The Cuban revolution: when Fidel Castro seized control of Cuba 55 years ago, he set off a bitter confrontation with the U.S. that continues today.

• Author: DePalma, Anthony
• Position: TIMES PAST 1959

On New Year's Eve 1958, as partygoers at a swank Havana hotel feasted on turtle soup and filet mignon, Fidel Castro and his ragtag rebel army geared up in their mountaintop stronghold for a final, all-out offensive against the Cuban government they'd been fighting for two years. When Cubans awoke on the first morning of 1959, they were shocked to see Castro's rebels marching into Havana without a fight. Cuban President Fulgencio Batista was gone, having fled in the dark of night.

Americans were in for a surprise too: Little did they realize that Castro's stunning victory would make the pint-size Caribbean nation just 90 miles from Florida a bitter enemy of the United States or that Cuba, the Soviet Union, and the U.S. would soon come very close to igniting the world's first nuclear war.

By the time Castro came to power, Cubans already had lived for most of the previous four centuries under repressive rulers. A colony of Spain since the early 1500s, Cuba tried to break free in the mid-19th century, but the independence movement was brutally suppressed. During the Spanish-American War of 1898, three years after the start of Cuba's second uprising, the U.S. intervened on Cuba's behalf, helping it form its first independent government in 1902. But the U.S. retained the right to intervene in Cuban affairs until 1934 and dominated Cuba's economy until 1959, fueling resentment among some Cubans (see Timeline, p. 20).

In 1933, Fulgencio Batista, who was a sergeant in the Cuban Army, staged a military coup and ruled the country through a series of puppet presidents for more than two decades.

The Cold War

Under Batista, gambling and corruption were widespread, political dissent was crushed, and elections were a farce. But as the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviets heated up, the U.S. recognized Batista's government because he, like other Latin American strongmen in the 1950s, opposed Communism.

During that decade, Cuba was one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America. But while people in large cities like Havana prospered, most people in the countryside were desperately poor.

Fidel Castro, a young Havana lawyer, had been a candidate for Cuba's congress in 1952, but the elections were canceled after Batista seized power in yet another coup. Capitalizing on anti-American sentiment, Castro launched an insurrection against Batista in 1953, starting with an attack on a military barracks in Santiago.

The attack failed. Most of Castro's men were killed or captured, and he and his younger brother Raul were thrown into prison. Released in 1955, they went into exile in Mexico and plotted their return.

When the Castros and their small band of supporters came back to Cuba on a leaky yacht in December 1956, Batista's forces were waiting for them. Most of the invaders were wiped out, and The New York Times reported that Fidel and Raul Castro were among those killed.

They survived, of course, along with the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Making their way into the Sierra Maestra mountains, they set up camp and began training a guerrilla army.

For the next two years, Batista fought Castro and other opposition groups. His regime became increasingly brutal, and in 1958, the U.S. cut off all support. By New Year's Eve, Batista knew he was doomed.

During the fighting, Castro never said he was a Communist. He said he didn't want power for himself and promised quick elections. In an interview with an American correspondent while in the mountains, Castro even sounded like someone the U.S. might like. "You can be sure we have no animosity toward the United States," Castro said. "Above all, we...