Cuba After Castro

History will absolve me, said Fidel Castro in 1953, shortly before he took the world stage. He was wrong. In power for nearly a half-century, he brought the U.S. and Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war, exported revolution and repression, and turned his island into a penurious police state. His death could open the door to a brighter future for Cuba – especially if its neighbors, beginning with the U.S., pursue the right policies.

As ruthless as he was charismatic, Castro managed to hold off the superpower 90 miles from Cuba’s coast almost through force of will, becoming an icon for hemispheric anti-Americanism in the process. His cunning cultivation of patrons -- first the Soviet Union, and then Venezuela -- enabled the country to endure the U.S. embargo and his own economic policies, which turned the Caribbean's most advanced economy into a basket case.