The cold war was a long and tense time in American and European history. Through it, many significant things in the world changed, from the decolonization of Africa and India, Indochina and others, to the incredibly important invention of computers and other technological advances in the later days of the so-called war. We were also tested in many ways: the Korean and Vietnam wars, the bloody wars for independence in countries such as Indonesia and Angola, and my current topic, the Cuban missile crisis. Of all the situations during the cold war, none of them ranks as high as the missile crisis, in its intensity and proximity. It's quite honestly the closest we got to an actual war in the cold war, and it tested the lines drawn by the two colliding superpowers of the world at that time, the United States and the Soviet Union. And as we near the 40th anniversary of the crisis, it would do us some good to look back upon it. .
R.R. Palmer, Joel Colton and Lloyd Kramer, in their textbook A History of the Modern World, discuss how Fidel Castro overthrew the 1959 regime of Fulgencio Batista, after returning from exile with his band of guerrillas. Afterward, Castro assured the Cuban people that he would stop relying on the American economy. Castro then began to seize American investings and landholdings in his country, and America retaliated by imposing a trade embargo (942). This was the beginning of Castro's affiliation with the Soviets, as he joined the ranks of the Communists. He called himself a "Marxist-Leftist" and ruled over Cuba with an iron fist. Palmer explains: "Castro, first secretary of the Cuban Communist party, the only party permitted, ruled as a dictator. Political opponents fled into exile or were imprisoned" (942). And while Castro did help out with the anticolonial movements in Africa (particularly Angola), advanced public health and literacy issues, and generally improved life for the rural masses, it was his problems with the Cuban economy and his dictatorial regime that overshadowed all of his positive traits (942).
