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FIGHTING THE GIANTS: CASTRO'S REVOLUTION VS THE WORLD Fighting the Giants: The Castros' Revolution vs the world 120318 TABLE OF CONTENTS SYNOPSIS ................................................................................................................. 3 CONTRIBUTORS ......................................................................................................... 15 NORMA PERCY – SERIES PRODUCER .................................................................................. 18 DELPHINE JAUDEAU – DIRECTOR ..................................................................................... 19 MICK GOLD – DIRECTOR ................................................................................................ 21 BROOK LAPPING ........................................................................................................ 22 TEMPS NOIR ............................................................................................................. 24 2 Fighting the Giants: Castro’s revolution vs the world On 16 December 2014, Barack Obama got on the phone to Cuba’s President Raúl Castro. One of the President’s aides in the Oval Office has told us that Obama’s account of how he saw the situation went on for 15 minutes. When Raúl could get a word in he said ruefully: “I thought I was listening to my brother!” Then he proceeded to talk for 25 minutes. This phone call was one of the many critical turning points in the tortured relationship between Cuba and the rest of the world. For more than half a century, Fidel Castro’s attempts to carry out an independent foreign policy across Africa and Latin America had caused him trouble with both the West and his Soviet sponsors. This series will allow viewers to hear the inside stories of these exploits from the people who led the revolution, and those who opposed it. Leading British producer Brook Lapping has an unparalleled track record of getting top political figures across the world to tell what happens behind closed doors. The acclaimed French production company Temps Noir have exceptional access and expertise in Cuba and to rare archive (including a largely unseen cache of 25 hours of recorded interviews with Fidel himself). Together Brook Lapping and Temps Noir have a unique opportunity to produce a fascinating insider account of 60 years of Cuba’s history, and its place in the world. As the Castro regime finally cedes power to a new generation, there has never been a better time to tell this story. Castro and his team changed the world in a way that was inconceivable for a mere island in the Caribbean. By sending troops to fight alongside left-wing revolutionaries in Africa, and using soft power to influence other regimes in Latin America, Cuba – in Fidel’s words – "was a small country which behaved as if it had the resources of a great power". Moreover, he managed to get away with it for more than three decades. Yet this is also a tale of hubris and cock-up. As the regime grew ever more confident, it became almost a pariah state to its close neighbours. While the powerful Soviet Union supported them, the Cubans could operate with impunity. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba was suddenly vulnerable – bankrupt and marooned next to the ever-hostile United States. The regime had to launch a charm offensive with sympathetic governments in Latin America, whilst simultaneously handling an economic and emigration crisis at home. Ironically, this pivot towards Latin America eventually played a key part in the rapprochement with the United States The series will be full of surprising insights into some of the biggest stories of the 20th Century. Castro, for instance, on his reluctance to have Soviet missiles based on Cuban soil: "I was unhappy at Cuba being seen as a Soviet base. But we could not expect maximum support from the Soviet camp and yet refuse the Soviets a chance to improve their balance of strategic forces. So we agreed that 42 medium-range missiles would be sent in." He also tells of his fury when Khrushchev caved in to John F. Kennedy: "We learned from news media that the Soviets were making proposals to withdraw missiles that they had never discussed with us in any way! Khrushchev should have said to the USA: Cuba must be included in negotiations. They lost their nerve. If we’d been there, the Americans would have had to surrender their Guantanamo naval base. Our relations with the Soviets deteriorated after that." For the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution in 2019, with views from every side – the Cubans, the Russians, the Americans and the rest – these programmes will reveal the history of Cuba as never before. 