Castro takes Havana

January 1, 1959

After two years of guerrilla war in the Sierra Maestra, twenty-six-year-old Che Guevara and thirty-two-year-old Fidel Castro rolled into Havana in army jeeps. Batista had fled before dawn with suitcases of cash. Crowds filled the Malecon. Within two years the revolution would nationalize American property and turn to Moscow. Cuba became Cold War ground zero.