What was Cuba like during Batista's government?

Didn't they hide that they were communists until after the revolution?

He was a filthy commoner parading around as dictator when in fact most of the reason he was in power was chance. The man was just one of many lowly sergeants and the only thing that made his stand out was a knack for consolidating power like most upstarts. The Americans temporarily backed him instead of the other ample choices simply because they thought he was easier to control and they were right.
He was incompetent and half assed even at his own game.

He controlled the government for almost a decade indirectly then proceeds to thrust himself into the spotlight for no apparent reason other than petty vanity. Everyone knows true power is in anonymity, no one to blame then no repercussions. After he was formally "elected" he made swiss cheese of the constitution to appease the populists who hated the republic that cuba used to be. Again to feed his ego, bask in the adoration of the people and getting praise for "being so progressive" despite the irony of constitutional reform under a dictatorship.

Then he finally realized the situation he put himself in making the only smart choice in his life to quit while he was ahead retiring after his first term. But no this was temporary and like the incompetent buffoon he was he decided he changed his mind years later again out of lust for power.

He lost the war because he was an idiot and a half rate demagogue. The Americans weren't backing him, if they we're he wouldn't have lost guaranteed. They don't need a dictator to control Cuba they've always done so through the existing democracy without the baggage that a charlatan like Batista brings to the table.

The Americans practicaly set up most of the networking, machinations, shadowy power plays for him to rule the way he did early on and then he proceeds to fuck it all up gloriously and taking all of cuba down with him. So to answer your question no, his rule sucked. This colossal idiot gives me migraines whenever I see his dopey face in old photos

For latin america nationalist(what Castro "pretended" to be) = communist since large part of the public debate there is and was about becoming independent from whims of American economy and foreign(American) investors exploiting shit.

Think about it like about fascism - Italian fascist were mostly pro-war while British were pacifists. Does that mean that either of them "wasn't fascist"?

Neither Castro nor Guevara weren't communists in the Soviet way it was understood back then, and certaily becoming a Soviet-alligned state wasn't what they in mind, but they were LITERALLY pushed in that direction by the USA.

They saw Cuba as having 2 major problems that were intimately correlated; one, an upper class oligarchy that was running the country as a private ranch without giving 2 fucks about the appaling living conditions of the population - which was also the case for most latin american countries- and, two, that this oligarchy was in cahoots with the general policy of the USA that considered Cuba as a colony de facto.

Their original idea was socio-economic reform without going full marxist and gtfo of my country, yankee shit.

It was basically a big Mafia-themed fun fair for tourists. Human rights violations all over the place as well of course.

Of course there's a lot of butthurt emigres in the US that preferred Batista because the communists took their 100% legit Casino business.

Castro would have been willing to compromise if it wasn't for the US. Guevara however wouldn't have, he was a communist from the start.

Guevara was a Guevarian '''communist'''. When he was in the first government his idea was to make Cuba the Japan of electronics.

Right. Castro and Guevara denounced the USSR just as much as they denounced the States. They were pushed into a corner, and obviously sided with the Soviets for the well-being of Cuba. Even then the 2 still would shit talk the Soviets, until they were finally told to shut their mouths, or else.

Castro refused to be anybodys pawn. The man is full of dignity to a fault, usually backfiring on him and Cuba in the process.

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funny thing , Japan was barred from trading with Cuba

West would have won desu.

>Churchill was the only one who saw what the Red Menace would become.
Patton saw it.

Batista was really not suited for the job of governing such an excellent cultural place that is Cuba.

The influence of both caribbean and iberian cultures upon the island made cubans be like a wild mustang in the hills.

"We should have allied with the nazis instead of the russkies"
That man was based

>How was it worse than communist Cuba?

besides the malnutrition , high infant mortality rate , high illiteracy , low life expectancy , etc for the poor

Batista , US backed thug that had a Gestapo style police murdering peasants

once that made headlines world wide US started to back the revolutionaries

then he ran off to Dominican Republic seeking asylum from another US backed thug

but they were , corporate America had love for the third reich

He wanted to re-arm them and push the Russians to Moscow but no one would give him clearance.

Then he died in a "car crash"

Che didn't stop shit talking the USSR, if it was up to him they would have pulled an Albania and aligned with the Chinese.

He was a hardcore Maoist

the Castros , well at least Raul , was a Leninist

idk if Fidel was ever an official party member

It wasn't really that bad compared to other Latin American countries, but it was pretty much a brothel for Americans and that hurt some feelings.

It should be noted that the organized working class in Cuba, the labour unions and the blacks as a whole supported Baptista. He was a populist dictator. The revolution was fought by intellectuals who enlisted some gullible peasants to die for them and got off because the Americans stupidly cut of support for Baptista based on biased reports by Herbert Matthews (just like it did for the Nationalists in China based on the reports of Brooks Atkinson, never trust New York Times reporters, they are all commies).

> working class supported Batista
The whole country was rotten and it fell apart with a single Castro kick. The army didn´t even put a fight.

This. During Batista's first presidency even the COMMUNIST PARTY supported him and called his main opponent (Grau) a reactionary shitlord.

I wouldn't agree with half of what he posted

the Revolutionaries also had an effective underground network

He was right. Shame he didn't live long enough to see it.

Other way around, Castro pretended to be a communist after the embargo, if anything. He was definitely a populist nationalist aligned with people like Chibas and Agramonte from the Orthodox party.

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Bump

A BIG FUCKING THUMBS DOWN

>West would have won desu.
>forgetting the SU had over 10 million mobilized men

The west should be thankful uncle Joe didn't try and spread "the people's revolution"

Socarras > Grau >>> Castro >>>>>>>>>> Batista

The US had nukes and controlled far more of Germany at the time of German surrender. The western allies could have at least drove the USSR out of Eastern Europe and back into Russia.

Unno. Russia has made the whole "get up, spit the broken teeth out, and keep fighting like the giant drunk bastard you are" into a art. "Lost a million casualties to the Nazis?" Throw a million more. "Murica dropped a nuke?" We'll drown them with our dead.
Plus it was more or less chase America out of Europe before they have more nukes.

muh dikk

The US had 0 nukes in May 1945

My grandfather who visited the island said in his time it was famous for it's hookers and was basically a sex tourist hotspot.