Cuban Missile Crisis

Fulgencio Batista US backed military dictator and President

Pre Revolution Cuba High illiteracy Crime and corruption US had huge influence in country

Fidel Castro as a Young Revolutionary

1959 - Castro takes power January 1, 1959 leftist forces under Fidel Castro overthrow Fulgencio Batista Castro nationalizes the sugar industry and signs trade agreements with the Soviet Union. The next year, Castro seizes U.S. assets on the island.

Post Revolution Rents were reduced to historically low levels. Wage and price controls were also implemented, and the Agrarian Reform Law was passed in May. With this, the largest estates on the island were confiscated and redistributed in smaller parcels to small farmers or cooperatives. Castro also began to implement major social reforms such as a literacy program, which would eventually assure that all Cubans could read and write, the construction of hospitals and public housing, and providing education and health care universally for free.

What do some of those reforms sound like?

Khruschev Embraces Castro, 1961

Cuba is 90 Miles from the Florida Coast A Soviet “Client-State”

Bay of Pigs Invasion · The U.S. became worried as Cuba received increased amounts of aid from the Soviet Union. · In 1961, President John F. Kennedy approved of a plan to overthrow Castro’s government with the help of Cuban exiles.

The Bay of Pigs Fiasco: 1961

Bay of Pigs Debacle (1961)

· The exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs in Southern Cuba where they were easily defeated by Cuban forces, strengthening Fidel Castro and embarrassing the United States. Fidel Castro, parading through the streets of Havana after his victory against Cuban expatriates in the Bay of Pigs invasion. (1961)

The Cuban Missile Crisis The Soviet Union began to build missile bases in Cuba, worrying Americans that we were vulnerable to attack.

Soviet-Cuban Construction

A U2 spy plane found these missile silos in Cuba, 1962.

The Cuban Missile Crisis: October, 1962

Soviet-Cuban Construction

Kennedy Khrushchev

Range of the Cuban Missiles

Global Thermal Nuclear War?

Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

Upon approaching Cuba, the Soviet boats turned back. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove Soviet missiles from Cuba, and the U.S. agreed not to invade Cuba.

"I found myself in the difficult position of having to decide on a course of action which would answer the American threat but which would also avoid war.  Any fool can start a war, and once he's done so, even the wisest of men are helpless to stop it-- especially if its a nuclear war.” - Nikita Khrushchev

Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) We went eyeball-to-eyeball with the Russians, and the other man blinked!

End to a crisis! The Soviets removed the missiles in Cuba. In exchange, USA pledged to not invade Cuba again. And to remove missiles in Turkey (right).

Cuba embargo Still today, the USA has an economic embargo on communist Cuba. Their only cars are from before the embargo!

Fidel Castro Today