The Americans gained control of Cuba in the late nineteenth century and by 1950 supported a shady regime under Fulgencio Batista, who took control of Cuba by force in 1933. By the late 50's, the Americans controlled the Cuban economy. Fed up with Batista's corrupt regime, Fidel Castro, a lawyer with a liberal national background, organized a coup and seized the Cuban government. Once in power, Castro nationalized the US owned companies in Cuba, destroying relations with the Americans. By 1960, the US stopped buying Cuban sugar and Castro signed a trade agreement with the U.S.S.R. in which the U.S.S.R. agreed to buy all of Cuba's sugar and to provide aid. Already, signs of bitterness between the two superpowers were building up and by 1961 the U.S. broke off all diplomatic relations with Cuba.
             In April of 1961, President Kennedy offered a military base in Guatemala to Cuban exiles and the C.I.A. to reinvade Cuba and recapture it. The Bay of Pigs, as it was called, was a huge embarrassment for the United States as none of the Cuban patriots made it ashore. Shortly thereafter Castro announced that Cuba was a Marxist state. The separation with the USA was complete.
             During the spring of 1962, the U.S.S.R. decided to deploy missiles in Cuba. Since the Soviet Union was behind in the space race, Khrushchev, the soviet leader, believed that if he could get away with putting missiles in Cuba, he could equalize the strategic situation with that of the US. Cuba and the U.S.S.R. also feared an invasion by the US. Since the Bay of Pigs was a failed attempt, the Cubans and Russians believed that another invasion would soon follow. Lastly, Khrushchev believed that if he put missiles next door to the US, the US would dismantle their missiles in Turkey.
             U-2 spy planes in August, 1962 saw and photographed Russian surface to air missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy, informed of these missiles, had three choices: a di...