba?

2. What went wrong? Why did Kennedy keep hesitating?

   1. What did the Bay of Pigs succeed in doing?

The Bay of Pigs Invasion

On April 17, 1961, 1400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba.

In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The U.S. government distrusted Castro and was wary of his relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union. Before his inauguration, John F. Kennedy was briefed on a plan by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) developed during the Eisenhower administration to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The plan anticipated that the Cuban people and elements of the Cuban military would support the invasion. The ultimate goal was the overthrow of Castro and the establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the United States.

Training

President Eisenhower approved the program in March 1960. The CIA set up training camps in Guatemala, and by November the operation had trained a small army for an assault landing and guerilla warfare. José Miró Cardona led the anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the United States. A former member of Castro's government, he was the head of the Cuban Revolutionary Council, an exile committee. Cardona was poised to take over the provisional presidency of Cuba if the invasion succeeded.

Despite efforts of the government to keep the invasion plans covert, it became common knowledge among Cuban exiles in Miami. Through Cuban intelligence, Castro learned of the guerilla training camps in Guatemala as early as October 1960, and the press reported widely on events as they unfolded. Shortly after his inauguration, in February 1961, President Kennedy authorized the invasion plan. But he was determined to disguise U.S. support. The landing point at the Bay of Pigs was part of the deception. The site was a remote swampy area on the southern coast of Cuba, where a night landing might bring a force ashore against little resistance and help to hide any U.S. involvement. Unfortunately, the landing site also left the invading force more than 80 miles from refuge in Cuba's Escambray Mountains, if anything went wrong.

The Invasion

The first mishap occurred on April 15, 1961, when eight bombers left Nicaragua to bomb Cuban airfields. The CIA had used obsolete World War II B-26 bombers, and painted them to look like Cuban air force planes. The bombers missed many of their targets and left most of Castro's air force intact. As news broke of the attack, photos of the repainted U.S. planes became public and revealed American support for the invasion. President Kennedy cancelled a second air strike. On April 17, the Cuban-exile invasion force, known as Brigade 2506, landed at beaches along the Bay of Pigs and immediately came under heavy fire. Cuban planes strafed the invaders, sank two escort ships, and destroyed half of the exile's air support. Bad weather hampered the ground force, which had to work with soggy equipment and insufficient ammunition.

The Counterattack

Over the next 24 hours, Castro ordered roughly 20,000 troops to advance toward the beach, and the Cuban air force continued to control the skies. As the situation grew increasingly grim, President Kennedy authorized an "air-umbrella" at dawn on April 19—six unmarked American fighter planes took off to help defend the brigade's B-26 aircraft flying. But the B-26s arrived an hour late, most likely confused by the change in time zones between Nicaragua and Cuba. They were shot down by the Cubans, and the invasion was crushed later that day. Some exiles escaped to the sea, while the rest were killed or rounded up and imprisoned by Castro's forces. Almost 1,200 members of Brigade 2056 surrendered, and more than 100 were killed.

The Aftermath

The brigade prisoners remained in captivity for 20 months, as the United States negotiated a deal with Fidel Castro. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy made personal pleas for contributions from pharmaceutical companies and baby food manufacturers, and Castro eventually settled on $53 million worth of baby food and medicine in exchange for the prisoners. 

The disaster at the Bay of Pigs had a lasting impact on the Kennedy administration. Determined to make up for the failed invasion, the administration initiated Operation Mongoose—a plan to sabotage and destabilize the Cuban government and economy. The plan included the possibility of assassinating Castro. Almost 50 years later, relations between Castro's Cuba and the United States remain strained and tenuous.

Activity 5: 

Cold War Rhetoric

The next two readings, the first from JFK's speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the second from Castro's Second Declaration of Havana, are to be used as examples of the speech and rhetoric exhorted by both sides in defense of their ideologies and positions. At the end students can compare the two speeches and think about how the fight between the US and Cuba was often fought through words. 

**Audio for JFK's Speech is available here. 

John F. Kennedy: The Lesson of Cuba, 1961

Speech Delivered by President Kennedy before the American Society of Newspaper Editors at Washington, D.C., April 20, 1961 

    The President of a great democracy such as ours, and the editors of great newspapers such as yours, owe a common obligation to the people: an obligation to present the facts, to present them with candor[1], and to present them in perspective. It is with that obligation in mind that I have decided in the last 24 hours to discuss briefly at this time the recent events in Cuba. 

