The French Communist Party, Fidel Castro's Regime in Cuba, and the Fissures in World Communism in the 1960s

Far from displaying a harmonious consensus of the global left, the Cold War in the 1960s witnessed an era of mounting tensions and disagreements within the international Communist movement (ICM). The dispute between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China (PRC), which lambasted the ruling Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) for its allegedly passive approach toward the West, was the most resounding expression of the ideological clashes that shattered the unity of world Communism in the 1960s. But other notable cases also diminished the unity of the left: The Albanian-Soviet split, Romania's maverick foreign policy under Nicolae Ceaușescu, and the Prague Spring and its suppression by a Soviet-led invasion in 1968, among others. The Cuban Communist regime's determination to put forward its own foreign policy agenda based on support for armed revolution abroad endangered East-West relations. Even though Soviet leaders supported far-left insurgents in the Third World, the Cuban leader Fidel Castro was far more aggressive in his support for violent struggle.1 The Soviet Union, by contrast, began pursuing détente with Western Europe, the United States, and Latin American countries, in part through bilateral agreements and people-to-people exchanges.2 Soviet officials also increasingly welcomed the peaceful route chosen by the French and most Latin American Communist parties that engaged in electoral politics.3The Soviet Union established an alliance with Cuba in 1960–1961. After a visit to Cuba by Anastas Mikoyan, a high-ranking CPSU official, in February 1960, the two countries’ relations improved rapidly. When Castro and the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev met in New York in September 1960, Khrushchev proclaimed himself a Fidelista.4 The alliance was fully cemented in April 1961, when Castro proclaimed his devotion to Marxism-Leninism and Soviet leaders provided crucial support to Cuba during the U.S.-sponsored invasion at the Bay of Pigs. Despite this seemingly positive evolution, ideological divergences soon emerged. Whereas the Soviet Union and its most faithful political allies in the West advocated a relaxation of tensions and closer economic ties with capitalist governments, Castro took a far less conciliatory approach, challenging the Soviet principle of peaceful coexistence and supporting guerrilla warfare in Latin America during most of the 1960s.Political thinking and revolutionary theory were at the core of these squabbles. Having elaborated a model (foquismo) that gave primacy to armed struggle as a key ingredient to attain Communism, Ernesto “Che” Guevara— an Argentine revolutionary who became the chief Marxist-Leninist theorist under Castro—claimed that an armed minority based in the countryside (a rural vanguard) could foment revolution, playing down the role of the urban working classes and Communist organizations. Che's 1960 theory was also a vibrant call for rebels to launch the movement without waiting until all revolutionary conditions were ripe: “The rebellion itself can bring them about,” asserted the Argentinian leader in his seminal 1960 book, Guerrilla Warfare.5 After Guevara's departure from Cuba in 1965 to join revolutionary movements in Africa and Latin America, the 25-year-old French philosopher Régis Debray gained responsibility for elaborating the Castroist scheme for revolution. Debray's essay ¿Revolución en la revolución? forcefully rebuked the official Communist position on a peaceful transition to socialism, sparking deep concern in Latin America as well as in the French Communist Party (Parti communiste français, or PCF), which openly voiced ideological disagreement with Cuba.6Many studies have dealt with the mounting disagreements between Cuba and the USSR in the wake of the Cuban missile crisis.7 Some scholars have explored how these ideological battles reverberated in the Western Hemisphere, causing serious disturbances between the Cubans and some Latin American Communist parties, which remained staunch supporters of Moscow's foreign policy line.8 What has been largely unaddressed, however, is the impact of the Communist international crisis on Havana's relations with pro-Soviet parties in Western Europe. This article partly fills that gap by examining the fluctuating and sometimes tumultuous links between Cuba and the PCF.In the wake of Castro's seizure of power in 1959, French Communists were known for their loyal alignment with the USSR's international approach. Under the leadership of the long-time Stalinist Maurice Thorez (1930–1964) and his successor Waldeck Rochet (1964–1972), the PCF embraced the Soviet line of “peaceful coexistence” and disagreed with Castro's insistence on armed struggle, although the party always avoided venting these discrepancies publicly. As this article highlights, relations between the PCF and the Cuban Revolution were not always strained. During the initial years of Castro's regime, French Communists often traveled to Havana, and Cuban official newspapers heavily relied on the PCF press, reproducing its views on international politics and French internal affairs.However, Cuba's continuing determination to foment guerrilla warfare caused concerns within the PCF. Régis Debray's growing influence in Castro's circles in the mid-1960s added an additional source of friction. For French Communists, the figure of Debray personified what has been called by the historiography the “French New Left.”9 This category encompasses a disparate group of mostly young far-left activists who shared a virulent hostility to U.S. foreign policy, great sympathy for Third World revolutions, and a strong rejection of the PCF and the USSR. Most French New Leftists condemned the Soviet