Cuban Missile Crisis

Research Paper
Every time the events of the Cuban missile crisis are retold, the Cubans are the ones who are left out of the story. For the most important international crisis of the 20th century, I think that there is too much left out when the story of those thirteen days are retold. First of all, I think that the United States should take some responsibility for the past actions that would lead to the missile crisis.
Throughout most of their history, the nations of Latin and South America were under the influence of foreign powers. Excitement was high when Fidel Castro overthrew the Batista government and came into power in 1959. ‘The Castro revolution was a confused, ambiguous progression of pragmatism and idealism. Unlike most previous revolutions, the level of violence was minimal, partly because most opponents chose to emigrate rather than fight' (Knight, 241). When Castro took over Cuba, the US lost their investments in markets such as sugar cane and tobacco. A variety of private US enterprises were nationalized, including banks, sugar mills, and service stations. Nationalization was common after revolutions. Within one year, foreign investments in Cuba had been virtually eliminated, and the Cuban government ended controlling about half of the nation economy. Because of that, the United States stated that they would broke all diplomatic relations with Cuba. Cuba had no other option but to turn to the Soviets for commercial support, as they were other dominant world power at the time. This was only the start of what would build up to the missile crisis. It was also around this time that United States started plotting to overthrow the Castro government, which would be called ‘Operation Mongoose'.
‘Operation Mongoose is the general name for CIA covert operations and plans initiated by President John F. Kennedy on November 30, 1961. The president authorized aggressive covert assault on communism in the Cuban republic and the plan came into being after... [continues]

Read full essay