He was certainly a dictator, but "destroy a once great island"? I guess that depends who you were in the Batista era. Yes, Cuba was a "great island" IF you were a rich, visiting tourist, a made man, or a white Cuban of enough Spanish lineage. If you were not, it wasn't quite so good. It was a very segregated country and if you were black or had too much Native blood the only "great" parts you saw tended to be the life lived by the others.
Castro played upon that inequity very well--he gave the common people greatly improved health care and education, and used the wealth of the upper class Spanish blood and foreigners to pay for much of it. Obviously it was not a sustainable model, but to think he was universally despised by the Cubans is not an accurate picture.
On balance he was more evil than good, and he tolerated no dissent. Many who fought with him in the mountains rejected his views after the revolution succeeded because as with many despots he said one thing when the revolutionary and did another after winning. But to compare him to the North Korean nut case is too extreme in the other direction. He was despotic, a murderer, and played 50 years of US presidents for fools--but he was neither insane nor without some positive achievements.
I sincerely hope that after the demise of little brother, Cuba does NOT become a political and economic clone of the US.
Originally Posted by Old-T
Every Cuban I've ever known who hated Castro had some story to tell about how Fidel was horrible and stole their families land/business/property but never thought for a second about the other 99% of the peasants living on nothing. Fidel was a horrible, murderous dictator, no doubt, but Batista was no great hero of anything except the politically connected rich people who stole everything they could get, also.
Cuba is as fucked up as any third world dictatorship, and always will be, though I hope prostitution will thrive there, of course.