Re: [A-List] Cuba and Africa

["Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The facts remain that without Soviet support, Cuban soldiers would not
be able to arrive in Africa, would not have weapons to fight with and
the economic wherewithal to support an expeditionary force half way
around the globe.  There were also disputes about British independence
from the US agenda during WWII, but the fact remained that the US ran
the show.

I am not belittling what Cuba did. I have great admiration for Castro,
but it is a historical fact that no leader is always free to act on
ideological grounds alone. There are times to withdraw and times to
attack, always placing top priority on survival to fight another day.
For the period 1959-76, the USSR was not yet a total lost cause
ideologically. And to send Cuba into Africa did make some sense in that
it avoided criticism of Soviet imperialist expansion. It would be a
small socialist country helping a national liberation movement. but all
through the Cold War, Soviet opposition to SA apartheid was no more
genuine than that of the US, highly influenced by geopolitical
considerations. One reason Cubans today do not talk much about that
period is that most Cubans do not have fond memories of it. Unoffical
Cuban recentment of Soviet policies remain strong.  On the top of the
list is the way the Kremin behaved in the Cuban Missile Crisis in which
Cuba was treated by the Soviets as merely a stage set and given no right
of policy input.  Kruscheve behaved very badly. Either do not put the
missiles in, or not take them out once they are in. In a way, Moscow did
the same to Cuba in Africa, having pushed Cuba in, did not give the
Cubans enough to win.

Henry C.K. Liu

Erik Freye wrote:

> Here are two reviews of a fairly recent book entitled
> "Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa,
> 1959-1976." If I recall correctly, the author had
> access to previously classified diplomatic documents.
>
>
> Maybe they will be helpful to this discussion:
>
> http://www.monthlyreview.org/0603parenti.htm
>
> http://auto_sol.tao.ca/node/view/1642?PHPSESSID=b854d3619e5c55e2b684f8c4247ed473
>
> --- bar@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
>
>
> > Having met some of the Cuban soldiers who fought in
> > Southern Africa I
> > cannot agree that Cuba was coerced. Then you would
> > have to argue that Che
> > Guevara's adventure in Tanzania-Congo was coerced
> > when it was clearly
> > idealistic.
> >
> > Chris
> >
> >
> >
> > > The complexity of geopolitics interwined with
> > ideological conflict. Mao
>
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