Link.


What is Fidel Castro's legacy?

After almost 50 years in power. How will he be remembered?

Will the end of Castro's rule lead to a new attitude in Washington?

What is Fidel Castro's legacy?

Good quality healthcare standards by comparions to other similar GDP/capita countries (i.e. relatively poor ones) and lots of mint condition 1950s and 60s cars.

That's probably about it, or at least it will be in 10 or 20 years.

After almost 50 years in power. How will he be remembered?

Misguided. He stood up to the neighbouring superpower, which takes some guts, but he only did it by cosying up to the other one thousands of miles away, which takes a lot less guts. In doing so he brought the world to the brink of doom, and he can't take any of the credit for the world stepping back from that brink.

I have to say that, however much I might disagree with his policies, I admire Hugo Chavez a great deal more than Castro. He didn't need to take charge through violent revolution, he isn't afraid of elections, and he says what he thinks in the playground without doing so while cowering behind the nearest big boy. By comparison, Castro was and is a chicken.

Will the end of Castro's rule lead to a new attitude in Washington?

I hope so, though I don't expect to see it until there's a new US president. The trade embargo should be lifted gradually with the first tranche done with no imposed conditions from the USA (to show goodwill - the USA can afford to be magnanimous).

Subsequent liberalisation should go hand-in-hand with investment agreements from the Cubans. At least that way America could continue to off-shore industry without worsening the trade imbalance with China (and the US executives would be clocking up fewer air miles while they were about it).

For the time being - at least until Castro and his brother are both dead - I reckon that modest trade liberalisation along the lines of what China has been doing should be the goal. Democracy may well follow after that, and is more likely to (and sooner) in Cuba than China. Not least because Cuba has been democratic before.

clickie

(First time replying to a post, so hoping I do it right, please let me know if I do anything wrong).


For the question, what is Fidel Castro's legacy, I'm reminded of a joke that I once heard from Jay Leno. "Cuba's biggest exports are Cubans."

Following this story I read up on the thoughts of several cubans clickie and most of them seem to think that his stepping down will be a good thing. However that is coming from exiles who are in Miami so I'm thinking they'll be slightly biased.

In fact, the man who was interviewed, said that "their minds have been corrupted by years of communist rule"...Ignoring the thought that he seems to have that most Cubans over there aren't intelligent enough to know what they want, it may mean that Cubans actually love and respect Fidel Castro. If anyone has a link showing that, I would love to see it.

Getting back to the question I think his legacy will depend on who you ask. We in America will probably think of his legacy as an old tyrant who was an embarrassment to the country(Bay of Pigs anyone?) a tyrant that just..would..not...die. Many Cubans on the other hand quite possibly will remember him as a fire and brimstone freedom fighter, one who they will mourn. It's frankly too early to say I think.

In regards to the second question, I think I answered most of it above, but my thoughts are still that it will depend who and where you ask.

As to the third question. According to this news report-here
It doesn't look like it, at least in the short term. The embargo is still staying in place, but people seem to be cautiously optomistic that change will be occurring soon.
The U.S. assistance is predicated on a request from a Cuban transitional government that is committed to a U.S. vision of Cuban democracy.

Probably the biggest indicator of when and if change will occur will be if certain criteria is met, in which case, millions of dollars of aid will be given to get Cuba up and running-(quoted from CNN) "The report recommends offering a substantial aid package to the transitional government if it meets certain criteria under the 1996 Helms-Burton Act. Those criteria include freeing all political prisoners, legalizing all political activity, conducting democratic elections and establishing a free press."

Those are some pretty massive demands I'm thinking, and I'm doubtful that any concessions will be made while Fidel is still alive. Fidel may be retiring but I still think he'll have serious pull within the Cuban goverment through his brother-But hey, a man can hope can't he? "I'm wanting to try some Cuban cigars legally "

What is Fidel Castro's legacy?
Charismatic leadership. Yeah, he was a dictator like most leaders of Cuba had been and one must ask if he had a choice if he wanted to keep Cuba from being a colony of the US.

Independence from America, setting an example for the rest of South America.

High literacy.

Comprehensive medical care, resulting in the highest life expectancy in Latin America and a powerful medical outreach to 3rd world countries around the world.

Breaking the back of South African apartheid.

And yeah, some bad stuff, but nothing a supporter of American's thug policy toward Cuba has any particular right to make an issue of.

After almost 50 years in power. How will he be remembered?

Liberator.

Will the end of Castro's rule lead to a new attitude in Washington?

Even the hardline anti-Castro Cuban exiles must have dimly started to figure out that engagement rather than an embargo is probably a better way to influence events there. And since they are the ones who dictate policy in that arena, just like the Israeli lobby pretty much dictates policy in their arena, without the bugaboo of Castro's control I would imagine say an Obama would have the latitude to move toward normalization. Even midwest farmers want the market.

