The shadows of Cold War over Latin America: the US reaction to Fidel Castro's nationalism, 1956–59

Abstract

Scholars have addressed the problem of the Dwight Eisenhower administration's opposition to Fidel Castro's nationalist insurrection (1956–59) following two main perspectives. Some authors have perceived it in terms of a response to the threat that Castro's radical programme posed to American economic interests in Cuba. Other scholars have claimed that, in the 1950s, Washington did not have a clear perception of the differences between progressive nationalism and communism. This article offers a different explanation. It argues that the intersection between the Cold War and the decolonisation process played a crucial role in changing the US's perception of Latin American nationalism. Specifically, the launch of the Peaceful Coexistence strategy by the Soviet post-Stalinist leadership increased Moscow's ability to interact with nationalism of developing areas, pushing the Republican administration into a defensive position in the Third World. During the 1950s, this context strongly influenced Washington's diplomatic strategy in the Latin American and the Cuban scenarios, driving the Eisenhower Presidency to adopt a hostile position toward nationalist governments or nationalist inspired political movements such as Castro's.

Acknowledgements

The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation has funded this research through the project HAR2009-09844, directed by Dr. Consuelo Naranjo Orovio (CSIC-CCHS).

Notes

Vanni Pettinà graduated in Political Sciences at University of Florence, Italy (2004). He received his MA in Latin American Studies by the Universidad Complutense of Madrid and the Ortega y Gasset Research Center (Madrid, 2006). He is Doctor in Contemporary History from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid (IUOG) and the Spanish National Research Council. His research focuses on the US-Cuban relations between 1933 and 1959.

 [1] See, for instance, Morley, Imperial; Alzugaray, Crónica; Gott, Cuba. The same historical perspective, applied to the broader Latin American context, can be found in: Loayza, ‘An Aladdin's Lamp’.

 [2] The issue related to the confusion between nationalism and communism in the Third World, during the Eisenhower administration, goes far behind the Cuban and the Latin American scenarios. The best resume of this historical perspective, applied to several different cases, can be found in: McMahon, ‘Eisenhower’. For Latin America see: Rabe, Eisenhower, especially 46–8. For the Cuban case see: Benjamin, The United States.

 [3] Central Intelligence Agency, Freedom of Information Act (hereafter cited as CIA FOIA), The Break-up of the Colonial Empires and its Implications for U.S. Security, 9 March 1948, International Estimate, Confidential, 1.

 [4] Central Intelligence Agency, Freedom of Information Act (hereafter cited as CIA FOIA), The Break-up of the Colonial Empires and its Implications for U.S. Security, 9 March 1948, International Estimate, Confidential, 1

 [5] Westad, The Global.

 [6] Central Intelligence Agency, Freedom of Information Act (hereafter cited as CIA FOIA), The Break-up of the Colonial Empires and its Implications for U.S. Security, 9 March 1948, International Estimate, Confidential, 1.

 [7] Westad, The Global, 114.

 [8] Fursenko and Naftali, Khrushchev's Cold War.

 [9] ‘Views on Coexistence Idea in Washington’, The New York Times, 17 November 1954, 3.

[10] ‘Dulles Condemns < Guile> of Soviet on Aiding Underdeveloped Areas’, The New York Times, 9 December 1955, 1 and 8.

[11] ‘Policy for US? Stevenson's View’, The New York Times, 22 April 1956, Section n. 4, 1.

[12] See Manela, The Wilsonian.

[13] Gaddis, We Now Know, 165. See also Connelly, A Diplomatic, 42–64.

[14] ‘The Transcript of Eisenhower's News Conference on Foreign and Domestic Issue’, The New York Times, 5 April, 1956, 10.

[15] Gaddis, We Now Know, 168. Fursenko and Naftali, Khrushchev's Cold War, 65.

[16] Connelly, A Diplomatic, 61. See also, Yaqub, Containing.

[17] Engermann and Unger, ‘Towards a Global’; see also, Touraine, Come liberarsi.

[18] Westad, The Global, 33; Osgood, Words and Deeds, 9; See also Letham, Modernization as Ideology.

[19] Belmonte, Selling the American Way, 50–70.

