Fidel’s visit to the USA in 1959
Fidel’s visit to the USA in 1959
Seeking understanding and good economic relations
Sixty-five years ago, four and one-half months after the triumph of the Revolution, Fidel undertook a trip to the United States of eleven days, from April 15 to April 25, 1959. We were reminded of this fact by Elier Ramírez Cañedo and René González Barrios in an article published on April 17, 2024, “In the Name of Hope,” in the Cuban internet news outlet Cubadebate. Ramírez is a Cuban academic who is the co-author of a book on the policy of the United States toward Cuba; González is the Director of the Fidel Castro Ruz Center.
I like the way Ramírez and González describe the historic moment. “The triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959, was an earthshaking event for the absolute hegemonic dominance of the United States in the Americas. The model of bilateral relations of total dependence was broken and a political, economic, and social project was born, alien to the templates of global capitalism. War, in any of its variants, was inevitable. All that was missing were the pretexts.”
Ramírez and González report that the demonization of the triumphant Revolution began immediately and was disseminated through the mainstream media of the United States. Two themes emerged. First, there were criticisms of what Cubans call the application of revolutionary justice, involving the trial and punishment of those who had murdered and tortured with impunity during the Batista dictatorship of 1952 to 1958, which was a very strong demand of the people. And the second was the accusation of “communist infiltration,” put forth before Cuba had established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and at a time in which the Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union was intense.
In this context, Fidel launched “Operation Truth,” and he resolved to bring the message of the Revolution directly to the United States, taking advantage of an invitation from the American Society of Newspaper Editors to visit Washington. It was not, Ramírez and González report, a trip that involved asking for money, as was the custom for representatives of the Cuban government during the neocolonial Republic. Rather, it was a good will gesture, undertaken with the hope of avoiding a rupture of relations with the United States.
As Ramírez and González see it, the good will was not reciprocated by the Eisenhower administration. Ike’s initial response upon hearing of the visit of the Cuban Prime Minister was to ask at a meeting of the National Security Council if the visa could be denied. Ultimately it was decided to issue a visa, but the diplomatic courtesy of receiving a foreign head of state was not fulfilled by the U.S. President but by acting Secretary of State Christian Herter and by Vice-President Richard Nixon.
From April 15 to April 25, Fidel gave eighteen press conferences or press declarations; sustained ten interviews with various representatives of the news media; and had at least six direct encounters with the people. The most famous of them was a speech in the Amphitheatre of New York’s Central Park, where more than 40,000 persons were gathered; it was the first time that a foreign head of state had given a speech before a multitude of that size in New York City. Fidel also spoke at Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton universities. Fidel was well received by the people, but the circles of power were already inclined toward a policy today called “regime change,” a direction that was solidified with the Agrarian Reform Law of May 17, 1959, which marked the definitive break with the neocolonial relation with the United States, even though Fidel continued to hope, even after the nationalizations of foreign property in 1960, that Cuba and the United States would be able to develop a relation of mutual respect and mutual benefit.
Four of the speeches during Fidel’s 1959 eleven-day trip to the United States are available at www.fidelcastro.cu. Namely, a speech at the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 17; a speech at Princeton University on April 20; a speech at Lawrenceville School, at that time a private all-male preparatory boarding school that functioned as a feeder school for Princeton University, on April 21; and the speech at New York’s Central Park on April 24. The stenographical versions in Spanish of the speeches were edited by the then Office of the Prime Minister.
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American Society of Newspaper Editors, Statler Hotel, April 17, 1959
In his remarks to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Fidel declared that Cuba—a small country near the coast of the United States—is carrying out a unique, autochthonous revolution. He observed that often we are interested in studying revolutions in Greece, Rome, and ancient history, but we forget to investigate what is happening near us in the present moment.
He stressed the importance of giving priority to truth in any expression related to public opinion and freedom of the press, because two or three cases of false news can cause immeasurable damage in a small country like Cuba that depends on economic relations with the United States. For this reason, to tell the truth, he explained, is the principal objective of his trip to the United States.
His trip is not, he declared, seeking money. Cuba is a poor country, but it does not want to present itself as a country of beggars. Cuba produces little, but what it produces, it will make with its own efforts. Fidel asserted that the public opinion of the United States with respect to Cuba is more important than money. Because in order to improve things in Cuba, “we need good economic relations with this country [the United States].”
Fidel observed that the Republic of Cuba has always maintained friendly relations with the United States with respect to both economic and political affairs. However, only one side has participated in guiding the relation. He recalled that U.S. interventions in Cuba functioned to guarantee property, without listening at all to Cubans, without taking into account the opinion of Cuba. In the republican epoch, he noted, political corruption and political chaos reigned. On the economic plane, Cuba was established as the provider of sugar for the United States, with a taxing, tariff, and pricing structure that ensured that the United States benefited more from the Cuban sugar production than did Cuba, resulting in the depletion of Cuban gold reserves.
Cuba needs to establish industry, Fidel maintained, which requires the purchase of machinery and factory equipment. To obtain the capital for such purchases, Cuba has to sell its agricultural products to the United States, because the Cuban domestic market is small, and the United States has a very large domestic market. “We need to develop our agriculture, so that our peasants will have money to buy industrial and manufactured products.” This is why Cuba needs agrarian reform. “The economic program of our Revolution is based in the development of industry and Agrarian Reform, such that the lands that do not produce are put to production.” An increased agricultural production will enable Cuba to buy not luxury items, but things that will enable Cuba to produce for itself.
Thus, Cuba plans to move away from purchasing in the United States manufactured goods and agricultural products that, in reality, Cuba ought to produce more economically in Cuba. Instead, Cuba will be buying more machines for factories in Cuba and for Cuba’s own industries. “Our program is based in these two ideas: the industrialization of our country, and that every foot of Cuban terrain be productive, because in this form we would be able to place thousands of people on the land and to give employment to thousands of Cubans in the industries.”
Fidel expressed hope that the people of the United States would understand that Cuba is seeking to improve the country in the only manner possible, and that the Cuban Revolutionary Government is defending the right of Cubans to improve their country and their own situation. “We are going to buy more from the United States, but we ought to buy the things that we need to produce the things that we can produce in Cuba. Our commerce with the United States can improve things in a manner that is better for all. It is absolutely impossible for us to progress if we do not work together with the United States, without any threat to the commerce of either.”
Fidel reiterated that Cuba is not seeking money from the United States; Cuba is seeking, first, a just economic relation; and secondly, clear understanding, because understanding is what Cuba needs above all.
Fidel proceeded to outline possibilities for tourism in Cuba. If a million U.S. tourists were to come to Cuba and spend 100 dollars, that would be a manner of aiding Cuba, and the tourists would at the same time enjoy themselves. He pointed out that Cuba has magnificent beaches and a winter like summer, and magnificent places and blue skies. Cuba has unique fishing, as well as sulfur waters for health. He pointed out the damage that is done by speaking of Cuba without knowledge, of spreading propaganda asserting that one ought not go to Cuba because they are putting everyone before the firing squad. He declared that all journalists who desire to come to Cuba will not find closed doors; Cuba is open to all visitors to know the truth about Cuba.
It cannot be said that U.S. journalists responded favorably to Fidel’s appeal sixty-five years ago. The U.S. media has participated, at least implicitly, in the U.S. government’s campaign of regime change with respect to Cuba, never challenging its objectively false premises. In 1960, the North American sociologist C. Wright Mills, who had already written a book making clear the existence of the U.S. power elite, traveled to Cuba and wrote a book presenting the revolutionary point of view, based on sixteen days of interviews with Cuban government officials and Cuban citizens. Listen, Yankee is remembered and appreciated by Cuban scholars to this day. But Mills was an academic sociologist who did some journalistic writing, and the impact of his writing on U.S. political culture was not as great as it would have been if the mainstream media had been more engaged in responding to Fidel’s call.
Fidel concluded, “now I'm going to answer all questions. I don't know what I'm going to be asked, but you can ask me anything you want, and I'll answer.” However, the question-and-answer session has not been transcribed.
A brief video excerpt (1:53) from Fidel’s speech at the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 17, 1959, can be found here:
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Princeton University, April 20, 1959
Fidel maintained at Princeton University that the Cuban Revolution is a real revolution that he thinks will have a great influence over other Latin American countries. It was not made by a class, he maintained. It was made by youth, or at least it was the youth who began the revolution, and then the people joined the revolution, forming a united force with peasants and with the people of the cities. It is a revolution that seeks to benefit first the poor, and then the middle class. Moreover, it is not a revolution based in class-based animosities.