Agreed.

It's funny--the United States didn't like the Batista regime, either. I wonder if the Cubans would have been any better off had that regime continued to control Cuba. People don't fight revolutions unless they are profoundly unhappy with their leaders.

Will the end of Castro's rule lead to a new attitude in Washington?

Not as long as (Re)publicans are running things. They see no need to change the embargo policy that the rest of the world ignores, even though the Most Favored Nation Trading Status that the U.S. has extended repeatedly to the Chinese Democratic Peoples' Republic shows their hypocrisy for what it is.

What is Fidel Castro's legacy?
50 years of dictatorship in what was a free country. Executions, murder, and a ruined economy.

After almost 50 years in power. How will he be remembered?
As the dictator he was – to anyone who can speak freely – which included no one in Cuba.

Will the end of Castro's rule lead to a new attitude in Washington?
Not with his brother taking over.


Not really. They have a very few decent hospitals but the general populace has very poor healthcare.

Really, Ted? Cuba the free country... when was this?

Was it during US military rule in 1898? Was it due to the Platt Amendment? Was it the invasion in 1912? Or the one by FDR? Or maybe it was during the Batista regime, instituted by military coup, supported by the US, and why? Because Batista wasn't about to knock over the US corporations and wealthy landowners who owned such vast swathes of the country. By 1926 US companies owned some 60% of the Cuban sugar industry.

So don't come blowin' the same old 'free' smoke. Castro was no lover of individual freedom. But neither was any Cuban government before that. Why do you suppose Castro and Guevara were loved by the poor and hated by the rich? Because between Spain and the US, 1959 was the first time they were really free of colonialism.

Castro's legacy will be independent of our personal opinions. It will be shaped by the world at large. Likely the South will see him as a flawed leader who nevertheless managed to stand up to the Sleeping Giant to the north, for fifty years. His approach to the collective Cuban society will in history books probably be seen as a flawed yet earnest early example of the greater movement in the South toward Bolivarian revolution. And the short sighted folks in the US will cry and moan as to why this perception exists, when several centuries of US foreign policy in SA did more for the Bolivarian cause than anything homegrown in those countries.

See, history has a way of whitewashing people. Today FDR was the guy who got us out of the depression and helped kick butt in WW2. We hardly remember he sent troops to Cuba to quell an uprising of Afrocubans wanting freedom. We see the US invasions of Russia, the Philippines, Cuba, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua barely at all. Our history books may indeed relegate Castro as the incarnation of Franco, but to most of the world the bad will be seen but through a glass, darkly.

P.E.


Well, it's not like the Democrats did their part is it P.E.??


What is Fidel Castro's legacy?

The sad thing is, as Americans of the U.S., we were never allowed by our governmet to see the true legacy of Castro. Sure, if you are really interested you can get a book from a library, you mau get a peice here and a peice there.

But our country... this free nation... would not allow us to see what Cuba and Castro had to offer.

Let's be honest though.... For all that Castro was or was not, he could not reach the greatness that could have been accomplished for his nation had we not handcuffed and hog-tied their country.

I often ask people this, because many don't know... How did Castro take control of the country?

And the answer to that is the Legacy of Castro, IMO.

Of course they did their part. But it seems to me that the (Re)publicans are more interested in keeping it that way. It's a huge blind spot in foreign policy. I rather doubt that Castro's regime has done anything more outrageous than what was done during Chairman Mao's "Cultural Revolution."

1/2.) Castro saw Cuba's lifespan nearly double and become one of the longest, most comfortable in the world. Perhaps contemporary malcontents dislike him, but he obviously had some measure of support to keep power for so long. I believe that he will be remembered for the gifts he gave Cubans more than the freedoms he took away. He ran a Father Knows Best State more than an oppressive dictatorship.

3.) I doubt it. American government always requires a scapegoat. Cuba is nice to blame every now and again.

Until "democracy" rings from shore to shore on the island of Cuba, the government's Cuban aspect will go unchanged.

“Flawed” is such a nice way to say that this tin pot dictator murdered, jailed and generally ruined the lives of millions for 50 years. The people of Cuba were better of before this commie stole their freedom.

To call his rule “flawed” tells me you think this killer was really just a nice guy who made a few small mistakes – ya Right. He could have done it right but the Stalinists in his revolutionary group changed his mind – the reat is history.

