Cuba 1972

Last night on PBS Fidel Castro was in the spotlight. Footage included Castro’s embracing of the Soviet Union, the bearded one leaning over a conference table to light Breznev’s cigarette. In 1972, Castro set one of his many impossible goals for the young communist nation. First he wanted to have “more cows than Holland,” to be the world’s biggest milk and cheese producer. That didn’t work. Then he set his sites on sugar…and vowed during one of his famous 3 hour speeches that the nation must produce 10 million tons that year. This was far away from the normal output, but the nation rallied, and from overseas, came teachers, farmers, students, all trying to help the young nation meet this daunting goal. Many acres were destroyed in this mad scramble to make the bearded one proud, and they toiled day and night. At the end, the harvest was only 8.5 tons, and another long handwringing speech ensued. The bearded one, (referred to by Cubans simply by a touch of the chin) was again disappointed.

Then the protests began….and thousands said they wanted to leave Cuba. Furious, TBO said, fine, go, in fact, in answer to the flotilla of US yachts, speedboats and fishing vessels that came by the hundreds to pick up Cubans, he emptied the jails and sent as many as 150,000 across the strait to Florida. Finally Carter put a stop to it, since there were so many floaters it was impossible to manage on our side.

Many of them returned to Cuba after a few years…and others are still fighting TBO.