Cuba

[Bengalzona]

(03-24-2016, 08:42 PM)Rotobeast Wrote: Don't forget, the mob was none too happy about losing their casinos.

True.
 

(03-24-2016, 09:51 PM)jason Wrote: Batista was also one of "our bastards" too.  American playboys loved his island.  The people of Cuba weren't so keen on him.  When Castro overthrew him, he actually flew to the US, and just showed up at the White House.  He was offended by the way he was received.  Shortly after that he drifted closer and closer to the USSR.  The US always sent him rent checks for Gitmo.  He never cashed them.


Fun fact (that may not be true anymore)...  Cubans have a higher life expectancy, higher literacy rate, and a lower infant mortality rate than Americans do.  That may have changed over the last 20 years or so, but I found that amazing in college.

Truth.


We actually helped him oust Batista in his early days. The Eisenhower Admin saw him as someone who was young and naive and whom they could work. Unfortunately, he came to realize that and resent it. He realized that he would need a patron, and back then there were only two choices which could support nation-building: the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. The Soviets were more than happy to help him. It gave them a dagger to point at our southern underbelly. Both sides wanted something in return for their patronage. But the Soviets were thousands of miles away and, therefore, less likely to invade if they didn't get everything they wanted from him. Plus, he had a lot of left-leaning intelligentsia among his rebel coalition (such as Che). And ultimately, he didn't really care if the government was in the guise of democracy or communism because he planned on being a dictator anyway.