# What If We Had Befriended Cuba? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 25, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269 "2009-07-25T23:53:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/1 "2009-07-25T23:53:16Z")
Fidel Castro has been our Caribbean bogey man for the past 50 years. He and his government have been depicted in the US as perfect example of communist tyranny and repression of freedom and we have waged overt and covert war on Cuba in the name of freedom and democracy since Battista was overthrown. In 1961, Dick Goodwin, a Kennedy speech writer and confidant, was the administration’s point man in South America. He had a private meeting with Che Guevara after an OAS meeting in Uruguay. After the meeting he sent [a secret memo to Kennedy with the details of that meeting.](http://www.themilitant.com/2001/6520/652063.html) Please, before weighing in on the subject, **RTFM**. This meeting took place after the Bay of Pigs debacle, yet Che was conciliatory. He sought a detente with the US, offering among other things, to pay thru trade for US assets confiscated by the Cuban Government AND to refrain from entering into a political alliance with the Eastern Bloc. JFK blew him off and drove him into the arms of the USSR. Kennedy had many political difficulties to face: the disgrace of the BOP, Cuban refugees in Florida whom we had “let down”, loss of Mafia owned casinos in Havana, sugar growers in this country not wanting competition from Cuban cane fields and a vociferous right wing led by Barry Goldwater. And, IMHO, the real deal breaker was the thought of a successful socialist state, 90 miles off our coast, hoovering US tourist dollars to finance free UHC and education. A very poor example to the US electorate and the rest of the world. Go to it. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/2 "2009-07-26T00:09:35Z")
First off, the premise is incorrect. We did make friends with Cuba. For various and sundry reasons, the United States has been Cuba’s greatest benefactor after Spain. Its independance and much of its wealth in the early 20th century came from American efforts and American investment. It was not free of self-interest, but European observers were sure we had conquered the island and would shortly exploit it for resources - just as they would. We did not. As for Che and Castro, evening assuming that document is correct, these were some of the most evil and tyrannical men. Castro (although largely useless now) created a totalitarian thugocracy and ruined the relative wealth enjoyed by Cubans. Che was a bloodthirsty monster who comitted numerous acts of mass murder, and then went _abroad_ to satiate his lust for murder. I think I’d rather burn my house down than have anything to do with them. They were actually much worse than common everyday tyrants, as they were prone to the usual Communist “kill and lock up everyone just because” until they msotly ran out of targets. They were little more than latter-day Stalins. Castro was reputedly later quite willing to let all of Cuba be burned from the earth in order to have some nukes protecting him. No, we were not going to sudednly make them our friends. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/3 "2009-07-26T00:48:15Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > As for Che and Castro, evening assuming that document is correct, these were some of the most evil and tyrannical men. Castro (although largely useless now) created a totalitarian thugocracy and ruined the relative wealth enjoyed by Cubans. Che was a bloodthirsty monster who comitted numerous acts of mass murder, and then went _abroad_ to satiate his lust for murder. Well, neither of them was a Pol Pot, so a lot of their demonization is exaggerated. While I appreciate how Krushchev ignored Castro’s demands that he push the button in October '62, mostly Castro has been an incomptetent ideocrat and thug, and we’ve had good relations with lots of them. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/4 "2009-07-26T01:11:32Z")
> [@](#): > > Krushchev ignored Castro’s demands that he push the button in October '62 Cite, please. It is true that Castro was happy to have the soviet missiles because he thought and had no reason not to think we might try another invasion. One part of the resolution of the crisis was our promise not to invade. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/5 "2009-07-26T02:19:46Z")
