How Fidel Castro Came To Power | Secrets Of War | Timeline

hi everybody welcome to this timeline documentary my name is dan snow and here i am in a lancaster bomber cockpit one of the few remaining lancasters from the second world war to tell you about my new history channel it's called history hit it's like netflix for history hundreds of history documentaries on there and interviews with many of the world's best historians follow the information below this film or just search online for history hit and make sure you use the code timeline to get a special introductory offer now enjoy this show [Music] here on january 8 1959 a triumphant procession through the cuban capital of havana marked the return of fidel castro his vastly outnumbered and under-equipped revolutionary forces had defeated the army of dictator fulgencio batista just a week before castro was on the way to returning cuba to self-rule and self-respect free of its long-lived role as an international pawn on january 10th as he addressed the delirious masses a single dove one of many released in celebration landed on castro's shoulder and remained there as he spoke to cubans of the ancient santeria religion it was undeniable proof that the gods themselves had selected fidel castro to lead cuba little more than a year later castro was again recognized by a higher power but this time for extermination the united states targeted the cuban revolutionary government and fidel castro himself for his anti-american rhetoric and his growing relationship with the soviets castro quickly realized that an effective cuban intelligence network would be a critical component to prevent american aggression from toppling his regime it would even be needed to navigate his complicated relationship with nikita khrushchev but above all he knew that inside information on the intentions of world superpowers would be the key to his personal survival [Music] today fidel castro an enduring symbol of the revolution continues his unchallenged rule of cuba it is a tribute to cuban intelligence successes american intelligence failures and to castro himself castro is a charismatic leader without any question the cuban people would have followed him into anything even people who might wish that he would retire still have a grudging respect for castro he put cuba on the map i think most americans misjudge him he's extremely bright his iq is high he's very very well ready he's done a tremendous amount for that country that we don't credit him with the infant mortality rate in castro's cuba is lower than in the capital of the richest country in the world washington d.c similarly on on education literacy for its income level cuba is ahead of most of the world in terms of literacy but he's an ideologue and he's used very poor judgment in his management of the economy it's true that he faces a great penalty today because we apply economic sanctions again we're the only country in the world that applies economic sanctions against cuba it is a penalty but he could overcome it to a far greater degree he has if he had introduced more i'm going to call it market principles into his economy he's made a great mistake on that now in the 21st century the soviet union is gone u.s relations with vietnam and north korea are on the mend even the people's republic of china is moving in the direction of capitalism but the world's last true communist dictatorship still rules in the caribbean despite tremendous economic hardship as it has been for generations growing up and surviving in cuba is a struggle something that castro was made very aware of as a child the son of a wealthy landowner fidel castro roose grew up privileged but his father instilled in the castro children an appreciation for the plight of the unfortunate [Music] both fidel and his younger brother raul committed themselves at an early age to improving conditions for cuba's downtrodden however they took different political paths raul castro by all accounts by all evidence was a communist he had gone to a communist youth camp uh in central europe in the in the 1950s he had become friendly with young members of the kgb at that time there's no evidence his brother was was ever so inclined after graduating with a law degree from havana university in 1951 fidel pursued his passion politics he joined the orthodox party a conventional political organization when fulgencio batista seized power in 1952 castro came to believe that armed revolt was the only way to restore nationalist pride and basic human rights [Music] in july 1953 fidel castro led an army of 125 men in an attack on a cuban army barracks the castro revolution had begun but in failure most of castro's force was killed and fidel was captured tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison the date of the rebel attack the 26th of july became a sacred day to the revolution and is still the most celebrated of cuban holidays in may 1955 less than two years later batista bowed to popular pressure and granted fidel castro amnesty forbidden to make public speeches castro left for mexico to escape batista's wrath during castro's exile life in cuba under batista grew steadily worse for those who opposed him batista turned the entire country against him that was true in the cities where anyone suspected of opposition sympathy was kidnapped and very often murdered and in the countryside where whole villages were sometimes either massacred or displaced batista had