Correcting some of Chuck Offenburger's errors about the Cuban revolution and the dictatorship in Havana - Part 2

 Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” - Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Three wise men replaced with images of Fidel Castro,other revolutionaries

Chuck Offenburger has written a blog entry "Banning Christmas in Cuba was an ‘error’ that Fidel Castro fixed: It’s time for the U.S. to correct our own errors there" that regurgitates Cuban communist propaganda. I do not believe that was his intent.

Totalitarian regimes have a track record of effectively using tourism, athletic events, and academic exchanges to present their regimes in a manner that legitimizes them and covers up their hostile objectives. 

An excellent accounting of these practices and their impacts on national and international politics is found in Paul Hollander's book Political Pilgrims that should be required reading for anyone traveling to Cuba, China, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela, or Vietnam.

There is much to address, and it will be broken up into a series of blog entries. 

These blog entries will review a number of the claims Mr. Offenburger makes in chronological order, and provide documented sources to test them.

 This blog entry will explore two claims made by Offenburger that Fidel Castro banned organized religion in 1959, and that Eisenhower's "blockade" led Cuba to the Soviet Union for help. 

First, the Catholic Church was not clinging to the Batista regime in the 1950s, as some communists claim. It was a Catholic priest who saved Fidel Castro's life following the disastrous July 26, 1953 assault on the Moncada barracks. Castro portrayed himself as a Jeffersonian democrat who would restore the preexisting democratic order.

Restrictions on religion began slowly in 1960 and continued to increase.

Fidel Castro canceled Christmas in 1969 under the pretext to prevent work shortages for the 1970 ten million ton sugar harvest but continued the ban until 1997, and sent mobs to intimidate Cubans who attended religious services. Three Kings Day and Easter were also abolished. Priests who stayed behind often paid a terrible price.

In 1976 the Castro dictatorship adopted a constitution which turned Cuba into an atheist state. 

Today, the Office of Religious Affairs (ORA), an arm of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, still oversees religious affairs in Cuba, and exists to monitor, hinder and restrict religious activities. 

Richard Nixon met with Fidel Castro in April 1959.

 

Mr. Offenburger got it backwards. Castro's alliance with the Soviet Union and Beijing to overthrow governments in Latin America led to sanctions on Havana.

Fidel Castro visits Caracas on January 23, 1959 and meets with Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt "to enlist cooperation and financial backing for 'the master plan against the gringos.'"

 

On March 3, 1959 the Castro regime expropriates properties belonging to the International Telephone and Telegraph Company, and took over its affiliate, the Cuban Telephone Company.

 

Fidel Castro visited the United States for eleven days in April 1959, culminating in a three-hour meeting with Vice President Richard Nixon on April 19, 1959. 

 

Havana beginning in 1959 sent armed expeditions to Panama, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to overthrow their governments. 

 

On February 6, 1960 talks began publicly between the U.S.S.R and Fidel Castro. The Soviet Union agreed to buy five million tons of sugar over five years. They also agreed to support Cuba with oil, grain, and credit. 

 

 

On July 6, 1960 the Castro regime passed a nationalization law authorizing nationalization of U.S.- owned property through expropriation. Texaco, Esso, and Shell oil refineries were taken.

 

In September 1960 the Cuban government diplomatically recognized the People's Republic of China.

 

The Eisenhower State Department in response to the above actions imposed the first trade embargo on Cuba on October 19, 1960, and it "covered all U.S. exports to Cuba except for medicine and some foods." It was not a blockade.

 

On November 19, 1960 Ernesto "Che" Guevara heading a Cuban delegation in Beijing met with Mao Zedong between 4:20pm and 6:30pm and discussed revolutionary objectives in Latin America.

 

 

Offenburger's trips to Cuba filled him with disinformation, and it should not be a surprise. The Castro regime came to power using lies, and continues power through systematic misinformation. 

 

Communist morality

Fidel Castro at the time was repeatedly claiming that he was not a communist because he knew that speaking the truth would lead Cubans to abandon him. On December 2, 1961 he explained his reasoning.

"If we had paused to tell the people that we were Marxist-Leninists while we were on Pico Turquino and not yet strong, it is possible that we would never have been able to descend to the plains."

Years later on March 26, 1964, after announcing that he had always been a Marxist Leninist, Fidel Castro explained: "I conceive the truth in terms of a just and noble end, and that is when the truth is truly true. If it does not serve a just, noble and positive end, truth, as an abstract entity, philosophical category, in my opinion, does not exist." Jose Ignacio Rasco, who knew Fidel Castro from school and afterwards concluded that the Cuban revolutionary had been a committed communist by 1950.

