As Cardinal Richalieu once wrote, " For the good of the state, the bearer has done what the bearer has done."

The goodness of the state is always based on your perspective when combined with your understanding of what is the truth, your financial self interest, and which side of the gun barrell you are watching the smoke from.

Castro was an opertunista who got a little money from the Soviets and the US to over throw a really bad guy. The Castroistas were wise not to tell Eisenhaure who else was funding their little take over. All Eisenhauer knew was Baptista was not a very good person and anyone willing to kick his ass without getting the USA directly implicated was our kind of Patriot. But I doubt they looked very deep either. The Soviets were happy to have a toehold so close to the US. THe US was happy to get rid of a haven for organized crime. (Its a shame that Eisenhauer didn't know who the other business partners where in this adventure. I think from a stand point of political awareness, more was known about Che Guevera than Fidel Castro at the time.)

This kind of polical shortsightedness is something the US has excelled at for years. We would support anyone in power as long as they weren't communists. It didn't matter how bad the regime in power was or who they killed "...for the good of the state..." as long as they weren't communists.

The communists would go into a third world country with unending money and build schools and hospitals and subvert the locals with education and health. It didn't matter to the locals that the social and historical part of the education was largely based on lies. The uneducated local populations just saw schools and someone willing to help. In typical political shortsightedness the US just saw another anti Soviet ally that only cost them a new car and trip to New York now and then.

This is ofcourse very over simplified ( cause I'm tired of typing.) but accurate in a broad sense.

As to Big Red's openning comment. I never was a fan of Castro except that neat Ridgeway Cap he always wore. Why does he assume that because I think Ashcroft is the Anti-Christ, Bush is a disengenuous tool of big business, and the Patriot Act in all it's possible permutations are Un constitutional and anti American that I must be a Communist sympathyser? What an idjit.

Just so he knows where my politics stand, the last great President we had was Harry Truman, the last good President we had was Gerald Ford.
The next one I'd like to see but he may be too smart to run and I haven't heard from him in awhile is Ben Nighthorse Campbell.

Don