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Fidel Castro And The Cuban Revolution

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In 1959 Fidel Castro led a successful revolution that overthrew the Cuban government, placing him in total control. During this time America had considered “ Central America - and the Caribbean - as its own ‘backyard’”, and therefore, when they saw a communist running the Cuban government tensions began to build (Todd 140). Eventually, in 1960 Castro led Cuba into an economic deal with the Soviet Union (or USSR), as a result of this American and Cuban relations were completely cut off (Dobbs 12-18). A year later President John F. Kennedy was elected with hopes to be stricter against communist countries like Cuba. Meanwhile, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev had made a deal with Castro to supply weapons to form a Cuban Army. In an attempt to …show more content…

The Soviet Union and America are close to a nuclear war both with their own demands. The USSR wants the missiles in Turkey removed and protection for Cuba, and the US wants the missiles in Cuba to be removed (Todd 152). The superpowers negotiate through a series of letters and eventually come to a comprise of removing the missiles in Cuba, Turkey, and the quarantine. However, the one catch was the removing of the missiles in Turkey was not released as a public part of the compromise. The resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis relaxed tensions by removing the missiles in Turkey, creating a communication hotline, and introducing a nuclear test ban treaty. Throughout the crisis communication between Kennedy and Khrushchev was a major factor in bringing the conflict to an end, and ultimately led to the installation of a communication line between the Kremlin and the White House. In order to reach a resolution, letters were sent between Khrushchev and Kennedy discussing their demands. However, communication was not effective and often created more confusion. For example, on October 27 1962, Khrushchev sent a letter to Kennedy discussing a resolution (Chang 234). However, on this same day “a US spy-plane was shot down over cuba”, with support from Soviet missiles and generals (Todd 152). The message from Khrushchev portrayed that the Soviet Union wanted to reach a end to the crisis, yet, they shot and killed a US pilot. As a result, there was

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