https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/dc.html?doc=4329957-Document-10-Memorandum-of-Conversation-Rough
The document above was a conversation that was made between Fidel Castro, who was visiting the United States in April of 1959, and the then vice president and future president, Richard Nixon. The document was essentially Nixon asking Castro why he lead the revolution and overthrew the government that the United States had set up in Cuba. When Castro had overthrown the U.S. set government in Cuba, many in the United States saw him as a villain. Nixon asked why couldn’t Castro have waited for the people to vote for a new leader and Castro replied with the essentially that the people could no longer wait for elections to happen. The people were angry and the that anger was close to boiling over. Castro decided that he would take the anger of the Cubans and direct them into a revolution that would benefit the people. This is where a major theme of the Cold War era came to play. The people. The people are not the wealthy but the ones that are suffering and are in desperate need of change so that they can continue their lives and live without having to suffer the idea of whether or not they would be able to get their next meal or have to starve again. Nixon tried to cast the idea of a capitalist society that the United States had onto Castro. He believed that he would be able to convince Castro to fall in line and allow the United States to reclaim Cuba as a subsidiary territory. But much to Nixon’s surprise, Castro did not falter. Castro in turn responded with how America may be the greatest country in the world, but it could still be afraid/live in fear. As Castro says in the document “But every place I go you seem to be afraid–afraid of Communism, afraid that if Cuba has land reform it will grow a little rice and the market for your rice will be reduced–afraid that if Latin America becomes more industrialized American factories will not be able to sell as much abroad as they have previously.” This stunned Nixon. Never had he had to think that capitalist America was imperfect and that with just the success of another country, they would have to compete with them to remain at the top. Castro, on the other hand, believes that to satisfy the people is not to just have a booming economy, but rather to satisfy the needs of the people so that everyone could be happy. This is the reason why he chose to resort to a more communist approach to help him in his quest to make Cuba a haven for his people.