The U.S. Attempts to Contain Cuba

1. Why was Cuba so important to the United States?
Cuba was so important to the U.S. because it was a longtime ally of America. Most of the businesses on Cuba were American owned and the Americans had a huge naval base located there. Cuba was also only 160 km from Florida. This means Cuba is one location which America had great influence over.

2. Why do you think the Americans chose to equip Cuban exiles rather than invading themselves?
I believe the Americans chose to equip the Cuban exiles rather than invading themselves because Castro expected the Americans to invade after the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba. A reason as to why the Americans broke their relations with Cuba was because the Cubans were receiving arms from the Soviets. The U.S. did not want to tolerate a Soviet presence in the location which it had great influence over. The U.S. also did not want to become involved in a conflict with the Soviet Union which had ties to Cuba; so the attack on Cuba might cause the Soviet Union, which has nuclear weapons and satellites, to come to its aid. This is why the Americans called upon the Cuban exiles to indirectly attack Castro and Cuba.

3. Why did the invasion fail?
The invasion failed because the Cuban exiles were greatly outnumbered, ill equipped, and did not receive the aerial support promised to them by the Americans. The Cuban troops numbered 20,000 and were armed with tanks and modern weapons.

4. Compare Source 17 on page 345 (in the Arms Race.pdf reading) with Source 24 on page 348. Describe how the Soviet Union missiles on Cuba changed the Cold War balance of power.

If the Soviets did not have more power in Source 24 due to the Soviet Union missiles in Cuba then it definitely at least had and equal amount of power. The Soviet long range missiles only took 20 minutes to hit a larger variation of locations within the U.S. while the American long range missiles took 30 minutes to hit a spot in the U.S.S.R. The Soviets' missiles could easily reach the U.S. naval base in Cuba and the American space research center in Florida. Also the varied locations the Soviets could hit consisted of important and prominent American cities. The missiles could cover 3/4 of American territory. So if the United States decided to attack then the Soviets could have easily countered them.