With his trademark beard, military fatigues — and, until the mid-1980s, the ever-present Cohiba — Castro held fast for decades to the image of the strapping revolutionary. Though his enemies were quick to note occasional signs of declining health, he appeared fit and feisty well into his 70s, relishing any opportunity to muse aloud before a captive audience for six or seven hours. Every speech was a chance to boast about his regime's successes — a vaunted education system, cradle-to-grave social programs, free medical care — and to blame its failures on the American imperialists.