become a rich puppet of american business by 1958 americans owned much of cuban industry and was the main importer of cuba's number one product sugar fidel castro a strong nationalist felt he could not stand by as cuba became more influenced by u.s interests from mexico castro made a solemn promise that by the end of 1956 cuba would be free [Music] batista did not send cuban intelligence operatives to monitor the rebels but did casually keep an eye on them with the help of mexican officials raul castro and other idealistic revolutionaries joined with fidel in mexico at batista's request the mexican government put pressure on fidel castro and provided reports on his activities to havana crowded into one small boat castro and his 81-man force left mexico for cuba in december 1956 to resume the war of revolution mexican authorities informed havana of castro's departure when the rebels reached cuba four days later they were attacked by the waiting cuban army only 16 of the 82 rebels survived fidel raul and the 14 others vanished into the sierra maestra mountains but over the next two years they managed to build an army of ten thousand to carry out the revolution among those was a young argentinian doctor in esto shea guevara fidel and shea developed a relationship of mutual admiration and of true friendship however when it came to politics raul castro and shea had more in common shea was openly marxist leninist but was anti-soviet though shea and other communists were part of the rebellion fidel feared that a communist label might be attached to the revolution that could negatively affect world opinion which fidel greatly valued out of respect for his brother's concerns raul kept his communist beliefs a secret during the cuban insurrection there were occasional attempts by batista to infiltrate castro's army but with little success those few who managed to penetrate were identified and executed as traitors before they could do any harm to the rebel cause castro on the other hand depended heavily on intelligence to keep tabs on batista's forces perhaps the most important intelligence castrol gained during the war came in the summer of 1958 when batista launched a major military offensive against the rebels at their mountain base [Music] the people in the area supported the revolutionaries and through a series of runners kept the revolutionary forces apprised of where batista's troops were at every moment and so the revolutionaries were able to attack individual units of batista's army and defeat them one after another and win that battle even though they were outnumbered ten to one that signaled to the army that this war was probably going to be lost and from that moment on the performance of the army began to deteriorate morale fell desertions increased and the rebels moved down out of the mountains and began to advance on the cities of the island the push toward havana was on but castro desperately needed additional supplies to be assured final victory that need led to the secret beginnings of what would become one of the most notorious and tumultuous relationships between two countries throughout the cold war secrets of war will continue in a moment here on the history channel a return to secrets of war [Music] by mid 1958 ultimate victory for fidel castro's rebel forces over the army of cuban dictator fulgencio batista was within sight the rebel guerilla war tactics were very effective against batista's conventional forces but for castro's men guns and ammunition remained in short supply in late 1958 castro made the difficult decision to approach the soviet union for help castro did not want to align the revolution with any superpower and risk having that power assumed control of cuba as america had for more than 50 years but castro badly needed assistance and he knew of moscow's open support of wars of liberation [Music] fidel expected one big offensive before he could take havana he wasn't far from the capital but he still believed that batista and his army would put up one last-ditch effort to save their government the soviets decided in a kremlin meeting at the end of december 1958 to provide the cubans with some rifles at the outset of the revolution soviet premier nikita khrushchev had no real interest in cuba but he knew of raul castro and che guevara's involvement and of their communist beliefs as a rebel victory became more likely khrushchev was enticed by the thought of the ussr gaining a foothold in the western hemisphere by assisting a potentially marxist revolution khrushchev secretly provided german world war ii surplus rifles to castro routed through czechoslovakia the rifles were sold to a private company in costa rica sympathetic to castro the costa ricans then delivered the weapons to the rebels secrecy was vital to prevent u.s intervention on batista's behalf [Music] u.s backing for batista was fading fast to salvage his support in washington batista had to vilify the rebels he pointed to castro and called him a communist at that point the cia moved to determine if it was in fact a communist revolution that was challenging batista in 1958 the cia sent an investigative team to cuba's oriente province where castro had grown up to learn all it could of castro's political beliefs the sense that this team brought back was that fidel was a revolutionary he was a nationalist dedicated to sovereignty for the cuban people and therefore not necessarily an agent of international