The CrisisAfter the Bay of Pigs incident, Fidel Castro was not on friendly terms with the United States. When Khrushchev of the USSR wanted to have some of their nuclear warheads stationed there, Castro was more than willing to accept the missiles. The United States go wind of this when one of their U-2 spy planes photographed Cuba and spotted the missiles. These missiles in Cuba would be able to strike the United States most anywhere, Cuba is only ninety miles of the coast of Florida. President Kennedy immediately sought to take care of this problem; to begin with, he set up a naval blockade in front of Cuba to prevent the USSR from bringing in any more missiles, he considered it a naval "quarantine" as a blockade is considered an act of war. In all the crisis lasted thirteen days before Kennedy and Khrushchev came to terms. Ultimately, the United States agreed to not invade Cuba and remove its missiles from Italy and Turkey; the USSR on the other hand, had to remove all its missiles from the Soviet Union.
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Fidel Castro |
As stated previously, Castro was no friend to the United States. The CIA attempted to assassinate Castro several times, one of which involved cooperation from the Italian Mafia. Castro of course accepted the nuclear missiles from the USSR, but unlike Khrushchev he was quite willing to use them. Fidel Castro still maintains some influence in the Cuban government, with his brother Raul Castro taking over as the main dictator.
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