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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With Douglas Brinkley

Aired July 26, 2003 - 14:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Cubans today are marking the 50th anniversary of the lopsided firefight that launched Fidel Castro's revolution. Cuban VIPs are gathering outside an old military barracks in Santiago to observe the Day of National Rebellion, Cuba's most important holiday.
Tonight, the Cubans president will address his invited guests.

Mr. Castro's first assault on the Cuban army failed miserably that July day in 1953, but he would return from exile in Mexico a few years later to topple the government. Let's talk with historian Douglas Brinkley, director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans.

Mr. Brinkley, I lived in Miami for two and a half years and covered the exile community there, which for years has been predicting that Fidel Castro was either going to die or be overthrown. What has been the key to his longevity?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, HISTORIAN: Well, some people think he's a cat with nine lives. He has had a lot of near misses. Just today you are dealing with the anniversary of the 26th of July revolutionary movement. He failed miserably 50 years ago. Half of his men were killed. He eventually, as you mentioned, had to flee in exile.

But he always came back. He came back once in December of 1956 from Mexico with 82 men, and it failed, again, and only 12 of them survived. And he hid in the mountains, and that 12 turns to 800. He has an uncanny way of controlling Cuba. And he does oftentimes by using the United States as his bogeyman. He of course nationalized all American assets in Cuba when he took power on New Year's Day 1959, and continued to make deals with Russia. I would say during the Cold War he was getting oil from Russia, money from the Russia that kept him afloat. Now with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's economic woes are very real and Castro's government looks shakier and shakier every day.

KOPPEL: So are you one of those who believes that the U.S. sanctions that have been in place for decades should be lifted and that that would accelerate his downfall?

BRINKLEY: Well, I think it is a matter of strategy, I think his downfall is coming. The question is will a Castro associate be able to take over for him, or is he unique? And there are people that have different views on that. The important thing from an American point of view is Castro has been a fly in our sherbet since 1959. We thought we could deal with him early on, but crises, when you study American history, like the Bay of Pigs, trying to get rid of him, or the problems we had in the Cuban missile crisis. Even a few years ago, accidentally Cuba shot down an American plane. We, of course, keep a base in Guantanamo to look at him.

He is America's great enemy in the Western hemisphere, because he preaches anti-Americanism and the gospel really of Marxism-Leninism, which is hard to believe it still exists.

Castro scores points, though, for the survival. He's kind of a Hollywood-like figure. He paints himself as the underdog going against giant capitalists in New York and Chicago and Los Angeles. And he is there to try to keep them honest. It doesn't play with most Americans, but Castro does have an audience in the Latin American world, where even great writers, like Garcia Marquez, one of my favorite novelists, oddly has a friendship with Fidel Castro and thinks of him as a great man.

KOPPEL: Well, he's 76 and still ticking, much to the chagrin of many around the world as well. Douglas Brinkley, thank you so much for joining us from New Orleans.

BRINKLEY: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired July 26, 2003 - 14:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Cubans today are marking the 50th anniversary of the lopsided firefight that launched Fidel Castro's revolution. Cuban VIPs are gathering outside an old military barracks in Santiago to observe the Day of National Rebellion, Cuba's most important holiday.
Tonight, the Cubans president will address his invited guests.

Mr. Castro's first assault on the Cuban army failed miserably that July day in 1953, but he would return from exile in Mexico a few years later to topple the government. Let's talk with historian Douglas Brinkley, director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans.

Mr. Brinkley, I lived in Miami for two and a half years and covered the exile community there, which for years has been predicting that Fidel Castro was either going to die or be overthrown. What has been the key to his longevity?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, HISTORIAN: Well, some people think he's a cat with nine lives. He has had a lot of near misses. Just today you are dealing with the anniversary of the 26th of July revolutionary movement. He failed miserably 50 years ago. Half of his men were killed. He eventually, as you mentioned, had to flee in exile.

But he always came back. He came back once in December of 1956 from Mexico with 82 men, and it failed, again, and only 12 of them survived. And he hid in the mountains, and that 12 turns to 800. He has an uncanny way of controlling Cuba. And he does oftentimes by using the United States as his bogeyman. He of course nationalized all American assets in Cuba when he took power on New Year's Day 1959, and continued to make deals with Russia. I would say during the Cold War he was getting oil from Russia, money from the Russia that kept him afloat. Now with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's economic woes are very real and Castro's government looks shakier and shakier every day.

KOPPEL: So are you one of those who believes that the U.S. sanctions that have been in place for decades should be lifted and that that would accelerate his downfall?

BRINKLEY: Well, I think it is a matter of strategy, I think his downfall is coming. The question is will a Castro associate be able to take over for him, or is he unique? And there are people that have different views on that. The important thing from an American point of view is Castro has been a fly in our sherbet since 1959. We thought we could deal with him early on, but crises, when you study American history, like the Bay of Pigs, trying to get rid of him, or the problems we had in the Cuban missile crisis. Even a few years ago, accidentally Cuba shot down an American plane. We, of course, keep a base in Guantanamo to look at him.

He is America's great enemy in the Western hemisphere, because he preaches anti-Americanism and the gospel really of Marxism-Leninism, which is hard to believe it still exists.

Castro scores points, though, for the survival. He's kind of a Hollywood-like figure. He paints himself as the underdog going against giant capitalists in New York and Chicago and Los Angeles. And he is there to try to keep them honest. It doesn't play with most Americans, but Castro does have an audience in the Latin American world, where even great writers, like Garcia Marquez, one of my favorite novelists, oddly has a friendship with Fidel Castro and thinks of him as a great man.

KOPPEL: Well, he's 76 and still ticking, much to the chagrin of many around the world as well. Douglas Brinkley, thank you so much for joining us from New Orleans.

BRINKLEY: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com