Do you remember talking to your parents about politics and current events?  Our family arrived in the U.S. back in 1964, and our dinner time was always a history lesson about Cuba.  It was as if my parents were on a mission to teach us how communism destroyed a country.  My parents are gone now, but those conversations come back to me whenever an anniversary comes up.

We recall another important day in Cuban history:

On February 16, 1959, Fidel Castro is sworn in as prime minister of Cuba after leading a guerrilla campaign that forced right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile. Castro, who became commander in chief of Cuba’s armed forces after Batista was ousted on January 1, replaced the more moderate Miro Cardona as head of the country’s new provisional government.

Castro followed the announcement with a trip to the U.S.  He met with V.P. Nixon, was a guest on Meet the Press, and spoke before the National Press Club.  He charmed the press.  I think most of the media in the U.S. were caught up in the tale of the young “barbudo” destined to turn into some kind of Cuban George Washington.

Back in Cuba, Castro still enjoyed vast support.  However, it started to erode in 1960, when radical steps were implemented.  Castro went after the private schools, the newspapers, and the media.  Elections were never held.  Repression was everywhere.

Finally, Cuba became a huge issue in the 1960 election, and then Senator Kennedy beat up V.P. Nixon because the Eisenhower administration had been too easy on Cuba.  In January ’61, or two years after Castro became prime minister, the U.S. broke diplomatic relations, and that was followed by the Bay of Pigs and the Missile Crisis.

And you know the rest of the ugly story.  Castro never became the Cuban George Washington, but he did govern a lot like the Cuban Josef Stalin.

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Image: Marcelo Montecino via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.