Cuba

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

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores.

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

The United States supported Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar in order to ensure that they would have a Democratic form of government. The Soviet Union supported Fidel Castro in order to ensure that they would have a Communistic form of government.

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

failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961. The United States was confident that they would win but this lowered their confidence.