Mark Rudd’s website says that his commitment to “fighting U.S imperialism”[2] was inspired by the revolutionary movement in Cuba, which at that time was in its ninth year.[3] In 1968, Rudd and Bernardine Dohrn and other leaders of SDS were invited to Cuba to meet with Cuban, Soviet, and North Vietnamese delegates.
His experiences in Cuba strengthened Rudd’s anti-war and pro-Communist sentiments.[4] Rudd had described the life of Cuba as “extremely humanistic” and he idealized Ernesto “Che” Guevara, referring to him as the “Heroic Guerilla.”[5]
In my younger days I knew two men who had actually fought in the mountains with Castro. They deserted him when he became (or announced that he had become) an avowed Communist. They were young, altruistic and terribly stupid.
For Rudd and the others to praise Castro after the total Communist takeover of Cuba is beyond forgivable, especially for middle class American kids who could get back on a plane and return to all the comforts their American life offered, while trying to tear it down.