Cuba 1959 to 1962, Essay Example

1959 marked the end of the Cuban Revolution in which Cuban President Fulgencio Batista was removed from power with the hope of establishing a socialist state. The United States played a major role in the success of the rebels as a consequence of its desire to eliminate the communist government. To do so, the U.S. government issued an economic embargo on the Cuban government and recalled its ambassador (Singer et al., 1974). This weakened the Cuban government and the support it had once had from its civilians waned. This gave the rebels a significant advantage, which allowed them to eventually overthrow Batista. However, this event did not end to America’s advantage, because Castro replaced Batista, who ruled with a similar style.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a response to the end of the Cuban Revolution and an attempt to overthrow Castro in favor of a more democratic government. The U.S. was extremely involved in this effort because the government trained Cuban exiles with the intent of overthrowing the new Cuban government. At first Cuba’s militia was no match for the invaders, but once Castro became involved, he demonstrated his military power and the troops were forced to retreat (Gott, 2004).

The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in 1962 with the major intent of dissuading the United States from future attacks on Cuba. Although the conflict was mainly between the Soviet Union and the United States, the fact that Cuba and the Soviet Union were allies and that Cuba is geographically close to the United States put the Soviet Union at an advantage. The USSR therefore decided it would construct missiles in Cuba that could potentially be used to target the United States. Eventually however, the U.S. and USSR reached a treaty and the USSR agreed to dissemble the missiles and return them to their country.

References

Gott, Richard (2004). Cuba: A New History. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Singer JD, Small M. (1974). The Wages of War, 1816-1965. Inter-University Consortium for Political Research. Retrieved from http://ciser.cornell.edu/ASPs/search_athena.asp?IDTITLE=182