As in I don't idolise him? No, but again I haven't idolised a leader since Egypt's Nasser (who was well before my time anyway).
I'm not denying Soviet expansionism, but I don't see what this has to do with Castro though?
It would be unfair to generalise of course.
Property ownership being the main one.
Technically my source is that I studied the history of the USSR in university, but if you want a link...
Casinos, Prostitution rackets and fronts for the Havana mob, all while the majority of Cubans were lucky to get a daily meal or see a Doctor once a year. Forgive me for my heart not bleeding.
He just hates US, so an enemy of US is a good guy by default.
Exactly!
Well I have no admiration for the likes of Mugabe or North Korea. So no, that would be lazy generalisation.
The Cuban Missile Crisis...
Not an expanionist policy. The Russians had their deterrent a few miles off US soil, and the Cubans would probably feel more assured there wouldn't be another audacious Bay of Pigs style attempt.
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You don't see basing Soviet nuclear weapons into another hemisphere (90 miles off the coast of your rival) as expansionist?
At the blessing of the country's sovereign government. There was no regime change, no Russian soldiers ammassing, and you'd argue it was to the benefit of Cuban's foreign policy too. This was just the usual macabre Cold War maneuvering.
Depends by which metric you deem something to 'work', also depends on who you ask. A poor Cuban would give you a very different outlook to a rich Havana casino owner.
Didn't Mossadegh start off as an anti-communist liberal?
Yeah. I know they were. I never said the US wasn't.
Which happened first?. Plot to overthrow Castro or Cuba enabling soviet expansionism??. Your initial argument was that Cuba didn't help themselves by enabling soviet expansionism, to which I replied, They were forced into it because of previous embargos and Soviet were initially hesitant and were only real "allies" after bay of pigs... Is that not right? .. or is it the case that the trade deals Cuba signed with Soviet in 60 was a sign of expansionism already??
He was never particularly fond of communism, even in his final years in office. It was just that he deemed the Soviet Union an important ally.
So basically he replaced Casinos and property ownership with Totalitarianism. The party atmosphere in Little Havana is starting to make more sense now.
See I don't consider the US's missile program in Turkey as expanionist, merely reactive Cold War politics. The 50 or so countries it helped overthrow since 1945 perhaps, but not Turkey.
I'm quite sure she had the impoverished Cubans in mind.
Putting military bases in other countries, especially ones containing nuclear missile launch sites = expansionism to me.
Then yes, you'd argue that on the whole 'worked' for them. Certainly compared to how it was under Castro's predecessor.
From what I've read: Castro turned to the Soviets only after relations with the US broke down. And compared to the US, Soviet territorial expansion was much more limited in ambition (their main aim was colonising their neighbours to maintain a defensive ring, and they were often reluctant to fully finance and back the coups that the west carried out). Castro was a convenient acquisition for them when they realised the MAD balance was gone because the US could strike from as close as Turkey.
Fair enough.
I do see the Soviet economic policy toward Cuba beginning in 1960 as the beginning of its expansion into the island. They saw the opportunity of having a Communist state in the Western Hemisphere and immediately began buoying its economy. Cuba was almost solely dependent on the USSR for its economy to function and the USSR began making demands of Cuba... It was after this economic meddling that Castro came out and declared his government as Marxist-Leninist.
So they replaced the governments of other countries with puppets and colonized them... And Castro was part of that policy.
Yes, exactly... Thats why I argued on your initial statement.
Because he had literally no say in it. He could not have survived without USSR and his hand was forced. I certainly believe he would have preferred to stay away from either if he could have survived the embargoes.
Possibly, Castro was known to be keen on the deployment as it would protect his regime. At the same time, going back to my initial statement on the Crisis... Soviet nukes in Cuba certainly did not help US-Cuban relations. There's a reason the embargo is still on, and I'd say those nukes are a big part of that.
The nukes were just a perfect excuse. The reason was a communist country in your backyard, and the fear of it spreading to your colonies.
There are multiple versions of that story with some stating he objected initially..