intervention in Hungary in 1956 and were primarily animated by the example of the National Liberation Front (FNL) in Algeria, Ho Chi Minh, and Che Guevara. Guevara was often portrayed by the non-Communist Left as an authentic revolutionary and one of the few daring to criticize the USSR, whereas the PCF opposed Guevara's emphasis on armed struggle and contested his determination to fuel guerrilla struggle in Africa and Latin America. The PCF's wariness of Guevara's revolutionary moves also became a source of tensions with Cuba and the French New Left.The PCF scorned the French New Leftists’ condemnations of Moscow's international policy and their inclination toward radical revolutionary strategies to attain power, which collided with the Soviet line of peaceful coexistence. PCF leaders were dismayed by the French New Left's growing influence in Cuba, as the Debray example shows. Tensions between French and Cuban Communists reached their highest point at the beginning of 1968, when Waldeck Rochet sent a letter to Castro and demanded an explanation after a Cuban official, Haydée Santamaría, censured the PCF in an interview with an Italian magazine. But together with the improvement of Soviet-Cuban ties at the end of 1968, relations between Havana and the PCF tended to become more cordial, ushering in a new era for the global Left in the Cold War.This article traces the changing relationships between Castro's Cuba and the PCF in the 1960s. It seeks to observe how international issues helped shape those interactions, using a transnational framework to encompass local developments in Cuba, France, the USSR, Algeria, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and China. The Cuba–PCF dispute should be viewed as a manifestation of the great dilemmas and ideological confrontations affecting global Communism from the late 1950s on.In addition to the impact of Cuban–Soviet ties between French and Cuban Communists, the of of U.S. foreign policy, the and Debray's role on the that a between French and Cuban this article a of internal and political from the PCF in and that when this the was the in of the in and a for the Castro regime's official and the was sent to Cuba in and in to to crucial other from PCF and The also on from the French of and from the official Cuban a of the relationships in an era of growing international within the global Fidel Castro his insurgents to power in 1959, few that a Marxist-Leninist The Party Cuba's Communist at the an role during the struggle with a political alliance during his in from to This with as well the the by Castro's of and the were not by the young rebels who the revolution, of strong the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev the in which his was not with a of and The one of the few Cubans who in the USSR in that few the revolutionary was the Soviet in Havana in 1959, his after his that could not what of revolution this was The who the PCF in the 1950s and in Cuba from to in his that his condemned his support of Castro's and to in Cuba and from a revolution in his own as and and to the political line by the 1959, the French Communist the ideological of the new Cuban has that the PCF official a approach in and gave the in contrast, a Left its with Cuba and a to the role of was by the Communist to on the and the during the struggle avoided of Fidel Castro and his a Communist from the 1950s and the Eastern in the most French in Cuba, traveled to the and after in and in his that Fidel Castro was a Communist and the of activists in the 1960, however, PCF of the in Cuba began to The in a of his in was the after his with a revolutionary The Argentine called for a in Cuba and a deep of during this in Cuba, the PCF in Guevara a for the a positive that in the PCF's in Cuba was the with other revolutionary as Castro's were at When the long-time leader of the Maurice his in April 1960, not a letter from Castro a from the who that his party viewed the PCF as great example to example the Communists of the and a for as well as a which is in part the of as its 1960, could have been by in 1960, the PCF's in Havana with his and his with an to join the of the met Castro and the interview the deep that this was called to with among them his 1961, the influence in Cuba Castro the Marxist-Leninist of his revolution in April 1961, a the Bay of invasion by Cuban the wake of Castro's gained key in the ruling 1961, the was the two revolutionary movements and and the Despite the in the were within the National of whereas the for its of the two a Communist who was known in Havana for his ties to was with the and of this key the political within the revolutionary which to the and of and were of by Fidel this however, the in influence in Cuba was with great by the French Some PCF as to Cuba after a call in by French to Castro's Cuba's most began by the PCF under the from French also in French politics in 1961, and at sometimes a and from to the source of in Cuba French the of as the in and of of the Left the that Cubans in the 1960s were largely by the PCF's point of Communist who as a in Havana and became Castro's international Cuba from to 1961, to the PCF a positive met a of the National and of the who the in have all the conditions and the to to the of Havana's strong ties with the of the in a Communist and and that leaders were of a positive of the influence in the revolutionary to the Cuban Communists the of in Fidel Castro's Despite as a the Cuban leader on that the could a and together with his Cuba at the of the influence on the Some and been from or by the of one of the and a with Castro and shared his the Communists and the to be and from Castro Soviet Havana in 1961, the of Cuban–Soviet was and in the with with This in Cuba when in 1961, which his and his that Communism to a positive some that to the Communist in of the new regime, were by the Cuban