    On that unhappy island, as in so many other areas of the contest for freedom, the news has grown worse instead of better. I have emphasized before that this was a struggle of Cuban patriots against a Cuban dictator. While we could not be expected to lend our sympathies, we made it repeatedly clear that the armed forces of this country would not intervene in any way. 

    It is not the first time that Communist tanks have rolled over gallant men and women fighting to redeem the independence of their homeland. Nor is it by any means the final episode in the eternal struggle of liberty against tyranny, anywhere on the face of the globe, including Cuba itself. 

    Mr. Castro has said that these were mercenaries[2]. According to press reports, the final message to be relayed from the refugee forces on the beach came from the rebel commander when asked if he wished to be evacuated. His answer was: "I will never leave this country. "That is not the reply of a mercenary. 

    The Cuban people have not yet spoken their final piece, and I have no doubt that they and their Revolutionary Council, led by Dr. Míro Cardona and members of the families of the Revolutionary Council, I am informed by the Doctor yesterday, are involved themselves in the islands - will continue to speak up for a free and independent Cuba. 

    Meanwhile we will not accept Mr. Castro's attempts to blame this Nation for the hatred with which his onetime supporters now regard his repression[3]. But there are from this sobering episode useful lessons for all to learn. Some may be still obscure and await further information. Some are clear today. 

    First, it is clear that the forces of communism are not to be underestimated; in Cuba or anywhere else in the world, The advantages of a police state - its use of mass terror and arrests to prevent the spread of free dissent - cannot be overlooked by those who expect the fall of every fanatic tyrant. . . . 

    Secondly, it is clear that this Nation, in concert with all the free nations of this hemisphere, must take all even closer and more realistic look- at the menace of external Communist intervention and domination in Cuba. The American people arc not complacent[4] about Iron Curtain tanks and planes less than 90 miles from our shores. . . . 

    The evidence is clear-and the hour is late. We and our Latin friends will have to face the fact that we cannot postpone any longer the real issue of the survival of freedom in this hemisphere itself. . . . 

    Third, and finally, it is clearer than ever that we face a relentless struggle in every corner of the globe that goes far beyond the clash of armies or even nuclear armaments. The armies are there, and in large number. The nuclear armaments are there. But they serve primarily as the shield behind which subversion, infiltration, and a host of other tactics steadily advance, picking off vulnerable areas one by one in situations which do not permit our own armed intervention. 

    Power is the hallmark of this offensive-power and discipline and deceit. The legitimate discontent of yearning peoples is exploited. The legitimate trappings of self-determination are employed. But once in power, all talk of discontent is repressed-all self-determination disappears-and the promise of a revolution of hope is betrayed, as in Cuba, into a reign of terror. . . . 

    The message of Cuba, of Laos, of the rising din of Communist voices in Asia and Latin America - these messages are all the same. The complacent, the self-indulgent, the soft societies are about to be swept away with the debris of history. Only the strong, only the industrious, only the determined, only the courageous, only the visionary who determine the real nature of our struggle can possibly survive. 

Source: 

from The Department of State Bulletin, XLIV, No. 1141 (May 8, 1961), pp. 659-661. 

[1] Candor – open and honest 

[2] Mercenaries – a professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army 

[3] Repression – subdue by force 

[4] Complacent – self-satisfied and unconcerned 

John F. Kennedy: The Lesson of Cuba, 1961

Questions: Please answer the following questions by selecting evidence from Kennedy’s speech and utilize that evidence in explaining your answer to the questions below. Your explanations should not only be an analysis of the text but should also directly answer the question. 

1. According to Kennedy, what is the President’s obligation? 

2. According to Kennedy, what is America’s greatest commitment? 

3. How does Kennedy portray Castro? 

4. What was Kennedy’s message for Americans? 

**Audio for Castro's speech can be found here. The first link. Beginning of this excerpt begins at 9:07)

Second Declaration of Havana

Fidel Castro: Second Declaration of Havana, 1962 

    The Cuban Revolution of 1959 was a broadly based nationalist revolution against a corrupt government. It was a revolution facilitated by the long Cuban revolutionary tradition. [There had been major disturbances in the Ten Years' War (1868­1878), a failed attempt to break with Spain; during the war of independence that began in 1895 but which resulted only dependence on the U.S.; and the revolution of 1933, which tried to restore constitutional order and democracy.] In the 1933 events Fulgencio Batista, an army sergeant, emerged and he dominated Cuba for decades. Cuban nationalists, with some reason, blamed U.S. foreign policy for Cuba's problems.

