Explain the Communist takeover of Cuba?

[KRV]

Pretty Self explainatory. Im taking a history class and they want details of the communist takeover in Cuba.
Thanks in advance

[Indiana Frenchman]

the web page (below) provides: The Communists Take Cuba (1959)

In 1934, Fulgencio Batista had overthrown the government of Cuba which hampered the social reform that had been begun by four separate Presidents. In 1952, he established a dictatorship.

Fidel Castro, who had become a Communist in 1947 during his second year in law school, led an unsuccessful revolt in 1953 in which he was captured and arrested, but later paroled. [Together with] Argentinian revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, they rebuilt the guerrilla forces. With financial backing from Russia, Castro bribed many military leaders. He got a substantial amount of support from the intellectual and working class, who knew nothing of his Communist intentions.

In April, 1957, Herbert L. Matthews, a correspondent for the New York Times and a CFR member, interviewed Fidel Castro at his mountain retreat. For three successive front page articles, he compared Castro to Lincoln and presented him as a "peasant patriot", "a strong anti-communist", a "Robin Hood", and a "defender of the people". Earlier, in a February 25, 1957 article, Matthews reported: "There is no communism to speak of in Fidel Castro's movement."

On CBS-TV, Edward R. Murrow portrayed him as a national hero. President Kennedy in a speech compared him to South American patriot Simon Bolivar. Ed Sullivan interviewed Castro for a film clip which was seen by about 30 million people in which he said: "The people of the United States have great admiration for you and your men because you are in the real American spirit of George Washington." He retracted the statement 18 months later, but it was too late.

In 1958, in an interview with Jules DuBois, Castro said: "I have never been nor am I a Communist..." The American Ambassador to Cuba declared that Batista was no longer supported by the American government and that he should leave. Roy Rubottom, the Assistant Secretary for Latin American Affairs, said in December, 1958: "There was no evidence of any organized Communist elements within the Castro movement or that Senor Castro himself was under Communist influence." In April, 1959, Castro visited the U.S., and the State Department welcomed him as a "distinguished leader."

A member of the Intelligence section of the Cuban army hand-carried Castro's dossier to Washington in 1957, delivering it to Allen Dulles, head of the CIA, which revealed that Castro was a Communist. Dulles 'buried' the file. In July, 1959, Major Pedro Diaz Lanz of the Cuban Air Force toured the United States and revealed that he had first-hand knowledge that Castro was a Communist. This fact, for the most part, was kept out of the media. The truth of the matter was that the State Department was purposely covering up Castro's Communist connections, the fact that his supporters were trained by Russia, and that he was carrying out a Communist revolution.

Arthur Gardner, the American Ambassador to Cuba, referred to Castro as a communist terrorist and [so] he was replaced by Earl E.T. Smith, who, instead of being briefed by Gardner was briefed by Herbert Matthews. A Senate Committee investigation of William A. Wieland, who in 1957 became the State Department's Caribbean representative, said that he "regularly disregarded, sidetracked or denounced FBI, State Department and military intelligence sources which branded Castro as a Communist." RobertHill, Ambassador to Mexico, said under oath in a Senate hearing: "Individuals in the State Department, and individuals in the New York Times, put Castro in power." These individuals included Robert McNamara, Theodore C. Sorenson, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Roy Rubottom, McGeorge Bundy, William J. Fulbright, and Roger Hilsman.

After being asked to abdicate by Eisenhower, Batista left office on December 31, 1958 and Castro took control of the country in January, 1959. Later that year, he addressed a meeting of the CFR at their New York headquarters.

see web page for more detail