revolution was without the that Castro of as soon as Fidel the of a party with As for Cuba's relations with French that the Cuban in far-left as and all of were to the were also a French ideological and in Cuba to as the PCF's What dismayed was that the official Cuban a with a that condemned the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary and New Left Cuba's political was and was far from After from the Castro on on with a that his revolution through a from the that the been of to Castro the party of and for without a as and other Castro be down who was Castro demanded the of the Soviet in Cuba, by a more with the Communists after the missile Khrushchev and U.S. a that the of the Soviet from Cuba without The Cuban leader was not in the and the Soviet to the as a of in the of as well as an of toward Cuba's position in the was also by the Some Cuban officials advocated a closer with whereas the alliance with Cuba's with the USSR became more Castro's ties with the for as Communist that these two of and the missile the PCF's in the Communist party leaders a the in Havana with The Cuban leader to that the Soviet Union the a during the of the missile also the of from other Communist parties in and Latin America during the and an the of in and that not Castro's is that this the explanation by Fidel Castro of the missile is in to that by the who traveled to Cuba in for the of the Communist that the of the and the of the Cuban Communist Party from until Having with the leader who been in the after Castro's of other could that the Cubans after the missile crisis and that Castro in that the was without is in As a of the a political on the to of was often by the PCF to with to French New Left activists who tended to the PCF and the The Cuban press, was and to the of the Castro himself a violent in a that a revolutionary and of opposed a from a foreign to a to of from the PCF could be in the Cuban The which was as the of Fidel in the of a of from the influence of New Left a new era for Cuba's with the and the one of the supporters of Soviet leadership in the Cuba advocated a on foreign policy and revolutionary itself from Communist parties in and Latin and a more with New Left from Cuba's the USSR also to a with the French by in international politics was viewed in Castro's The which the of helped the with The Castro and with Western Europe. For the 1959, Castro himself an from the French to the of a that in The was when to Havana in and met Guevara and of Guevara the the French to to the United States, and Castro of The Cuban leader can be to bring closer to that to be less on the USSR, to the support of a to support from and his on the USSR were by a to the of Cuba's supporters of their political with the PCF. The French Communists what as a by the Castro Thorez opposed and his leadership as a that could the to As can be in the Cuban revolutionary views on as a After an in which the Cuban was in in 1961, the to on the French But the end of the War in which the Cuban the and the a for relations with French Communist in for the Cuban with of in the Cuban elaborated by the French of that Cuba a to to relations with and this new to the by with to the Cuba to growing and from France, which became concern of the Cuban in who to to the new Cuban policy toward The Cuban the of in France, in the the in Cuba and and as that could that The French also to a of PCF with the who that is not in between the French and the Cuban Communists, that the French for the Cuban and to the an by the the Cuban not have the added the Cuban their support from the a group in at the of French Communists as and tensions between Castro's Cuba and the PCF were by more serious disagreements their within the and to peaceful coexistence and armed and after in the PCF was one of the most faithful Western allies of the USSR. the French Communists increasingly the of a peaceful to socialism, whereas the Castro on guerrilla warfare as the to revolution in the Third The French Communists were of the growing ideological gap with their Cuban which to the mounting of French and the PCF's on the a to the the new PCF sent on a to After on the in to a of As a loyal of the USSR who Cuba in 1961, Rochet the PCF's the Cuban gave to his visit and the between the two parties as After more a in Havana, the Cubans not his for an for the PCF is a thinking that that has some the of a the for that and is of could the of the in Havana in with the of revolutionary from Africa and Latin which a was to the role of the and of the USSR in the of were also by the Cuban the The French Castro for theory and to one The Cubans were to the USSR's political line as in the international of Communist parties in and 1960, in which the PCF a key role policy of peaceful coexistence. The was by the the most was the influence in Cuba of Régis who was by the to a Cuba's radical revolutionary of at the Debray traveled Latin America in the in Cuba in 1961, in the and in France, a of the international of the Cuban revolution. of his the of who Debray to in Cuba in The French became one of Castro's was by the Cuban for the influence of French New in Cuba, that the PCF should and of this and and to Cuba of Having to a of in Havana, to at the beginning of September and was by the more and his remained Debray's in Debray's ¿Revolución en la revolución? was during on the and was on Cuban and The electoral route for revolution in Latin America and guerrilla warfare as the to to the in the point of of Fidel and was of a by Che one of Cuba's more of armed struggle and a of Soviet foreign that Debray's Cuba's official of revolutionary which to to be from that of the Debray's in Cuba, also that the PCF of Debray's that the is Fidel of a more approach. met in Havana and the of his For the the young revolutionary theorist should not be as as a young who and not that to a his to