La Toya Joseph

Political and Diplomatic Relations between the United States and Cuba in the
decade After the Cuban Revolution.

After the Cuban Revolution in 1959, which had overthrown the Batista government, relations
between the United States and Cuba deteriorated rapidly. The U.S. government became
increasingly concerned about their investments in Cuba and as a result, the United States began
to impose gradual trade restrictions on the island.
United States was prepared to take extreme measures to oppose Castros regime.
The United States felt threatened by the close relations of FIDEL Castro with the
Soviet Union. Castros government was too anti-American to be trusted, and they
feared that he might lead Cuba into the communist bloc. As state intervention and take-

over of privately owned businesses by Cubans continued, trade restrictions on Cuba increased.
The U.S. stopped buying Cuban sugar and refused to supply its former trading partner with
important supplies, for example much needed oil, leading to devastating effect on the island's
economy. Therefore, Cuba had to turn to their newfound trading partner the Soviet Union for
petroleum. Consequently, Cuba began to consolidate trade relations with the USSR, leading the
U.S. to break off all remaining official diplomatic relations. The United States stood for
democratic societies whereas the USSR stood for socialist societies. Due to the opposing
ideologies of the two powers the United States drew strict restrictions against Cuba, eventually
cutting off all diplomatic relations, withdrawing all American investments. They no longer
intervened in the islands politics as before.

In less than a year, U.S President ordered the CIA to begin arming and training a group of Cuban
exiles to attack Cuba which was later known as the Bay of Pigs invasion.
In October of 1962 U.S. spy planes discovered evidence that the Soviet Union was building
missile bases in Cuba. U.S President at the time, Kennedy learned of the threat and for the next
12 days the U.S. and Russia were in silent battle, the Cold War. The Cuban Missile Crisis ended
only when Nikita Khrushchev a prominent member of the Soviet Union, accepted Kennedy's
proposal to remove U.S. missiles in Turkey in exchange for the de-arming of Cuba. The Soviet
missiles were gone, but it would take a long time for America to forgive the nation that allowed
the Soviet Union to be placed so close to the American mainland.
The friction created by the Cold war caused the United States to break all ties with Cuba and
they strengthened their embargo against the island.

The Ascendency of Fidel Castro

Following Batistas second dictatorship, conditions in Cuba were deplorable. There was
widespread poverty, unemployment was high, the economy was very dependent on sugar, and
high volume of corruption especially in the capital, Havana. The Cubans were oppressed by
Batista Government regime. With all of these factors and the Cubans favour towards Fidel Castro
he was quickly able to rise to power in 1959.
Batista seized power illegally in 1952 after having a bloodless coup de tar, overthrowing Prios
regime. He ruled as a merciless dictator. Although Cubas economy did flourish after during
Batistas reign as president, however he used brutal measures to keep his people under his
control. He took drastic and aggressive measures to maintain his country.
At the time, Fidel Castro, 26, was studying to become a lawyer at the University of Havana, at
which time he gained a strong interested in politics. Castro was strongly opposed to Batistas rule
due to his close ties with the United States. At first Castro fought Batista through legal means by
charging Batista for violating the 1940 Cuban Constitution. However he failed and from then on,
he used more covert rebellions. In 1953, Castro and his brother Raul together with a group of
160 armed man attacked the Moncado Barracks, which was one of the military bases
constructed by the United States.
The attempt to overthrow the government failed, however Castro became famous. He gained the
favour and respect of many of the poor peasants in Cuba, who later fuelled his drive to overthrow
the Batista regime. Castro and Raul were sentenced to jail in 1944 and were released in 1955.
Castro then fled to Mexico.

In Mexico he also trained men then sailed to the tip of Cuba on the Grandma where he landed
with around a dozen men. Using guerrilla tactics, he took over one town after another. Castro
eventually assumed power in January 1, 1959 after Batista Fled the island because he had lost
popular support. Neither the Cuban people nor the Americans supported him.
When Castro assumed the position as President of Cuba, the island lacked a functioning
government system. The army had collapsed, and the police had disappeared. Old political
leaders scurried away while labour unions had been disrepute by their alliances with a series of
corrupt governments. Castro had the strong support of the military and so coupled with the
corrupted government system he was able to assume and maintain presidency in Cuba.
Castro had no intention of returning to the democratic constitution which was set by Batista. His
goal was a totalitarian government that would control every aspect of Cuban society and life.