Of course I know that. The point I was making was that the USA was pragmatic enough to support Tito, regardless of the fact that he was a Communist - demonstrating that to assert "an avowed Communist didn't stand a chance in hell with the US regime" is to mis-state and oversimplify the historic situation and the options available.

It seems highly likely that Castro would have quite happy "to resist being part of the Soviet sphere of influence" - or part of anyone's "sphere of influence" for that matter. But a combination of sanctions and subversion from the USA pushed him into looking for help where he could get it.

Necessity makes strange bedfellows. As Churchill once said "If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons. "