[20] Hobsbawm, I Rivoluzionari, 68.

[21] ‘Current Communist Strategy in Non-industrialized Countries’, Problem of Communism, September–October 1955, Vol. IV, no. 5, United States Information Services, Washington DC.

[22] CIA FOIA, Special Survey of Select Soviet Bloc Economic Activities in Certain Free World Countries (September 1955), Secret, 3.

[23] Department of State Bulletin, ‘Soviet Bloc Offensive in Less Developed Area’, Vol. 38, no. 970, 144. Also see: CIA, FOIA, The Nature and Problems of Soviet Economic Penetration of Underdeveloped Areas, 14 March 1956, Secret.

[24] Foreign Relations of the United States of America, 1955–57, Volume X, ‘Foreign Aid and Economic Defense Policy, United States Government Printing Office, Washington 1989, Memorandum of Conversation at the 266th Meeting of the National Security Council’, Washington, 15 November 1955.

[25] Kaufman, Trade, 64.

[26] Kaufman, Trade, 64

[27] Pravda, 15 February 1956, quoted in Communism in the Underdeveloped Countries, Soviet Economic Expansionism, ‘Problem of Communism’, July–August 1958, Vol. 7, no. 4, p. 31, United States Information Services, Washington DC.

[28] CIA FOIA, National Intelligence Estimate, NIE-95, The Soviet Bloc Courses of Action Through Mid-1955, 25 September 1953, Top Secret, 6.

[29] Kanet, ‘The Soviet’, 5; Avieri, ‘Marxist’, 644.

[30] Fukuyama, El fin, 151.

[31] Shinn Junior, ‘The National Democratic’, 379; Light, The Soviet, 80–90.

[32] Claudín, The Communist Movement, 461.

[33] See, for instance, Seton-Watson, The Eastern European; Krebs, Dueling Visions.

[34] US National Archives, Record Group 59 (hereafter quoted as NARA RG59) Records of Component Offices of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, 1947–63, LOT87D33.

[35] Annino, ‘Ampliar la Nación’, 550; Carmagnani, América latina, 16–7; Halperin Donghi, Historia contemporánea, 295–6. See also Knight, ‘Democratic and Revolutionary’; Lambert, América Latina.

[36] Retrospective Collection, CIA Digital Reading Room, CIA Declassified Documents, Library of Congress Washington DC, Operation General Intelligence Aid, CSHB-F 52-890-2, (Est. Pub. Date) Principal Aspects of Socialism in Latin America, October 1958, Secret, vi–vii.

[37] Retrospective Collection, CIA Digital Reading Room, CIA Declassified Documents, Library of Congress Washington DC, Operation General Intelligence Aid, CSHB-F 52-890-2, (Est. Pub. Date) Principal Aspects of Socialism in Latin America, October 1958, Secret, vii.

[38] Sewell, ‘A Perfect (Free Market) World?’, 855; Zubok, A Failed Empire.

[39] Becker and McClenahan Jr., The Market, The State, 32–9.

[40] Hilton, ‘The United States, Brazil’; Ameringer, The Cuban Democratic Experience.

[41] ‘South America is Beset by Internal Inflation as World Prices Fall’, The New York Times, 7 January 1953, 47 and 72. Siekmeier, Aid, Nationalism, 159.

[42] CIA FOIA, National Intelligence Estimate, Soviet Bloc Economic Warfare Capabilities and Courses of Action, NIE 10-54, 9 April 1954, Secret, 9.

[43] Bethell and Roxborough, Latin America, 22.

[44] Adamson, ‘The Most Important’, 54.

[45] The New York Times, 8 April 1956, 27.

[46] Lehman, ‘Revolutions and Attributions’, 185.

[47] Siekmeier, ‘Persistent Condor’, 201.

[48] Adamson, ‘The Most Important’, 48–9.

[49] Rabe, Eisenhower, 65–6.

[50] See, for instance, Rabe, The Most Dangerous Area.

[51] Graziosi, L'URSS, 186; See also, Sewell, ‘A Perfect’.

[52] ‘Cabot Points Way in Latin America’, The New York Times, 18 March 1953, 47.