the of official The however, also to the of the between Fidel and the to Debray that the USSR was a revolutionary and that Cuba was economic to itself from on the Soviet also that Che who from the soon a successor of that in for the USSR and Communists in What should the role of the PCF be divergences to with the PCF of to Castro's and Debray's peaceful coexistence and Communist parties, the PCF and its for and not on Castro's as his on that a with the and with the Latin American Communist a position was For a the was what be Cuba or Latin America as a position one or the these the Cubans remained and that an article by the Communist The party been at with Cuba when the of its their of armed struggle and electoral causing a The Cubans also that Guevara's and the the in an article Latin American politics as an of was by the in and the PCF Guevara's that his as a in Havana was and his that the PCF the Latin American Communist parties as the political of their and that Guevara's not with in in after an to armed revolution political to on the guerrilla Guevara's of the USSR and his for parties the PCF that advocated a peaceful to socialism, the French of Guevara were Rochet to whereas who met Guevara in 1960, as who a an article in Guevara's to in a in which the conditions for a revolution were the Guevara to were to the by the National Revolution of the the PCF who most supported Cuba, Guevara's and that should to the of the the by French New Leftists were and For Guevara the revolution Guevara's determination to his own for the of Third World and his of the USSR great the of the French New that Guevara was most of the activists from the Communist of were PCF helped a Guevara and the of the la during a The who met Guevara in Cuba in 1965 and was of in France, was not by his from to of Guevara's a of Guerrilla and the from the PCF's was one of the most French New Left with with was and by to the French as for the to the and of the and to two parties PCF and the PCF's to Guevara's not in February 1968, the Italian an interview with Haydée of the and of the which the French and Italian Communist parties for Guevara. For Santamaría, was for a of the of It the of the that on the American some Communists not from the the PCF and the Italian party as to a positive what Che Guevara for all of or on on the of armed on to that two Communist parties have leaders of that and to the leaders to to this Rochet a letter to Castro that the interview with was and the PCF's with all the as well as with Cuban the revolution in of that between two Rochet Castro to and in other internal with the Rochet advocated for an of the between the two parties and that was to a to The that the PCF's highest took the to his concerns to Castro the of the more how the was in the end of that the PCF Politburo on the Cuban regime's new foreign policy that Havana's official line was to its with revolutionary itself from the Soviet Castro's to closer ties with West and to the on Soviet economic that political of as U.S. in 1968, the economic and political crisis in to a with the USSR. that Castro on the Soviet invasion of which to bring this This was soon of ties with in the of the invasion was by a improvement of the with the PCF. from the two parties met for the that the of bilateral February Cuba a PCF of and chief was to the two which been when the PCF an to visit to their Cuban that visit in February at a were the at a with were also by the in Havana, and to the two this new Cuba's with the Soviet improved after 1968, and the PCF that with their for the revolutionary by the Cuban as well as for the that been at the of the of Che the two parties a of and a of for the a in and with the PCF's a new to For this was For the French Communists were by of the and a that Cuba to a with a from a capitalist these the era of and between the and the PCF to an the of relations not from the French to with Castro's to Moscow's became in the late 1960s. as Cuba's in the Soviet-led for and official visit to Havana in a new The two countries’ alliance was in by the of the which was fully the Soviet helped the with French Communists, with Cuba to and divergences to were also by Cuba's growing of other to revolutionary after Guevara's in Castro his and his support to American The Cuban leader strong support to political as in and electoral to a in be As Castro increasingly the Soviet model to shape his French New activists who supported Cuba in the 1960s were to their For Cuba's of the Soviet-led invasion of was the Even Régis Debray a letter to Castro disagreement with the Cuban support of the was a young and a of Cuban traveled to the after a with Castro in a group of and a at the beginning of But his and that of of his was by Castro's of Soviet the between Cuba and the French New Left was the in was a Cuban who in the USSR from to as a a of Soviet his in after the in of his was by the Cuban as a As in Cuba, was in and to a of For this the of the years of Stalinist in the USSR. It a and supporters of Castro's an letter in the on the of the were French who been in Cuba in the and with the and in the a for the between Castro's Cuba and the French the PCF with As have Castro's relations with the French Communists from was by Cuba's with the and with the between Cuba and the French New himself was by the and condemned the Cuban as a his with what with as of all in the although Cuba with the USSR, the PCF increasingly Cuban through the of Soviet Party as viewed the as an international that the of the New Left's with The was to the of the Soviet who was in as a in the of international for his It is not that an Communist the through the of the USSR's often with Havana in the of the Soviet of influence and the French Left itself from the Castro regime, the PCF an to its in to the growing by the New the PCF that the of the to a and growing with its in the