JFK: "Fidel Castro is part of the legacy of Bolivar"

[ucrdem]

JFK:

On an earlier trip through Latin America, I became familiar with the hopes and burdens which characterize this tide of Latin nationalism. Fidel Castro is part of the legacy of Bolivar, who led his men over the Andes Mountains, vowing "war to the death" against Spanish rule, saying "Where a goat can pass, so can an army."

Castro is also part of the frustration of that earlier revolution which won its war against Spain but left largely untouched the indigenous feudal order. "To serve a revolution is to plow the sea," Bolívar said in despair as he lived to see the failure of his efforts at social reform.

-- from: Speech at a Democratic dinner, San Juan, Puerto Rico, December 15, 1958, in John F. Kennedy, The Strategy of Peace, 1960, pp. 167-68

[malaise]

1. Thanks