18.1.15

Relations with Cuba

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Soviet and US Relations With Cuba

Before the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the USA's relationship with Cuba was strained.

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The Cuban Revolution

  • In 1959 there was a revolution in Cuba and the country became communist.
  • The USA refused to recognise the new leader Castro and his new government.
  • Cuba began to build economic links with the USSR instead of the USA.
    • It began to trade Cuban Sugar for Soviet oil.
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Assassination

  • The USA did not like having a communist country so close to them.
  • They refused to recognise the government of Fidel Castro (the revolutionary who took power in 1959).
  • The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) unsuccessfully tried to assassinate him.
    • The CIA convinced American President JF Kennedy, that they needed to invade Cuba for national security.
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The Bay of Pigs

  • At the Bay of Pigs on the 17th April 1961, America invaded Cuba.
  • The CIA told Kennedy that the invasion would look like a Cuban revolt.
    • It would be carried out by trained Cuban exiles and old-style, disguised US planes.
  • The USA believed Castro’s control of the island was weak.
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The invasion

  • The 1,400 US-backed soldiers were met by an army of 20,000 Cubans.
  • The US-backed Cuban exiles surrendered.
  • Castro had found out about the invasion in advance and the planes were recognised as American from photographs.
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Consequences

  • The incident ended the chances of a good relationship between Cuba and the USA.
    • Fidel Castro’s communist rule of Cuba was there to stay.
  • The USA was totally discredited because it had supported illegal acts (an armed rebellion against a country’s government).
    • Kennedy was embarrassed and his position was weakened.

Jump to other topics

1The Medieval World: 450-1450 AD

1.1Anglo-Saxon England

1.2The Contest for the English Throne

1.3Conquering the Holy Land, 10-96-1396 AD

1.4King John

1.5The Magna Carta & Parliament

1.6The Black Death

2Worldviews

3The Empire of Mali

4The Renaissance & Reformations, 1500-1598 AD

5The British Empire, 1583-1960 AD

6The Peasants' Revolt

7Religion in the Middle Ages

8Slavery, 1619-1833 AD

9The English Civil War, 1642-1660

10The Industrial Revolution, 1750-1840

11US Independence, 1775-1783

12The French Revolution, 1789-1815

13The British Empire, 1857–1930

14Suffrage

15World War 1, 1914-1918

16The Inter-War Years, 1919-1939

17World War 2, 1939-1945

18The Cold War, 1947-1962

19Civil Rights in the USA, 1954-1975

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