“This revolution was made without class hatred. Our preaching, our speeches, our words were never speeches to divide the classes from each other. There are classes, this is a reality, this is a real truth; but we never preach hate, we never present the revolution as a class event. Our revolution is a revolution for social justice; it is a revolution that benefits the poor, and of course the middle class of our country.”
Fidel further declared that “as a consequence of not having conducted the revolution as a class struggle, we obtained for our revolution a great backing from the people, obtaining at the end the support of 95% of our nation.”
With these declarations, Fidel is responding to the charge of ‘communist infiltration.” He is putting forth the notion that the Cuban Revolution is not at all like what people imagine communism to be.
Fidel also declared that there are many mistaken ideas about what a revolution is, and as a result, everyone seemed to think that a revolution in Cuba was impossible, because Cuba is a country in a relatively good economic situation, in which the people are not dying of hunger, and because the government had a modern army and modern arms. But the Cuban Revolution has discredited these conventional myths through a revolution initiated by youth and unifying the people, against a dictatorship with a modern army and in a country in a relatively good economic situation. Fidel continued on these themes at his subsequent address to the students of the Lawrenceville School.
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Edith Memorial Chapel, Lawrenceville School, New Jersey, April 21, 1959
Fidel stressed at the Lawrenceville preparatory school that the Cuban Revolution was made and directed by youth. The youth were the ones who made possible the overthrow of the dictator. The generation of their parents, he noted, thought that the youth did not know how to do things. It is possible that many things require experience, he acknowledged. But no one does better than the young the political tasks of struggling for ideals, because “only the youth are capable of making great sacrifices.” In Cuba, he noted, “all the sacrifices were made by the youth. Thousands of them were killed during the struggle, most of them not in the field of battle, the majority in the city by the repression of the dictatorship, where the majority were killed at night, without having the opportunity to defend themselves. They were arrested and often they disappeared. The greater the persecution and the terror, the greater was their determination to continue the struggle.”
The determination of the youth, Fidel maintained, was possible because of the courage of Cuban youth. But another very important thing was faith. “We struggled with few resources against a well-armed army, but an army without ideals or morality. Our faith made possible our victory. There is nothing more important in life than to believe in what we are doing, to believe in our ideals.” Mentioning the saying that faith moves mountains, Fidel declared that “what seems impossible to overcome in the end was possible.”
It is no longer a question of a physical struggle, Fidel noted, but of governing. The task of governing is difficult, because nations are composed of millions of persons, with their sentiments, passions, and interests. But the people forgive mistakes, if you are honest, sincere, and really want to improve the nation.
Fidel declared that every time he speaks to youth, he feels a special emotion. He invited the students to come to Cuba, to see what is happening in the neighboring country.
“We expect much of you, the youth of this great nation. You are the hope of the nation. And you, the youth, are the hope of us, the closest neighbors of the United States. We want to find friendship here in this country, and that is why we are very happy to have in you, the students, our best friends, because in the future you will be the leaders and the drivers of this nation. So you can do a lot for your country and for friendship with the rest of the countries of Latin America. I would like to express my gratitude to your people and to you for the honor of receiving me, because I came with pleasure, and it is an honor for me to have been received by the young people of this school.”
Lawrenceville School was at that time an all-white preparatory school for boys, which had not yet admitted black students. Fidel did not call upon the students to acknowledge their “white privilege” in an inherently racist nation. He called upon them, as the future leaders of a great nation, to come to Cuba to seek to understand the Cuban Revolution, which would enable them to do much for their country and for the countries of Latin America. He invited them to participate in a great social transformation that would impact all of the Americas.
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Central Park, New York City, April 24, 1959
Fidel acknowledged the presence among the 40,000 people gathered at New York’s Central Park of Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Central Americans, and Latin Americans, as well as a considerable number of North Americans. He described the Cuban Revolution as the purist and most generous revolution that has been carried out in human history, but it has been badly misunderstood. For this reason, Fidel has undertaken the task of visiting the United States and speaking to the press and the people. He expressed his feeling that, in spite of differences in language and in economic and social situation, common sentiments have been found, rooted in reasoning and justice. It is a triumph for the economically impoverished peoples of Latin America, he observed, that the rich people of the North understand the sentiments of the Cuban Revolution.
He recognized that there were large numbers of Latin Americans in New York City, because they had to flee from dictatorships, poverty, and limited economic opportunity; and many have the dream of returning to their country. For this reason, Latin Americans have perspectives that enable them to better understand the Cuban Revolution.
