Castro Appealing to the Fifth French Republic?

Faraday Cage

After the Cuban Revolution, could Cuba have appealed to France (which was withdrawing from NATO at the time) as an intermediate choice between the US and the USSR in terms of searching for an ally?
 

Hendryk

Banned
He certainly could have, but I don't think de Gaulle, for all his bluster, would have felt cocky enough to mess with America's very backyard in such a blatant way. He would have mentioned to the US that the Monroe Doctrine, which is just a unilateral and informal declaration without legal standing, already makes exceptions for French possessions in the Caribbean. But having embarrassed the Eisenhower administration, he probably wouldn't have pushed it further; Castro's Cuba would have received diplomatic support at the UN, and a number of civilian advisors, but actual military support wouldn't have been forthcoming.

If Eisenhower, or Kennedy or Nixon after him, had pressed the issue, de Gaulle would probably have pulled back, complaining about American imperialism in public, and in private quietly relieved of not actually having to deal with such a cumbersome ally.
 

Faraday Cage

So token support allows Castro's Cuba to survive without the US trying to put Batista back in charge, but without any real ally Cuba remains an insignificant state that remains open to the West and uses the profits of their entertainment and vices to fund a mildly authoritarian welfare state?

Cuba: Scandinavian Style (not that Scandinavia is mildly authoritarian). Finlandized social democratic Cuba.
 
So token support allows Castro's Cuba to survive without the US trying to put Batista back in charge, but without any real ally Cuba remains an insignificant state that remains open to the West and uses the profits of their entertainment and vices to fund a mildly authoritarian welfare state?

Cuba: Scandinavian Style (not that Scandinavia is mildly authoritarian). Finlandized social democratic Cuba.

Why would token support keep the States from getting aggressive with Cuba? There's no risk of global war over it without Russia in the picture, and american assets there have been seized very recently.
 

Hendryk

Banned
Cuba: Scandinavian Style (not that Scandinavia is mildly authoritarian). Finlandized social democratic Cuba.
"Social democratic" isn't how I'd describe even a non-Soviet aligned Castrist Cuba. Left-populist at best, meaning something like present-day Venezuela, and a regular dictatorship at worst.
 
"Social democratic" isn't how I'd describe even a non-Soviet aligned Castrist Cuba. Left-populist at best, meaning something like present-day Venezuela, and a regular dictatorship at worst.

I think he meant that's what Cuba would become, to prevent from being attacked.
 

Faraday Cage

Ok my response was stupid. That said, what about the original premise? Let's say the extreme end of possibility occurs and France sticks to it's guns - what would be worth such action (besides re-establishing itself as a third party in the cold war)? What could it gain from Cuba, not wanting a strategic position against the US. A place to put recently displaced French from Algeria? An excuse to start meddling in Latin America? The first step in a plan to create a more comprehensive force projection capability in hopes of becoming a superpower in the future? Metric tons of sugar cane? Something to brag about?
 
The Soviets poured money (well, commodities) into Cuba because they wanted a base in the area and as a counter to NATO proximity to them.

I really don't see why France would want to be involved with such a (pleasant holiday destination) basket case, given decolonialisation, even if it would politely stick two fingers up at the US and A for riding roughshod over some of its NATO partners during the 1950s: France was never really outside the alliance structure in real terms.
 

Faraday Cage

I suppose if France were going to build a third-party alliance it wouldn't do so first by violating the Munroe Doctrine.

So...you think the US would buy Castro as an active partner in containing Soviet imperialism in Latin America? Strange bedfellows and all that. Except what would the US need with such an intermediary when they could go straight to the countries and set up puppet governments and anti-communist groups themselves?

Could Castro have done anything that could prevent the US from embargoing him or overthrowing him to bring back Batista? Maybe play the US and USSR against each other in a high stakes game that eventually collapses around his head for a dramatic TL?
 
Top