3 Fighting the Giants: The Castros' Revolution vs the world 120318 PROGRAMME 1 Programme One starts with revolutionary Cuba's first attempt to change the world. Just 18 months after coming to power, Fidel Castro backed the Algerian campaign against French rule. The Castros and Che Guevara were determined to position Cuba in the vanguard of anti-imperialist struggles in Africa and Latin America. But it was an ambition that was to founder on the relationship between the two superpowers. Forced to defend itself against CIA- backed US attacks – culminating in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion – Cuba agreed to host Soviet missiles and took the world to the edge of nuclear war. With Soviet power waning, Fidel embarked on tentative dialogue with envoys from his former foe, Henry Kissinger. But he sabotaged his own efforts by committing Cuban troops on a massive scale to the battle against apartheid. Fidel claimed victory in Africa, but soon after Cuba lost its biggest sponsor when a weakened Soviet Union decided to end their enmity with the US. Fidel Castro's revolutionary army entered Havana on 1 January 1959. Just eighteen months later, Cuba gave its first backing to a revolutionary movement - 5,000 miles away in Algeria. Fidel and Che formed a close alliance with the leader Ben Bella. In June 1961, Fidel recognised the rebel government (GPRA) and began to support their struggle. Then, Algeria became a staging post for further Cuban military insurgencies elsewhere in Africa and also in Latin America. When Morocco invaded Algeria. Cuba airlifted hundreds of soldiers – including a tank company and a field battalion of 122mm guns - into Algeria. They manoeuvred into position for a massive counter-attack on the Moroccan army. The Moroccans caved in and sued for peace. This first Cuban adventure was a great success: victory without any casualties. But the Cuban revolution had earned the immediate enmity of the United States. The CIA began to plan a full-scale invasion of Cuba, recruiting an army of 1,600 from among Cubans who had fled Castro's regime. The entire population of Cuba was mobilised to meet the threat. 4 Fighting the Giants: The Castros' Revolution vs the world 120318 ViCtor Dreke, a veteran of the Cuban Revolution and a fighter, told us. "We had tanks in place at Playa Girón but we didn't know how to use them because they were brand new. Mercenaries had secretly infiltrated Cuba and were trying to carry out sabotage. At 5pm we got to Samblá, a small town a few kilometres before Girón. I just disobeyed orders. A friend arrived in a Jeep and I jumped in and we left the tanks behind. Just as we reached a bend we were ambushed. They killed three of my comrades. The driver – like a brother – protected me with his own body and dragged me out of the firing line. It looked like hell. This injury on my arm [shows it to camera] is from the machine gun." The Cubans saw off the invaders. But the CIA and its Cuban associates retired back to Miami, where they would spend the ensuing decades plotting other ways to overthrow Fidel. It was, of course, Cuba’s close relationship with the Soviet Union that really worried the United States. This began in 1960, when First Vice Premier of the Soviet Union Anastas Mikoyan visited the island and signed extensive trade agreements. So keen was Khrushchev to make an ally of Cuba, only 100 miles from Florida, that he conceived an audacious plan. After Khrushchev's summit with President Kennedy in Vienna in June 1961, he warned Cuban leaders that he believed another US invasion was imminent. To put the US off, Khrushchev proposed installing nuclear weapons in Cuba. Carlos Alzugaray told us about his work in the Ministry of Defence during the Missile Crisis: I was an analyst on US military affairs. I was 19 years old! I had my 45 pistol. By day we dug trenches in the outer defence ring of Havana. At night we went to the Foreign Ministry and worked. I was reading a US government manual on nuclear war. Someone asked me, 'Carlos you have been reading that book. What will happen?' I replied, 'We will see a flash. Then we will be dead.' But surprisingly we slept soundly. The United States spotted the ships bearing the nuclear weapons and eventually managed to force Khrushchev to withdraw. The Soviets, however, had not consulted their Cuban allies. Their capitulation was the beginning of a slow deterioration between the Cubans and their crucial patron: Raúl Roa told us about delivering a speeCh CritiCising Soviet poliCy soon after the missile crisis: "When I spoke to Fidel, he was in an angry mood and told me he was furious with Khrushchev for having given in to Kennedy without even securing a written agreement that the U.S. would not invade Cuba. Soon after, I attended the Communist Party Congress of Czechoslovakia. Upon arrival, I was introduced to comrade Brezhnev. He said hello and joked, 'You are going to deliver a very revolutionary speech.' I replied, 'I’ll repeat Fidel’s view on the solution to the missile crisis: War had been avoided but peace was not secured.’ I delivered my speech to very lukewarm applause in the hall. When the session ended, the Soviet ambassador, who was usually friendly, passed me without saying hello, while the North Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese ambassadors all congratulated me.

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