The Cuban Revolution

Cuba, the first name that comes to mind when I say that word is Fidel Castro. Who is the man I will be blogging about? Why does he spring to mind? Argument being, how did Fidel Castro gain power in Cuba? Was this better or worse for the Revolution?
The Revolution occurred from 1956 to mid 1958. The Revolution started from rebels attacking the Moncada Barracks in the capital of Cuba which is Santiago, and in Bayamon on July 26, 1953. This attack was lead by Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro. The number of people killed is highly debatable. The Castro brothers were captured and sent to a Political trial. Fidel Castro spoke for four hours. He soon ended with the words, “Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me.” Fidel Castro was sentenced to 15 years and Raul was sentenced to 13 years in the Presidio Modelo prison. However Batista (Batista was the president, dictator, and military leader at the time) regime freed all the Cuban prisoners. The Castro brothers allied with exiles in Mexico and a Marxist Revolutionary by the name of Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Their goal was to overthrow Batista. Fidel Castro and eighty-two other exiled men took a yacht named “Granma”, destination, the Sierra Maestra Mountains in Cuba. They arrived on December 2, 1956. The exiles got attacked by Batista’s men, about twenty of the eighty-two survived including the Castro brothers. After that Batista sent an additional 12,000 men into the mountains. However half of the men were untrained recruits. Castro’s men won this Battle. The Battle was known as the “Battle of La Plata”. It lasted from July 11 to July 21. Castro captured two hundred and forty of Batista’s men while losing only three of his own. On August 21, 1958 Castro started to run his own offensive. The objective was to descend from the mountains. They also had an abundance of new weapons that they stole from all the dead soldiers. Castro soon had Che Guevara and other leaders spread west. The Battle of Santa Clara was conquered by the Revolutionary Directorate Rebels which was led by Che Guevara. Once Fulgencio Batista heard this he panicked and fled to Portugal on January 1, 1959. On January 2nd the commander of Santiago, Colonel Rubido, ordered his soldiers not to fight Castro’s soldiers. Castro’s soldiers, under the command of Raul Castro, took over Santiago. Fidel Castro entered Havana on January 7th 1959. Havana was the last stop for Fidel Castro. Fidel Castro’s president of choice was Manuel Urrutia Lleo. After the revolution Fidel Castro went to the U.S. Castro explained, “I know what the world thinks of us, we are Communists, and of course I have said very clearly that we are not Communists; very clearly.” Many suspected Batista agents were sent to trial for war crimes and human rights atrocities. Prior to the revolution, there was a strong Catholic following in Cuba. The new Cuban government was atheist; consequently, all Bishop’s were expelled from not only the church but the entire nation. I think Fidel Castro helped the Revolution in a huge way because even though he failed the first time he wanted to attempt to revolutionize Cuba again except he went to the main source, Batista. Castro then raised an army that got defeated quite a bit but they didn’t give up, they prevailed. It seems as though Fidel Castro saved Cuba from Batista’s reign. So once again you cannot say Cuba and not think of Fidel Castro. The Castro brothers started with nothing, now they have everything.

http://library.thinkquest.org/20176/crevolution.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cuban_Revolution
http://www.regfrfi.easynet.co.uk/ratb/cuba/cuban_rev.htm
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The Nerumberg Trials

In 1943 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill met at the “Tripartite” dinner in Tehran to discuss the punishments of war criminals and war organizations during World War II. Both Roosevelt and Stalin believed that execution should be one of the punishments for those convicted of war crimes, whereas Churchill was vehemently opposed to the execution of soldiers fighting for their country. In this blog, I will discuss whether Roosevelt and Stalin acted appropriately or if Churchill’s position was correct with regards to what would become “The Nuremberg Trials”.

In Tehran, Stalin provoked the thought of simply killing 50,000-100,000 German Staff Officers and Roosevelt jokingly said, “49,000 will do”. Now that the “Big Three” were all in on what would become the Nuremberg Trials they had to establish a drafted plan. Churchill soon wrote the “Moscow Document” which was written on November 1, 1943 that stated they should be tried at the places where the crimes were committed. Prior to this, on January 14, 1942, the creation of the “Tribunal Courts” happened. The “Inter-Allied Draft” was developed when representatives from the nine occupied countries met in London. The “Big three” presided. This allowed there to be an authoritative judge in the courtroom when trials would begin.
The main judge, (Soviet Main) that presided over the initial trials, was General Iona Nikitchenko who was President of the Trial. The trials began on October 18, 1945 in Nuremberg Germany at the Palace of Justice. The trials began by deciding upon punishments towards the original twenty-four indicted major war criminals and the six criminal war organizations, such as, Leadership of Nazis, (SS) Schutzstaffel, (SD) Sicherheitsdienst, Gestapo, General Staff and High Command, and the Sturmabteilung (SA).
The main defendant of this trial was Hermann Goering. Goering was the chief of the four year plan, (which was the redemption of economic problems created by the Nazis) and head of the Gestapo. He was also the second highest ranking Nazi official. Goering committed suicide the previous night of the Trials. There were a total of twenty-four war criminals being tried. Thirteen were tried and all sent to the death penalty to be hung. Three were acquitted, three were in for life imprisonment, one got ten years, one got fifteen years, another was medically unfit for the trial so he escaped possible death, and two got twenty years.
Stalin and Roosevelt had both wanted the defendants all dead, however Churchill thought otherwise. Churchill tried to see things through the defendant’s and a military perspective. He knew that crimes against humanity were obviously terrible, cruel and appalling, but he also said, “The cold blooded execution of soldiers who fought for their country” was un-just. Churchill was also against execution for “political purposes”.
In my opinion, I believe that Stalin and Roosevelt’s ideals were correct and the right choice was executed because there should be absolutely no sympathy or remorse for crimes against humanity. I am happy that they got their way. For those that were put into jail, they should have been executed. It doesn’t matter how little they were involved in it, what matters is that they were involved.