HOW CUBA BECAME INVOLVED IN IN THE COLD WAR AS THE NEW SPHERE OF INLFLUENCE TO BE CONTESTED BY U.S.A AND U.S.S.R.



After the Spanish rule in Cuba from 1898 Cuba was under American influence. It became American colony for a very long time until Fulguncieo Batista was a president of Cuba. Batista was very friendly to the West. He was tyrannical ruler as well as a firm anti-capitalist president. He was a Catholic and he brutally persecuted Buddhist majority. His regime was of a dictatorship style. Many of the Cubans during Batista’s rule were peasants and Batista did nothing to help them own the land, as a result they remained peasants for a long time and lived in poverty while lands were in a small group of land owners.

Subsequently, his dictatorship type of government supported the U.S.A; this prompted the anti-Americans in Cuba due to his actions. Fidel Castro was the leader of anti-Americans because Batista was also involved in organised crimes that were lucrative in hotels situated in cities of Cuba like Havana.

Batista did not care about Cuba’s poverty and harsh living experienced by citizens. His friendliness to the west rest-assured the trade with U.S.A. West invested heavily in Cuba’s sugar production and exports. U.S.A owned Cuba’s key economic factors and had control over Cuba’s economy. Under the rule of Batista in 1950’s, Cuba was economically dependent on the West.

In January 1959, Fidel Castro overthrown Batista and became the president of the country. His primary aim was to liberate Cuba from the U.S.A. He gained a lot of support from peasants, Buddhists and anti-Americans civilians. He was of a communism favour because those who were against him were for America’s favour. He was not fully committed to the communism; just that desperate time’s calls for desperate measures as such he only wanted help to be able to drive out the occupying forces in Cuba by the time.

America was fully aware that communism spread in Asia is now becoming a major concern because by 1949 China, North Korea and North Vietnam were communist’s states. America was determined to do whatever it takes to prevent further communism spread.

Soviet Union also wanted to aid Castro in any way to defeat American colonisation. In 1959 America under the reign of John Frederick Kennedy refused to buy Cuba’s sugar that had vicious complication upon Cuba’s economy and almost led to its very best economic decline of all times.

Fidel Castro responded by taking America’s based companies in Cuba and did not allow America to keep its naval bases in Cuba in 1960. He showed his determination of driving out America by signing a trade agreement with the Soviet Union. By this time many Batista’s troops were in American exile for a military training in order to return on a later stage and take down Castro’s regime.

In 1961, America sanctioned trade with Cuba stating that it can’t trade with its “sphere of influence” while it is an ally to its worst enemy. In October 1962, Kennedy appointed political and military experts to give him advice on what to do with Soviet Union in Cuba and they decided to pull off. A letter was written was written to Nikita Khrushchev asking him to pull off his missile bases in Cuba and he agreed then Kennedy also pulled off his missiles as well in April and thus leading to an end of Cuban Missile Crises.