As Schlesinger explained, what was threatening in an independent Cuba was “the Castro idea of taking matters into one’s own hands.” It was an idea that unfortunately appealed to the mass of the population in Latin America, where “the distribution of land and other forms of national wealth greatly favors the propertied classes, and the poor and underprivileged, stimulated by the example of the Cuban revolution, are now demanding opportunities for a decent living.”12 Again, Washington’s usual dilemma. As the CIA explained, “The extensive influence of ‘Castroism’ is not a function of Cuban power
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