The USSR and Cuba.

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The USSR and Cuba

Cuba is a large island located approximately 100 miles from Florida in the south part of America. America owned the vast majority of businesses on the island and had constructed a huge naval base on it. However, after a three-year guerilla campaign, Fidel Castro was successful in overthrowing Batista, the dictator backed by America.

Consequently, relations between the two countries grew hostile for the next two years, but direct confrontation was avoided. Castro assured Americans in Cuba of their safety, saying here merely wished to run Cuba without interference. By the summer of 1960, he had started to receive arms from the Soviet Union, a fact which American intelligence was fully aware of.

American broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba in January 1961, thereby triggering alarm of an invasion. Although America did not invade Cuba directly, its actions made it clear to Cuba that they would not tolerate a Russian outpost in the heart of their own democratic sphere of influence. In April 1961, Kennedy provided supplies for some anti-Castro exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow him. The invasion at the Bay of Pigs failed catastrophically, suggesting to the scornful Cuba and USSR that America was not willing to get directly involved with the situation in Cuba.

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After Kennedy’s attempted invasion, the USSR flooded Cuba with arms, informing the world of this in May 1962. By September, Cuba had a plethora of military equipment at its disposal, easily making it the best-equipped army in Latin America. The Americans seemed prepared to tolerate conventional arms, but they lay in anticipation, asking themselves whether the USSR would dare to put missiles on Cuba. It would be a daring move which the Russians had never risked performing. After a threat from Kennedy on 11 September, they assured the Americans that they had no intention of placing nuclear missiles on Cuba.

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