On July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro led Cuban revolutionaries in an attack on the Moncada Barracks as part of an attempt to overthrow the U.S.-supported Batista dictatorship. While the attack failed, it was the beginning of a revolutionary process that would continue. This process included the successful overthrow of the Batista dictatorship (1959), the successful defeat of the CIA-created Bay of Pigs invasion (1961), and Cuba’s survival and development as a socialist country over the last 60 years. This Marxist IQ is dedicated to the Cuban revolution.

1. After the Spanish American War, the U.S. compelled the Cuban government to accept a resolution, which give the U.S. the right to intervene to “defend” Cuba’s independence, which became the model for U.S. military interventions throughout Latin America. What is the name of this resolution?

a. The Ostend Manifesto
b. The Alliance for Democracy
c. The Platt Amendment
d. The Wilson Doctrine

2. After 1959, the U.S. government launched attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro and other leaders of the Cuban revolution that continued for many decades. The number of documented assassination attempts against Fidel Castro is which of the following?

a. 10
b. 58
d. 683
d. 1,555

3. Despite the economic scarcities created by the 60-year blockade against the Cuban Revolution, Cuba leads both the U.S. and all Latin American countries in

a. comprehensive public health care for its people.
b. full employment for its people.
c. literacy and equal access to education for its people.
d. All of the above

4. Slavery played a central role in the history of Cuba and the U.S., from colonial times to the 19th century. In the late 20th century, Cuba

a. provided crucial aid to save the independence movement in Angola against U.S. and South African intervention.
b. defeated South African forces in the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, a turning point in bringing about the collapse of the U.S.-supported South African apartheid government (1988).
c. made through its actions the independence of Namibia (formerly South African–controlled “Southwest Africa”) a reality.
d. All of the above

5. In an extreme example of imperialist hypocrisy, the U.S. government maintains which of the following?

a. Its blockade against Cuba must continue because of the ongoing Soviet threat.
b. The U.S. Naval Base Prison at Guantanamo, established after the Spanish American War, is not subject to U.S. legal protection because it is on “foreign soil.”
c. The U.S. must protect Major League Baseball from Cuban baseball aggression.
d. Full reparations must be paid to the owners of the hotels and casinos seized by the revolution after 1959, even those hotels owned by U.S. organized crime syndicates.

6. On this 68th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks, these words made by Fidel at his trial remain true today and in the future:

a. “Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains.”
b. “Victory or death.”
c. “Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me.”
d. “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Answers here.

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