"Old Magazine Articles"

The attached article is about the controversial Cuban President Ramón Grau San Martin (1887 - 1969) and his struggle with the radical elements within Cuba. This COLLIER'S MAGAZINE piece will give you an understanding that the roots of communism on that Caribbean island have a longer history than you might have supposed; when it first appeared on the newsstands in 1945, Fidel Castro (1926 - 1916) was a still a law student.

In 2011 Castro confessed in an interview with an American reporter that the "Cuban model" [of Communism] had not been successful.

The last thing the aspiring Communist dictator Fidel Castro needed in the Fall of 1958 was to have the dreaded "Yanquees" breathing down his neck; and so to buy some time, he penned this seven page article for the easily-bamboozled editors of Coronet magazine and packed it full of hooey, with lines like: "A million unemployed bespeaks a terrible economic sickness which must be cured... lest it fester into communism." It was this article, among other deceptions, that made President Eisenhower believe that the new government of Cuba was deserving of diplomatic recognition in February of 1959. Less than two years later the Kennedy administration severed ties with the Cuban regime and shortly after launched an ill-fated attack on the island kleptocracy.

Andrew St. George, "a reporter who lived in the hills with Fidel Castro tells the story of how an idealistic revolution turned into one of the greatest tragedies of our time."

In our times, the handsome face of Che Guevara can be seen everywhere - tee-shirts, hoodies, key,chains, tote bags and much more. But is it suitable? He was a common murderer.

"The latest U-2 photographs, showing increased numbers of Russian planes on or near Cuban airfields, have forced U.S. intelligence experts to raise their estimates from 150 to 300 Soviet planes in Cuba"

"Without Haydée Sanatamaría (1922 – 1980), the [Cuban] revolution might never have been. She was the actual founder of the freedom movement known as the 26th of July. Haydée Sanatamaría was known to Cubans simply as Maria.

"The fiasco at the Bay of Pigs, began ten months earlier on a hot June [1960] morning in room 125 of the plush Commodore Hotel in midtown Manhattan. It was born in the classical fashion of the cloak and dagger intrigue. Five prominent former residents of Cuba, all anti-Castro and untainted by former dictator Batista, were instructed to arrive at the Commodore separately. There they were confronted by Roy Bender, a high-ranking agent of the CIA."