1 янв 1959 г. - Cuban Missile Crisis

Описание:

Background info:
-Cuba is located close to Florida in the southern US, and it had long been an American ally. The US owned most of the businesses there and had a huge naval base there as well. Along with that, the US also provided the Cuban ruler, General Batista, with economic and military support. Batista was a dictator, and his rule was corrupt and unpopular, but the Americans supported him anyway since he was just as opposed to communism as they were.

There was a lot of opposition within Cuba, and in 1959, after a 3-year campaign, Fidel Castro overthrew Batista. Castro was ruthless, he quickly killed and arrested political opponents. Castro was also a very clever propagandist and had a vision for a better Cuba, which most of the public liked. The US was surprised by this and decided to recognize the new leader of Cuba as Castro. However, within a short period relations between the US and Cuba became worse., the 2 main reasons being:

1. There were thousands of Cuban exiles in the US that fled from Castro's rule, these exiles formed powerful pressure groups demanding action against Castro

2. Castro took the land of some American-owned businesses (particularly agriculture) within Cuba and distributed it to his supporters within Cuba's peasant farmer population.

In June 1960, US President Eisenhower authorized the CIA to investigate ways of overthrowing Castro, the CIA also provided funds and support to Cuban exiles. It also investigates ways of disrupting the Cuban economy, such as damaging sugar plantations, American companies refusing to work with oil imported from the USSR, and the American media broadcasting relentless criticism of Castro. Castro responded to the US hostility with a mixed approach, he assured Americans living in Cuba that they were safe, and also kept the US naval base; he said he simply wanted to run Cuba without interference. However, by the summer of 1960, Castro allied Cuba with the Soviet Union. The soviet leader signed a trade agreement giving Cuba 100 million USD i economic aid. Castro also started receiving arms from the soviet union, and American spies knew about this.

In 1961, the USA's new president, John F Kennedy broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba. Castro thought the US was preparing to invade his country, he was right. However, the US did not want to invade directly, instead, Kennedy put into action a plan consisting of supplying arms, equipment, and transport for 1400 anti-Castro exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro. A couple of months later, the exiles landed on 'the Bay of pigs'; the invasion failed drastically. The exiles were met with 20,000 Cuban troops, armed with tanks and modern weapons. Castro killed or captured them all in days.

What was the aftermath of the bay of pigs?

After the bay of Pigs, Soviet arms flooded into Cuba, and in May 1962 the Soviet Union openly stated that it supplying Cuba with arms. By July 1962, Cuba had the best-equipped army in Latin America. By September, it had thousands of soviet missiles, plus patrol boats, jets, tanks, and 5000 Soviet technicians to help maintain the weapons. The Americans watched all of this with great alarm, they were tolerating arms being supplied in Cuba, but the big question was, would the USSR send nuclear weapons to Cuba? In September, Kennedy warned the USSR that he would prevent Cuba from becoming an offensive military base. The same day the USSR assured the US that they didn't plan on putting nuclear weapons in Cuba.

In October 1962, an American plane flew over cuba and took a photo of the Cuban missile sites, which despite the USSR's reassurance, were nuclear missile sites being built by the USSR. More photos later on confirmed that some sites were nearly finished but others were still being built. American spy planes also reported that 20 soviet ships were currently on the way to Cuba carrying more missiles.

Добавлено на ленту времени:

Дата: