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On this day, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the country due to the revolution led by Fidel Castro. Before fleeing, Batista was supported by the United States due to his anti-communist views. Fidel Castro had strong communist views and allied with the U.S.S.R. The United States was attempting to contain communism making this a huge loss as another country fell. This was a huge turning point in the Cold War because Cuba switched sides. The U.S. was not positive that Castro was communist, but there were strong suspicions. This started to raise tension between the United States and U.S.S.R, while Cuba became more of an enemy to America. The revolution caused the relationship between Cuba and the United States to start to disintegrate.

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Four months following the successful revolution, Fidel Castro visited the United States. There were high tensions between the two countries and President Dwight D. Eisenhower did not even want to see him. President Eisenhower actually went to a golf course to avoid meeting the new Cuban leader, who he believed could be a communist. During the meeting with Council of Foreign Affair meeting, Castro got angry and stormed out of the meeting. As a last resort, Vice President Richard Nixon had a private talk with Castro before he returned home to Cuba in an attempt to push Castro away from communism. Nixon’s efforts failed and Castro left. Cuba had fallen to communism and it was now clear that it was irreversible. This raised animosity between Cuba and the United States that would last for the extent of the Cold War.

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As relations between the U.S. and Cuba continues to get worse, tensions grew high between Castro and Eisenhower. The Central Intelligence Agency planned an invasion of Cuba in 1960 which was debated for a while. The invasion was finally passed during the Kennedy administration. During the invasion, the Cuban forces were much stronger than the United States’ men. Many Americans were imprisoned in Cuba and held for ransom. Castro released the prisoners for fifty-three million worth of medicine and food. The survivors were returned to the United States over the next few years. The C.I.A. were criticized for the failed invasion. This was important to the Cold War because the United States failed when attempting to control the spread of communism. This event led to others like the Cuban Missile Crisis, which led Cuba to become more dangerous to the United States.

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A few months before the Missile Crisis, John F. Kennedy issues an executive order to restrict all trade between the United States and Cuba. Before this, the United States was still sending medicine and food. Over the last few years, tensions had risen to the point that the U.S. needed to completely cut off Cuba. There were several times where the lapsed since then. This was important to the Cold War because the United States abandoned Cuba since they were allies to the Soviets and communism. This was also negative for the relationship between Cuba and the United States because the embargo caused tension to continue even after the Cold War ended.

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The Cuban Missile Crisis was possibility the closest the U.S.S.R. and U.S. came to actually fighting. Nikita Khrushchev used Cuba to his advantage and had nuclear-armed missiles pointed towards the United States. The missiles could hit the East Coast of the United States just a few minutes after being launched. Kennedy placed a blockade on Cuba to prevent any more missiles being shipped. On October 28, Khrushchev removed the missiles and in return, Kennedy pulled the U.S. missiles from Turkey. Kennedy also promised to never invade Cuba. This was the highest point of tension in the Cold War and the closest the world has been to nuclear war. Cuba became a larger threat to the United States because the U.S.S.R. could use the country to their advantage, and it is so close to America.

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Eighteen years later, Fidel Castro announced the Mariel Boatlift. He said that all Cubans that wished to emigrate to America were free to go. In total, 125,000 Cubans came to the United States on around 1,700 boats. There were too many people packed onto each boat and the conditions were extremely unsafe. One boat capsized because it was overloaded, and twenty-seven Cubans died. The Cubans in the United States were called “Marielitos”. It finally ended with a mutual agreement between the United States and Cuba. This was important to the Cold War because it showed that these refugees did not want to live in a communistic country. This raised tension between Cuba and the United States because Castro created a problem in the U.S. that President Jimmy Carter had to solve.

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