“History will absolve me.” (“La historia me absolver.”)

Recently, Fidel Castro generated worldwide news when he told a journalist for The Atlantic magazine that the Communist model he had imposed on Cuba “doesn't even work for us anymore.”

It was a sadly ironic comment given the tens of thousands of deaths and other human suffering caused by Castro’s efforts to create and maintain his Communist regime.

Yet, somehow I suspect “El Jefe” would still stand behind the famous quote he uttered 57 years ago on this date:

       “History will absolve me.” (“La historia me absolver.”)

Castro made this claim on October 16, 1953. They were the final words of a long speech he gave at the end of his trial for leading the attack on the Moncada barracks on July 26th of that year.

The Moncada attack was an attempt to start a revolution against Fulgencio Batista, the longtime Cuban dictator who had run Cuba largely to benefit himself, the Cuban elite, big international corporations and the American mobsters who controlled most of the island’s popular hotels, nightclubs and casinos.

The attempted coup failed. Seventy of the rebels involved were killed during the attack, or later. Others, including Castro, were captured by Batista’s soldiers.

Fidel and his surviving co-conspirators (which included his brother Raul) were put on trial in September. At first, the proceedings were open to the press and public. But the publicity generated more sympathy and support for Castro and his fellow rebels than for Batista. As a result, Batista ordered the final stages of the trial to be held in secret.

In his last statement to the court on October 16th, Castro delivered an amazing four-hour speech. He reviewed details of the Moncada attack, the political crimes and failures of Batista’s regime, the dismal conditions in which most Cubans lived and the legal and historical justification for rebellion against tyrants. He also outlined his vision for a future “revolutionary government” that would provide jobs, decent housing, health care and education to all Cubans.

He ended the speech, by saying:

“I do not fear the fury of the miserable tyrant who took the lives of 70 of my comrades. Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.”

There was no record of this speech at the time, since the press and public were excluded. And, as Castro expected, his words had no real effect on the decision of the judges. They found him guilty.

But the publicity the trial had generated made Batista fearful of having Castro executed. So, instead, the court sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

For Batista — and, depending on your viewpoint, for many other people — this turned out to be a huge mistake.

In 1955, faced with international pressure, Batista freed Fidel and exiled him from Cuba.

Fidel and brother Raul went to Mexico. There, with Ernesto “Che” Guevara and other followers, they planned the Cuban Revolution.

They called it the 26th of July Movement, in honor of the attack on the Moncada barracks.

To guide the movement, Castro reconstructed the speech he made at the end of his trial in 1953. It became the manifesto of the Cuban Revolution and well known to Communists elsewhere during the Cold War era as “the ‘History Will Absolve Me’ speech.”

In November of 1956, the Castro brothers and Che returned to Cuba. Their fast-growing 26th of July Movement mounted a guerilla war against the Batista government. By the beginning of 1959, Batista fled the country and Fidel Castro began what would become his own long dictatorship.

Whether historians of the future will, in fact, absolve Fidel for the results of the Cuban Revolution remains to be seen.

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Further reading…

Thanks for the great ad slogan. Now $%#@ off!

The real life “Mad Men” who formed the Norman, Craig & Kummel (NCK) advertising agency in 1955 share the credit for a number of classic advertising slogans and campaigns, including the Maidenform series with variable headlines based on the formula “I dreamed I [did or was X] in my Maidenform bra” and the “Ajax: Stronger than dirt” ads.

In 1959, NCK was selected to be the new advertising agency for the rental car company Hertz.

The ad gurus at the firm soon developed a slogan for Hertz that became world famous.

It started out as “Hertz puts you in the driver’s seat.”

According to the trademark application filed by Hertz, that early version was first used in commerce on September 2, 1959.

But it wasn’t long before NCK did a little tweaking and created what became a much better-known slogan: “Let Hertz put you in the driver’s seat.”

The paperwork Hertz filed when it trademarked this more cordial, request-oriented version said it was first used in commerce on October 16, 1959.

In the early 1960s, print ads, signs and television commercials featuring the line were ubiquitous.

The TV commercials, which pioneered some early special effects, were especially memorable.

Gravity-defying people floated down from the sky into the seats of their rental cars, as viewers heard a vocal group singing “Let Hertz put YOU…in the driver’s seat” in a catchy jingle.

AdAge magazine has listed the series as one of the “Top 100 Advertising Campaigns of the Century.”

It helped make Hertz the largest rental car company in the world.

But in 1963 Hertz’s smaller rival, Avis, started it’s own memorable ad campaign.

Those ads noted that Avis was “only No. 2” in the car rental business. Not as big as Hertz.

Which meant, the ads suggested, that Avis was more motivated to please customers than Hertz — as encapsulated in the quickly famous catchphrase: “We try harder.” (Also listed in the AdAge Top 100.)

This snarkily clever angle and slogan were created by the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency.

It was a jujitsu move that turned Hertz’s position as the largest car rental company against it and gained more attention and customers for Avis.

By 1966, an article in Time magazine noted that Hertz “is being at least nibbled by ‘We’re only No. 2’ Avis...Avis has upped its revenues by 34% in 1966, compared with Cadillac-sized Hertz's gain of 18%.”

The article also noted the Hertz had unceremoniously dumped Norman, Craig & Kummel and hired a new ad agency.

That agency never came up with anything as well remembered as “Let Hertz put you in the driver’s seat.” And, Hertz has continued to use the slogan off and on in more recent decades.

However, as dramatized by the TV show Mad Men, the ad agency business in the 1960s was rough.

It still is.

But I doubt if the ad biz of today will ever be viewed as being anywhere near as cool as the world of Mad Men.

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