Alan J. Levine: The Myths of Castro’s Cuba, and the Lesson for the Present

[Re: “Myths About Cuba Persist on the Left and Right.”]

By David in TN
Sunday, August 1, 2021 at 3:29:00 P.M. EDT

Here are the last four paragraphs of Alan J. Levine’s article on the myths of Castro’s Cuba and the lesson for the present:

“Cuba was not Poland, Hungary, or North Korea. Castro was not installed by the Red Army. He got where he did because he enjoyed overwhelming popular support, and because of the incredible irresponsibility of Cubans, who welcomed, knuckled under, or simply fled his rule. Not a few Cuban “refugees” were just people who wanted to better themselves economically, and exploited American gullibility to get through the normal immigration barriers. Castro himself exploited that gullibility with the Mariel boatlift—in which many refugees fled Cuba—at considerable cost to the people of Florida. We should be worrying that we may be setting ourselves up for a repeat of that experience.

“To be blunt, Cubans deserve less sympathy than other people who fell under Communist rule. Communist rule in places like Russia and China was forced upon the people only after prolonged and bloody civil wars. The fundamental blunder of the Kennedy administration was that it ignored the ample evidence that Castro enjoyed great popular support.”

“Perhaps not as obnoxious, but nevertheless dishonest, is the recent use by many people on the right of a distorted version of how Castro clamped down on his people. We are told, for example, that he made Cubans into sheep by the nationalization of private enterprises and the encouragement of welfare dependency. This is utter nonsense. As in practically all other cases, the Communists in Cuba gave first priority to politics and eliminating political opposition. They also prioritized seizing control of Cuba’s labor unions over controlling business. Nationalization in Cuba was an unusually rushed process, and one which followed political conquest, as it did in other Communist countries. There was no vast expansion of welfare to ‘buy’ or anesthetize people. Castro did enact some such policies, but he hardly constructed a welfare state overnight.

“Humanitarian aid and support for a post-Communist Cuba may be desirable, even necessary. After all, we should be primarily influenced by present and future needs, rather than grudges. But it is worth remembering that Americans owe Cubans nothing. In fact, the debt may run in the other direction.”