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Independence and Nationalism in the Developing World

The Cuban Revolution

Background

After World War II the people of Cuba suffered under corrupt dictators. Perhaps the most despised was Fulgencio Batista. He used brutal tactics and terrorism to suppress opposition. A group of rebels led by Fidel Castro, his brother Raul, and Ernesto "Che" Guevara raised a guerrilla army and fought to remove Batista from office.

In 1958 the rebels began to succeed against Batista's army. On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro's group--the 26th of July movement--took control of the island of Cuba. Castro's takeover alarmed the U.S. government because he was suspected to be Marxist, and the Communist Party of Cuba took a large role in establishing the new government. This was the Cold War, and the U.S. government believed Communists living a mere 90 miles from the U.S. shore were a real threat.

Directions: Study the photograph and read the excerpts about the Cuban Revolution. Then answer the questions.

Copyright ? The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use. CORBIS

Caption: Rebel Soldiers: Fidel Castro and two gueruillas at their mountain hideout during the insurgency against dictator Fulgencio Batista

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Independence and Nationalism in the Developing World

Copyright ? The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use.

The enemy soldier, in the Cuban example that we are now considering, is the junior partner of the dictator. He is the man who gets the last crumbs left by the next-to-last-hanger-on in a long chain that begins on Wall Street and ends with him. He is ready to defend his privileges, but only to the degree that they are important. His salary and his benefits are worth some suffering and some dangers, but they are never worth his life. If that is the price of keeping them, better to give them up, in other words, to retreat from the guerilla danger.

-- Ernesto "Che" Guevara, as quoted in Che Guevara Reader

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. . . . [I]t is clear that this Nation, in concert with all the free nations of this hemisphere, must take an even closer and more realistic look at the menace of external Communist intervention and domination in Cuba. The American people are not complacent 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. . . . 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[s] the real nature of our struggle can possibly survive.

--U.S. President John F. Kennedy, address to American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 20, 1961

1. Drawing Conclusions According to the first selection, who does Che Guevara consider the enemy?

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Independence and Nationalism in the Developing World

2. Identifying Perspectives In the second selection, what is Kennedy's greatest concern?

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3. Compare and Contrast How do Kennedy and Guevara view the Cuban Revolution?

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Copyright ? The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use.

4. Identifying the Central issues Why do you think Kennedy and Guevara see this revolution differently?

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5. Analyzing Information What leads you to believe that Kennedy sees the Cuban Revolution as an extension of the Cold War?

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