[53] Gilbert, ‘What We Now Know’, 21.

[54] Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate (hereafter cited as SISS Hearings), Communist Threat to the United States trough the Caribbean, hearings before the subcommittee to investigate the administrations of internal security act and other internal security laws, part III, testimony of General C.P. Cabell, Deputy Director, Central Intelligence, Agency, 5 November 1959, United States Government Printing Office, Washington 1960. Library of Congress, Washington DC.

[55] British National Archives, Foreign Office Department, American Department, General, A 1015/13, 1953, Communism in Latin America. Department of State, Intelligence Report No. 5180.12. Communism in the Other American Republics, Quarterly Survey, October–December, 1952, Secret, 10.

[56] CIA FOIA, Field Comments on NIE-70, ‘Conditions and Trends in Latin America Affecting US’, 4 March 1953, Secret, 2.

[57] In 1949, Paul H. Nitze joined the State Department's Policy Planning Staff and became George F. Kennan's successor as Director of Policy Planning. In 1950, he wrote a classified memo for the National Security Council, NSC 68, which became the blueprint for the American strategy in the long Cold War years. In 1953, Nitze moved from the State Department to the Pentagon, serving as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.

[58] CIA FOIA, Conversation regarding Guatemala with Policy Planning Staff Members of State Department, 3 April 1953, Secret, 2.

[59] On this point see also: Gleijeses, Shattered Hope, 191.

[60] CIA FOIA, Communist Penetration of Guatemala, 16 February 1954, Secret, 1.

[61] Szulc, Fidel, 289–300.

[62] CIA FOIA, National Intelligence Estimate, Number 80–57, Political Stability in Central America and the Caribbean Through 1958, 23 April 1957, Secret, 1. See also: NARA RG 59, Intelligence and Research. Division of Research for American Republics. Special Paper No. 132 (INR) LOT75D242 CU22 17 May 1957, Secret, 1.

[63] US National Archives, College Park, MD, Record Group 59 (hereafter cited as NARA RG59), 737.00/11-2157 Office Memorandum, United States Government. To ARA-Mr. Rubottom, Form MID Mr. Wieland and Mr. Stewart. Possible United States Courses of Action in Restoring Normalcy to Cuba, Secret, 1.

[64] SISS Hearings, Communist Threat to the United States Through the Caribbean, Testimony of Earl T. Smith, Eighty-Sixth Congress, Second Session, Part 9, 27, 30 August 1960; Smith, The Fourth Floor, 228.

[65] NARA RG59, 737.00/3-2458, Office Memorandum, From MID, C. Allan Stewart, Thru MID, Mr. Wieland, to ARA Mr. Snow, Dr. Varona's Views on Civilian–Military Junta Membership, Secret; CIA FOIA, SNIE 85/1-58, 16 December 1958, No. 288, Special National Intelligence Estimate, The Situation in Cuba, Secret, 2; see also Paterson, Contesting Castro, 207–9; Skierka, Fidel Castro, 64.

[66] Retrospective Collection, CIA Digital Reading Room, CIA Declassified Documents, Library of Congress Washington DC, Department of State, Memorandum for the President from Acting Secretary of State Christian Herter. Subject: Cuba, Top Secret, 22 December 1958, 3.

[67] NARA RG59, 611.37/1-1559, State Department. Draft White Paper on Cuba, Official Use Only.

[68] On Castro's dichotomy see Annino, Dall'Insurrezione, 71.

[69] O'Connor, The Origins, 44–6.

[70] NARA RG59, 737.00/2-2857, Foreign Service Dispatch. From AmEmbassy Habana, to the Department of State, Washington. 28 February 1957, Situation in Cuba: Articles in New York Times by Herbert L. Matthews, Secret, 4.

[71] NARA RG59, 737.00/2-2857, Foreign Service Dispatch. From AmEmbassy Habana, to the Department of State, Washington. 28 February 1957, Situation in Cuba: Articles in New York Times by Herbert L. Matthews, Secret, 4.

[72] Annino, Dall'Insurrezione, 71.

