Will Durant's 'The Story of Civilization'. Multi-volume. Begins with 'Our Oriental Heritage' and ends (I believe) with 'The Age of Voltaire'. Four different volumes cover just the 17th and 18th centuries.

Your desperate prevarications don't change reality.

1. Cuba trades with many countries in the world that are major trading partners with the USA. Canada is Cuba's largest source of exports.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Cuba/Trade

2. Has it ever occurred to you that the CPUSA is weak and tiny because they have no popular support? Regardless, they operate legally and are NOT repressed, unlike ALL non-communist Cuban parties.

3. Freedom from whom? freedom to do what?"

Freedom from an oppressive government that brooks no opposition.

"Freedom to do what?

I realize that given your ideological proclivities, you're not very creative....but how about the freedom to vote in fair elections!...the freedom to start political parties, engaging in freedom of the press, and most importantly, having the freedom to criticize the government without being arrested (which is currently NOT the case; hundreds of human rights activists are languishing in Cuban jails, and you, purveyor of all that is good and righteous, could not care less).

You see.... your arguments can't stand the light of day....because they are constructed on intellectual and moral bankruptcies. Isn't it time to grow up and stop believing in chimera's like communism? It's been an economic and political nightmare everywhere it's ever been tried.

I've said my piece. Experience has taught me that the mind of a radical leftist is so ideologically straight-jacketed that a constructive dialogue is impossible. Therefore, I will neither respond to your reply...nor bother reading it.

Have a great night friend.

>Do you have any source on the "billions" of aid to Cuba from decades ago?

According to the US government, aid in 1983 alone totaled $5.3 billion....far, far more than any US aid given to any Latin country then or now...

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp85t00287r000400450001-0

>Aid for basic necesities, while useful and necesary, won't fix any of the problems caused by not being able to freely trade with the world.

What kind of apologia are you advancing here? The aid was massive....far transcending "basic necessities".

> Which is what the USA and Israel prohibit Cuba to do.

Again, a bizarre representation. Israel and the USA are the only countries in the world to boycott the Cuban economy. They don't prohibit Cuba to trade with and receive aid from the rest of the world. Why hasn't that trade and aid done anything to help Cuba's decrepit economic system? Perhaps because it is the same stultifying socialist system that strangled the Soviet Union and compelled China and Vietnam to pursue market reforms.

>How far do you think Israel (to give an example of a similar sized country) would go with an economic blockade of the extension and duration that the cuban blockade has had?

Israel has indeed suffered an economic block-aid from much of the Muslim world for the entirety of its existence. Yet, it's doing so well economically that some Arab countries have abandoned the effort so as to benefit from economic relations with Israel.

>For example, in the US political repression is strictly enforced against communists, and communist parties have historically been persecuted, criminalized and sabotaged by the FBI and the CIA.

I see. Communists in the USA are arrested and imprisoned in the USA just like non-Communist activists are arrested and imprisoned in Cuba? Believe it or not, the Communist Party of the USA exists legally....its representative runs for President every 4 years. Is there any non-Communist equivalent in Cuba? Better do some remedial studying.

>You are free to live your life as you please. Just don't try to coup the government or assassinate the president, that should be simple to do for everyone except CIA agents, right?

Tell that to the hundreds of human-rights activists languishing in Cuban jails for daring to speak out and demonstrate in defense of freedom!

​

>Also....the whole reason for the failure of American attempts to overthrow Castro such as the Bay of Pigs was due to popular support that Castro had.

Gee, I thought it might have had something to do with Soviet military assistance.

America's economic embargo of Cuba didn't prevent $billions in annual Soviet aid to Cuba throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s, it didn't prevent the billions that came from Venezuala in the 90s and early 2000s, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the systemic political repression that has defined the Communist regime in Cuba since its inception.

A truly moderate, benevolent regime!....tragically misunderstood by the millions of Cubans who have chafed under it all these years.

Here is a different take on Che Guevara....no less biased than your own.

https://historycollection.com/nobodys-hero-9-inconvenient-truths-che-guevara/6/

(v) The Cuban revolution executed thousands of political prisoners after summary trials often lasting just minutes. Che Guevara presided over these trials.

Either the developing world was unaware of these monstrous injustices.....or their values and ethics reflected other priorities.