The Cuban Revolution - USA's Reaction

Question	Answer
Cuba	Only 144km from USA. US businesses dominated Cuba - owned the major industries (sugar and tobacco) and the US dominated Cuba militarily as there was a large US naval base in Guantanamo. USA supported the dictator, Fulgenico Batista, as he was anti-Communist but was corrupt and unpopular.
Fidel Castro	1959, Castro overthrew Batista with a campaign of guerrilla warfare. Castro took over US-owned businesses and land, and gave it to ordinary Cuban farmers (nationalisation). He forged strong links with USSR (led by Nikita Khrushchev) and in return, Khrushchev sent him advisers, economic aid and military aid.
Bay of Pigs Disaster	USA furious of Cuba-USSR alliance - 1959 to 1961 - bitter relationship. USA helped Cubans who fled from Castro. Jan. 1961 - Eisenhower broke off diplomatic links to Cuba and succeeded by Kennedy. Supplied weapons to 1,500 exiles of Cuba who faced 20,000 Cuban troops - big disaster.
The Beginnings of the Missile Crisis	Khrushchev and Kennedy met in Vienna in June 1961 but talks didn't go well - Khrushchev thought that USA wouldn't use force to contain Communism, leading to the crisis of 1962. After BoPs, Khrs. gave Castro lots of Svt mltry qpmt to prvnt US invsn of Cba. Sep. '62, Svts sd they wudnt put nclr mssls on Cba - lied.

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	Created by sagar.joban over 11 years ago