Castro Becomes Premier: Cuba Turns Communist
Fidel Castro assumed the premiership of Cuba on February 16, 1959, six weeks after his guerrilla forces toppled the US-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Castro initially denied being a communist, telling American journalists he favored democracy and free elections. Within two years, he had nationalized all foreign-owned property, aligned Cuba with the Soviet Union, and declared the revolution socialist. The shift pushed the Cold War into the Western Hemisphere. The Kennedy administration's failed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961 humiliated the US and pushed Castro further into Moscow's orbit. The Soviet Union responded by placing nuclear missiles on the island, triggering the October 1962 crisis that brought the world closer to nuclear war than at any other point in history. Castro ruled Cuba for forty-nine years, outlasting ten American presidents and surviving over 600 CIA assassination attempts by his government's count.
February 16, 1959
67 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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