[73] NARA RG59, 737.00/2-2857, Foreign Service Dispatch. From AmEmbassy Habana, to the Department of State, Washington. 28 February 1957, Situation in Cuba: Articles in New York Times by Herbert L. Matthews, Secret, 4; Library of Congress RG59 State Department Records, Staff Summary Biographic Supplement. Fidel Castro, Cuban Revolutionary Leader, 9 January 1959, Confidential, 2.

[74] CIA FOIA, National Intelligence Estimate, Number 80-57, Political Stability in Central America and the Caribbean Through 1958, 23 April 1957, Secret, 1.

[75] NARA RG59, Records of Component of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research 1947–63, Lot 75d242 Box 15, Department of State, Memorandum of Conversation, Revolutionary Development in Cuba and other Matters, 28 May 1957, Official Use Only, 3.

[76] NARA RG59, 737.00/11-2157 Office Memorandum, United States Government. To ARA-Mr. Rubottom, Form MID Mr. Wieland and Mr. Stewart. Possible United States Courses of Action in Restoring Normalcy to Cuba, Secret, 1.

[77] NARA RG59, Records of Component of Offices of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research 1947–63, Lot 75D242 Box 15, INR Ambassador Hugh S. Cuming; DRA Robert A. Stevenson; Background Information on the Cuban Political Situation, Confidential, 7 April 1958, 1.

[78] NARA RG59 737.00/3-1058 Foreign Service Dispatch, From AmEmbassy, Habana to the Department of State, Washington. Fidel Castro Ruiz; Documents Concerning Him and His Activities: Appraisal, Secret.

[79] CIA FOIA, NSC Briefing, Memorandum for Director of Central Intelligence, Report on (Portion Sanitized)’s Visit to the Fidel Castro Headquarters in the Sierra Maestra (12–26 March 1958), 11 April 1958, Secret.

[80] Bonachea and San Martín, The Cuban Insurrection, 220–1.

[81] Alerta article is quoted in ‘Castro Rebels Reject Backing of Cuban Reds’, Chicago Daily Tribune, 26 March 1958, 11.

[82] The Meeting is summarised in a CIA paper: CIA FOIA, (EST PUB DATE) CPSU Coordination of International Communist Movement: Implement, created in 25 July 1958, Secret, 6.

[83] CIA FOIA, NSC Briefing, Memorandum for Director of Central Intelligence, Report on [portion sanitised]’s Visit to the Fidel Castro Headquarters in the Sierra Maestra (12–26 March 1958), Secret.

[84] Guevara, Obras Completas, 465.

[85] Balfour, Castro, 55; Sweig, Inside, 127; NARA RG59, LOT75D242 CU244, INR, DRA, Special Paper No. A-8-9, Raul Castro and Communist Infiltration of the 26th of July Movement, 10 July 1958, Secret.

[86] NARA RG59, 737.00/5-558, Foreign Service Dispatch, From AmEmbassy, Habana to The Department of State, Causes for Failure of General Strike Attempt, Confidential; Balfour, Castro, 55.

[87] Guevara, La Guerra, 167–72; Sweig, Inside, 150.

[88] Sweig, Inside, 221.

[89] Paterson, Contesting Castro, 185–6.

[90] NARA RG59, 737.00/7-3058, Foreign Service Dispatch, From AmEmbassy to the Department of State, Fidel Castro Ruz; Documents Concerning Him and His Activities: Appraisal, Secret.

[91] Retrospective Collection, CIA Digital Reading Room, CIA Declassified Documents, Library of Congress Washington DC, Special National Intelligence Estimate, The Situation in Cuba, SNIE 85-58, 24 November 1958, 3, n. 292.

[92] Retrospective Collection, CIA Digital Reading Room, CIA Declassified Documents, Library of Congress Washington DC, Department of State, Washington, Memorandum for the President, Subject Cuba, 23 December 1958, 3.

[93] Skierka, Fidel Castro, 64–6.

[94] Paterson, Contesting Castro, 208–9; Coltman, The Real Fidel, 136–9.

[95] Balfour, Castro, 54; Skierka, Fidel Castro, 61.

[96] On Cuban nationalism see, for instance, Kapcia, Cuba; Rojas, Isla.

[97] Skierka, Fidel Castro, 61.