communism on december 31 1958 valencia batista fled havana with millions of dollars in embezzled funds [Music] the next afternoon new year's day 1959 raul castro and che guevara arrived in havana to the cheers of rapturous crowds fidel who was fighting in the far end of the island when victory came finally reached havana on january 8th castro passed 1500 new laws in the first year of his regime he increased wages reduced rents and seized foreign owned farmland which he partially distributed to landless cuban peasants in 1960 all foreign holdings in cuba were nationalized resulting in a tremendous loss for u.s business and american organized crime which owned havana casinos castro's popularity in the u.s continued to suffer with the executions of some batista officials who had not escaped from cuba [Music] despite his hatred for u.s mistreatment of his country fidel immediately set out to cultivate his relationship with washington and with the american public [Music] in april of 1959 he visited several american cities when fidel castro came to the united states three months after his triumph the cia actually had a secret meeting with him and they said to him there are communists in your government and we want to help you find them and ferret them out let's set up a back channel between the cia and your government so that we can pass you intelligence on those communists and castro of course played along with this and for a number of months the cia actually did pass intelligence to cuba um but very quickly they they came to be persuaded that their initial impression of fidel castro was wrong he was not somebody that they could control and by the end of 1959 memos began to appear inside langley headquarters recommending that castro be assassinated during this trip fidel faced tough questions from the press about whether or not he and his brother raul were communists i am not communism i am not agree with communists while fidel was in the united states denying communist affiliation raul castro appointed head of the cuban military was in moscow secretly furthering soviet involvement in the cuban armed forces nikita khrushchev agreed to send spanish communists to havana to assist in the training of an army that would remain loyal to fidel and to the goal of marxism in cuba when fidel returned to cuba there was tension between the brothers fidel did not want a big power to step in and dictate to him what course his revolution ought to take raul castro's efforts were making it more difficult for him to deny soviet involvement however some scholars are convinced that fidel not only knew of raul's efforts in the ussr he secretly supported them other communist members of the revolutionary government encouraged castro to develop trade with moscow by exchanging sugar for agricultural and manufacturing equipment in february 1960 a soviet delegation arrived in havana to sign a trade agreement between cuba and the ussr that pact was all that the u.s needed to confirm its suspicions that fidel castro was indeed a communist fidel's greatest struggle had begun to survive the wrath of america a nation that would seek to destroy it secrets of war will continue in a moment here on in february 1960 with cuba and the soviet union having established trade relations president dwight eisenhower decided that fidel castro was a clear threat to american security in march he approved a cia plan to invade cuba for the purpose of overthrowing castro the operation was designed to appear to be the act of cuban exiles cia director alan dulles had already begun his own efforts to justify a covert u.s invasion of cuba dulles's plan was based on castro's need to purchase military aircraft [Music] in november 1959 the british ambassador writes a memo we now have to his foreign secretary and the memo said i've just met with the cia director alan bellis and dulles has asked us not to sell hunter aircraft to cuba and the reason is is that if we britain do not sell hunter aircraft cuba they will be forced to buy aircraft from the soviet union or the soviet block and then the united states can use the justification it used in guatemala in 1954 to overthrow the cuban government the british denied dulles's request and sold the fighter planes to cuba as part of the eisenhower plan the cia began recruiting and training an invasion force made up strictly of cuban exiles this was to be a paramilitary operation that called for the exile force to make a secret beach landing and then connect with the large anti-castro factions the cia believed were in cuba together they would take havana and depose the castro regime cuba's intelligence network first coordinated by raul castro and shay guevara during the insurrection was still in its infancy in 1960 but he did have the support of many latin people throughout central and south america who considered castro a hero a symbol of hope against what they perceived as imperialist aggression many of those people provided valuable information to cuban intelligence even details on locations of the camps in guatemala where the cia was training its cuban invasion force were revealed among the cubans in guatemala being handed this critical information was a young cuban intelligence officer domingo a muchastegy a very wealthy person it came to me to tell me that there was this uh known rich landowner in guatemala who was giving away one of his big farms to train for innovation to cuba i would say perhaps two weeks