“Inside the Soviet camp.” Lets start by reflecting on that title. Castro in 1961 in the last chapter and here again in Africa and Latin America, is trying to assert himself as a leader of the “Non-aligned” movement. Why then, does Gott title these years, up to 1985 as “inside the Soviet camp?”
Terms? I would probably include Brezhnev, Ksyogin, Allende (in the picture above) Angola, Kissinger (just because he shows up and we know him so well) and certainly the Mariel Boat-lift. Carter is probably an important one as well and possibly Grenada and/or the Sandinistas.
Events in South Africa also deserve your scrutiny. Sorry for the skipping of chapter 6 but I think you’ll see it works out OK.
CRS
Based on the reading, the reason that Castro identified himself with the “non-aligned” movement was partially a result of his own independent ideas of communism and revolution, which differed from Soviet thought. Cuba’s geographical location in the Carribean also seemed to play a part, as it was historically more tied to other Latin American Nations than it was to Europe or Russia. However, Cuba was still “inside the soviet camp” because of the large amount of military material aid that it received from the USSR. Additionally, it sought the advice of the Soviet Union and attempted to pattern its policies after the Soviet Union. As an additional note, I never new that Cuba had participated in African affairs! That’s actually fairly impressive. It almost mirrors the actions of the United States from the time of its revolution to the times of its aid to foreign nations (albeit in a much shorter time span).