The reaction after the Cuban Revolution created hope
for some and chaos for others. People who belonged to the upper and middle
class were anti-communists that feared the revolution because they feared that
with the revolution they would lose their privileged life. The people fighting
the revolution were glad it was finally happening. It was then when the Cold
War ushered in a new era for Cuba. There was little that the government did to
aid the Marxists. The only help they provided was training, arms, and money. Even
when Cuba was declaring itself communist Russia did little to help them.
Of course the United States
decided they had to intervene to prevent communism from spreading. During the
Cold War the United States tried to thwart any advance in any country that
would begin to lean towards the communist side of Russia. This era was the time
of the Red Scare, a time when anyone who was communist became enemy number one
in the U.S. Marxists were identified as foreign by the anti-communists. Alliances
between the militaries of Latin America and the United States during World War II
were strong and anti-communist. The alliance allowed permanent military aid for
Latin America. This aid included money, arms, and military counter insurgence
training from the U.S.
The School of the
Americas for Counter Insurgency or also known as the CIA were the training
schools that trained soldiers in Latin America which mainly focused on training
to fight guerrillas. The National Security Doctrine consisted of keeping an
alliance with Latin American countries in order to keep the “free world” free.
In order to achieve this the U.S asked for loyalty to the free world and for
the governments of these countries to turn on their own people if they
supported communism. The purpose of this doctrine was to defend the western
world of communist advances and as a bonus they coincidentally gave them rich and
powerful allies. Kennedy thought it was important for the U.S to maintain a
strong alliance with Latin America In order to insure economic expansion and
political reform.
Although
this plan for reform did not help at all, it didn't create any reforms. During the 1960s more support for the revolution began to flourish. University students
and intellectuals began to be drawn to the most popular political philosophy,
which was Marxism. Then propaganda began with revolutionary filmmaking and
posters, and fliers talking about the need for a revolution. “In 1960, Castro
nationalized all U.S.-owned businesses, including oil refineries, factories and
casinos.” (http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/fidel-castro)
When Latin American militaries began to see that the revolutionaries weren't backing
down they decided that there needed to be harsher measures to be taken. So they
decided to kidnap, torture, and murder those who were believed to side with the
revolutionaries. All of these tactics resulted in Juntas who were executive committees
of generals, and admirals came to power in Latin American countries. “Cuba
brought the greatest ideas of social transformation to several generations of
Latin Americans. Its revolution touched the youth, convulsed political
organizations and shook the left.” (http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-cuban-revolution-the-current-economic-reforms/5422826)
As a result countries all over Latin America had intervention from the U.S.
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