In January 1959, after nearly six years of armed struggle, the Cuban Revolution triumphed, and the leader of the junta, Batista, went into exile and was replaced by Castro.
We now know that Castro was pro-Soviet and anti-American during the Cold War, and that the Cuban Missile Crisis, which nearly caused a nuclear war, was caused by his desire to use the power of the Soviet Union to counter the United States.
But in fact, at the beginning of his rise to power, he did not fully fall to the Soviet Union, on the contrary, Castro intended to close relations with the United States, hoping to get normal development, but reality made him make a choice after that.
On April 15, 1959, Castro made a friendly visit to the United States, and for this trip he began to prepare very early, hiring an excellent public relations team to package the publicity, so he was warmly welcomed by the people as soon as he arrived in the United States.
Americans were curious about how the 32-year-old bearded, cigar-smoking man had established a regime, pulling up a banner reading "Support Fidel Castro" by the side of the road castro passed, followed by a group of people everywhere they went.
When Castro gave a speech in New York's Central Park, thirty thousand Americans came to listen, and even the police who maintained order went crazy.
At that time, celebrities were proud to invite Castro, and Castro was very willing to go to banquets and speeches, so the itinerary in the United States was very full in 8 days.
Many beautiful women's eyes lit up as soon as they saw him, and Gladys Fiio, the miss of the year of the American newspaper "News", couldn't help but kiss him on the cheek when she asked Castro for an autograph.
The major newspapers in the United States reluctantly reported on such a situation with the headline "Americans are completely fascinated by Castro".
Castro also showed great kindness to the United States, and he went to the tomb of the first president of the United States, George Washington, to lay a wreath and declared that he was not communist, but only for national liberation.
However, unlike the popularity of the people, the American political arena was very cold to castro's arrival, and when U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower learned of Castro's visit, he gave the reception work to Vice President Nixon in the name of playing badminton on vacation.
Nixon did not have a good look for Castro, and the two had a meeting for nearly three hours, and the result was obviously not so pleasant, and after the fact, Nixon said that Castro had become an important factor in Latin American affairs, and the United States could only accept this, but the United States would try to "guide Castro in the right direction.".
What is the right direction? It is clear that being controlled by the United States is the right direction. The United States wants to use Latin America as its back garden, either economically or militarily to control them. As long as these countries are allowed to be exploited by themselves without chaos and stability, the United States will not care about democracy, freedom, and so on.
In the last century, many countries in Latin America were military governments, and the people's lives were miserable, in fact, behind these military governments is the United States, and once there is a national awakening, the United States will not hesitate to suppress them, or even take a military coup to overthrow. So whether Castro is a communist or not, the United States doesn't care much, it's more about whether he can be controlled.
Looking at Nixon's tone, it is clear that the two sides have not negotiated, Castro has always been engaged in anti-imperialist and anti-colonial causes, how can he be willing to be a puppet of others.
So the United States refused to give Cuba economic assistance and adopted a policy of blockade, Cuba wanted to trade with other Latin American countries, and agreed to be rejected by the other side. Without thinking too much, I know that the United States is at work.
The situation in Cuba was terrible, with sugar and cigars, the backbone of the economy, piled up in warehouses and unable to sell, and there was no way to buy other industrial goods. There are only two paths in front of Castro: one is to bow down to the Americans and drink the leftover soup from the Americans from then on. The second is to choose a big country that can compete with the United States to cooperate.
Castro finally chose the second, and in the autumn of 1960 Castro said to the Americans at the United Nations General Assembly:
It was you who prompted me to seek new markets and friends, namely, the Soviet Union and the socialist world. After this, we became interested in this socialism and began to study it.
At that time, it was in the early stages of the Cold War, the Soviet Union was a clear disadvantage, Turkey, Italy and West Germany and other places were deployed by the United States missiles, and the Soviet Union could not hope for such an ally in the "back garden" of the United States.
So Cuban agricultural products began to be sold to the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union shipped oil, weapons and other industrial products, so that Cuba got out of the predicament, which is also a win-win situation.
