Fidel Castro had been in power for two years and the harsh realities of trying to run a strict socialist political and economic programme so close to the United States had begun to take its toll. This only served to increase Castro’s determination to build an egalitarian utopia. In doing so, he had to rely increasingly upon the help and goodwill of the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries.
On 2 January the victory anniversary parade included Soviet Bloc rocket launchers, tanks and heavy artillery. In his speech, Castro demanded that the United States clear the nest of spies out of their embassy in Havana and leave only eleven people: the same number as staffed the Cuban Embassy in Washington. In response, the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba the next day.
Castro insisted that his regime was not Communist, but by February 1961 he had started to soften these protestations. He acknowledged that Cuba’s Communist Party was ‘the only Cuban party that has always clearly proclaimed the necessity for radical change of the island’s social structure. It is also true,’ he said,
that at first the Communists distrusted me and us rebels. It was a justified distrust, an absolutely correct position, ideologically and politically. The Communists were right to be distrustful because we of the Sierra, leaders of the guerrillas, were still full of petty-bourgeois prejudices and defects, despite Marxist reading. The ideas were not clear to us, though we wanted with all our strength to destroy tyranny and privileges. Then we came together, we understood each other, and began to collaborate. The Communists have given much blood, much heroism, to the Cuban cause. Now we continue to work together; loyally and fraternally.
Sporadic acts of sabotage and terrorism against Cuba ran in parallel with the arrest of spies, such as the CIA’s Carlos Antonio Cabo, and leaders of anti-revolutionary groups still based in Cuba, some of whom were executed. The actions against Castro’s regime culminated in the bombing of Cuban airfields on 15 April and the Bay of Pigs invasion on 17 April.
Two weeks later, chastened to some extent by the attempt to invade but emboldened by its failure, Castro gave a powerful May Day speech at the end of a long day of celebrations. He spoke about the success over imperialism and condemned President Kennedy’s support for the invasion, saying:
Let us not talk about what would have happened if the imperialists had won. There is no sadder picture than a defeated revolution. That is why we were thinking that every smile today was like a tribute to those who made possible this hopeful day. The blood that was shed was the blood of workers and peasants, the blood of humble sons of the people, not blood of land-owners, millionaires, thieves, criminals, or exploiters…
Rights do not come from size. Right does not come from one country being bigger than another. That does not matter. We have only limited territory, a small nation, but our right is as respectable as that of any country, regardless of its size. It does not occur to us to tell the people of the United States what system of government they must have. Therefore it is absurd for Mr Kennedy to take it into his head to tell us what kind of government he wants us to have here. That is absurd.
He likened Kennedy to Hitler and Mussolini, and continued:
We do not endanger the security of a single North American. We do not endanger the life or security of a single North American family. We, making cooperatives, agrarian reform, people’s ranches, houses, schools, literacy campaigns, and sending thousands and thousands of teachers to the interior, building hospitals, sending doctors, giving scholarships, building factories, increasing the productive capacity of our country, creating public beaches, converting fortresses into schools, and give the people the right to a better future – we do not endanger a single US family or a single US citizen.
The revolutionary government continued to prosecute and severely punish those who participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion and other acts against Cuba. On 23 September, an American and five Cubans were executed by firing squad for their part in the Bay of Pigs.
Administratively, or perhaps simply organisationally, the economic and social reforms were successful, but they did not bring with them any degree of prosperity. More help was needed. Castro at last succumbed to the inevitable and, on 2 December 1961, declared himself a convert to the Marxist–Leninist cause.