Cuba

A. How did the Cuban Missile Crisis bring the two superpowers to the brink of war?

In October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union on the island of Cuba. President Kennedy did not want the Soviet Union and Cuba to know that he had discovered the missiles.

B. Why did the United States support Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar? (1950s) Why did the the Soviet Union support Fidel Castro? (1959)

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar believed in an approach similar to the United States, while Fidel Castro believed in an approach close to the Soviet Union.

C. How did the Bay of Pigs invasion diminish U.S. prestige.

In April 1961, the CIA launched what its leaders believed would be the definitive strike: a full-scale invasion of Cuba by 1,400 American-trained Cubans who had fled their homes when Castro took over. However, the invasion did not go well: The invaders were badly outnumbered by Castro’s troops, and they surrendered after less than 24 hours of fighting.