Cuban dictator Fidel Castro was born near Birán, Cuba, in 1926. Beginning in 1958 Castro and his forces began a campaign of guerrilla warfare to successfully overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, and Castro became the country's new leader. His communist domestic policies and military and economic relations with the Soviet Union led to strained relations with the United States that culminated in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. He was also responsible for fomenting communist revol