Fidel Castro: Animal Farm Antics

Castro intended to run in elections for the House of Representatives scheduled for 1952, but General Fulgencio Batista overthrew the government and the elections were cancelled. He claimed that his so-called “coup” was needed to rid the government of corruption (Green 81). When Castro heard about the coup, he declared himself in favor of an armed revolution. Castro stated, “The present moment, is revolutionary, not political….The Revolution opens the way for true merit, for those who bare their chest and take up the standard.

According to the personal accounts of Ana, “the revolution had completely transformed the country by 1962 … laws that once protected Cuban citizens were destroyed in the first two years and that the government which was once democratic and organized was transformed into tyranny” (Correa, Daniel S. and Sarah Z., Jonas). After the end of President Batista’s reign, Castro initially presented himself as a moderate leftist, but became increasingly radical. Castro even declared that a purge was necessary to purify the nation; extrajudicial imprisonment and arbitrary executions continued throughout Castro’s political career. In addition to abuses against prisoners, Castro also abused civilian rights via imposed economic reforms. The First Agrarian Reform, which was also the nation’s main priority, stripped lands from civilians, regardless of their support or challenge towards Castro’s rule.

The CIA formulated a plan to recruit Cuban exiles living in the Miami area. It would train and equip the exiles to infiltrate Cuba and start a revolution to ignite an uprising across the island and overthrow Castro. At least that was the intended outcome. Top US Government officials watched as their decisions led to an entirely different outcome: one that would leave a covert operation exposed, embarrass the new Kennedy administration, end the career of the longest serving Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles, and, ultimately, leave Fidel Castro in power for decades to come.

Fidel Castro was able to play on Cuba’s history in order to produce and maintain the revolution. Castro was not only able to use the current conditions in Cuba to shape the conditions for a successful revolution, but he was able to prolong the revolutionary movement for decades. Cuba has a lengthy and complex history, filled with many missteps, and wrongdoings against the Cuban people that Castro drew from during the revolutionary period. Preceding 1959, Fulgencio Batista was in office, and he represented imperialistic powers to the citizens of Cuba. Castro was able to use the anti-imperialism present in both Cuba and Latin America to manufacture conditions for revolution.

The farmers eventually gained enough power and they overthrew the monarchy (Expansion in the Pacific, Annexing Hawaii, 12/12/17). Another example of how the U.S. undermined authority appeared during the Spanish-American War. America joined with the Philippine rebellion to help them force the Spanish occupiers out of the country. With the support, the rebels had successfully taken over many Spanish centers, and it looked like the Spanish would surrender and the Filipinos would gain independence. However, the tables turned when Spanish surrendered to the U.S., which was holding the capital at the time, instead of the Filipino rebels, who were holding much of the surrounding area.

McKinley Shamed as an Insolent Fool Scandal has erupted in McKinley’s infant presidency, as Spanish Ambassador Enrigue Depuy de Lome expressed his rather harsh views on our “Leader of the Free World”. He declares President McKinley as weak and simple-minded, as his foreign involvement in Cuba grows tiresome. The letter has been intercepted and released to the public between its intended course to the Foreign Minister of Spain. USS Maine Blown to Shreds by Spanish The U.S. battleship, USS Maine, was stationed in Cuba’s Havana Harbor.

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Claudius came from a wealthy family, and although it is not specified in Hamlet, he probably had a strong education and was familiar with being surrounded by power his whole life. Trujillo, conversely, was born to a middle-class family with ten other siblings and received an education informally around his neighborhood. He survived life in a gang before he joined the military in 1919. Unlike Claudius, Trujillo worked his way to a high position in the military and had a strong backing when he became ruler. Although he rigged it, he won the election for president of the Dominican Republic and held the title officially for 8 years, then unofficially for another 22 years until his death ("Rafael Trujillo." History.com).

On February 15th, Castro became Prime Minister and appointed his brother Raul as commander of the Armed Forces. During his time as Prime Minister, he lectured Cubans on morality and public virtues. He was a hypocrite as a leader because he made promises of commitment to democracy, social reforms, and to hold free elections. He made all of these promises while still believing in the idea of communism and fascism. During this time of his “apparent democracy”, he had a communist plan.

Antonio López de Santa Anna spent lavishly on parties and a private army as well as statues of himself that were erected to show off his power. He often ran away to his hideaway, Manga de Clavo and spent his time raising fighting cocks. He strengthened the army and the central bureaucracy, filled political positions with corrupt friends and financed it all through forced domestic loans and foreign borrowing.” (Antonio López de Santa Anna, 1996).  

In April 1961 about 1500 men landed on the beaches of Cuba in what would become known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. Backed by the CIA their intention was to overthrow the new Revolutionary government headed by Fidel Castro, and while the invasion was ultimately a failure the impact of it would ripple throughout the history of Cuba and the world . This paper will examine the direct aftermath of the Cuban revolution focus primarily on the military response and the political response directly after the invasion. This paper will be organized the following way. First it will give a brief rundown of the political situation of Cuba prior to the invasion, secondly it will look at the military reaction of Cuba before finally giving an account of the political outcome of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Spain once was a great world power but like always every good thing has to come to an end. To this day they still remember the great times they once had with Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. Even though it may have seemed great, some of the residents in cuba wanted freedom instead of dictatorship. As Spain was putting out their monstrous newspapers with all of the new exciting atrocities even if made up the people would gobble up the stories. The stories scared the americans and basically made them scream for war against spain.

The United States solved this issue and put some new policies into place, but they ended up landing in Cuba again. According to http://www.walterlippmann.com,

Revolutions will fail because they result only in a change of tyrants. Just as Orwell said in his great allegory, Animal Farm. Napoleon, who portrays Stalin, turns into Mr. Jones when he gained more power. He takes over Animal Farm, after Old Major dies. The animals rebel against the humans and he proclaims that he will make Animal Farm a place where every animal is equal, they get to keep all the food they make, and all animals live in harmony.

He contends that Lenin had removed all vestiges of a democratic society and thus it was the only outcome that would be produced (Pipes 1997, 64). This is also an example of the French Revolution and how the revolutionaries destroyed all dissent which made it possible for Napoleon to come to power. In Animal Farm, Napoleon would remove Snowball after he was becoming vastly popular with the animals (Orwell 1996, 52-53). Snowball was one of the leaders of military operation to defend the farm while Napoleon was not part of the battle (Orwell 1996). Napoleon just like Stalin would use the machinery of the Party and the regime to remove dissenters.