Fidel Castro and Gamal Abdel Nasser

In 1952, Castro's plan to run for a parliamentary seat was foiled when General Batista overthrew the government and canceled the election. After unsuccessfully challenging the regime in court, Castro organized an unsuccessful coup attempt in 1953. He was jailed until 1955 when he went to Mexico to organize the force that became known as the 26 of July Movement (CNN.com, 2000). This group launched another unsuccessful coup attempt in 1956. Then, finally, after a three-year guerrilla war against the corrupt and by now very unpopular Batista regime, Castro triumphantly seized power on January 1, 1959 (CNN.com, 2000).

Reporter Jack Skelly argues that there are many reasons why Castro has lasted 40 years untouched as an enemy of the United States (Skelly, 31). However, he claims that one reason for Castro's survival is his penchant for lying. Skelly claims that as a stu

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argues that the United Fruit enclave where Castro spent his childhood was perhaps one of the most blatant manifestations of a colonial relationship and seems to have had a great impact in shaping Fidel's anti-Americanism (Betancourt, 66). In addition, Betancourt argues that Castro's quest for power was fostered by his resentment at being an illegitimate child who lived in the same sugar cane plantation with his father's legitimate children. Finally, Betancourt contends that Castro's secondary school education in the late 1930s, when the Spanish Jesuits dominated the Belen High School he attended in Havana, fostered feelings of inferiority that may have fed his need for total power (Betancourt, 66). Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser left a complicated legacy in Africa and the Middle East and remains a subject of controversy among historians and intellectuals who cannot agree whether his 'achievements' were good or bad for his nation (Darwish, 45). Born in Alexandria, Egypt on January 15, 1918, Nasser was the son of a post office clerk who grew up in a small village in the Nile delta of the British-ruled country (CNN.com, 2000). Later he lived in Cairo, where he took part in many anti-British demonstrations and studied law before ent
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