Fidel Castro was the Cuban revolutionary who overthrew the Batista dictatorship in 1959 and ruled Cuba for nearly fifty years, surviving countless CIA assassination attempts and outlasting ten American presidents. Son of a wealthy landowner, Castro was radicalized at the University of Havana and began his revolutionary career with the failed Moncada Barracks attack in 1953.
Castro's guerrilla campaign from the Sierra Maestra, supported by Che Guevara and other revolutionaries, succeeded when Batista fled on New Year's Day 1959. Initially ambiguous in ideology, Castro declared Cuba socialist in 1961 after the Bay of Pigs invasion and aligned with the Soviet Union, nearly triggering nuclear war in 1962.
Castro's Cuba achieved remarkable gains in healthcare and education while suppressing political freedom and sending thousands to prison and exile. The economy stagnated, especially after Soviet collapse. Castro stepped down in 2008 due to illness and died in 2016. His legacy remains contested: liberator or dictator, depending on one's perspective.