>If you denounce Bolshies in moral terms, you duck all the issues of
>how to approach power. I've never been able to get a good answer on
>how else Cuba could have defended itself against the U.S. Everything
>seems to turn on purity of intent and program.
Mind you, that question tends to overlook the question of why Cuba needed to defend itself against the US. Canada didn't need to enter into an alliance with the USSR to defend itself against the US.
In part the answer probably was that the people of the US were willing to consent to their government attacking Cuba, whereas a military attack on harmless Canada might raise domestic objections. So it probably goes back to do with a threat that the US public perceived from authoritarian dictatorship posing as "communism".
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas