Important Anniversaries of the Cuban Revolution
April 16-19, 1961
Excerpts from Speech by Fidel Castro Discussing U.S. State Terrorism and Affirming the Socialist Revolution
Posted below are excerpts from the speech delivered by Cuba’s Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz on April 16, 1961 at the intersection of 23rd and 12th Streets in Havana across from the Colon cemetery, at the funeral for the victims of U.S. state terrorist attacks on Cuban airports on April 15, and the day before U.S.-backed mercenaries attempted their invasion at Playa Girón. In the speech, Fidel outlines the increasingly provocative nature of U.S. state terrorism directed at Cuba, that at that time appeared to be headed for an all-out military invasion. Fidel also points out the U.S. imperialists’ perfidy and use of disinformation to justify and cover up their crimes as part and parcel of this state terrorism. The speech concludes with Fidel’s historic declaration of the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution and a call to arms to the people to defend their homeland.
In recent days, weeks ago, a pirate boat entered the port of Santiago de Cuba, opened fire on the refinery located there, while also causing casualties by shooting at the soldiers and sailors stationed at the entrance to the bay.
Everyone knew that such an operation, with vessels of that nature could not be carried out without boats facilitated by the Americans and supplied by the Americans somewhere in the Caribbean.
That event placed our country in a special situation: it made us live, in the twentieth century, like the towns and villages on this continent were forced to live during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as cities and towns were forced to live during the age of pirates and filibusters. It placed our country in a special situation by virtue of which our factories, our citizens, our towns, had to live at the mercy, if not of a plane that would burn our sugar cane fields, an airplane that tried to drop a bomb on our sugar mills, or an airplane that caused victims among our population, or a ship that raided our ports and brazenly bombarded them – something that had never happened, something that has never happened in this century in this continent.
Because this continent had certainly known what naval cannons were; because this continent had indeed known what the bombing of cities was; and this continent had known what the landing of foreign troops was. Mexico had known it, Nicaragua had seen it, Haiti had seen it and Santo Domingo had seen it too. Moreover, Cuba had seen it because all these peoples have known what the United States fleets and cannons were and all these peoples have had the opportunity of knowing what interventions of the United States Marines were all about.
What no other people in this continent ever had the opportunity of knowing was that kind of harassment by air and by sea, that kind of hostilities by air and by sea; what this continent never had the opportunity to witness – a continent that had known interventions, a continent that had known mercenary armies organized by the United States – what no people of this continent had ever had the opportunity to witness was the systematic action by the United States Government’s secret services; that systematic action of sabotage and destruction by a powerful entity with all its economic resources and the most modern means of sabotage and destruction. What no other people of this continent ever had to know was the struggle against the United States government’s Central Intelligence Agency, fully committed, under its government’s instructions, to hindering the peaceful and determined march of a nation, to destroying systematically the fruit of our people’s labour; to systematically destroying the economic resources, the commercial establishments, the industries, and what is even worse: the precious lives of workers, peasants and hardworking and honest citizens of this country.
No other people in America had known this kind of struggle, neither had they suffered the raids by pirate planes and boats, or the internationally organized sabotage perpetrated by a powerful agency, which possesses as I said, powerful economic and technical resources for that purpose.
Our country became perhaps the only country in the world whose towns and cities could be harassed by pirate planes, whose ports could be attacked by pirate boats. And to the best of our knowledge, there was not, and there still is not a single country today, not a single case of a country, that is not at war with any other country or involved in a civil war, forced to withstand this kind of attack by pirate planes and boats, as well as suffer the systematic campaign of the destruction of the wealth and the lives of Cubans that the secret services of the United States is waging.
But with all that, none of the previous events had been, as in yesterday’s case, an aggression of a typically military nature. It was not the flight of a pirate plane, it was not the incursion of a pirate ship: it was nothing less than a simultaneous attack in three different cities of the country, at the same hour, at dawn; it was an operation with all the rules of military operations.
Three simultaneous attacks at dawn, at the same time, in the city of Havana, in San Antonio de los Baños and in Santiago de Cuba. Three points distant from each other, and one in particular, distant from the other two; attacks carried out by B-26 bombers, with the dropping of bombs of high destructive power, with the launching of rockets and strafing on three different points of the national territory. It was an operation with all the characteristics and all the rules of a military operation.
It was also a surprise attack; it was an attack similar to those types of attacks with which the vandal governments of Nazism and fascism used to attack nations. The fascist governments of Europe did not respect the terms of the declaration of war. The attacks against the peoples of Europe by Hitler hordes were always attacks of this nature: attacks without warning, attacks without a declaration of war, devious and treacherous attacks, and sneak attacks. And how Poland, Belgium, Norway, France, Holland, Denmark, Yugoslavia and other European countries were invaded by surprise. […]
[T]he struggle in our case today is between an imperialist government and a revolutionary government, the struggle between a warmongering and aggressive imperialism and a social revolution that destroys, precisely, all forms of exploitation, not only the exploitation of one people by another, but even the exploitation of part of the people by its fellow countrymen.
What makes us different from the United States is that the United States is a country that exploits other peoples; a country that has taken hold of a significant part of the world’s natural resources and forces tens of millions of workers from all over the world to work in the interest of its caste of millionaires. In addition, we are not a country that exploits other peoples; we are not a country that has taken hold of, or that is fighting to take hold of other people’s natural resources; we are not a country that is trying to make other peoples’ workers labour for our own benefit.
We are exactly the opposite: a country that is fighting so that its workers do not have to work for the caste of U.S. millionaires (Applause). We are building a country that is fighting to rescue our natural resources, and we have rescued our natural resources from the hands of the caste of U.S. millionaires.
We are not a country, which by virtue of its system keeps the majority of the people, of workers, of the country’s masses, which are made up of the workers and peasants, working for an exploiting and privileged minority of millionaires. We are not a country which under its system has huge segments of its population neglected and discriminated against, as are the Black masses in the United States. We are not a country under whose system a minority of the people live parasitically, at the expense of the labour and sweat of the majority.
With our Revolution, we are not only eradicating the exploitation of one nation by another nation; we are also eradicating the exploitation of men by men! (Applause)
Yes! We have declared in a historic general assembly that we condemn the exploitation of men by men (Applause); we condemn the exploitation of man by man and have eradicated in our homeland the exploitation of man by man! (Applause and exclamations of “Fidel! Fidel!”)
What makes us different from the United States is that there, a government of privileged and powerful castes has established a system by virtue of which that caste exploits men in the very United States and that caste exploits men outside the United States.
Politically speaking, the United States is a system of exploitation of several nations by one nation; a system of exploitation of men by other men.
[…]
With all certainty, the imperialist government of the United States acts this way with us because we are not a powerful country; with all certainty they act this way with us because they know we cannot respond to them in kind for the criminal and cowardly acts they perpetrated against us (Applause) With all certainty: if we were a powerful country, militarily speaking, the imperialist government of the United States would never dare perpetrate such acts against us! (Applause and exclamations of “Murderers!”)
[…]
And yesterday’s events are going to teach us, these painful events of yesterday are going to illustrate to us, and will show us, perhaps with more clarity than with any other event to date, what imperialism really is.
Maybe you have an idea of what imperialism is; you have probably wondered many times before what imperialism was and what that word meant.
Could it be that imperialists really mean something so bad? Could it be that there is too much passion in all those accusations? Are all the things we have heard about U.S. imperialism the product of sectarianism? Are all those assertions about U.S. imperialism really true? (Exclamations of “Yes!”) Are US imperialists as shameless as they appear to be? (Exclamations of “Yes!”) Are American imperialists all the rogues and evil they are claimed to be? (Exclamations of “Yes!”) Are the American imperialists as bloodthirsty, vile and cowardly as they are said to be? (Exclamations of “Yes!”) Or is it exaggeration? (Exclamations of “No!”) Or is it sectarianism? (Exclamations of “No!”) Or is it an excess of passion? (Exclamations of “No!”)
Would it be possible that the imperialists really do the things they are said to have done? Would everything that has been said about their vandalism, their provocations in the international arena really be true? Were they really the ones that provoked the war in Korea (Exclamations of “Yes!”)