> [@](#): > > First off, the premise is incorrect. We did make friends with Cuba. For various and sundry reasons, the United States has been Cuba’s greatest benefactor after Spain. Its independance and much of its wealth in the early 20th century came from American efforts and American investment. Right. And as a result … > [@](#): > > What Castro Found > > By Ana Simo > MARCH 5, 2000. Cuba was a Spanish colony for more than 400 years, from 1492 when Columbus “discovered” it, to 1898 when the U.S. took over. For the next 35 years, Cuba was in reality, if not on paper, a colony of the U.S. > > After the 1934 repeal of the Platt Amendment to the Cuban constitution, which allowed the U.S. to intervene at will, Cuba nevertheless remained subservient to the U.S., to which it was now firmly attached by a complex web of economic, geopolitical and military factors. The U.S. had evolved from naked colonial, to subtler neo-colonial power in Cuba. > > The Cuba that Castro found in 1959, when he seized power at the head of a populist revolution was not a Haiti, or even a Guatemala. In fact, Cuba was among the least underdeveloped countries in Latin America. It ranked third in life expectancy at birth, fourth in electricity consumption per capita, and fifth in annual income per capita ($353 in 1958). > > However, these crude statistics masked shocking inequalities, particularly between the city and the countryside, and between white Cubans, and black and mulatto Cubans. > > There was not just one Cuba, but two, perhaps even three Cubas, as far apart one from the other as the Havana of all-white country clubs and glittering casinos was from the city’s slums, and these, in turn, from the often desperate countryside. > > While Cuban cities had a lively media, as well as more cars and TV sets per capita than practically any other Latin American country, courtesy of the American-style consumerism of the wealthy and the urban middle-class, hunger was a fact of life in rural areas, where some 1.5 million people (25% of the population) struggled to survive. > > Big sugar companies kept hundreds of thousands of acres uncultivated, while landless peasants were forced to plant on the sides of roads, until the brutal, machete-wielding rural police, the Guardia Rural, would drive them out. > > Peasants joined Castro’s rebel army in droves because they had nothing to lose: > > • 75% of rural dwellings were huts made from palm trees. > > • More than 50% had no toilets of any kind. > > • 85% had no inside running water. > > • 91% had no electricity. > > • There was only 1 doctor per 2,000 people in rural areas. > > • More than one-third of the rural population had intestinal parasites. > > • Only 4% of Cuban peasants ate meat regularly; only 1% ate fish, less than 2% eggs, 3% bread, 11% milk; none ate green vegetables. > > • The average annual income among peasants was $91 (1956), less than 1/3 of the national income per person. > > • 45% of the rural population was illiterate; 44% had never attended a school. > > Even for most city dwellers, life was not all that rosy. > > • 25% of the labor force was chronically unemployed. > > • 1 million people were illiterate ( in a population of about 5.5 million). > > • 27% of urban children, not to speak of 61% of rural children, were not attending school. > > • Racial discrimination was widespread. > > • The public school system had deteriorated badly. > > • Corruption was endemic; anyone could be bought, from a Supreme Court judge to a cop. > > • Police brutality and torture were common. > > None of this, however, would have been enough to launch a revolution. It was as much moral revulsion at what Cuba had become, as any specific socio-economic or political gripe, that did it. An entire nation was repulsed with itself: with its perceived corruption, national impotence, and political and economic subservience to the U.S. Castro, a Jacobin moralist at heart, just seized the opportunity. Spare me friendship like this. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/6 "2009-07-26T02:33:28Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > As for Che and Castro, evening assuming that document is correct, these were some of the most evil and tyrannical men. Castro (although largely useless now) created a totalitarian thugocracy and ruined the relative wealth enjoyed by Cubans. Che was a bloodthirsty monster who comitted numerous acts of mass murder, and then went _abroad_ to satiate his lust for murder. Doesn’t sound much different than Cuba under Batista. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/7 "2009-07-26T03:07:08Z")