Castro is copying Lenin. The first leader of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin on October 2, 1920 in a speech to Russian communist youth stated:  "The class struggle is continuing and it is our task to subordinate all interests to that struggle. Our communist morality is also subordinated to that task. We say: morality is what serves to destroy the old exploiting society and to unite all the working people around the proletariat, which is building up a new, communist society." He also addressed the necessity of the lie observing: "'To speak the truth is a petit-bourgeois habit. To lie, on the contrary, is often justified by the lie's aim."

On this day in 1961, the United States ended diplomatic and consular relations with the Castro dictatorship. (Here is what they left out of the narrative.)

“On this day in 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced the United States was formally terminating diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba.” - The Boston Globe

Batista in the 1950s was not a U.S. backed dictator, but was pressured out by Washington in favor of what they believed would be a return to democracy

In a previous CubaBrief, we looked at the negative reaction of the Truman Administration to Fulgencio Batista's March 10, 1952 coup against the democratically elected government of Carlos Prio. In another, the Eisenhower Administration's engagement with Havana during the Batista regime, from January 20, 1953 through December 31, 1958. President Dwight Eisenhower had short, informal talks with Fulgencio Batista on July 23, 1956 at the US Embassy in Panama, but the images are reminiscent of President Obama meeting with Raul Castro during the Summit of the Americas in April 2015. 

Eisenhower was not "supporting" the dictatorship, but decreasingly tolerating it, with an arms embargo placed on the Batista government by the Eisenhower Administration in March 1958, and the US Ambassador pressuring the Cuban strongman to step down in December 1958.

Richard Nixon met Fidel Castro in April 1959 and sought a detente with Havana in 1974

Fidel Castro visited the United States for eleven days in April 1959, culminating in a three-hour meeting with Vice President Richard Nixon on April 19, 1959.

Within three months of the United States' recognition of Cuba's revolutionary government, the new regime began targeting American interests on the island, allying with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, and plotting the overthrow of several Latin American governments.  
Fidel Castro visits Caracas on January 23, 1959 and meets with Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt, a social democrat, "to enlist cooperation and financial backing for 'the master plan against the gringos.'"

On March 3, 1959 the Castro regime expropriates properties belonging to the International Telephone and Telegraph Company, and took over its affiliate, the Cuban Telephone Company.

On May 17, 1959 the government expropriated farm lands over 1,000 acres and banned land ownership by foreigners.

Havana beginning in 1959 sent armed expeditions to Panama, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to overthrow their governments.

On February 6, 1960 talks began publicly between the U.S.S.R and Fidel Castro. The Soviet Union agreed to buy five million tons of sugar over five years. They also agreed to support Cuba with oil, grain, and credit.

On July 6, 1960 the Castro regime passed a nationalization law authorizing nationalization of U.S.- owned property through expropriation. Texaco, Esso, and Shell oil refineries were taken.

In September 1960 the Cuban government diplomatically recognized the People's Republic of China.

On November 19, 1960 Ernesto "Che" Guevara heading a Cuban delegation in Beijing met with Mao Zedong between 4:20pm and 6:30pm and discussed revolutionary objectives in Latin America.

 

It was Fidel Castro's demand that the US embassy be left with a skeleton crew in the midst of a migration crisis that led to the severing of diplomatic relations.

Tens of thousands of Cubans were lined up outside of the U.S. embassy in Havana seeking visas to flee the communist dictatorship, and this became a source of embarrassment for the regime. Fidel Castro communicated with the Eisenhower Administration on January 3, 1961 and demanded the expulsion of 67 U.S. diplomats, within 48 hours, reducing their number to 11, the same number at the Cuban embassy in Washington DC. When the ultimatum was issued, the Americans had over 50,000 visa applications to process.

President Eisenhower issued a statement on January 3, 1961, at 8:30 p.m. EST, stating: "There is a limit to what the United States in self respect can endure. That limit has now been reached," and broke diplomatic ties with Cuba.

Taken from the Center for a Free Cuba, and adapted.

Truth Matters: When Fidel Castro asked and got the United States to place an embargo on Fulgencio Batista

Castro's July 26th movement successfully lobbied the U.S. to place arms embargo on Batista regime.

Fidel Castro in 1958 interrogating a "bandit."

Castro regime officials and agents have been active on social media on the 60th anniversary of the dictatorship and observing historical dates. Yesterday, March 10th was the anniversary of the coup led by Fulgencio Batista that ended Cuban democracy in 1952.

However, although they claim truth matters, important facts of have been left out or falsehoods repeated. Nevertheless, because the truth does matter and we too have memory, a few facts will be set straight.

First, the United States did not back the coup against Carlos Prio in 1952, and diplomatic communications following Batista's take over indicate this. In a Memorandum of Conversation, by the Ambassador in Cuba (Beaulac) with Dr. Miguel Angel de la Campa, Minister of State datelined Habana, March 22, 1952 and marked secret The American Ambassador indicated that according to Dr. Campa:

 “ Cuba intended to restore normal relations with countries toward which the former Cuban Government had had an attitude of hostility. He mentioned Spain and the Dominican Republic in particular. He said he thought the United States should recognize promptly; that it was in our interest that the situation should develop in an orderly way. I reminded Dr. Campa that our Government had not been consulted about the coup d'etat and that Cuba could not expect automatic recognition from us.” 

