The U.S. Attempts to Contain Cuba

1. Why was Cuba so important to the United States?
Cuba was so important to the United States because Cuba was a large island that had long been an American ally. Americans owned most of the businesses on the island and they had a huge naval base there also. Now that is belonged to Castro and the Soviet Union, Castro now took over all the American businesses, causing the United States a lot of money, an ally, and their huge naval base.


2. Why do you think the Americans chose to equip Cuban exiles rather than invading themselves?
I think that Americans chose to equip Cuban exiles rather than invading themselves because they thought that the Cuban exiles would know their land more than the Americans, and therefore would have an advantage. Also, because America knew that if they were to made a direct attack with their men against Fidel Castro, the Cubans may attack them, maybe even with the help of the Soviets. By having the Cuban exiles invade they were in a way hiding behind them and putting their actions on them, setting them behind the scenes.

3. Why did the invasion fail?
The invasion failed probably because the Americans had trained 1400 Cuban exiles, while the Soviet Union had 2000 soldiers fighting for them. Also the Cuban exiles had no air support from the U.S.

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.
Source 17 on page 345 conveys the message that the Soviet Union had less of an advantage during the Cold War. The United States had short-range missiles could hit the USSR in minutes. White the USSR had long-range ones from the USA would take 30 minutes. But source 24 on page 348 conveys a different message. It's saying that now the Soviet Union started depositing missiles in Cuba the balance of power had shifted from the U.S to the Soviet Union. Now the Soviet Union could easily hit almost any city in the U.S. in 20 minutes or less. The United States had the disadvantage because the Soviet Union could bomb any number of the U.S. cities, and it would take the United States much longer to fire on them in response.