Thanks for posting it.
That and the millions upon millions killed due to Communism. A minor detail I know.
There was a lot of propaganda, but the casual indifference to human life that Communists had was no propaganda. When you start thinking of people primarily in terms of groups, the individuals don’t matter, only the group.
there were people in the USA, including the military, that thought if the USA would have enough survivors to regrow from the ashes then we should have a nuclear war and destroy them.
What puddleglum said was the 1950s propaganda version of communism. It has about as much connection to reality as 1950s communist propaganda about capitalism had to reality.
That doesn’t imply that communism was good. (Doesn’t imply that capitalism was good either, although I vastly prefer it to communism.) What they were and are remain independent of the propaganda about them. If you don’t recognize the propaganda, though, I guarantee you will get your history wrong.
And adaher, if you believe that the U.S. powers that be haven’t primarily thought of people in terms of groups for their entire history, then you have swallowed too much of our propaganda, as johnpost properly points out in this example.
Castro was banking on being supported (financially) by Russia. With the loss of trading with the USA (at one time, all the winter vegetables consumed in the USA-East Coast -came from Cuba). The loss of the Mafia-owned hotels and casinos was another blow…but the big thing was oil-Castro needed oil, and only Russia could supply it. So Castro wanted the missiles-it was shield against his regime being overthrown, and an IOU for Russian oil.
Russia was also testing the Monroe Doctrine.
But it was generally an indifference to other people’s lives. Khrushchev might have been willing to sacrifice Castro and the rest of Cuba for the cause of world communism but the question was why was Castro apparently willing to do so.
Both Castro and the Soviet Union wanted to export Marxism to the new world. A permanent strategic weapons presence there would have given them good leverage.