A t one time, it looked like communism might have a shot at taking over the world. Today—not so much. Of the nearly 50 ...

Revolutionary icon Fidel Castro turns 86 on Monday, out of sight, but not out of mind as Cubans wonder about his future and theirs at a time of change in one of world's last communist countries.

It has control over the country's nuclear arsenal and its more than 2 million troops, the world's largest military. Under its founder Mao, the Communist Party ran a totalitarian socialist state.

SCHLAPP: There is nothing joyful about socialism, there is nothing joyful about communism, and the policies that politicians implement. We've seen this in so many of these countries that have lost ...