And 50 years after the revolution, despite our egregious embargo of Cuba (basically undeclared war) we find in [Nature](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v456/n1s/full/twas08.43a.html), that radical left-wing rag : > [@](#): > > Cuba is a case in point. This small island nation, with a population of just over 11 million people and a per capita annual income of US$4,200, enjoys levels of health comparable to developed countries. According to the World Health Organization, life expectancy in Cuba is 78.3 years as compared to 80 in Italy and 76 in Germany. The infant mortality rate is 5.3 per 1,000 live births as compared to 3.36 in France and 6.3 in the USA. The major causes of death in Cuba are cardiovascular disease, cancer, cerebrovascular ailments, influenza and accidents. The list is comparable to that of rich countries. Polio, malaria, tetanus, diphtheria, measles, rubella and mumps are either fully under control or have been eliminated. Leprosy, hepatitis B and meningitis are no longer health problems in Cuba. A national HIV/AIDS programme assures free antiretroviral treatment for all patients. > > The strength of Cuba’s health-care system lies in its capacity — its state-of-the-art medical facilities, and the knowledge and skills of its medical researchers and practitioners. This is especially true in the fields of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. Today, Cuba has some 71,000 physicians and 57 scientific institutions dedicated to health research. In addition, there are nearly 250 hospitals and 500 fully staffed health-care clinics. Some 15,000 community-based outpatient medical centres take care of everyday medical needs. Cuba has the capacity to meet about 80% of the domestic demand for pharmaceuticals. The nation’s research and development firms produce human vaccines for both domestic use and export, to combat, for example, hepatitis B, meningitis B and C, and Haemophilus influenzae type B. > > Cuba’s health-care system has focused on prevention and primary care. Free and universal access to health care has been enshrined as a fundamental right of all citizens, and is a key responsibility of government. The high ratio of physicians (Cuba has more than twice as many per capita as the USA; that is, 6.4 compared with 2.56 per 1,000 people), the system’s focus on both physical and mental health, the long-standing efforts to build research capacity and the international character of health-care efforts (Cuba has established health-care missions in 68 countries staffed by over 25,000 Cuban doctors) all help to drive the nation’s health-care excellence. > > Nearly 11% of the government’s budget is spent on health-care. Money is important but the system’s success is due to other factors as well, most notably equitable access to food, education and employment. Indeed, the money invested in health-care would probably have been less well spent if principles dealing with excellence and access had not been adopted and implemented. Health-care is an economic challenge. Yet, it is also a political and ethical challenge. Damn that tyrant Castro. ---
**Author:** ![dgrdfd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@dgrdfd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dgrdfd)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/8 "2009-07-26T04:45:34Z")
> [@adhay](#): > > And 50 years after the revolution, despite our egregious embargo of Cuba (basically undeclared war) we find in [Nature](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v456/n1s/full/twas08.43a.html), that radical left-wing rag : > > Damn that tyrant Castro. Haven’t we discussed that the abortion rate is much much higher in Cuba so the infant mortality rate would be much lower (ie, abort the high risk pregnancies)? ([Maps of percentage of pregnancies aborted worldwide--by country](http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/mapworldabrate.html)) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/9 "2009-07-26T05:21:00Z")
BTW, I’d like to make it clear that I’m NOT defending Castro. Just saying that it’s not like the Cuba we _were_ friends with was such a wonderful place, **smiling bandit**. Quite the opposite. Batista was also a brutal thug – just on the opposite side, politically. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/10 "2009-07-26T05:21:10Z")
> [@adhay](#): > > Cite, please. [Castro, on the other hand, was convinced that an invasion was soon at hand, and he dictated a letter to Khrushchev which appeared to call for a preemptive strike on the U.S."](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_missile_crisis#Crisis_continues) Castro is and was a turd. He just, usually, wasn’t as big a turd as his enemies here claim, since that would put him on the far side of Hitler. But he’s had his moments of being a psycho. I think the problem here is that there are some people on BOTH sides of the ledger who ignore the gray between black and white. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/11 "2009-07-26T11:10:58Z")