How difficult it was to know what was going on in the world, when the only news that reached our country was the American news! How much deception did they instill in us, and how many lies were we the victims of? If anyone has any doubt, if any person of good faith in this country – and I am not referring to the miserable gusanera (the counterrevolutionaries) – I am speaking about men and women with honest ideas, even if they do not think the way we do. If anyone had any doubt left, if anyone believes there is an iota of honour left in the Yankee policy; if anyone believes there is an iota of dignity or honesty or justice left in the Yankee policy. If anyone in this country still has any doubt,, in this fortunate country that has the opportunity of seeing, of learning in spite of it being a bloody lesson, a lesson of freedom, a lesson of dignity. (Applause)
If there is anyone in this country, which has had the privilege of watching how an entire people has become a people of heroes, a people of proud and courageous men (Applause); if there is anyone in this country – whose merits, heroism and sacrifices grow by the day – still has any doubt; if those who do not think the same way we do believe they are raising or defending an honourable banner, a just banner, and because of that they are pro-Yankee and defenders of the U.S. government; if there is anyone of good faith left in our country, may these facts, which we will further analyze, serve to dispel all of their doubts. (Applause)
Yesterday at 6:00 am sharp, as everyone knows, three groups of bombers penetrated the national territory from abroad and attacked three points of the national territory. At each of these points, there were men who defended themselves heroically. In each of these points, the courageous blood of the defenders was shed. In each of these points, there were thousands, if not hundreds and hundreds of witnesses of what happened there. Besides, it was something we expected to happen; every day we had been expecting this to happen. It was the logical climax to the burning of sugarcane fields, the hundreds of violations of our airspace, the incursions of pirate aircraft, and the pirate attacks against our refineries perpetrated by a boat that made it into our territory one day in the early hours of the morning. It was the consequence of what everybody knows; it was the consequence of the aggressive plans forged by the United States with the complicity of puppet regimes in Central America; it was the consequence of the air bases that the people know about and everybody knows about, because even the American news agencies and newspapers have published it, and their own agencies and newspapers are tired of talking about the mercenary armies they train, the airfields they have ready, the planes that the U.S. Government has given to them, the Yankee advisors and the air bases established on Guatemalan soil.
All the Cuban people knew about it, the entire world knew it. The attack took place yesterday in front of thousands upon thousands of men; and what do you think the Yankee government has said in the face of this unbelievable fact? This was no longer a question of the La Coubre explosion, carried out as an act of sabotage in a sly and covert manner; this time it was a simultaneous attack on three points of the national territory, with artillery, with bombs, with rockets, with warplanes, for everyone to see. It was a public act, and an expected act, an act that was foreseen, the world knew about it.
And to ensure there is clear historical record, so that our people can learn once and for all, and so that part of the peoples in the Americas who I can reach may learn, even if it is only a ray of light of truth, I will explain to the people, I will show them how the imperialists act. (Applause)
Do you think that the world would ever get to know about the attack against Cuba? Do you think that the world would ever get to know what happened? Do you think or have you ever conceived that it could be possible to silence the echo of the criminal bombs and rockets that were dropped yesterday on our homeland? That this would have occurred to anyone? That someone would try to deceive the entire world, to hide the truth from the entire world, to defraud the entire world? Well, yesterday they not only perpetrated a cunning and criminal attack against our country, whose plans everybody knew. They used Yankee planes, Yankee bombs, and Yankee weapons, as well as mercenaries paid by the Yankee Central Intelligence Agency. They not only did that; they not only destroyed national assets; they not only ended the lives of young people, many of whom had hardly reached the age of 20. (Exclamations) Besides, in addition to all that, yesterday the U.S. government tried to deceive the world in the most cynical and shameless way one could ever imagine. (Applause)
Here is the proof, here are the proofs of how imperialism acts, of all the mechanics of how imperialism operates, of how imperialism not only commits crimes against the world, but also cheats the world. But imperialism swindles the world not only by stealing its oil, its minerals, the fruit of the peoples’ labour, but it cheats the world morally by foisting onto the world its lies and the most gruesome things anyone can imagine.
Here is the proof. Before our people we are going to read what imperialism told the world, we are going to show what the world was told yesterday, what imperialism told the world, and what perhaps dozens upon dozens of millions of human beings have been led to believe. We are going to show what thousands of newspapers published yesterday, what thousands and thousands of radio or television stations broadcasted yesterday about what happened in Cuba, what the world or a large part of the world, a considerable part of the world heard through the Yankee agencies.
[Fidel reads out several reports from United Press International (UPI) and the Associated Press (AP) aimed at slandering Cuba and covering up U.S. responsibility for the terrorist attacks on Cuban airports the day before, by planes falsely painted with the insignia of the Cuban Air Force and also falsely claimed to be flown by defectors from Cuba.]
Look at how imperialism works, how much disrespect [it has] for the world. Everyone knew they had the planes there [in Guatemala], they even had the Cuban flags and insignias painted on the planes; it’s been published countless times[…]
Now, it does not end there; now let us finish unmasking this fraudster imperialism has in the UN who presents himself as an illustrious, liberal, left-leaning man, etc. etc., Mr. Adlai Stevenson, a shameless hypocrite. The fraud continues, that is, the swindle of the world goes on: UPI and AP have spread the tale, thousands of reactionary newspapers… and they themselves publish it, that the main newspapers welcomed the news of the pilots’ defections.
[…]
“‘The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, rejected [Cuban Foreign Minister Raúl] Roa’s claims and reiterated the statement made by President John F. Kennedy that under no circumstances” – I repeat – ” under no circumstances whatsoever, would there be a direct intervention by U.S. military forces against Cuba. Stevenson showed the Commission photographs from United Press International showing two airplanes that landed in Florida today after taking part in the raids against three Cuban cities.'”
Then Stevenson says: “They have the mark of Castro’s Air Force on their tails, he said, pointing to one of them, they have the star and the Cuban initials; these are clearly visible. I will exhibit this photograph with pleasure. Stevenson added that those two planes were piloted by officers of the Cuban Air Force and manned by deserters from the Castro regime. No U.S. personnel participated in the incident today, and the planes were not from the United States, he emphasized, they were Castro’s own planes that took off from his own airfields.”
“The Cuban minister said that ‘the incursions during the early morning hours today were no doubt the prelude to an attempted full-scale invasion organized, supplied and financed by Washington. The Government of Cuba, said Roa, solemnly accuses the U.S. Government before this commission and world public opinion of attempting to use force to settle its differences with member States.”
Here we have the opportunity, as has been rarely the case for any other people, to know inside out, from the sides, from above and from below what imperialism is all about. Here we can witness the work of its financial, publicity, political and mercenary apparatus, its secret corps and its officials, who so calmly and in an unprecedented manner, deceive the world!
That is to say, they organize the attack, they prepare the attack, they train the mercenaries, equip them with planes and bombs, prepare the airports, everybody knows it; the attack takes place and then they simply make a declaration to the world – a world that they know would feel outraged in the face of such a monstrous and cowardly violation of peoples’ rights and peace! (Applause)
And these miserable imperialists, after casting a pall over half a dozen households, after assassinating a group of youngsters, who were not millionaires; because those whom we’ve come here to bury were not parasite millionaires, they were not mercenaries who sold themselves for the gold of any foreign country; they were not thieves. They are true sons of our people! (Prolonged applause) They were young workers, children from families of humble people who never stole anything from anyone, who never exploited anyone, who never lived off the sweat of anyone, and who had more right to live than the millionaires and who had more right to live than the parasites and the gusanos! (Applause) Because they did not live off the labour of others, like the Yankee millionaires. They did not live off foreign gold, like the mercenaries and counterrevolutionaries who have sold out to imperialism. They did not live off of vice and robbery. Their lives deserve respect, and no miserable imperialist millionaire has the right to send planes, bombs or rockets to destroy those young and beloved lives of the homeland! (Applause)
And those who agree with such crimes; those who agree with such atrocities, those who miserably sell themselves out and support the activities of those criminals, those who conspire against the homeland out in the streets, in the churches, in schools, wherever, deserve to be treated by the Revolution the way they deserve! (Applause and exclamations of “Firing Squad! Firing Squad!”)
These are the crimes of imperialism, these are the lies of imperialism, and then come the archbishops to bless their lies! (Exclamations of “Get out!”) Then come the clergy to bless their lies!
The imperialists plan the crime, organize the crime, furnish the criminals with weapons for the crime, train the criminals, pay the criminals, and then those criminals come here and murder the sons of seven honest workers, after which they calmly land in the U.S. and although the whole world knows of their deeds, they just state that they were Cuban pilots, make up a ridiculous tale and broadcast it to the whole world and publish it in all the reactionary newspapers, radio and television stations of those of the reactionary gusanera of the world. And then come the archbishops and bless and sanctify the lie (Boos and exclamations of “Get out!”). That is how they become partners in crime, in crime and lies, all that gang of mercenaries, exploiters, fraudsters of the world! (Applause)
Is there any honest Cuban unable to understand that? Is there any honest Cuban having any doubt? If there still is a Cuban who doubts it, if this evidence were not enough, but who, understanding this way of operating, was capable of comprehending, you have [the three airports of] San Antonio, FAR [Revolutionary Armed Forces] and Santiago de Cuba. Let them go there and see for themselves if there is a hint of truth in what they have said; let them see for themselves how the imperialist reactionaries and a shameless clergy are deceiving the world and the peoples; let them realize it is time for the peoples to rid themselves of the exploitation, deception and fraud of the imperialists and all shams in this world; and break loose from those shackles, no matter the cost! (Prolonged applause)
[…]
[W]hat the imperialists cannot forgive us for is that we are here. What the imperialists cannot forgive us for is the dignity, the integrity, the courage, the firmness of ideas, the spirit of sacrifice, and the revolutionary spirit of the people of Cuba. (Applause)
That is what the imperialists cannot forgive us for, that we are here under their very noses and that we have made a socialist revolution under the very nose of the United States! (Applause and exclamations: “We are standing firm and marching on, and if you don’t like it you can lump it!”)
