However, the relationship between the two nations was a tense one. Nikita Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, serving as premier from to Though he largely pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West, the Cuban Missile Crisis began after he positioned nuclear weapons 90 miles from An arms race occurs when two or more countries increase the size and quality of military resources to gain military and political superiority over one another.
On October 27, , Rudolf Anderson Jr. Thirteen days before, the Air Force major had flown one of the first top-secret reconnaissance missions over Cuba that confirmed the existence of Soviet missile Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Recommended for you. Fidel Castro. Castro Assumes Power in Cuba. John F. Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, serving as premier from to Arms Race An arms race occurs when two or more countries increase the size and quality of military resources to gain military and political superiority over one another.
How the Death of a U. Fidel Castro Ruz was born Aug. Castro attended Jesuit schools and then the University of Havana, where he received law and social science degrees. His life as a rebel began in with a reckless attack on the Moncada military barracks in the eastern city of Santiago. Most of his comrades were killed, and Fidel and his brother Raul went to prison.
Freed under a pardon, Castro fled to Mexico and organized a rebel band that returned in , sailing across the Gulf of Mexico to Cuba on a yacht named Granma. The U. Within months, Castro was imposing radical economic reforms. Members of the old government went before summary courts, and at least were shot by firing squads over two years. In , Castro acknowledged holding 15, political prisoners. Still, the revolution thrilled millions in Cuba and across Latin America who saw it as an example of how the seemingly arrogant Yankees could be defied.
And many on the island were happy to see the seizure of property of the landed class, the expulsion of American gangsters and the closure of their casinos. As Castro moved into the Soviet bloc, Washington began working to oust him, cutting U. The American government imposed a trade embargo, banning virtually all U. But the CIA-backed invasion failed. The debacle forced the U. By Cuban count, he was the target of more than assassination plots by militant Cuban exiles or the U.
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And then suddenly human rights was an issue after the revolution, when it never was before. The turning point was the agricultural reform, which nationalized land that was held by U. And kind of an overreaction to the first Soviet mission to Cuba, which at that point was not a military relationship. Fidel only declared Cuba a socialist state after the preliminary attack in the Bay of Pigs, at the point he understood that they were going to be attacked by the United States.
At the funeral of the initial Cubans who were killed in what was considered the first airstrike, to take out his air force, by the CIA, he announced that Cuba was going to be a member of the socialist bloc and he basically called on the Soviet Union to protect them. But the actual assault came that night. There was no military relationship between Cuba and the Soviet Union until after that point.
Gilsinan: How much has changed since Fidel stepped down? Kornbluh: Quite a bit has changed in Cuba since Fidel Castro stepped aside 10 years ago.
He was felled by a severe case of diverticulitis, two botched operations, internal septic shock—he almost died twice. Those who somehow hope that now that Fidel has died there will be upheaval or political change in Cuba are going to be disappointed. But much has changed. It continues to grow, but very slowly, in some ways too slowly for the Cuban population that has waited a long time, and has had its expectations raised by the normalization of relations with the United States.
But with the social and economic changes under Raul Castro, Cuban society certainly is evolving economically. And somewhere down the line that is going to have a cultural and political impact.
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