By the 1990s, the breakup of the Soviet Union and the U.S. embargo had taken a toll.
Fidel Castro, always the survivor, called it a "special period" to his people and then flexed and shifted his idealistic parameters to fit his politics.
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In the summer of 1993, Castro made U.S. dollars legal tender in Cuba, recognizing the potential of the incoming funds, and he began to welcome foreign capitalist businesses to his communist state.
Castro co-built hotels and a service industry with foreigners, putting tourism in place to resuscitate Cuba's ailing economy.
Castro traded signature fatigues for more statesman-like business suits for appearances with world leaders abroad, and welcomed Pope John Paul II to Cuba, though for decades religion was not permitted.
Castro, always a master opportunist, masterminded the killing of exiled fliers who had been thorns in his side, and scored a public relations coup using the wrangling over a 6-year-old refugee named Elian Gonzalez. Castro essentially won when the boy was brought back to Cuba with his father.
Fidel Castro outlasted eight American presidents and every other communist dictator in the world.
Despite plots to kill him, long-time rumors of illnesses, and long-term expectations that he would not and could not last, he did.