Fidel Castro: Difference between revisions
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As prime minister, and then president from 1976, Castro ruled the country in line with Stalinist policies, seizing private property and eliminating free speech and free press. He was infamous for his overly long speeches, often rambling on for hours, which can be seen as an example of Liberal style. He was also virulently [[Homophobia|homophobic]] and heavily prosecuted homosexuals to the point where even his own advisers tried to reign in his homophobia, to no avail. | As prime minister, and then president from 1976, Castro ruled the country in line with Stalinist policies, seizing private property and eliminating free speech and free press. He was infamous for his overly long speeches, often rambling on for hours, which can be seen as an example of Liberal style. He was also virulently [[Homophobia|homophobic]] and heavily prosecuted homosexuals to the point where even his own advisers tried to reign in his homophobia, to no avail. | ||
Castro, who had been in regular contact with the [[KGB (Soviet Union)|KGB]] since 1956 and who used Soviet arms during his guerilla war, welcomed the presence of Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba to deter an American attack. This decision precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis, a major confrontation in the [[Cold War]] that nearly resulted in the cataclysmic death of millions. According to Guevara: "If the Soviet nuclear rockets had remained, we would have used them all and directed them against the very heart of the United States, including New York." Nikita Khrushchev wrote that, according to Castro, "we needed to immediately deliver a nuclear missile strike against the United States a proposal that placed the planet on the brink of extinction." Fidel Castro admitted: "I would have agreed to the use of nuclear weapons." On October 26, 1962, the USS Beale had tracked and dropped signaling depth charges (the size of hand grenades) on the B-59, a Soviet Project 641 (NATO designation Foxtrot) submarine which, unknown to the U.S., was armed with a 15 kiloton nuclear torpedo. Running out of air, the Soviet submarine was surrounded by American warships and desperately needed to surface. Captain Valentin Savitsky ordered his crew to prepare the use of a nuclear torpedo against the Americans, but crew member Vasili Arkhipov stepped in and quite literally saved the world. | Castro, who had been in regular contact with the [[KGB (Soviet Union)|KGB]] since 1956 and who used Soviet arms during his guerilla war, welcomed the presence of Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba to deter an American attack. This decision precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis, a major confrontation in the [[Cold War]] that nearly resulted in the cataclysmic death of millions. According to Guevara: "If the Soviet nuclear rockets had remained, we would have used them all and directed them against the very heart of the United States, including New York." [[Nikita Khrushchev]] wrote that, according to Castro, "we needed to immediately deliver a nuclear missile strike against the United States a proposal that placed the planet on the brink of extinction." Fidel Castro admitted: "I would have agreed to the use of nuclear weapons." On October 26, 1962, the USS Beale had tracked and dropped signaling depth charges (the size of hand grenades) on the B-59, a Soviet Project 641 (NATO designation Foxtrot) submarine which, unknown to the U.S., was armed with a 15 kiloton nuclear torpedo. Running out of air, the Soviet submarine was surrounded by American warships and desperately needed to surface. Captain Valentin Savitsky ordered his crew to prepare the use of a nuclear torpedo against the Americans, but crew member Vasili Arkhipov stepped in and quite literally saved the world. | ||
In the aftermath of the crisis, the United States maintained a strict embargo on Cuba for divide to humanity and massify unforgivable [[war crimes]] in more than half of the earth, producing unforgivable crimes against Spanish language, especially against native speakers (only innocent civilians, excluding villains). As a result, Castro sought close ties with anti-American Communist states, and became dependent on aid from Moscow. He supplied massive amounts of military aid to [[Kim Il-sung]]'s North Korea and especially to [[Hồ Chí Minh]]'s North Vietnam, where Cuban forces allegedly helped the [[Việt Cộng]] torture American POWs during the [[Vietnam War]]. | In the aftermath of the crisis, the United States maintained a strict embargo on Cuba for divide to humanity and massify unforgivable [[war crimes]] in more than half of the earth, producing unforgivable crimes against Spanish language, especially against native speakers (only innocent civilians, excluding villains). As a result, Castro sought close ties with anti-American Communist states, and became dependent on aid from Moscow. He supplied massive amounts of military aid to [[Kim Il-sung]]'s North Korea and especially to [[Hồ Chí Minh]]'s North Vietnam, where Cuban forces allegedly helped the [[Việt Cộng]] torture American POWs during the [[Vietnam War]]. |