Fidel Castro How One Man With A Cigar Dominated American Foreign Poli

Fidel Castro: How One Man With A Cigar Dominated American Foreign Policy In 1959, a rebel, Fidel Castro, overthrew the reign of Fulgencia Batista in Cuba; a small island 90 miles off the Florida coast. There have been many coups and changes of government in the world since then. Few if any have had the effect on Americans and American foreign policy as this one. In 1952, Sergeant Fulgencia Batista staged a successful bloodless coup in Cuba . Batista never really had any cooperation and rarely garnered much support. His reign was marked by continual dissension. After waiting to see if Batista would be seriously opposed, Washington recognized his government. Batista had already broken ties with the Soviet Union and became an ally to the U.S. throughout the cold war. He was continually friendly and helpful to American business interest. But he failed to bring democracy to Cuba or secure the broad popular support that might have legitimized his rape of the 1940 Constitution. As the people of Cuba grew increasingly dissatisfied with his gangster style politics, the tiny rebellions that had sprouted began to grow. Meanwhile the U.S. government was aware of and shared the distaste for a regime increasingly nauseating to most public opinion. It became clear that Batista regime was an odious type of government. It killed its own citizens, it stifled dissent. (1) At this time Fidel Castro appeared as leader of the growing rebellion. Educated in America he was a proponent of the Marxist-Leninist philosophy. He conducted a brilliant guerilla campaign from the hills of Cuba against Batista. On January 1959, he prevailed and overthrew the Batista government. Castro promised to restore democracy in Cuba, a feat Batista had failed to accomplish. This promise was looked upon benevolently but watchfully by Washington. Castro was believed to be too much in the hands of the people to stretch the rules of politics very far. The U.S. government supported Castro's coup. It professed to not know about Castro's Communist leanings. Perhaps this was due to the ramifications of Senator Joe McCarty's discredited anti-Communist diatribes. It seemed as if the reciprocal economic interests of the U.S. and Cuba would exert a stabilizing effect on Cuban politics. Cuba had been economically bound to find a market for its #1 crop, sugar. The U.S. had been buying it at prices much higher than market price. For this it received a guaranteed flow of sugar. (2) Early on however developments clouded the hope for peaceful relations. According to American Ambassador to Cuba, Phillip Bonsal, "From the very beginning of his rule Castro and his sycophants bitterly and sweepingly attacked the relations of the United States government with Batista and his regime".(3) He accused us of supplying arms to Batista to help overthrow Castro's revolution and of harboring war criminals for a resurgence effort against him. For the most part these were not true: the U.S. put a trade embargo on Batista in 1957 stopping the U.S. shipment of arms to Cuba. (4) However, his last accusation seems to have been prescient. With the advent of Castro the history of U.S.- Cuban relations was subjected to a revision of an intensity and cynicism which left earlier efforts in the shade. This downfall took two roads in the eyes of Washington: Castro's incessant campaign of slander against the U.S. and Castro's wholesale nationalization of American properties. These actions and the U.S. reaction to them set the stage for what was to become the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the end of U.S.- Cuban relations. Castro promised the Cuban people that he would bring land reform to Cuba. When he took power, the bulk of the nations wealth and land was in the hands of a small minority. The huge plots of land were to be taken from the monopolistic owners and distributed evenly among the people. Compensation was to be paid to the former owners. According to Phillip Bonsal, " Nothing Castro said, nothing stated in the agrarian reform statute Castro signed in 1958, and nothing in the law that was promulgated in the Official Gazzette of June 3, 1959, warranted the belief that in two years a wholesale conversion of Cuban agricultural land to state ownership would take place".(5) Such a notion then would have been inconsistent with many of the Castro pronouncements, including the theory of a peasant revolution and the pledges to the landless throughout the nation. Today most of the people who expected to become independent farmers or members of cooperatives in the operation of which they

Germany, and the Origins of WW1 essays

Germany, and the Origins of WW1 essays Germany and the Origins of the First World War 1 Between 1866 and 1871, thanks to the skilful diplomacy of Prussias great minister, Prince Otto von Bismarck and to the unexcelled military genius of his generals, Albrecht von Roon and Helmuth von Moltke; the situation in what had been the German confederation was completely altered. During the first half of its existence, the confederation had been dominated by the Austrian Hapsburgs. As a result of Prussias decisive victory in the Austro- Prussian war of 1866, the Austrian Empire was expelled from the confederation and a new North German Confederation was created under a greatly enlarged Prussia.1 By taking advantage of a wave of chauvinism in France, Otto von Bismarck contrived to bring about the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, in which the German states south of the Main fought as allies against France and at the close of which they joined, in January 1871, with the states of the North German Confederation to establish the German Empire. The Second Teutonic Reich was forged out of blood and iron; a prophetic slogan for such a young nation state whose foreign policy would always be oriented towards the later. The Prussian philosopher Carl von Clausewitz in 1832, described war as being ...compounded of a paradoxical trinity: the governments for which it was an instrument of policy: the military for whom it was the exercise of a skill; and the people as a whole, the extent of whose involvement determined the intensity with which the war would be waged.2 It was the German people, rallying behind the nationalistic, militaristic rhetoric of their charismatic leaders, who ultimately called for colonization of vacant lands on 2 their eastern frontier.3 The German people incubated and fully b...

Philosophy and everyday life are fundamentally incompatible Essay

Philosophy and everyday life are fundamentally incompatible - Essay Example Sometimes, philosophy and everyday life becomes incompatible while at other times, the two become compatible; it is a matter of fortune. Philosophy and everyday life cannot be considered as fundamentally incompatible always. Philosophy takes birth from the past experiences of life. People reflect on their past experiences in order to realize their mistakes and identify ways in which they can be avoided in the future. The principles thus learned make the philosophy of life. It is said that wise people are those who learn from others’ mistakes. This education works fundamentally because the golden principles apply to all kinds of situations. â€Å"It is quite often said that, 'Philosophy and Education are two sides of the same coin'. 'Education is the dynamic side of philosophy'† (Sharma, 2012). Sometimes philosophy and everyday life becomes fundamentally incompatible because of the unpredictability of life. ... Another way in which the philosophy and life are not only fundamentally compatible but also integrally related to each other is the religious beliefs and their impact on life. â€Å"There seems to be some confusion at times over just whether and how religion and philosophy should be distinguished from each other — this confusion is not unjustified because there are some very strong similarities between the two† (Cline, 2012). The philosophy is ingrained in the religious beliefs. Every religion provides a certain set of rules and principles that its followers are obliged to follow. These rules require the individual to deal with the challenges of life with the philosophy proposed by the religion. For example, Muslims have the philosophy that whatever happens in life happens with due willingness and approval of God Almighty. â€Å"[T]he business of philosophy is nothing other than to look into creation and to ponder over it in order to be guided to the Creator -- in othe r words, to look into the meaning of existence† (Halsall, 1998). This principle extends to include every experience of life irrespective of its level of complexity and nature. Application of this philosophy helps Muslims avoid the negative influences of the challenges of life. For example, a man whose newborn baby dies does not mourn the loss to the extent that he might lose his senses because the belief that the loss occurred because of God’s willingness lends the man the patience he requires to come over the grief. Likewise, when a Muslim wins a race, he believes that he won it fundamentally because God willed it, and thus does not show off to others. These principles guide human behavior in a way that one finds a way to deal with the challenges of