The revolution in 1959 was lead by Fidel Castro's. He apparently had the support of most Cubans in his broad based "provisional government". Castro turned to Cuban Communist Party for support in internal struggles. By 1962, after the US began to give "covert" assistance to Cuban exiles oppoing the revolution, Castro had adopted Marxism­Leninism as the ideology of the Cuban Revolution. This is can be seen in thes Second Declaration of Havana, delivered on February 4, 1962.

What is Cuba's history but that of Latin America? What is the history of Latin America but the history of Asia, Africa, and Oceania? And what is the history of all these peoples but the history of the cruelest exploitation[1] of the world by imperialism[2]?

At the end of the last century and the beginning of the present, a handful of economically developed nations had divided the world among themselves subjecting[3] two thirds of humanity to their economic and political domination Humanity was forced to work for the dominating classes of the group of nations which had a developed capitalist economy.

The historic circumstances which permitted certain European countries and the United States of North America to attain a high industrial development level put them in a position which enabled them to subject and exploit the rest of the world.

What motives lay behind this expansion of the industrial powers? Were they moral, "civilizing" reasons, as they claimed? No. Their motives were economic.

The discovery of America sent the European conquerors across the seas to occupy and to exploit the lands and peoples of other continents; the lust for riches was the basic motivation for their conduct. America's discovery took place in the search for shorter ways to the Orient, whose products Europe valued highly….

The lust for gold promoted the efforts of the new class. The lust for profit was the incentive of their behavior throughout its history…

Since the end of the Second World War, the Latin American nations are becoming pauperized[4] constantly. The value of their capita income falls. The dreadful percentages of child death rate do not decrease, the number of illiterates grows higher, the peoples lack employment, land, adequate housing, schools, hospitals, communication systems and the means of subsistence. On the other hand, North America investments exceed l0 billion dollars. Latin America, moreover, supplies cheap raw materials and pays high prices for manufactured articles. Like the first Spanish conquerors, who exchanged mirrors and trinkets with the Indians for silver and gold, so the United States trades with Latin America. To hold on to this torrent of wealth, to take greater possession of America's resources and to exploit its long­suffering peoples: this is what is hidden behind the military pacts, the military missions and Washington's diplomatic lobbying....

Wherever roads are closed to the peoples, where repression[5] of workers and peasants is fierce, where the domination of Yankee monopolies[6] is strongest, the first and most important lesson is to understand that it is neither just nor correct to divert the peoples with the vain and fanciful illusion that the dominant classes can be uprooted by legal means which do not and will not exist. The ruling classes are entrenched[7] in all positions of state power. They monopolize the teaching field. They dominate all means of mass communication. They have infinite financial resources. Theirs is a power which the monopolies and the ruling few will defend by blood and fire with the strength of their police and their armies.

The duty of every revolutionary is to make revolution. We know that in America and throughout the world the revolution will be victorious. But revolutionaries cannot sit in the doorways of their homes to watch the corpse of imperialism pass by. The role of Job[8] does not behoove a revolutionary. Each year by which America's liberation may be hastened will mean millions of children rescued from death, millions of minds, freed for learning, infinitudes of sorrow spared the peoples. Even though the Yankee imperialists are preparing a bloodbath for America they will not succeed in drowning the people's struggle. They will evoke universal hatred against themselves. This will be the last act of their rapacious[9] and cave­man system....

From Fidel Castro's Personal Revolution in Cuba: 1959­1973, by James Nelson Goodsell (New York: Knopf, 1975), pp. 264-268.

[1] Exploitation – to take advantage of and use in an unfair way for a selfish purpose 

[2] Imperialism – a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy and military force 

[3] Subjecting – cause or force to undergo 

[4] Pauperized - to be made to be very poor 

[5] Repression- subdue by force, restrain or prevent 

[6] Monopolies – when one company or person has exclusive control often of an industry 

[7] Entrenched – deeply embedded or established in a position 

[8] Job is a biblical character who is put through a series of tests to challenge his faith in God and good character. 

[9] Rapacious – aggressively greedy

Fidel Castro: Second Declaration of Havana, 1962

Questions: Please answer the following questions by selecting evidence from Kennedy’s speech and utilize that evidence in explaining your answer to the questions below. Your explanations should not only be an analysis of the text but should also directly answer the question. 

1. Who is Castro addressing in this speech?

2. How does Castro describe World History? What is this concept based upon?

3. What does he claim are the motivations of industrial expansion?

4. How does he claim the “ruling classes” are able to maintain their influence and power?

5. What does he claim that every revolutionary must do?

6. How would you describe Castro’s tone in this speech? How do you know?

7. How does this declaration help you understand the idea that “Cuba is a small country, but it has a big country's foreign policy”?