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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (107285)	7/22/2003 10:49:02 PM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

You don't hear about too many others. You don't if you don't look. Now we should have sent in troops to support Ho Chi Minh? No, to guarantee Vietnamese independence. You can see the difference, if you try....

To: Brumar89 who wrote (107285)	7/23/2003 1:00:43 AM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Yes, we made the same mistake in Vietnam post WW2, that we had earlier made in Cuba in 1959, and that we are now making in Iraq. In each case, we have gotten on the wrong side of the rising tide of nationalism. Nationalism was the main reason for armed uprisings leading to revolutions, in 1945 Vietnam, and in 1959 Cuba. If we had allied ourselves with the nationalist cause, it is quite possible (not certain, I'll grant you) that neither nation would have become Communist. And now, in Iraq, the Islamists and the nationalists are going to make common cause against us. Not many people realise this, but when Castro kicked out the dictator Batista, and came to power in 1959, he was not a Communist. There was a Communist Party in Cuba at the time (the Popular Socialist Party), but Castro wasn't a leader of it, wasn't even a member. Castro's organization was the 26th of July Movement. An interesting point to note is the cordial relationship between Batista and the Cuban Communist Party. They were allowed to function openly and supported Batista's candidates in the 1940 elections. As their reward they got control of the state controlled trade union, the Cuban Confederation of Labour (CTC-Confederacion de Trabajadores de Cuba). 216.239.53.104 Interesting article, about 1950s Cuba. The Communist Party stood aside, or actively opposed, Castro's revolution, up until a month before Castro won. members.tripod.com This was Castro's economic program in 1959: He proposes to nationalise all utilities; to give their working land to tenant farmers, who make up 85 per cent of the farming population; to distribute to the employees of every business in Cuba 30 per cent of the profits; to confiscate all the property of "corrupt" (i.e. former) Government officials; to modernise the island's industries and begin a huge rural housing and electrification project. 216.239.57.104 This economic program is not Communism; this is socialism, not too different from the Scandinavian variety. In April 1959 Castro went to America to visit and talk with vice president Richard Nixon about securing a development loan. Castro made assurances to the White House about protection of American interests but he stood firm on Cuban sovereignty. 216.239.53.104 But Cuban sovereignty, Cubans running Cuba, was unacceptable to Washington, and so the U.S. tried to overthrow Castro's regime. The U.S. program to "destabilize" Castro, started as soon as he came to power in January 1959. Castro saw that the only way to retain power, was to ally with the main international alliance opposing U.S. power. Then, only then, did he become a Communist. By July 1960, when he nationalized all U.S. businesses without compensation, he had decided irrevocably on a Soviet alliance. After 1960, it was in Castro's interests to pretend he had been a committed Communist all along. And the exile community in Miami also found this untruth useful. But, briefly, there was a window of opportunity, which was closed by the U.S., because we opposed Cuban nationalism, and thereby forced a marriage of nationalism and Communism.