Word: cubans
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Castro was the spearhead of Cuba's revolution, Che was its philosopher. Born in Argentina, he grew up battling in the streets against Dictator Juan Peron, gave up a medical career to become a full-time revolutionary, and by the early 1950s was in Mexico City plotting a Cuban revolution with Castro. Like Castro, Che had a passionate hatred of the U.S., an emotional worship of the Communist world, an obsessive determination to succeed in all things. Unlike Castro, however, he was cool and pragmatic. The same Che who could calmly order a comrade beheaded for a breach...
With Castro in power, Che dabbled in Cuban politics, agriculture, finance and military training; at the same time, he shaped his own independent and pragmatic brand of guerrilla Marxism, even more violent than Mao Tse-tung's. In contrast with Castro, Che was not afraid to put his theories above politics. In 1965, at a time when Castro was trying to draw closer to Moscow, Che went barnstorming around Africa and Asia, drumming up support for a bloc of small socialist countries to counteract the "imperialism of large socialist countries." After Che's return to Havana...
...blockade has sharply reduced Cuban imports of heavy machinery and in spare parts. Practically all consumer goods in Cuba before the Revolution came from the United states, and air conditioners, automobiles, stoves, and televisions are now beginning to break down. Spare parts are almost impossible to obtain...
More important, the Cubans have been displeased with much of the heavy machinery they import from the Soviet Union. Trucks and automated cane cutters break down often in the tropical climate. This past summer, the American-built waterworks system in Havana showed signs of dangerous dilapidation for the first time. The cost of replacing it, and the risk of replacing it with unreliable Russian equipment, is only one of a series of similar problems the Cuban people will have to face in the future...
...Cuban planners, however, still lack expertise in plotting out the tedious details necessary for carrying through vast development schemes. And while Cuba does plant twice as many citurs trees as Israel, she soon discovers that they were planted too close together, which means that the productivity will be slightly lower...