And that we defend this socialist revolution with these rifles! (Applause) That we defend this socialist revolution with the same courage shown yesterday when our anti-aircraft artillerymen riddled the aggressor’s planes with bullets!
[…]
[W]e do not defend this Revolution with mercenaries; we defend this Revolution with the men and women of the people.
Who has the weapons? Are those weapons by any chance in the hands of mercenaries? (Exclamations of “No!”) Are those weapons in the hands of millionaires? (Exclamations of “No!”) Because mercenaries and millionaires are one and the same thing. Are those weapons by any chance in the hands of the children of the rich? (Exclamations of “No!”) Are those weapons in the hands of the foremen? (Exclamations of “No!”) Who has those weapons? (Exclamations) Whose hands are those that are raising these weapons? (Exclamations) Are they the hands of the rich spoiled kids? (Exclamations of “No!”) Are they the hands of the rich? (Exclamations of “No!”) Are they the hands of the exploiters? (Exclamations of “No!”) Whose hands are those that are raising these weapons? (Exclamations) Aren’t they workers’ hands? (Exclamations of “Yes!”) Aren’t they the hands of the peasants? (Exclamations of “Yes!”) Aren’t these the hands toughened by labour? (Exclamations of “Yes!”) Aren’t these hands that create? (Exclamations of “Yes!”) Aren’t these the humble hands of the people? (Exclamations of “Yes!”) And, who are the majority of the people? The millionaires or the workers? The exploiters or the exploited? The privileged or the humble?” (Exclamations) Aren’t the weapons in the hands of the privileged? (Exclamations of “No!”) Are they in the hands of the humble? (Exclamations of “Yes!”) Aren’t the privileged the minority? (Exclamations of “Yes!”) Aren’t the humble the majority? (Exclamations of “Yes!”) Isn’t a Revolution democratic when it is the humble ones who are holding the weapons? (Applause and Exclamations of “Yes!” and “Fidel! Fidel!” and other revolutionary slogans.)
Comrade workers and peasants, this is the socialist and democratic Revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble. And for this Revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble we are ready to give our lives. (Exclamations)
Workers and peasants, humble men and women of our country, do you swear to defend this Revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble until the last drop of blood? (Applause and Exclamations of “Yes!”)
Comrade workers and peasants of the homeland: yesterday’s attack was the prelude to the mercenaries’ aggression. Yesterday’s attack, which cost seven heroic lives, was aimed at destroying our planes on the ground. But the mercenaries failed; they only destroyed three planes, and the bulk of the enemy planes were damaged or shot down. Here, in front of the tombs of our fallen comrades; beside the remains of the heroic youth, children of workers and children of humble families, let us reaffirm our determination that, just as they faced the bullets, just as they gave their lives, no matter when the mercenaries might come, all of us, proud of our Revolution, proud to defend this Revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble, shall not hesitate to confront whoever may come and defend it to the last drop of blood. (Applause)
Long live the workers! (Exclamations of “Long live!”)
Long live the peasants! (Exclamations of “Long live!”)
Long live the humble! (Exclamations of “Long live!”)
Long live the martyrs of the homeland!” (Exclamations of “Long live!”)
Long live the heroes of the homeland!” (Exclamations of “Long live!”)
Long live the Socialist Revolution! (Exclamations of “Long live!”)
Long live free Cuba! (Exclamations of “Long live!”)
Homeland or Death!
We will be Victorious!
(Ovation)
To the Battle … Comrades, let us sing the National Anthem. (Those present sing the National Anthem)
Comrades, all units need to head towards the headquarters of their respective battalions, in view of the mobilization that has been ordered to maintain the country in a state of alert in the face of the imminent mercenary aggression that can be deduced from all the events of the last weeks and yesterday’s cowardly attack, the attack by the mercenaries. Let us march to the Militia Houses. Let us form up the battalions and prepare to go and confront the enemy, with the National Anthem on our lips, singing the lyrics of the patriotic anthem, and crying “To the battle,” with the conviction that “to die for the homeland is to live” and that “to live in chains is to live plunged in ignominy and shame.”
Let us march to our respective battalions and await orders there, comrades.
(www.fidelcastro.cu. Slightly edited for grammar by TML.)
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