“At the point when the Castro revolution won its difficult and elegantly fought struggle for power in 1959, Cuba was one of the wealthiest countries in the "Third World," with levels of literacy, infant mortality and life expectancy close to those of Canada and a health system that, in terms of doctors per people, was 11th-best in the world, better than in Britain, France, the Netherlands and Japan, according to historian Richard Gott”

There are those who believe that Mr. Castro had always been a revolutionary socialist and that his words to the contrary were just savvy efforts to win support. Even he backs this view in his final book. But the record shows otherwise: "I have said in a clear and definitive fashion that we are not Communists," he declared in a speech in April of 1959. "The doors are open to private investments that contribute to the industrial development of Cuba."
But at the last moment, in the summer of 1959, something changed.
His movement was divided between the liberal reformers, who included his president, much of his cabinet and the urban guerrillas who had fought much of the struggle, and the authoritarian Marxists, who had little support in the 1959 government or among the Cuban people, but who included Mr. Castro's brother, Raul, and one of his fighters, Ernesto (Che) Guevara, a Stalinist.

Those forces continued to compete for Mr. Castro's attention until the key moment of July 17, 1959, when he purged the economically liberal and socially progressive president Manuel Urrutia Lleo, whom he had appointed precisely for those qualities, denouncing him for "fevered anti-communism." Raul and Che had won the day — with help from President Dwight Eisenhower, who missed an opportunity (one that Mr. Roosevelt surely would have taken) to support a movement that could have been on his side."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ernational/home

What is Fidel Castro's legacy?

That he poked the United States in the eye for 50 years, of course. His legacy will certainly be the fact that he has outlived numerous US presidents, numerous assassination attempts, all the while keeping more Chevrolet Bel-Air’s on the road than any other nation in the world.

Will the end of Castro's rule lead to a new attitude in Washington?

Not during this administration, nor a McCain administration. This example highlights our backwards and upside down foreign policy. Cuba is absolutely no threat to the United States, and is more humane than other nations that we are allied with (cough….Saudi Arabia…..)

We have a diplomatic and trade relationship with Communist Vietnam, a nation that we actually fought a war against, yet we continue to embargo and have no formal relations with Cuba? What sense does that make?

I can’t have Cuban cigars because of a misguided and meaningless policy.

DTOM


Would Cubans be as good as hey are... if you could have one whenever you wanted??

P.E.


I disagree. Dem and Rep have had the same stance. Just listen to the recent debate between Barack and Hilary. Florida is a key swing state. They have a powerful Cuban voting block and lobby there.

Both sides are willing to starve cubans and strangle their economy, to get that vote. Face it we have Cubans down there in Florida with a constitution ready for when they can go back and take the country back from the Cuban people.

I think the larger point trying to be illustrated is the fact that the embargoes haven't exactly been effective in bleeding Cuba. Anybody see the pictures of Castro in the sports jacket? How did American goods like Adidas [which is actually a German good, but still largely associated with U.S. sellers] get through our embargo? Our trade policy with Cuba is quite possibly the biggest economic failure we've been saddled with. The lack of opprotunity is disgraceful.

The rest of the world trades with Cuba and always has – this is why anything form a German, Japanese, Canadian etc. company get there. This also point up the obvious – which is that this country is an economic (and social) disaster NOT because of the US “embargo” but because it’s a Communist dictatorship.

Ted, you enjoy being wrong. I'm not saying Cuba never gets a shipment smuggled to it but the embargo has been effective in stifling the growth of Cuba, economically. I haven't seen many even on the right deny this. It hurts them econimically and physically

"What is Fidel Castro's legacy?"

More proof that socialism is not the way to go.

Socialism is like medicine, it can very well cure some specific ailments, but if you keep taking it regularly and in large doses, beyond what is needed to recover, it will destroy you.

"After almost 50 years in power. How will he be remembered?"

I believe he won't be remembered very much, at least not in any way similar to Che Guevara. Castro stayed to long in power and lost that romantic revolutionary apeal that Guevara had. Of course there will always be unconditional fans, and unconditional critics, but for the most part I believe he has outlived his relevance and will be remembered as just one more socialist tyrant that the XX century has seen.

"Will the end of Castro's rule lead to a new attitude in Washington?"

If a democrat wins, probably yes.

You are dreaming. Cuba trades with the world and if you want to go there just take a flight form anywhere but the US – like Canada, Hell NPR has yearly trips to Cuba for their liberal commie loving supporters.

http://havanajournal.com/business/entry/pe...or-oil-in-cuba/


http://havanajournal.com/business/entry/me...ure-cuban-debt/

http://havanajournal.com/business/entry/ch...chasing_credit/


“U.S. exporters must vie for Cuba’s trade with other, more established competitors such as Canada, France, and Mexico that already export agricultural commodities to Cuba”

http://www.fas.usda.gov/itp/cuba/canada.pdf



Socialism has devastated this country since day one. They had a chance and missed it – as I have posted.