1. Objective: To examine the impact of the Cold War on Latin America.
Helpful Hint:
Ask the class the following questions:
“What do you think the point of view of the artist is about America’s place in the world during the Cold War?
What does it say about the feelings many Latin Americans had towards the U.S. during the time?”
Reveal caption. Discuss the artist’s perception that Reagan saw the world only in terms of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. and that the importance of Latin America, as well as the rest of the world, was minimized as a result.
“El Mundo Segun Ronald Reagan” or “The World According to Ronald Reagan”. The map depicts a Latin American view of Reagan's foreign policy during the Cold War. Notice the exaggerated size of the Soviet Union and United States, and the size given to other countries in the world.

2. Crisis Over Cuba
By the 1960’s, the U.S. and the Soviet Union emerged as superpowers.

3. In 1959, Fidel Castro led a communist revolution in Cuba, causing thousands of Cubans to flee to the United States.
Fidel Castro, 1950’s
Fidel Castro, 2010

4. 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.

5. · 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)

6. (audio – JFK takes the blame)
Americans, two of whom were eventually executed, are arrested in April They were accused by the Cuban government of smuggling guns to anti-Communist rebels a few days before the Bay of Pigs invasion.

7. The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Soviet Union began to build missile bases in Cuba, worrying Americans that we were vulnerable to attack.
One of the first images of missile bases under construction shown to President Kennedy on the morning of October 16, 1962.

8. · Pres. Kennedy announced that American warships would stop any Soviet ship carrying missiles.

9. Video: Cuban Missile Crisis (1:09)
"That Tuesday the first of thirteen days of decision unlike any other in the Kennedy years or, indeed, inasmuch as this was the first direct nuclear confrontation, unlike any other in the history of our planet." Theodore Sorensen, aide to Pres. Kennedy

10. 800 women strikers for peace on 47 St near the UN Bldg

11. Upon approaching Cuba, the Soviets turned back.
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove Soviet missiles from Cuba, and the U.S. agreed not to invade Cuba.
U.S. President John F. Kennedy shaking hands with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. (June 3, 1961)

12. "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

13. Intervening in Latin America
Many poor Latin Americans viewed communism as a solution to their problems.
Therefore, the U.S. created several programs aimed at helping Latin America, and other third world nations.

14. Alliance for Progress – Latin American nations were urged to make reforms in order to help the lives of their people in exchange for U.S. aid for schools, hospitals, farming, and sanitation services.
Bogotá, Colombia (Dec. 17, 1961)
"Here is inaugurated the first school of 22,000 to be constructed by the Colombian government within the Alliance for Progress with the assistance of the President of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy."

15. Peace Corps – American volunteers work as teachers, engineers, and technical advisers in developing nations for two years.
This map shows in what countries the Peace Corps currently works in (orange) and what countries in which the Peace Corps is currently inactive (purple).

16. Organization of American States – the U. S
Organization of American States – the U.S. promoted economic progress in the Americas by investing in transportation and industry.
Cuba is the only nation in the Americas that is not a member of the OAS.

17. Intervention:
· The U.S. supported the harsh governments of El Salvador and Guatemala against revolutions because they were anti-communist.
· Tens of thousands of people died and thousands more fled to the U.S.
Death Squad victims, Civil War, San Salvador, January 1981, El Salvador

18. Killed by government death squads, the above Guatemalans are two of the approximately 200,000 killed during the 35 year civil war fought between government forces and communist rebels. (view dossier)

19. Nicaragua:
· A group known as the Sandanistas overthrew the Nicaraguan dictator and started a communist government.
Marx, Lenin and Soviet hammer and sickle at a Sandinista rally in Managua.

20. Sanders Cartoon-Commentary
· President Ronald Reagan opposed the Sandanistas and supported an anti-communist group called the Contras.
Sanders Cartoon-Commentary
· Congress disagreed with Pres. Reagan and passed a law banning military aid to the Contras.

21. · However, some government officials illegally raised money for the Contras by selling weapons to Iran. This scandal became known as the Iran-Contra Affair.
The Iran-Contra Crisis (14:11) The government's secret arms-for-hostages dealings with Iran are uncovered. Reagan learns that his staff has diverted profits to support the anti-Communist Contras in Nicaragua.

22. The Arms Race
In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite.
Feeling that the U.S. was falling behind technologically to the Soviets, the U.S. created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which developed a space program to compete with the Soviets.

23. Nuclear warhead stockpiles of the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia, 1945-2006.
USSR surpassed the USA in warheads (1978) *
In addition, the Soviet Union and the U.S. competed with each other in weapon development.
Both sides developed enough weapons to easily destroy the other.