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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