Stephen Kinzer on the sinking of the Maine and pro-war propaganda

Many Americans already felt a passionate hatred for Spanish colonialism and a romantic attachment to the idea of "Cuba Libre."  Their emotions had been fired by a series of wildly sensational newspaper reports that together consitute one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the American press.  William Randolph Hearst, the owner of the New York Journal and a string of other newspapers across the country, had been attracting readers for months with vivid denunciations of Spanish colonialists...

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The moment Hearst heard about the sinking of the Maine, he recognized it as a great opportunity.  For weeks after the explosion, he filled page after page with mendacious "scoops," fabricated interviews with unnamed government officials, and declarations that the battleship had been "destroyed by treachery" and "split in two by an enemy's secret infernal machine."  The Journal's daily circulation doubled in four weeks.  Other newspapers joined the frenzy, and their campaign brought Americans to near-hysteria.

~ Stephen Kinzer, Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq, pp. 36-37

(Editor's note: The role of yellow journalism in whipping Americans into a pro-war frenzy may be overstated.)

Stephen Kinzer on the rise of Fidel Castro

Castro was a pure product of American policy toward Cuba.  If the United States had not crushed Cuba's drive to independence in the early twentieth century, if it had not supported a series of repressive dictators there, and if it had not stood by while the 1952 election was canceled, a figure like Castro would almost certainly not have emerged.  His regime is the quintessential result of a "regime change" operation gone wrong, one that comes back to haunt the country that sponsored it.

~ Stephen Kinzer, Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq, p. 91

Alejandro Regueiro on lessons from growing up in communist Cuba

The faux “white privilege guilt,” virtue signaling, and self-flagellation I see from a handful of real and social media white friends is nauseating. As a Hispanic, my “privilege” is to watch both sides [left and right] make utter fools of themselves, and laugh at their idiocy. As someone born in a communist country [Cuba], and educated well in communist tactics by my father, I’ve been warning friends of the build up to this for 30 years.

The most important thing that my dad taught me about dealing with communists (real ones), was to never give one inch. No compromise. As an example, he always refused to participate when invited to join in on “community work” detail, like cutting sugar cane on the weekend. He was the only person employed in the entire educational system of Cuba that refused to join the union. He was very outspoken, and a college director with great influence, yet while he could name 42 friends and acquaintances that were made paredóns (put against a wall and shot), they respected (or feared) him and wouldn’t touch him. And he had rabid communist militares coming to his classes in full uniform and carrying sidearms.

My parents regularly bought meat (and other foodstuffs) on the black market (direct from farmers and ranchers). Under communism, the prison sentence for buying beef from them was greater than that for infanticide. This in a country that just a few years prior was something around 98% Roman Catholic. The local AK-47 toting neighborhood CDR [Committees for the Defense of the Revolution] commissar could demand to search your bags, car or house at any time. People became fearful of their neighbors snitching on them. My mom would grind coffee at 3 or 4 AM so that neighbors wouldn't smell it.

The mass exodus of talent between '59-'61 was so high, that at 25 or 26 years old, with only a BSME from Rensselaer [Polytechnic Institute], my dad was hired by the Central University to become the founding director of the mechanical engineering school, as a result of a student uprising (they were very unhappy with the quality of the program that had been started a year earlier). When he arrived, a male secretary (unheard of in 1960's Latin America) had been assigned to him. That secretary was a military intelligence officer. My dad was also called twice to meetings with Che Guevara (that's a whole other set of stories about the incompetence of central planning), as Che was the "Minister of Industry" at the time. In early 1966, there was a purge, and all Cubans who were not party members were expelled from their jobs; this included my dad and many of his friends and employees at the university. The President of the university was replaced by a partly loyalist with a 6th grade education.

Native born Americans have a very hard time understanding when I tell them some of these stories, as witnessed by their extremely confused looks and naive questions. I think what's happened over the last 3 months (on top of the 3 years), has them reconsidering some of what they've been hearing from me for 30 years. Communism is hell on earth.

~ Alejandro Regueiro, Facebook post, June 7, 2020