What Major Events in the Cold War Caused Fidel Castro?
What major events in the Cold War caused Fidel Castro to side with the Soviet Union Super Power? In the 1960’s the world was largely dominated by the Cold War which was a long period of tension and hostility that only occasionally broke out into open warfare. This conflict was caused by the rivalry of two superpowers - the United States and the Soviet Union and emerged after the Second World War. Both super powers had different ideologies - the United States was a capitalist democracy, whereas the Soviet Union were communist.
These two super powers tried to influence many different countries throughout the world which ended up causing worldwide tension. More specifically, Cuba as country was affected by the Cold War in many ways and there were many events that caused them to side with the Soviet Union during this time when driven away by America. The major events such as Cuba’s New Regime, the Bay of Pigs attack and the Cuban Missile Crisis all had an impact on Cuba being pushed away from American alliance and towards the Soviet Union. Cuba was largely controlled and owned by the United States.
This includes their economic wealth, oil, refineries, mines, cattle ranches and railways. When Fidel Castro came into power in Cuba, many things changed. He introduced the new regime, which America was extremely suspicious of when Castro began to bring in socialist reforms such as redistribution of land, the collectivization of agriculture and nationalization of transport. These measures affected American investors and in turn caused America to react by banning Cuban sugar imports to America and break all diplomatic relations.
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USA became more hostile when Castro started trading with the Soviet Union and brought in thousands of Soviet technicians. America began to believe that Cuba was communist, which was not yet the case. America started secretly planning to invade Cuba and to overthrow Fidel Castro. This event of the new regime which was conducted after the Cuban Revolution had a great impact in the driving away of Cuba from their alliance with the United States and in turn pushed them closer to the Soviet Union.
Another largely to blame event is the American failure of the landing at the Bay of Pigs. This was another attempt to over throw the Cuban government and evict Fidel Castro from power. This affair was a complete disaster on the behalf of America as Castro’s guerrilla forces easily defeated the US invaders within 2 days of the attack and all Americans were killed or taken as prisoners. The Bay of Pigs ambush was extremely embarrassing for the US, both because their involvement had been very public and the whole affair had been poorly planned and executed.
Kennedy took public responsibility for the mistakes made, but remained determined to rid Cuba of Castro. This was an extremely short conflict and left USA with great shame and embarrassment. The Cuban Missile Crisis was also an important event that contributed largely to Fidel Castro being pushed into alliance with Soviet Union by America. US spy planes spotted nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union on the island of Cuba. After being informed of this, Kennedy called together 18 of his closest advisers to try to resolve the most dangerous confrontation of the cold war.
Kennedy decided to place a naval blockade around Cuba with the aim that it would prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies into Cuba. Kennedy demanded the removal of the missiles already there and the destruction of the sites. During the crisis, the two sides exchanged many letters and other communications. The leaders of both superpowers recognized the devastating possibility of a nuclear war and publicly agreed to a deal in which the Soviets would dismantle the weapon sites in exchange for a pledge from the United States not to invade Cuba.
In a separate deal, which remained secret for more than twenty-five years, the United States also agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from Turkey. Although the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba, they escalated the building of their military arsenal; the missile crisis was over, but the arms race was not. There were several monumental events that occurred during the Cold War that caused Fidel Castro and Cuba to side with the Soviet Union.
There were political disagreements between Cuba and the United States, as well as direct conflict and violence between the two. There were extremely tense confrontations between the two super powers that could have ended tragically and caused an entire nuclear war. President Kennedy told Americans after the Cuban Missile Crisis had ended – "For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal. "
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What Major Events in the Cold War Caused Fidel Castro?. (2017, Feb 14). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/what-major-events-in-the-cold-war-caused-fidel-castro-to-side-with-the-soviet-union-super-power/
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