American-Cuban Relations

Walker Bragg

5/14/15

US History

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American and Cuban Relations

For almost all of my generation we have known that we could never travel to Cuba. Relations with Cuba have almost always been rocky to say the least. Even years before the Cold War began America and Cuba struggled with each other over imperialism. These problems were amplified significantly because of the Cold War. All of these problems finally led to the complete embargo on travel and trade.

            The growing threat of communism scared American and in turn scared the president of America. At this point Dwight D. Eisenhower was the president and was looking at Cuba as a possible threat that could fall under the control of communism. During this time a man named Fidel Castro was forming a rebellion to over throw the leader of Cuba, Fulgencio Batista. Once Fidel Castro took over the Cuban capital of Havana Americas fears America’s fears were finally realized, Cuba was under control of a communist government.

Dwight D. Eisenhower decided that Castro was a threat to America and began to make plans to overthrow the new government that Castro had created. Castro angered Americans even more when he nationalized American owned companies without paying them. This caused America to place an embargo on Cuba.  When Dwight D. Eisenhower left office in 1961 John F. Kennedy became president and also inherited the plans to try and take down Castro. This plan was called the Bay of Pigs and it was the main incident that started the hostilities between Cuba and America. This was a CIA backed invasion of Cuba by Cuban rebels. This operation went horribly wrong when the Cuban rebels were quickly defeated by Castro’s forces. The failure of the Bay of Pigs led to Fidel Castro allying himself more closely with the Soviet Union. This led to Cuba becoming a proxy for the Soviet Union and started getting weapons and supplies given to them. This alliance led to the pinnacle of the cold war the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred when an American U-2 spy plane photographed Russian missiles being made in Cuba on October 14, 1962. This sparked a global conflict that was the most volatile part of the cold war. This was the closest the Cold War ever got to becoming a nuclear war. America made negotiations with Russia to stop sending missiles to Cuba if America would stop sending missiles to turkey. Throughout this period conflict between America and Cuba worsened making America put a stricter embargo on Cuba.

Over the years following the Cuban missile crisis America has still had minor conflicts with Cuba. Several Cubans were arrested as being spies in America and were sent to jail. In Cuba several Americans were arrested and accused of being spies. The CIA has been known for trying to assassinate Castro many times over the years of his rule. None of these attempts ever came close to working.

American Cuban relations have only recently started to take a turn for the better with President Barack Obama meeting with President Raul Castro. America and Cuba have begun in recent prisoner swaps in an attempt to mend relations with each other. Obama has succeeded in passing reforms in traveling to Cuba as well as loosening some parts of the embargo put upon Cuba.

This topic has been fascinating to learn about. It holds some of the most influential parts of the Cold War and changed the affairs of the world for many generations. Researching this topic was fairly easy since it is an important and relatively current event in American history, and I was able to find several news articles on the topic. I found some videos on the Cuban missile crisis and the Bay of Pigs that really helped my research and helped me better understand how these events marked history.

Fidel Castro

Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis

rebels captured by the Cuban government after the Bay of Pigs

Images taken by the U2 plane 

 

Barack Obama shaking hands with Raul Castro

Works Cited

"The Bay of Pigs Invasion Begins." History.com. A+E Networks, 2009. Web. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.history.com%2Fthis-day-in-history%2Fthe-bay-of-pigs-invasion-begins>. I used this source to fine information about the Bay of Pigs. This side had text and a video on the topic that was very helpful.

Bohn, Kevin, and Laura Koran. "A New Era in U.S.-Cuba Relations - CNNPolitics.com." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 14 May 2015. <http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/18/politics/a-new-era-in-u-s--cuba-relations/>. This CNN article had a lot of current information on modern day relations between America and Cuba. This website talked about how travel between America and Cuba was becoming more possible.

"Cuban Missile Crisis." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 10 May 2015. <http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cuban-missile-crisis>. This website had a lot of information about the Cuban missile crisis. This website had text and a video on the topic.

Renwick, Danielle. "U.S.-Cuba Relations." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, n.d. Web. 14 May 2015. <http://www.cfr.org/cuba/us-cuba-relations/p11113>. This website was really helpful and gave a broad overview of the history of Cuba and America, as well as information about the current state of Cuban American relations.

"Timeline: US-Cuba Relations - BBC News." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2015. <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-12159943>. This site showed the long history of Cuba and any events that might have affected U.S. Cuba relations.