What Major Events in the Cold War Caused Fidel Castro to Side with the Soviet Union Super Power?

Only available on StudyMode
  • Download(s) : 282
  • Published : November 26, 2012
Open Document
Text Preview
What major events in the Cold War caused Fidel Castro to side with the Soviet Union Super Power?

In the 1960’s the world was largely dominated by the Cold War which was a long period of tension and hostility that only occasionally broke out into open warfare. This conflict was caused by the rivalry of two superpowers - the United States and the Soviet Union and emerged after the Second World War. Both super powers had different ideologies - the United States was a capitalist democracy, whereas the Soviet Union were communist. These two super powers tried to influence many different countries throughout the world which ended up causing worldwide tension. More specifically, Cuba as country was affected by the Cold War in many ways and there were many events that caused them to side with the Soviet Union during this time when driven away by America. The major events such as Cuba’s New Regime, the Bay of Pigs attack and the Cuban Missile Crisis all had an impact on Cuba being pushed away from American alliance and towards the Soviet Union.

Cuba was largely controlled and owned by the United States. This includes their economic wealth, oil, refineries, mines, cattle ranches and railways. When Fidel Castro came into power in Cuba, many things changed. He introduced the new regime, which America was extremely suspicious of when Castro began to bring in socialist reforms such as redistribution of land, the collectivization of agriculture and nationalization of transport. These measures affected American investors and in turn caused America to react by banning Cuban sugar imports to America and break all diplomatic relations. USA became more hostile when Castro started trading with the Soviet Union and brought in thousands of Soviet technicians. America began to believe that Cuba was communist, which was not yet the case. America started secretly planning to invade Cuba and to overthrow Fidel Castro. This event of the new regime which was conducted after the Cuban...
tracking img