US Role In Batista's Fall Cuba
Uploaded by SamSkillz on Dec 22, 2004
US Role In Batista's Fall Cuba
The U.S. withdrawal of arms played a critical role in the victory of the 26th of July movement. This effect was not just a result of the Cuban army having insufficient weapons for combat, although it was true that as the Cuban Minister of Public Works plainly stated, "the troops cannot be armed with toothpicks. They need guns" (Smith 817). The United States also, during the American kidnappings, urged other countries such as Canada and Great Britain to deny Cuba arms, so that weaponry could be used as leverage in the kidnappings. The severest consequence, however, was psychological. Both the Cuban Army and the 26th of July Movement inferred that this withdrawal symbolized a change in the U.S. government's support of Castro. The moral of the army, already low from defeat after defeat, plummeted, while the ego of the revolution grew. This dangerous combination directly contributed to the downfall of the Batista government.
The United States government was motivated by its standard foreign policy towards independent nations as well as Cuba's defiance of the MAP treaty. The various members of the United States government, throughout the Foreign Relations documentations, remind each other that the United States is not to come off as intervening or interfering with the Cuban government. Therefore, it is not surprising that during a civil war where the popular support is not with Batista's administration, that the United States would take itself out of the equation. The U.S. could not appear to be aiding in keeping an unwanted regime in power. A lot of politics is public relations, and to keep supplying weapons during a revolution would have put the United States in a very controversial position. Fundamentally, it seems as though the U.S. would have withdrawn weapons; moreover, in addition the Cuban government had been misusing the weapons we had given them under the MAP program. These weapons, intended for use exclusively in the case of a hemispheric threat were conclusively known to be used to quash a civil uprising at Cienfuegos. The MAP program, funded by Congress had been implemented throughout South America. Cuba threatened to undermine the entire program by misusing the U.S. weapons essentially donated to them. Taking all these factors into consideration caused Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs,...