The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) was the closest the world has ever come
to nuclear war.
Despite the fact that wealthy Americans vacationed in Cuba in the
1950s and before, spending vast amounts of money there, most of that
money went to the country’s ruler, Fulgencio Batista (1901–73). Most
Cubans remained devastatingly poor while Batista and his brutal henchmen prospered.
Fidel Castro (1926–) became dictator of Cuba in 1959. Castro had
led the revolution that unseated Batista, and he implemented major
health care and land reforms that helped Cuba flourish. He made sure
money that was made in Cuba, stayed in Cuba. At the same time, he
showed no mercy to those who had supported Batista and oppressed the
poor. Those found guilty often were executed, and some Cubans fled to
Florida.
These exiles in Florida told the U.S. press exaggerated stories about
how Castro was mistreating Cubans. As a result, the United States refused to do business with Cuba, which caused serious problems for the
island because U.S. trade had been its biggest source of income. The U.S.
trade embargo (blockade) forced Castro to rely on support from the
Soviet Union, a communist country. (See Communism.)
Bay of Pigs invasion
Fearing that Cuba would become communist, and that a communist
country just 50 miles from the coast of Florida would be a threat to the
United States, President John F. Kennedy (1917–63; served 1961–63)
chose to support the anti-Castro Cubans living in Florida. With funding
from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in 1961 Kennedy sent an
armed group of Cuban exiles to the Bay of Pigs in Cuba to overthrow
Castro.
The invasion was a series of one error after another, however. Jeeps
were brought in without fuel, maps of the area were not distributed, and
exiles began shooting at fellow exiles. It was a major embarrassment in
U.S. history, but Kennedy never apologized for the fiasco.
Castro was uneasy with having such a powerful enemy as the United
States, and he looked to form a more solid relationship with the Soviet
Union. In September 1962, a group of anti-Castro Cuban exiles reported
to the CIA that the Soviet Union was building military bases in Cuba. A
U.S. spy plane flew over the island and snapped aerial photos of what
turned out to be nuclear missiles. A few days later, the CIA told Kennedy
that the missiles had the potential to kill 80 million Americans. Twenty
Soviet ships carrying nuclear weapons were spotted heading for Cuba.
More photographs were taken, and it was clear that the bases would
be fully functional by the end of October. The United States was in serious trouble.
The missile crisis
On October 27, 1962, a Soviet missile shot down a U.S. U2 plane, and
its pilot was killed. All totalled, the Soviet Union had sent sixty-six missiles to Cuba along with twenty-two thousand troops and technicians.
Kennedy, still reeling from the botched Bay of Pigs invasion, needed
to make a decisive move. Matters were made more confusing when the
Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971), sent Kennedy two letters
with different messages: One told him the missiles would be removed if
he promised not to invade Cuba; the other indicated that because the
United States had military bases in Turkey (near the Soviet Union), there
should be no problem with the Soviets having bases in Cuba. If Kennedy
would get out of Turkey, the Soviet Union would get out of Cuba.
In response, Kennedy promised not to invade Cuba and to resume
trade with the island. Kennedy gave Khrushchev until October 29 to answer, and if he did not meet the deadline, the United States would invade Cuba. Khrushchev contacted Kennedy on October 28, and war was
averted.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a major incident of the Cold War, a
period in history in which tensions ran high between the United States
and the Soviet Union, but no actual fighting ever broke out.