later a very simple ordinary man a peasant obviously knocked the door off the embassy to tell us the same story the cuban community in miami florida was also a great source of information and gossip however by the beginning of april 1961 castro still did not know the designated site of the coming invasion of cuba but through sources in miami the dgi direction generally intelligentsia cuba's primary intelligence agency had learned the date was april 17th castro desperately needed soviet protection from what he believed would be a full-scale american invasion but moscow was not going to risk angering washington over a small island nation that had not even declared its revolution to be socialist in order to justify an attack on april 15th two days before the invasion was to take place the cia sent bombers painted with cuban markings to destroy castro's air force planes as they sat in the ground the u.s also hoped to create the illusion for the world that castro's own military had turned against him the american deception didn't stand up to scrutiny the day after the bombing at the funeral for those killed in the raid castro publicly aligned cuba with the ussr he declared cuba a marxist leninist state this is a transparent effort on castro's part to force the soviets to come to his support and so over the next year castro began to create that marxist linen estate with a ruling communist party the cia's invasion of cuba began during the dark morning hours of april 17 1961 at bahia de cocinos the bay of pigs on cuba's south central coast castro's quarter million man army and civilian militia defeated the invaders in just 72 hours suffering only about 150 casualties of the 1500 men invading army just over 120 were killed roughly 1200 were captured and the rest vanished into the surrounding countryside the cia's hopes for a revolt against castro by the local population also failed in the hours after the invasion began cuba's state security jumped into action rounding up 20 000 suspected dissidents the cuban communist party expressed concern to fidel that state security in cuba was too weak they wanted kgb assistance to bolster the dgi he invited a group of kgb officers to work at various levels of the domestic and foreign cuban intelligence services this meant that he was creating a cuban kgb using some of the techniques that had been developed by the soviets to put down descent in central europe and in the soviet union itself following the humiliating defeat at the bay of pigs president john f kennedy's brother attorney general robert kennedy vowed vengeance he set out to eliminate fidel castro declaring this goal the top priority of the u.s government then just four months after the bay of pigs fidel castro began considering ways to mend the u.s cuba relationship fidel sent che guevara to a meeting of the organization of american states to meet with kennedy aide richard goodwin goodwin reports back to kennedy that guevara has said that cuba is willing to move out of the soviet orbit in exchange for a promise that the united states not overthrow the cuban government goodwin says this shows that the soviet union probably will not help them this suggests what we ought to do is kick them while they're down and he proposes a series of measures to get rid of castro kennedy approved the initial plan that by the spring of 1962 had evolved into operation mongoose an elaborate blueprint for sabotage deception psychological warfare and assassination it also included the implementation of a trade embargo on cuba more than ever the cuban government had to depend on intelligence for the very survival of the revolution and of castro himself a special body apart from the state security dealt with providing security for the cuban leadership and within this entity known as personal personal security there was a special desk that would deal specifically with threats of assassination it was known as the buro de atentados and they were very successful those special cuban units were helped by a fair amount of bungling on the u.s side the cia even unwittingly approached castro family members and friends in efforts to recruit cubans to assassinate fidel havana and moscow both realized that these u.s failures would only serve to strengthen washington's resolve to do away with castro soviet premier nikita khrushchev saw a unique opportunity in this at once he could move the ussr closer to world military parody with the americans while making it appear as if he were simply looking out for the best interests of a small weak socialist ally it was a gamble that sent the world's two great superpowers hurtling toward each other on a potentially catastrophic collision course secrets of war will continue in a moment here on we now return to secrets of war [Music] [Applause] following the bay of pigs cuban and soviet intelligence worked tirelessly to determine if washington was planning a second invasion of cuba cuba's intelligence service the dgi put all its resources into uncovering any invasion plans and foiling plots to kill fidel castro the kgb quietly expressed doubts to the kremlin that kennedy would attempt a second invasion of cuba however that is not what they were reporting to their cuban counterparts including intelligence officer domingo amuchastegi the soviets were crying wolf since day one of our relationship because of their major stake in deploying the missiles in cuba playing their own game well let's tell the cuban