But this win-win situation made the United States unhappy, Cuba is too close, if controlled by the Soviet Union, the missiles can hit the United States at any time, in order to avoid this situation, the United States in 1961 led the Bay of Pigs incident.
The Bay of Pigs incident subsided in only three days, and the American dream was shattered, but the follow-up effects of the incident were so great that it made Castro feel the crisis. In order to avoid another U.S. invasion, Castro and Khrushchev decided to deploy 60 missiles in Cuba, including many nuclear warheads.
In 1962, the United States discovered this situation, and the Cuban Missile Crisis broke out, but the main figures in solving this matter were Khrushchev and Kennedy, and Cuba as a small country was deliberately ignored.
Castro was tougher than the Soviets, demanding that the missiles not be withdrawn and that the confrontation continue, but Khrushchev withdrew despite his objections, which made Castro feel betrayed.
Moreover, the Soviet Union helped Cuba in many ways, such as agreeing that the United Nations could enter Cuba for verification without consulting Castro, which was rejected by Castro.
After the incident, Castro joked in an interview with Le Monde: I really want to slap Khrushchev. Relations between the two countries have cooled down a lot for a while.
In 1963, Khrushchev did not know whether he felt that he was not too righteous in the missile crisis, and took the initiative to invite Castro to visit the Soviet Union, but he did not expect that Castro readily agreed, which made Khrushchev overjoyed. In fact, Castro was also bitter in his heart, he was already an enemy of the United States, and it was sad not to get Soviet assistance.
So on April 28 of that year, Castro began a visit to the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union took Castro's arrival very seriously, issuing three new stamps as a souvenir and launching a satellite in the name of paying tribute to Cuba.
At Vnukovo airport, Khrushchev led many Soviets to wait early, and as soon as Castro got off the plane, the audience began to cheer. Castro also responded in russian, which he had just learned, in a fairly good atmosphere.
For Castro, this visit to the Soviet Union was much more pleasant than the last visit to the United States, and Khrushchev said to him: "Treat us here as your own home, and just say what you want to see and where you want to go." ”
As a result, he remained in the Soviet Union for 40 days, during which time he held several meetings with the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev. Left a very classic photo:
Castro's aura in this photo is very powerful, completely covering the limelight of others, and the eyes of everyone present are staring at him, as if he is the protagonist who is about to lecture the crowd, quite charming.
And there's another highlight, Castro wears two Rolexes in his hands, one GMT and the other submariner, setting the time for Havana and Moscow respectively.
However, the photo was not allowed to be made public in the heavily censored Soviet Union, and it is not known whether it was too luxurious to overshadow or wear two watches, and it was not circulated until the collapse of the Soviet Union.
During his time in the Soviet Union, Castro visited factories, military bases, nuclear submarines, intercontinental ballistic missile launch sites, and exchanged views with many Moscow citizens. Through these moves, he further learned about the strength of the Soviet Union and was determined to tie it further.
In a television interview, Castro praised Khrushchev for half an hour, such as "outstanding human qualities", "superior energy and ability", etc., in short, Khrushchev's words were full of excitement after seeing it.
At the end of his trip, Khrushchev gave him many gifts, and a Soviet geologist also gave him a small bear called "Lake Berga", which means a lot. However, the bear did not adapt to the hot climate of Cuba and died not long after.
This visit to the Soviet Union swept away Castro's psychological distress caused by the missile crisis, and he praised it as a great visit, and also wrote a farewell letter to Khrushchev, expressing deep admiration for the Soviet Union's military and economic achievements and thanking the Soviet side for its arrangements.
Relations between the two countries took to another level, and Cuba has long been heavily dependent on the Soviet Union.
These cuban experiences have fully proved that it is not easy for small countries, and sometimes it is difficult to be alone, and at the same time, it also shows that there is no eternal friendship between countries, and that interests come first.
However, this Castro's personal charm is still relatively sufficient, whether in the United States or in the Soviet Union can gain a group of "fans", which is rare in the world.