End of an Era: Fidel Castro steps down

Evil genius is still genius. Last week, the ailing Fidel Castro finally told the world that he had done enough for his lifetime. Castro has outlived all his comrades and opponents in the Cold War alike: Khruschev, Kennedy and Reagan. As a young revolutionary, Castro inspired both awe and admiration in the United States in the spring of 1959; addressing the people with the air of a man who knew the solutions to all the problems of the world. Three years later, he would send a chill down America's spine. Incredibly, even as the world's most powerful nation scours the mountains of Afghanistan and digs its enemies out of foxholes in Iraq, they can only heave in fury as Castro decries them in their own backyard.


Sometime in 1959, the United States, enraged by Castro's ascension, worked overtime to overthrow him. They failed and then went into a jealous sulk that resulted in the longest trade embargo in history. As the Communist world collapsed around him, Castro held fast, as the sole proponent of an idea whose time had passed. last major Cold War personality fades into memory, we need to examine the World Order that is upon us today.

Click to read the New York Times photo essay: Three days with Fidel

1) The impact on Cuba: About a year ago, when the news that Castro’s health was failing had been broken to the world, the Cuban American community, particularly in and around Miami had celebrated with much hope and anticipation. Diplomatic agencies of the US government had also shown much enthusiasm. However, this time round, politicians and people shrugged off the news with a sense of the inevitable. President Bush spoke, somewhat philosophically, about the need for democracy in Cuba and there were some vague murmurs from the State Department about this being a “new beginning” for the island nation.

The US realizes, as does the rest of the world, that Castro, unlike many dictators before him, did not run a one-man regime. Although he donned the mantle of “Supreme Leader” with ease, there was always more to him than his overwhelming personality. Behind the scenes, Castro brought up hardboiled men of blood and iron to succeed him. Somewhat ironically, however, the man who fought against class privileges all his life will be succeeded by his own brother Raul. It seems unlikely that there will be a mad scramble for succession that has been the doom of so many autocracies and dictatorships before. At 75, Raul Castro is no young man himself: which means that the Inner Party elite has about five to six years to wage their battle of wills. Blood will flow, but it will be spilled indoors and wiped off the floor…

The Cuban dictators have also benefited from America’s new and more pressing concern over state sponsors of terrorism, such as Iran. As the US remains preoccupied with its larger battle with the Muslim World, the Communists can have a free run in Cuba… unless, of course, they get too cozy with Ahmedinajad. Meanwhile America will continue to sulk and maintain its trade embargo with Cuba, even as many Americans continue underhand trade relations with the country. In fact, in August 2005, Governor David Heineman (a Republican ... no less!) of Nebraska even led a trade delegation to Cuba and told journalists that the trade embargo was a matter of “federal policy” he could not bother to concern himself with. Add to this the growing clout of the Chinese over world events and their obvious sympathies for the Cuban regime and it seems likely that the communist party will rule the state for a very long time to come.

2) India, Cuba and the NAM: It would take a leap of imagination (or a diplomat!) to believe that either India or Cuba was “non aligned” during the Cold War; but nevertheless the two nations have a long diplomatic association that cannot be wished away. One of India’s biggest foreign policy blunders was Prime Minister Singh’s visit to Havana in Sep, 2006: it was a signal to the international community that India was still ready to parley with ghosts of the Cold War. India cannot become a superpower without choosing sides. India was never at the table as an independent entity when the United Nations came into being in the winter of 1945, which is why we are still pining for a permanent seat at the Security Council and the right to join the NPT as a nuclear weapons state. The tragedy of the last two centuries is that India never came close to realizing its own potential; but we know that our time is now! Unless we shake off the ghosts of the past, withdraw from unprofitable alliances (such as the NAM) and engage the great powers courageously, we will never be able to throw our weight around. To become a great power, we need to be seen in the association of other great powers; in the corridors of power and in the halls of influence; as generous friend and a terrible foe. Sitting around minions in the NAM is not suited to our purpose.

That said, Nehru’s contribution to world peace can hardly be underestimated. In the nervous fifties, countless new nations were formed in the wake of the breakup of the British Empire. Both the US and the USSR looked towards these nations as pawns in their power game. Imagine the suffering that came upon mankind when the great Cold War rivalries were played out in nations such as Korea and Vietnam. Imagine what could have happened if Nehru, along with some notable others, such as Sukarno, Nasser and Tito had not persuaded these new nations to adopt some semblance of neutrality in this conflict…. If every single one of those states had become a theatre of the US-USSR war, would there have been a world left?

3) Castro’s legacy and the new world order: In the half century after the Great War, Communism rose and fell around Castro. More significantly, we live in a larger world with many more power centres. Worst of all, the newfound weapon of terrorism is such that the enemy is both within and without.

Although Communism has been soundly discredited, democracy has not made much headway either. Notice that the list of democracies today is roughly the same as it was thirty years ago: the new democracies that were formed after the Cold War ended have either degenerated into quasi-dictatorships (like that of Putin in Russia) or been plunged into a chaos of ethnic rivalries and economic ruin (like Hungary or Estonia).

The United States is the undisputed winner in the Cold War. The war having been “cold”, its enemies have been vanquished only in will, but not in form. It is only too easy to see the shades of the Communist Party in the way Putin’s “United Russia” Party operates today. China has embraced Russia to create a diabolical military alliance, the SCO. It is an obvious rerun of Cold War sentiments.

The intellectual successor to Fidel Castro is Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Significantly, Chavez has united not only his oil rich nation behind him, but also been able to tap into overwhelming anti-US sentiment in South America. The anti-US hatred is not just a matter of ideology, it has a pronounced racist angle: a hatred of the “Gringo”, or white man. Chavez has been courting the Iranian president, a man who is the object of most Hitler metaphors these days. And this duo has received adulation from the Russian people and their President and plenty of moral and economic support from China. Perhaps Winston Churchill would refer to this as the “Gathering Storm”.