his anti-imperialist views.“ I was the son of a landowner-- that was one reason for me to be a reactionary. I was educated in religious schools that were attended by the sons of the rich -- another reason for being a reactionary. I lived in Cuba, where all the films,publications, and mass media were made in the USA -- a third reason for being areactionary. I studied in a university where out of fifteen thousand students, only thirty were anti-imperialists, and I was on of those thirty in the end. (Castro)”Perhaps it could be concluded that the United States’ influence on Cuban soil is largely responsible for what prompted the frictions between Cuba and the United States. In fact, prior to Castro’s regime, the U.S. played a large role in Cuba’s economy during the time of Batista’s came into power in 1934 (Skidmore, 271). During the twenty-five year period that followed, Batista either ruled Cuba indirectly either through “puppet presidents” or played a more direct role as Cuba’s president (271). It was during Batista‘s influence, between 1934 and 1959, that rampant corruption took hold of Cuba (272). Not only did little change in Cuba during that period, the United States had a strong hold on the Cuban economy (272). The United States hold was, in fact so strong that the opposition to Batista’s government has largely been attributed to a rebellion against these 5United States influences (272). The revolution Castro took part in was about freeing itself of U.S. Control. Therefore, once Batista fled and Castro seized Havana, two forces cane into direct conflict: the needs of the Cuban people versus the economic policies of the United States corporation that owned the factories and the fields of Cuba (CNN). It was an economist, Edward Boorstein, who served as an adviser to the revolutionary government who wrote, “The victory over Batista meant that the Cuban...