Fidel explained that as a head of state he must respect the principle of non-intervention in the affairs of states. This principle can never be violated, for it is a principle that functions as a shield protecting the sovereignty of all Latin American nations. Therefore, the Cuban Revolutionary Government cannot run to aid oppressed peoples in other lands. Fidel asserted that he may desire to do so, as he did as a university student. But the highest obligation of the Cuban Revolution is to construct for the American continent the most democratic and just country, which will be an example for all America. “Because to govern for us means to save the Cuban Revolution, and to save the Cuban Revolution means to save justice and above all to save democracy in the American continent.” If the Cuban Revolution fails, what will become of hope in America? Cuba has become an example, and that example must be saved with both emotion and intelligence.
However, this necessary constraint on the Cuban Revolutionary Government will not be an obstacle for the revolutions in Latin American lands, because revolutions are made by the peoples themselves, Fidel observed. Moreover, Cuba can provide moral support and solidarity to the oppressed peoples, which is something that the Latin American revolutions need. Recalling the experience of the Cuban revolutionary struggle, Fidel noted that receiving encouragement from the peoples of other lands was more important than receiving arms.
Fidel observed that he has come to the United States not only to speak of the problems of Cuba, but to address North American public opinion with respect to the common problems of all the Americas. “I have come to say to this great people that there is another great people of America, the people of Latin America. . .. And these men and women that are meeting here in great numbers are expressing the democratic sentiments of this other great people of America.”
The people of the other America, Fidel noted, aspire to develop their own resources and their own economies, so that their sons and daughters will not have to emigrate to North America. The economic development of Latin America does not in any way damage the economic interests of the United States. On the contrary, all will benefit from economic and commercial relations.
Fidel declared that he has faith in the future awakening of the continent and in a future much better than the past. “Everything depends on our faith, everything depends on our own effort, everything depends on us.” We can win friends by explaining our reasons and our aspirations.
Fidel characterized the Cuban Revolution as a democratic and humanist revolution seeking social justice. The Revolution seeks a humanist democracy that satisfies the material needs of the people. Humanism means “not theoretical democracy but real democracy, human rights combined with the satisfaction of human needs.” True democracy postulates the right to employment and to bread.
Fidel addressed the question of the revolutionary tribunals in Cuba. Cuba, he declared, for the first time in four centuries, has punished crime, torture, cruelty, and sadism, in accordance with the expressed will of the people. We punish torturing so that torture will never again exist in our country. He noted that this redemptive work of revolutionary justice, to which the Cuban Revolutionary Government had a duty, and the Cuban people had a right, now is coming to its conclusion.
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Final Considerations
In the sixty-five years since Fidel called the American people to solidarity and moral support for the revolution emerging in the other America, the people of the United States have failed to respond to that call. Although Fidel declared the Cuban Revolution to be exemplary, the people of the United States have not studied its characteristics to attain insight into its own revolutionary potential. The advocates of just causes in the USA have not taken the example of Cuba to forge a united revolution of all sectors of the people, seeing the black revolution, the women’s movement, and the workers’ struggle as dimensions of a united people’s revolution. Nor have they taken the example of Cuban revolutionaries in embracing their nineteenth century forebearers as the initiators of the process that would culminate in full democracy for all, in spite of their limitations in understanding by the standards of the revolution in its more evolved manifestation. They have not noted that Fidel, who possessed a well-grounded understanding of worldwide colonial processes, called George Washington a liberator and not a racist colonialist. Fidel understood that revolutions require comprehensive historical understanding and political intelligence and not virtue signalizing and radical rhetorical grandstanding.
In the sixty-five years since Fidel’s call to the American people in New York’s Central Park, the intellectuals, activists, and politicians of the Left have demonstrated that they are only capable of leading the people to division, and not toward a consensual understanding that could ground the united taking of political power by the people, reorientating U.S. policy toward cooperation with the revolutions of the other America. In the sixty-five years since the call of Fidel to the students of the Lawrenceville School, many youth brigades have traveled to Cuba and have learned about the Cuban revolutionary project, but they have not been able to effectively bring this new knowledge into the public debate in the United States.
But Fidel’s call remains vibrant, indeed, more necessary than ever. An awakening of consciousness is possible, grounded in study of the revolutions of that other world to the South.
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