hey the wolf is coming so cubans would be more easily persuaded to accept the soviet deployment of forces we were being used manipulated for strategic considerations interest of the soviet union disregarding cuban interests completely castro sent che guevara to moscow in april 1962 to request more soviet military assistance the following month khrushchev proposed to castro the placement of soviet strategic nuclear missiles in cuba at first fidel argued that such weapons were not necessary he told khrushchev that if the soviets were to make cuba part of the warsaw pact the united states would not dare attack khrushchev stressed that the missiles were critical for cuban defense che guevara and raul castro both agreed with khrushchev's assessment and with their encouragement fidel accepted the missile deployment but castro wanted khrushchev to be open about placing nuclear missiles in cuba he hoped that such a bold announcement might force kennedy to negotiate with him possibly leading to a non-aggression pact and ultimately normalization of relations with washington something castro had always coveted however khrushchev could not consider allowing the us to know of such a daring move he knew kennedy would never stand for a soviet nuclear intrusion into the western hemisphere khrushchev convinced castro that secrecy was in cuba's best interest in september 1962 the soviets began the covert shipment of nuclear ballistic missiles to cuba moscow also provided more than 40 000 soviet troops and technical advisors in cuba once the missiles began to arrive the cuban intelligence directorate decided to intentionally leak information about the deployment to members of anti-castro groups in miami as havana well knew the news would immediately be reported to the cia they didn't believe it they didn't believe it because after bay of pigs they had come to the conclusion that cubans were not reliable at all and they would only believe that there were missiles in cuba only if they showed up with a missile in miami on october 17th after noting more american spy plane missions over cuba and increased activity at the u.s naval base at guantanamo fidel castro put the cuban military on maximum alert then on october 22nd president kennedy announced the soviet missile presence in cuba to the american public [Music] information coming into havana from cuban channels was scarce castro had to depend on cuban missions in mexico and at the united nations via soviet communications channels for the bulk of his intelligence on october 26 with no hard evidence from the dgi to support his belief fidel castro became convinced that a full-scale attack on cuba by the u.s was just hours away he readied his country for the worst and rushed a desperate letter to khrushchev urging the soviets to strike first with nuclear weapons before the u.s could unknown to castro details of a settlement were being hammered out by kennedy and khrushchev with no input from the cubans nikita khrushchev broadcast the startling result of those talks on october 28th he had agreed to remove the soviet missiles from cuba fidel castro found out the same way the rest of the world did by listening to khrushchev's announcement on the radio [Music] castro was furious he had been humiliated and cuba had been relegated to nothing more than a venue for his superpower conflict [Music] immediately khrushchev sent his first deputy minister anastas mikoyan to cuba mikoyan was given the task of trying to calm castro and of informing him of further soviet concessions to the u.s but mikuyan had another mission soviet military leaders in cuba had to be quieted they agreed with castro khrushchev had sold out cuba the soviet military leaders in cuba were absolutely outraged many important meetings had to be held by mikuyan and his military entourage in havana and other sites to cool down this reaction even some of the soviet news media dared to criticize khrushchev castro refused to see mikhoyan for several days and then he threatened to undermine the soviet u.s agreement by using the one weapon the soviets would leave behind the surface-to-air missiles he vowed to shoot down any american planes detected over cuba ultimately the events of those past few months led castro to a painful realization by embracing the soviet union fidel castro had isolated cuba despite his anger with nikita khrushchev over the soviet leaders handling of the cuban missile crisis fidel castro realized by early 1963 that he had few options the soviets were helping the cuban economy by providing the cubans with oil soviets were helping him build up an industrial base and finally the soviets were making noises as if they were prepared to defend cuba in the event that the united states ever broke john f kennedy's guarantee non-invasion pledge many of the fears he had had about american dependence were now coming true in his relationship with the soviet union in order to mend fences khrushchev invited castro to the ussr in the spring of 1963. he was given a hero's welcome and lionized everywhere he went while still stinging from the missile crisis castro allowed the healing between the two countries to continue but there were tremendous changes on the horizon for cuban soviet relations and as always there was the goliath to the north the united states now seemingly more powerful and more determined than ever to eliminate fidel castro [Music] secrets of war will continue in a moment here on we now return