State Department had concerns about Batista's previous flirtations with communists in the 1940s, but recognized that he had control of the country following the coup, and that delaying recognition any further would damage relations with Cuba. The coup had taken place on March 10th and recognition was granted by President Truman, seventeen days later, on March 27, 1952. (By comparison Fidel Castro's revolutionary regime was recognized six days after Batista fled on January 7, 1959).

Secondly, the United States did back Fidel Castro and undermined the rule of Fulgencio Batista.
In January of 1958 the United States was pressuring Batista to restore Constitutional guarantees in exchange for the sale of arms.

On March 14, 1958 the State Department in a telegram to the U.S. Embassy in Cuba  requested that the export license for 1,950 M-1 rifles for the Cuban Army awaiting shipment be suspended. This was done because State felt that the Cuban government had failed to "create conditions for fair elections."

On March 17, 1958 Fidel Castro's candidate for provisional president Manuel Urrutia, along with a delegation of other supporters in exile of the future Cuban dictator's July 26th movement, met with officials at the State Department. They lobbied the U.S. government and argued that arms shipments to Cuba were for hemispheric defense, and they claimed that Batista using them against Cuban nationals was in violation of the conditions agreed to between the two countries.

"President" Manuel Urrutia and Fidel Castro in 1959

On the same day the Cuban Government presented to the U.S. Embassy in Havana a formal note protesting the delay in the shipment of M-1 rifles to the Cuban Army, and warned that it would weaken  the Cuban government and lead to its possible downfall.  
On March 26, 1958 in another telegram from the State Department to the U.S. Embassy in Havana the view was expressed how the arms embargo could lead to the fall of Batista's regime:

“Department has considered possibility its actions could have an adverse psychological effect GOC and could unintentionally contribute to or accelerate eventual Batista downfall. On other hand, shipment US combat arms at this time would probably invite increased resentment against US and associate it with Batista strong arm methods, especially following so closely on heels of following developments:

1. Government publicly desisted from peace efforts.
2. Government suspended guarantees again.
3. Batista expressed confidence Government will win elections with his candidate and insists they will be held despite suspension guarantees but has made no real effort to satisfy public opinion on their fairness and effectiveness as possible means achieve fair and acceptable solution.
4. Batista announced would increase size arms and informed you he would again undertake mass population shift Oriente, and otherwise acted in manner to discourage those who supported or could be brought to support peaceful settlement by constructive negotiations. "

News of the arms embargo on the Batista regime broke in The New York Times on April 3, 1958, the psychological blow was delivered and the days of the Batista regime were numbered.

Twenty one years later as another Marxist Leninist regime took power in Nicaragua, the former U.S. ambassador to Cuba in 1958, Earl E. T. Smith wrote a letter to the editor published in The New York Times were he addressed the myth that the U.S. had been a steadfast supporter of the Batista dictatorship:

"To the contrary, Castro could not have seized power in Cuba without the aid of the United States. American Government agencies and the United States press played a major role in bringing Castro to power. I so testified before a Senate committee. As the U.S. Ambassador to Cuba during the Castro‐Communist revolution 1957‐59, I had first‐hand knowledge of the facts which brought about the rise of Fidel Castro."

Because of my briefing in Washington, my sympathies leaned toward Castro when I first arrived in Cuba. After a few months as chief of mission, it became more and more obvious to me that the Castro‐led 26th of July movement embraced every element of radical political thought and terrorist inclination In Cuba. The State Department consistently intervened ‐ positively, negatively and by innuendo to bring about the downfall of President Fulgencio Batista, thereby making It possible for Fidel Castro to take over the Government of Cuba.

The final coup in favor of Castro came on Dec. 17, 1958. On that date, in accordance with my instructions from the State Department, I personally conveyed to President Batista that the Department of State would view with skepticism any plan on his part, or any intention on his part, to remain in Cuba indefinitely. I had dealt him a mortal blow. He said in substance: “You have intervened in behalf of the Castros, but I know it is not your doing and that you are only following out your instructions.” Fourteen days later, on Jan. 1, 1959, the Government of Cuba fell.

The historical truth matters, and must not be left to the Castro regime and its agents of influence to rewrite the past with lies and half truths. The fact of the matter is that the United States did not approve of the 1952 coup against a democratic Cuba, and was working behind the scenes to pressure the Batista regime to restore Cuba's democratic order. Fidel Castro promised Cubans and the world that he would restore the old democratic order, but he lied and installed a Marxist-Leninist dictatorship instead.