Castro responded with a bloodthirsty manifesto in which be declared that as of April 5, 1958, any person who remained in an office of trust in the executive branch of the government would be “considered guilty of treason.” He said candidates for the elections must withdraw immediately or suffer “ten years imprisonment to the death sentence.” He authorized his revolutionary militia in the towns and cities to shoot down candidates summarily.
Responsible Cubans such as Dr. Marquez Sterling made contact with Castro in his mountain retreat and pleaded with the revolutionary leader to stop the bloodshed and allow the elections. Castro arrogantly turned him down. There would be no elections.
During the emotional white heat of the revolution many Americans missed the highly significant overtures which Batista was making. As it turned out, these might have made the difference in saving Cuba from the Communist conquest which Castro was planning.
Earlier, U.S. Ambassador Arthur Gardner had been removed because he urged support of Batista until Cuba’s Problems could be settled at the polls. He was replaced by Ambassador Earl Smith who soon received a horrified State Department stare when he tried to put over the point that Castro was obviously leading Cuba and the United States into a Soviet-built Communist trap.
These shocked State Department “experts” reflected their complete disdain for their Ambassador’s advice by deliberately engineering a tight arms embargo against Batista. Then they went further. To completely assure Batista’s defeat they promoted an agreement among the Central and South American republics that they would not sell arms to Batista either. The results were inevitable.
In desperation, Batista tried to buy 15 unarmed training planes from the United States. It was finally agreed that this would be satisfactory. Batista paid for them in advance. Then Castro ordered Raul to launch a project specifically designed to intimidate and humiliate the United States. Raul kidnapped 30 U.S. Marines and sailors, 17 American civilians and 3 Canadians. Threats against the lives of these hostages were used to force the United States to cancel the shipment of training planes to Batista. The experts in the State Department meekly capitulated!
Some American citizens were bold enough to suggest that if Teddy Roosevelt had been alive he would have taken the U.S. Marine Corps and landed in the middle of Castro’s mountain retreat with such an earthshaking velocity that the Cuban tyrant would have gladly released the Americans—and without any price.
The Castro Coup D’état
When Batista first took over in 1952, Fidel Castro had immediately projected himself into the front lines of opposition. As indicated previously, Castro had been working behind the facade of the Orthodox Party, but after the Batista Coup he insisted that this organization include the Communist Party and set up a “popular front” against Batista. The Orthodox Party leaders refused to do this. Castro promptly bolted the party and said he would form his own movement.
It was only a short time after this—July 26, 1953—that he made his disastrous attack on the Army barracks at Santiago. This turned into a real tragedy for the men in the barracks hospital (who were cut to pieces by Castro’s raiders) and also for Castro’s men. They were met with overwhelming odds and captured or killed. Survivors were subjected to torture and eventual death in retaliation for their attack on the wards in the hospital. Thus the “26th of July Movement” was born.
Castro had managed to assign himself to a less dangerous post in the 26th of July attack and when he saw the assault was failing he fled, shouting, “Every man for himself!” His brother Raul also escaped. Later both of the Castro brothers were captured and sentenced to prison. Fidel was sentenced to 15 years and Raul to 13. However, both of them served only 22 months because after Batista had put down the attempted insurrection he commuted their sentences.
For this gesture of political generosity by Batista, the Castro brothers displayed only contempt. During July, 1955, they left Cuba declaring that they would organize an invasion force and soon return to pull down Batista and “liberate” Cuba.
The headquarters for this invasion movement was established near Mexico City. All kinds of people flocked there to support Castro’s so-called liberation of Cuba. Some were political enemies of Batista, some were opportunists, and many were sincere liberals. But just as with Lumumba in Africa, sinister hard-core Communist personalities immediately moved in close to provide the “guiding hand.”
Castro’s chief of staff turned out to be Dr. Ernesto “Che” Guevara, an Argentinian Communist assigned to work with Castro by the Soviet apparatus called “Asistencia Tecnica.” Raul Castro had received considerable training during a recent trip to Prague, Moscow and Red China. He was therefore made commander of Castro’s army. Other trained Communists moved deftly into every phase of the program.
But in spite of all the training, intrigue and planning, the famous “Invasion of Cuba” by Castro’s forces turned out to be a real fiasco. Castro’s total strength was a mere handful of only 82 men who clambored aboard a leaky yacht on November 19, 1956 and set out to sea. The Captain of the yacht was Hipolito Castillo, well known strategist of the Soviet organization for the subversion of Latin America. The sluggish yacht was slow in reaching Cuba and when the men waded ashore to make their heroic invasion they were cut to pieces with gun-fire. Most of them were captured or killed.
Castro managed to escape into the hills and eventually work his way up into the 8,000 foot heights of the Sierra Maestra. He arrived there with only a handful of his original force. “Che” Guevara took over and began using propaganda and tactical strategy to dominate the immediate area and gradually rally others to the cause—especially young Cubans “full of life, ideals and faith.” Thus the strange forces of revolutionary fire began to be built and soon civil war was reaching out across Cuba.
Two major factors led to the final success of Castro’s revolution. One was centered in the Soviet Union and the other was centered in the United States.
Raul Castro who had previously been behind the Iron Curtain made several trips to Russia and Czechoslovakia to negotiate for arms and finances. The arms arrived by submarine, the money came through by couriers. During the last months of the revolution, observers were amazed at the quantities of Czech and Russian equipment being used by the Castro forces. They were equally surprised at the vast supplies of money which Castro had available—money for wages, food, equipment, liquor, bribery and favors.
Batista, on the other hand, suddenly found himself at the other end of the horn. Because of his pro-U.S. policies he had assumed that when the struggle for Cuba became critical he would be able to rely on the United States to sell him arms and supplies. To his amazement he discovered that his request for permission to buy arms in the U.S. fell on deaf ears. What he had not realized was that Herbert Matthews, Edward Murrow, Ed Sullivan, Ruby Phillips, Jules Dubois and a multitude of other writers and opinion makers had been eulogizing Castro and castigating Batista. In Congress, Senator Wayne Morse, Representative Charles O. Porter and Representative Adam Clayton Powell had thrown their combined weight behind the Castro cause. All this “Robin Hood” propaganda definitely had its effect.
At the same time Assistant Secretary of State Roy Rubottom and Caribbean Director William Wieland—the two persons who were supposed to know what was going on—blandly assured all inquirers that Fidel Castro was the hope of Cuba and had no Communist taint whatever. As late as June, 1959 (and that was extremely late), Congressman Porter was assuring his colleagues: “No one in the State Department believes Castro is a Communist, or a Communist sympathizer, nor does any other responsible person who wants get his facts straight.”{116}