Revolution in Cuba by the early 1950s, U.S. corporations controlled majority of Cuban businesses most Cubans lived in poverty Fulgencio Batista overthrew the government and made himself dictator, friendly to the United states Fidel Castro led a successful revolt against Batista in 1958 once in power he quickly demanded control of American properties Fidel Castro

Revolution in Cuba when U.S. refused to talk, Castro turned to Soviet Union for economic help Eisenhower ordered the CIA to train a force of anti-Castro Cubans to overthrow Castro seized all American businesses and signed a trade agreement with Moscow just before Eisenhower left office in 1961 upon leaving office Eisenhower urged Kennedy to step up the training of the secret anti-Castro forces

Bay of Pigs the CIA had been training the anti- Castro group, La Brigada President Kennedy ordered La Brigada to land secretly, start an uprising, and overthrow Castro the plan failed miserably-boats ran aground on reefs and members of La Brigada killed or captured Made United States look weak and exposed a plot by the U.S. to over- throw a neighbor’s government

Cuban Missile Crisis Kennedy looked for other ways to unseat Castro interrupted Cuban trade, ordered more raids by exiles, plotted Castro’s assassination- (all through the CIA) Castro and Khrushchev were furious in October of 1962 a U.S. spy plane took photos of crews installing Soviet missiles in Cuba President John F. Kennedy

Cuban Missile Crisis Kennedy’s advisors met for a week to decide a course of action negotiations were ruled out since it would allow time for more missiles to be put in place invasion might start nuclear war Kennedy decided on blockade of Cuba to stop further delivery of nuclear weapons….then quietly push Khrushchev to remove the weapons

Cuban Missile Crisis Kennedy sent 180 warships sailing to Cuba, deployed B-52 bombers with nuclear weapons, military forces worldwide on alert Soviets sent ships toward Cuba and world held its breath, U-2 shot down Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles if U.S. vowed to never attack Cuba Khrushchev demanded that the U.S. remove missiles from Turkey (we ignored this)

Cuban Missile Crisis Kennedy agreed to the first demand but ignored the second He also ordered Khrushchev to get the missiles out of Cuba – or the United States would take them out Khrushchev finally backed down - the crisis ended

After the Crisis the standoff changed the character of the Cold War both accepted each other’s power and admitted the importance of negotiation installed a hotline for communication in event of future crisis did nothing to slow the arms race, the Soviets felt humiliated stockpile of nuclear weapons continued