In a sense, the Cuban Revolution did not begin until after the ousting of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Fulfilling the promises of the rebels meant completely reordering the Cuban economy, and with it, the society. Over the next fortyplus years, the revolution's two greatest challenges were modernizing the economy and coping with U.S. hostility.

Like most Socialist nations, Cuba at first tried to industrialize rapidly. But it soon became clear that Cuba was much better suited to focus on agriculture rather than manufacturing as a means of enriching the lives of the Cuban people. From the mid-1960s on, Castro's regime worked diligently to apply modern scientific and technological advances to the production of cash crops such as sugar and tobacco that could be sold throughout the world at lucrative prices.

Unfortunately, the United States presented a major roadblock to these plans. Once...