to secrets of war [Music] although fidel castro was opposed to their initial deployment when soviet premier nikita khrushchev began removing nuclear missiles from cuba in november 1962 castro felt that cuba was a sitting duck for any united states aggression khrushchev sought to comfort castro by telling him that the soviet agreement with president kennedy would keep cuba safe from american hostility until at least 1969. kennedy was certain to be re-elected and continue to honor his pledge but kennedy was assassinated in november 1963. then khrushchev was overthrown in october 1964. leonid brezhnev was installed as the new soviet leader soviet cuba relations were maintained under brezhnev but they would never be the same castro continued to walk a fine line in his relationship with the soviets he needed their financial aid but castro was still eager to proclaim that cuba was not a pawn of the soviets without the soviet missiles castro knew that information on u.s and soviet intentions would be the key to the survival of his regime havana was committed to creating a cuban intelligence directorate that was no longer reliant on the kgb there was a major thrust to make our intelligence to become more independent and more effective and in a very short period of time cuba had their own codes systems hardware everything in 1966 che guevara in disguise and with a false passport left havana for bolivia to join communist rebels fighting the government there in 1967 bolivian troops captured and executed guevara fidel castro lost a good friend and a key member of his inner circle but raul infidel remained committed to fostering socialist revolutions from the late 1960s through the late 1980s cuba sent troops around the world to support wars against imperialist aggression but cuba's involvement in nicaragua el salvador angola ethiopia guatemala grenada and other countries had another purpose phil castro felt that the best way to deal with the united states is to create two three many vietnamese that was the best way to defend against a perceived threat from the united states the soviets endorsed these efforts pleased with the arrangement that cuba would do the fighting and the ussr would simply supply the military hardware then in 1991 all cuban assistance to political struggles abroad came to an abrupt end with the collapse of the ussr castro was suddenly very much on his own he had to figure out how to survive without critical financial support from the soviets estimated at between five and six billion dollars per year but fidel castro has maintained cuba's independence now in the 21st century the years are showing on the once strapping leader and the crippling effect of the u.s embargo is reflected everywhere in the streets of havana and throughout the island while the people and government of cuba have had to deal with staggering financial cutbacks the cuban commitment to funding intelligence networks remains a priority as always castro feels the pressure of the united states and the worldwide cuban exile community he must stay ever alert wherever fidel goes of course he has a bodyguard very close to him as all heads of state do but because of the endless efforts to murder him his bodyguards are more vigilant than most we've seen the year 2001 the arrest and trial of what they call the wasp network of cuban spies in south florida a whole network that the cuban intelligence had set up in order to basically watch the southern command base there to make sure that cuba would have advanced intelligence on any preparations for a future invasion of cuba but while there is a certain paranoia on the other hand you can say well isn't that almost inevitable because the united states has over the years tried to assassinate fidel castro and even even now the u.s government is still saying that the objective of u.s policy is to get rid of the castro government so that almost anything we do is seen as subversive and intent to this day many believe that castro uses the fear of constant threat of attack by the united states to his advantage we have made castro we've made him we give him a foreign devil to point to he can say look this this immense country on our border is the only country in the world that is applying economic sanctions they tried to assassinate me through several administrations eisenhower and kennedy johnson they tried to invade us the bay of pigs they are our enemy we must mobilize our forces against them we've made him a hero to their people [Music] few world leaders have been able to maintain power for as long as fidel castro has for more than four decades he's managed to hold the attention of the entire world whether to praise him or to condemn him though his ability to inspire a crowd may not be what it was his cunning and his continued unwavering commitment to what he believes is best for cuba cannot be denied but it is his choice of a difficult path for his countrymen a path nearly always leading to confrontation with the mighty usa that will be questioned and debated long after he is gone

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, secrets of war, fidel castro, cuban missle crisis, communist cuba, communist documentary, cuban missile crisis, fidel castro dead, fidel castro documentary, timeline, timeline world history, timeline channel, timeline world history documentaries

Id: I2ZuTN_7iHQ

Length: 44min 57sec (2697 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 03 2021