The Extent of Fidel Castro's Achievement of His Aims Between 1959 and 1979

To what extent was Fidel Castro able to achieve his aims between 1959 and 1979, and what prevented him from achieving more? During Fulgencio Batista’s reign in Cuba, Fidel Castro had insistently professed his dissatisfaction with the government, and when he finally took over in 1959, he effected a government that formed the basis from which the criticism of many historians today derives. To a minimal extent, Fidel Castro was able to achieve his aims between 1959 and 1979. Revealed in the 26th of July Movement’s doctrine, Castro’s goals called for Cuba to become fully independent and purely democratic while having a just society. Castro’s goals were hindered not only by the dependence on the U.S., but also on the Soviet Union after relations with the U.S. intensified. By the end of his reign, Castro had not upheld his initial revolutionary ideology; therefore, he did not achieve his aims for Cuba to the greater extent. In one of his aims, Castro hoped to see Cuba become independent. In order to become less dependent on foreign countries, Castro implemented an economic reform that would allow Cuba to become less dependent on the foreign countries. He wanted to create a more centralized economy by confiscating businesses, many of which were American-owned. The U.S. saw this attempt of nationalization as a direct challenge to their interests, thus they removed the sugar quota placed an embargo on Cuba, threatening to destroy the base of the Cuban economy. Cuba had now become independent from U.S. trade, but with no means self-sufficiency, Cuba turned to another group–the socialist/communist nations in the eastern hemisphere. Cuba had increased their sugar production tremendously because of Castro’s speech, “The Year of Decisive Endeavor,” in 1963 which set a production goal of 10 million tons of sugar by 1970 so that Cuba could industrialize and become more self-reliant. USSR began buying this Cuban sugar in return for industrial equipment and machinery which