Fidel Castro (b. 1926)
Fulgencio Batista (1901 - 1973)
Castro with Che Guevara
The American reconnaissance photo which proved Soviet missiles were being placed in Cuba
February 16th 1959: Fidel Castro becomes Prime Minister
On this day in 1959, Fidel Castro was sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba. Born to a wealthy Cuban family in 1926, Castro attended university in Havana. In 1952 he witnessed the overthrow of the government by the forces of General Batista, leading Castro to call for full-scale revolution. After serving some time in prison for an attempted uprising against the dictatorial Batista, Castro fled to Mexico where he met Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara. In 1956, Castro and Guevara began a guerrilla war against the U.S.-backed government, which was ultimately successful and caused Batista to flee in early 1959. Upon becoming Prime Minister, Castro inaugurated a Marxist-Leninist plan for Cuba, which caused some conservative Cubans to emigrate to the United States. Though initially trying to establish normalised relations with the United States - which included Castro meeting with Vice President Richard Nixon in April 1959 - tensions soon escalated between the two nations. In 1960 the U.S. imposed economic sanctions on Cuba, and in 1961 the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion occurred, in which CIA-sponsored Cuban exiles launched an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba. The U.S. distrusted Castro’s communist leanings and feared an alliance between Cuba and the Soviet Union - America’s Cold War rival. This fear appeared well founded, as in 1962 the U.S. discovered that Castro had secretly allowed the Soviets to plant missiles in Cuba. This led to the Cuban Missile Crisis, where tensions over the missiles escalated to a point where many thought nuclear war was imminent. Castro became President in 1976, though his leadership was controversial, for while he ruled dictatorially and repressively, he was generally popular among Cubans for his education and healthcare programmes. Castro stood down in 2008, and was succeeded by his brother Raúl. This January saw a momentous normalisation of U.S.-Cuba relations, ending a fifty year trade embargo and establishing diplomatic relations.
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