Many old pieces of literature have influenced the way people think today. The Prince, written by Niccolò Machiavelli, was written as a "how-to" manual for a new prince. In it, Machiavelli makes extensive reference to the leadership styles, successes, and failures of historical figures. The term "prince" was used as a metaphor for any public official. Even though not all leaders of today have read The Prince, many follow Machiavelli's guidelines without knowing it. This is due to the fact that history does repeat itself and Machiavelli's observations of successful leaders of the past still hold true in the modern world.

I have chosen to focus on the Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and assess his success as a leader according to Machiavelli's 'handbook'. According to Pardo Llada (in Quirk, 1993), The Prince was one of Castro's favourite works, and from it, he "learned to justify everything".

In Chapter 12 Machiavelli addresses the issue of the type of people a successful 'prince's' army should be made up of. He soundly criticises the use of mercenary armies. He describes mercenaries as "useless and dangerous". Fidel Castro's men were originally rebels who believed in

The next issue, found in Chapter 17, deals with whether a leader should be loved or feared. Machiavelli states that a leader's love can easily be betrayed, whereas most people will not be quick to challenge a leader they fear. This argument is seen to be true everyday when we look at military dictators. The world has never seen a dictator who has survived as a leader solely on love. Furthermore, most people who have tried to rule a state by themselves (meaning without a parliament or congress) have done so in a tyrant-like fashion. In 1961 a force of 1,300 Cuban exiles, supported by the CIA, made an unsuccessful attempt to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. The assumption was that the invasion would inspire the Cuban population to rise up and overthrow Castro. It was a U.S. miscalculation; the Cuban population supported him. But does their support consist of love or fear? Castro's military and intelligence organizations assured - and still assure - his physical control over Cuba. Castro has been extraordinarily adept at using the traditional Cuban fear of the "Miami Cubans" and the hated "Americanos" to hold his own people in check. But did Castro follow Machiavelli's advice and avoid incurring the hatred of the people? All they want, said Machiavelli, is to be left alone to prosper in peace. If the 'prince' refrains from taking their property and encourages them to pursue productive occupation and, as long as they find that under the rule of the prince their private affairs are thriving, they will be content. Castro scorned this advice. Soon after he took control of the government, he acted with complete disregard for the property of others. Beginning with the seizure of the holdings of real or alleged Batistianos, then large landed estates, the sugar mills, American companies, then the houses of anyone who fled the country, and so on down the line, progressively more and more property, large and small, was confiscated, until practically the entire country came under the control of a panoply of agencies of the party-state, all subject to Castro's will. Many of Cuba's wealthier citizens fled to the United States where they joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in its efforts to overthrow Castro's regime. Using Machiavelli's prescription we would have reason to suspect that the majority of Cubans hate Castro. This hypothesis, however, goes against much of the conventional wisdom in the press and in academia which, at least until recently, has regarded

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Approximate Word count = 1679
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)