Castro’s next aims were to reduce Cuba’s dependency on the United States, the nationalization of large US multinational companies alienated USA and let to a trade embargo and also they stopped buying Cuban sugar, which is a massive thing because they were Cuba’s biggest customers. Furthermore it led to CIA attempts to destabilize the Castro regime; they did so by assassination attempts, bombing and setting fire to sugar crop and also through operations like the ‘Bay of Pigs’. Nevertheless it helped Cuba move closer to its protector, USSR and helped form a relationship that would plague the US long and short-term furthermore it opened up USSR as a market for Cuban sugar at high prices and gave them a supplier of oil at low prices.
The Cuban economy, no matter how hard Castro tried went downhill and stayed solely depended on sugar. There were early efforts to diversify the Cuban economy and lessen dependence on sugar but it failed and although Cuba was supported by the USSR the economy remained dominated by sugar. The next plan Castro put in motion was the Battle for Sugar in 1970 he wanted to increase sugar output to 10 million tons, however Cuba only reached 8.5 million and all resources had been diverted for sugar production. Another reason was due to the lack of clear economic planning, most of the plans were from Castro himself not trained, skilled economic planners and mostly failed.
Castro succeeded in his aim to be seen as the champion of revolution- soldiers were trained in Cuba and sent to fight in various wars of revolution in Latin America and Africa (mainly dominated by Che Guevara until his death in 1967) and this really made a mark on the world stage. Also Castro was even prepared to put more importance on his role as a revolutionary than re-establishing relations with USA (which might have helped the Cuban economy) when he insisted on sending support to the revolutionary fighters in Angola in 1975. He was hailed as the leader of the non-aligned nations, although this collapsed when he failed to condemn the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Lack of progress for the economy became more evident as years passed and in 1980 there was another exodus of Cubans from Cuba to US and the Mariel boatlift evidence of dissatisfaction among the people. Furthermore the Collapse of the USSR was a disaster for Cuba as it was a loss of markets for sugar and a supplier for oil. Also Cuba suffered energy shortages (gas/water/oil) food and clothes rationing due to this, as it was hard for them to source it as well. But in the 90’s there was some return to private trading was allowed and efforts to promote tourism, although this was against Castro’s aim of eradicating inequality it was popular among the people and helped to raise living standards.
In conclusion, the Castro regime has lasted 5 decades and it is hard to make an overall decision because of this fact. But he has had success and failures at the head of the regime. Some of the outstanding things Castro did were; providing free education and healthcare to all of Cuba, not just the middle and upper classes, support for his Ideals in the third world and the relationship he formed with USSR. However the standard of living in Cuba is still poor, and he nearly brought the world into nuclear war. Fidel Castro was a great leader and he succeeded in much he said he would do.