> [@dgrdfd](#): > > Haven’t we discussed that the abortion rate is much much higher in Cuba so the infant mortality rate would be much lower (ie, abort the high risk pregnancies)? ([Maps of percentage of pregnancies aborted worldwide--by country](http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/mapworldabrate.html)) Well, if it makes any difference: > **[The Incidence of Abortion Worldwide](https://www.guttmacher.org/journals/ipsrh/1999/01/incidence-abortion-worldwide)** > > The Programme of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development urged governments and other relevant organizations "to deal with the health impact of unsafe abortion as a major public health concern and to reduce the... > [@](#): > > The relatively high rate in Cuba (78 per 1,000) includes menstrual regulation, an early abortion procedure carried out without pregnancy testing, as well as termination of known pregnancies. In 1996, 60% of the procedures were menstrual regulations. [http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ECE2/html/menstrual\_regulation.html](http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ECE2/html/menstrual_regulation.html) > [@](#): > > Menstrual Regulation > Women who missed their regular menstrual period and who strongly suspect that they are pregnant but cannot or do not want to wait for the results of a pregnancy test can ask a gynecologist for a simple procedure called variously menstrual regulation (MR), menstrual aspiration, or menstrual extraction. Since there may not be an actual pregnancy to terminate, this procedure is available even in some countries that prohibit abortions. It is mostly designed to till the gap between “foresight contraception” and “hindsight abortion.” The procedure is similar to the one used for inserting intra-uterine devices (lUDs). Just as in the case of an IUD insertion, the doctor inserts a small tube through the cervix into the uterus. However, instead of depositing the IUD through the tube, he applies a vacuum at one of its ends, thus pulling out (i.e., “aspirating” or “extracting”) the lining of the uterus which would normally be shed in menstruation. The procedure takes only a few minutes and can easily be performed in a doctor’s office. And a quote from my previous post: > [@](#): > > **Cuba’s health-care system has focused on prevention and primary care.** [emphasis mine] Free and universal access to health care has been enshrined as a fundamental right of all citizens, and is a key responsibility of government. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/12 "2009-07-26T11:23:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Castro, on the other hand, was convinced that an invasion was soon at hand, and he dictated a letter to Khrushchev which appeared to call for a preemptive strike on the U.S." I’d love to see the text of that letter. Got one handy? ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/13 "2009-07-26T13:02:42Z")
And as for a reason for Cuba’s “excessive” abortion rate. > **[Platinum Slot: Tempat Terbaik untuk Bermain Slot Online](https://jhuccp.org/)** > > Temukan pengalaman bermain slot online yang terbaik di Platinum Slot. Nikmati sensasi slot yang mengagumkan dan menangkan jackpot besar di situs terpercaya ini. Bergabunglah sekarang dan rasakan keberuntungan Anda di Platinum Slot! > [@](#): > > Abstract: Cuba considers family planning a private matter for the woman and her family. > … > IUDs and oral contraceptives have been limited because most are manufactured in the U.S. and have been restricted by the American blockade of Cuba. Sweet of us ,eh. Even so > [@](#): > > Some IUDs have been manufactured locally or imported from Chile. Surgical sterilization is widely available through hospitals. The program is directed toward women with many children or high-risk cases. Most are postpartum procedures via the abdominal route. **Abortion is widely available during the first trimester, but few second trimester procedures are performed and these exclusively on medical grounds.** [emphasis mine] Virtually all first trimester abortions are performed in hospitals by suction evacuation. Geez. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/14 "2009-07-26T17:53:02Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > BTW, I’d like to make it clear that I’m NOT defending Castro. Just saying that it’s not like the Cuba we _were_ friends with was such a wonderful place, **smiling bandit**. Quite the opposite. > > Batista was also a brutal thug – just on the opposite side, politically. This is also what we call a “gross perversion of history”. batista was no friend of the United States; he fell from poewr in great part because we decided he was too much of a jerk to support, dropped him like a heavy rock, and verbally, at least, began supporting Castro. It was only later that Castro went kleptocrat and Che went over the top psycho-killer. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/15 "2009-07-26T18:36:13Z")
> [@](#): > > This is also what we call a “gross perversion of history”. Yes, if you’re talking about your own posts on the subject. As in the following: > [@](#): > > batista was no friend of the United States; he fell from poewr in great part because we decided he was too much of a jerk to support, We liked him just fine until it became clear that he could no longer support our economic interests against the rising populist tide. We got around to withdrawing military support in April 1958. BTW, just what do you mean by he was “too much of a jerk”? ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/16 "2009-07-26T19:06:51Z")
