Cuban Embargo Essay

1568 Words 7 Pages
The United States and Cuba have suffered through an extremely long and difficult relationship over the past 55 years. The conflict arose due to many political and economic differences between the two countries, as well as the actions taken by Fidel Castro. The difficulties ultimately resulted in the United States placing an embargo on Cuba around 1960. Fortunately, these broken ties may be on the path to reconciliation, as President Obama and leader of Cuba, Raul Castro, are working to heal their diplomatic relations. The switch in power from Fidel Castro to Raul may have been the ultimate turning point for both countries. The current status of the relations between the United States and Cuba is still a work in-process, but the recent major …show more content…
Trade). There are several reasons why this embargo lasted so long, but the main reason is because of the Cold War. Since Fidel Castro became an ally of the Soviet Union, and the U.S. was not happy about having a Soviet Union military 90 miles off the coast of Florida (9 Questions). The United States was right to be worried, because in 1962, two United States Air Force planes would spot missiles near the Cuban coast (Fidel). “Castro and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conceived the idea of placing nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of Florida” (Fidel). This is known as the Cuban missile crisis, but the tension would dissolve after the Soviets agreed to take the missiles off the island. Fears about communism, the close relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union and the threat of missiles definitely contributed to the disagreements between the countries and the length of the embargo. Even though the United States had never come to fully trust Cuba, the same could be said on the side of Cuba. Fidel and Raul Castro were constantly worried about U.S. attempts to overthrow the government, and they had every right to be afraid. The United States tried to several times to overthrow the Cuban government and kill Fidel Castro. One attempt was the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The United States sent in 1,400 Cuban exiles, trained by the CIA, to overthrow the Castro regime (Fidel). Unfortunately, this attempt failed, and forced the United States to find other methods to take Fidel Castro out of office. The United States even tried to poison Fidel Castro’s cigars, but that failed as well (Fidel). It is certain that Cuba also had difficulty trusting the United States. Now that Fidel Castro has retired, the Soviet Union has fallen, and the Cold War has ended, there is less of a reason for each country to be worried about the other. The United States and Cuba are now

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