1959 – The
island of Cuba
has been
taken over by
Communist
rebels led by
Fidel Castro.
In 1959 Cuba was not
that important to the
America. The previous
leader of Cuba, General
Batista, might have been
pro-USA but he had also
been a dictator who had
been extremely
unpopular.
1960 - Castro’s new Communist government
has taken over all American property located
in Cuba. All American companies have been
kicked out of the country. Cubans who are
loyal to America or believe in capitalism are
expelled from the country as well.
The loss of American companies on
the island is not a huge problem.
However, on the other hand Cuba’s
economy depends heavily on
America buying sugar from them.
1960 – Cuban leader
Fidel Castro asks
Communist Russia to
buy Cuban sugar.
Russia also promises
to sell oil to Cuba.
Cuba is only 90 miles away from the USA and
was within its sphere of influence. The USA
had not got involved when the Soviet’s put
down the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 because
they had respected that it was part of the
USSR’s sphere of influence.
1960 – The CIA
offers you an
invasion plan to
kick Communism
out of Cuba.
: Both yourselves and the Russians
have nuclear weapons. Angering
Russia could have disastrous
consequences. If any American
troops are involved in an invasion
then the Russians might see it as
an act of war and might offer
military support to Cuba.
1961 – Castro asks Khrushchev to help him
defend Cuba in case of further attacks.
Khrushchev agrees to start sending arms
to Cuba. This could include nuclear arms
as well as conventional arms.
If the USSR put nuclear missiles on
Cuba it will mean that they will be able
to attack America without spending
large amounts of money developing
more ICBMs. If you remove missiles
from Turkey it will mean that you face
public humiliation and you lose your
upper hand in the arms race.
What did the USA do? The
dotted line shows what
each response was to.
They waited to see
what Castro did as new
leader of Cuba.
President Eisenhower banned
the import of Cuban sugar and
stopped selling American
goods such as oil to the
Cubans.
President Kennedy
asked the CIA to find
a possible solution to
the problem.
They decided to invade the Cuba
using ex-Cuban exiles. The Cuban
refugees were trained and equipped
by the CIA. They invaded the Bay of
Pigs in April 1961. The invasion was a
disaster and was easily defeated by
Castro and his supporters within two
days.
They started sending U2 spy planes
over Cuba on a regular basis.
Kennedy warned the USSR that he
would prevent them by ‘whatever
means necessary’ from placing
nuclear missiles on Cuba. The
Russians said that they had no plans
to do this anyway. However, on 14th
October 1962, an American spy plane
flew over Cuba and took amazingly
detailed photographs of missile sites
in Cuba.