> [@adhay](#): > > Yes, if you’re talking about your own posts on the subject. As in the following: :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > We liked him just fine until it became clear that he could no longer support our economic interests against the rising populist tide. We got around to withdrawing military support in April 1958. > > BTW, just what do you mean by he was “too much of a jerk”? While economics was an issue, nobody liked Batista, not the least in the US. It was hardkly unknown that he was a tyrant, and at the time it was a matter of hoping to get someone better. That didn’t turn out so well. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/17 "2009-07-26T19:50:29Z")
Of course, Batista is an exception. Why don’t you name just a few of the regimes in South America, the Middle East and/or Southeast Asia which we have installed/supported which were not held in place by the military against the will of the local populace? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/18 "2009-07-26T20:12:14Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > :rolleyes: > > While economics was an issue, nobody liked Batista, not the least in the US. It was hardkly unknown that he was a tyrant, and at the time it was a matter of hoping to get someone better. That didn’t turn out so well. The US, however, has a looooooong history of supporting tyrants in Latin America – all in the name of economics. Around that same time, we were [overthrowing the government in Guatemala](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat), (a DEMOCRATIC one, I might add), for the sake of the United Fruit Company. AND we were also [overthrowing the government in Iran](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax), to re-install the Shah, after his own people had tossed him out. (This was about oil) So it’s not about how much we liked these people – it’s about what we could get out of them. No, I’m not one of those, “Bash America!” types. But it’s ridiculous to ignore history just because it’s ugly. ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/19 "2009-07-27T00:49:27Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > I think I’d rather burn my house down than have anything to do with them. They were actually much worse than common everyday tyrants, as they were prone to the usual Communist “kill and lock up everyone just because” until they msotly ran out of targets. They were little more than latter-day Stalins. Castro was reputedly later quite willing to let all of Cuba be burned from the earth in order to have some nukes protecting him. No, we were not going to sudednly make them our friends. Yeah…And, our policy of the last nearly half century has really done a number on that Castro fella! It is good that we behaved the way we did toward him. :rolleyes: I mean, seriously, what has our psychotic hatred and antipathy done except provide him with a ready-made excuse for failings of his regime? We didn’t have to treat him like our best buddy but we certainly could have walked more of a middle ground. Instead, because of Cold War fears and some very angry expats in Florida who didn’t like that Castro “stole” their plunderings (and, who apparently are a minority…but a very influential minority…in the Cuban American community), we have probably done nothing more than prolonged his regime and delayed any reforms. And, while Castro is undoubtedly a totalitarian tyrant, he did actually do some good for Cubans in areas such as health care and literacy (as other posters here have pointed out) as compared to his predecessors. ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269/20 "2009-07-29T16:09:13Z")
> [@jshore](#): > > And, while Castro is undoubtedly a totalitarian tyrant, he did actually do some good for Cubans in areas such as health care and literacy (as other posters here have pointed out) as compared to his predecessors. I go on vacation for one week, and this thread starts! The literacy rate BS always gets mentioned when talking about Cuba. In 1958 Cuba’s literacy rate was 82%, which I think was 3rd in the hemisphere behind the US and Canada. After the literacy campaign in the 1960’s Cuba’s literacy rate has remained in the high 90’s, but it did not have far to go. But assume for a second that the literacy rate was in single digits and Castro’s government magically turned into he 90s. Would you trade literacy for freedom? For the right to assemble? For the right to speak your mind? For the right to state political opinions? For the right to travel? For food? Cubans have been forced to trade all that for literacy, and little more. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-had-befriended-cuba/504269.md?page=2)