Some of us mail or file our tax returns on April 15th. Others are relieved that we did it last month.
Our parents remember something else about this day or when Fidel Castro visited the US a few months after taking power.
Castro’s visit was rather controversial because he faced skepticismfrom many in the US. He was asked about the promised elections that were delayed and delayed. He also heard over and over about communists in the background.
Castro was also beginning to hear a lot of criticism from fellow Cubans who kept asking about the surplus of communists and deficits of reforms.
Finally, President Eisenhower did not meet with him but VP Nixon did. After the meeting, VP Nixon said that his bearded visitor was “…“either incredibly naive about communism or under communist discipline — my guess is the former.””
Castro also appeared on Meet the Press and denied that he was a communist.
He even joked about it saying that some people thought that Adam & Eve were communists.
Furthermore, Castro benefited from lots of people in the US who were caught up in the cult of personality and did not know the truth of pre-Castro Cuba. As my late father used to say, we had a lot more home grown prosperity than casinos!
Down in the island, Castro continued to deny that he was a communist and put people in jail for accusing him of that.
Later in December 1961, or 8 months after the failed Bay of Pigs, he declared his allegiance to Marxism-Leninism and our worst fears were realized.
By the way, none of the people jailed for calling him a communist were released when Castro confirmed that he was indeed a communist. Anyone surprised about that?
I think a lot about my parents and my dad’s cousin who spent 14 years in a political prison for publicly opposing the growing presence of communists in Castro’s inner circle.
Sixty years ago this week, VP Nixon saw through Castro like a lot of Cubans had already done.
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It’s so clear it’s painful: the bastard had BS artist written all over him–he exuded BS, starting with the ridiculous costume. How could people not see through that?
Note the little gold chain, no doubt for a religious medal, on the man who later made Cuba officially atheist.