Cuba's Political History and US Relations

Before Fidel Castro took power in 1959, there

had been 20 years of rule by a dictator. His name was Batista.

Batista was a butcher. He was hated by the Cuban people, and the US

loved him, kissed him, hugged him, made nice-nice with him, sent

him aid. What, what's the difference?

What was the difference between Batista and Castro?

The difference was that Batista was a cooperative dictator.

What does that mean? It means that he opened up his country

to US interests. He says, "Come on in, boys.

The tobacco industry here, the best in the world. It's yours.

The cotton industry, the sugar industry, the magnesium, the

mining, the shell food, the tourist industry, all yours.

You guys come on in. You own it all, Yankees. You can have it.

You can chop it. And I keep my people down so

that they work hard

for less. And the less you have to pay them,

the more there

is for you. And all you gotta do, though, is take care of me, my

family, my brother Juan, my brother Jose, my cousin this and that.

You give me my boodle, you train my police and paramilitary,

and we'll take care of

everything for you." And so it was a client-state relationship.

So what you had was US tax money going in there to make the

world safe, to make Cuba safe for big US investments,

even exporting some of our jobs there, by the way.