Fidel Castro
- He was born in 1926, into a middle class family. Cuba was poor at the time.
- He went to University in 1945 and started to read up on communism
- He decided to form a group to over-throw the capitalist leader. He launched an attack against the dictator in 1953, but unfortunately, it went wrong and he was sent to prison.
- He was soon released, and launched another attack. In 1959, the dictator fled and Castro took over.
- Castro kicked all of the American businesses out of Cuba, and ran the businesses themselves.
- He used the money from the products produced to build schools and hospitals. Cuba had the best literacy rate for over 10 years.
- America’s secret agency, the CIA, decided to plot to kill Castro because of communism.
- The CIA failed, and Castro decided to ask the USSR for help.
- The USSR gave them military aid, which included nuclear weapons. This led to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- After the Cuban Missile Crisis, America formed a banned on Cuban products. Russia’s economy crashed and Cuba had no one to sell their products to. This caused Cuba’s economical problems.
Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill
- Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the USSR.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt was the president of the USA. He died in 1945, and Vice President Harry Truman became president.
- Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of Great Britain.
- They were called, “The Big Three”.
- Churchill was very much against Stalin and vice versa – Roosevelt did not take sides, but were friends with both allies.
- When Truman became president, Churchill turned him against Stalin too, and caused a disagreement between the big three.
- Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met up at the Yalta conference.
- Stalin, Truman and Churchill met up at the Potsdam conference.
- Truman and Stalin were the main super powers after World War III.
- This disagreement between Truman and Stalin caused the Cold War.
Communism
- Communism is also referred to as ‘Left-wing’
- The USSR was the main communist country during the Cold War.
- China was also another major communist country during the Cold War.
- Communism believes that everyone should be equal and share food, money and everything else.
- This was a good system for poorer countries, but not very beneficial for richer countries.
- Usually, in communist countries, you cannot vote for other than the communist party, nor can you stand up for what you believe.
- In communism, you cannot receive anything higher than what everyone else has. This means that there is no chance to have individual profits or rights.
- The USA was entirely against communism, and this caused more of a disagreement between the USSR and the USA.
- Communism and Capitalism cause other smaller wars in the Cold War, such as the Korean War.
- Communism ended in the USSR in December 1991, ending 74 years of communism.
Cuban Missile Crisis
- The Cuban Missile Crisis happened because the USSR wanted to put nuclear weapons in Cuba, which were only several miles away from the coast of America.
- The USA was worried about this because if the USSR wanted to launch an attack, they would only have a few minutes notice before the impact.
- The USA also held nuclear weapons in Turkey, which lies under Russia itself.
- This was the closet point in history, when a nuclear war could have started.
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The Cuban Missile Crisis started on the 15th October 1962 and lasted for 13 days, until the 28th October.
- The USA first found out about the nuclear weapons when a U2, a spy plane, took pictures of planning sites.
- The USA decided to try and stop the USSR from bringing the weapons into Cuba, by trying to form a wall of ships, to block any Soviet ships carrying the weapons.
- The USA threatened to invade Cuba if the ships with the weapons did not turn back.
- The USSR told the USA that if they took their missile out of Turkey, they will turn back.
- In the end, The USSR withdrew their ships under all of the conditions.