The U.S. Attempts to Contain Cuba

1. Why was Cuba so important to the United States?

Cuba was important to America because of its closeness to the US both economically and geographically. Its importance grograpahically was important because of a military base the US had on the island.

2. Why do you think the Americans chose to equip Cuban exiles rather than invading themselves?

It was too dangerous to directly invade the USSR friendly Cuban nation because this could have been taken as an act of war by the Soviet Union, which could have caused a nuclear war.

3. Why did the invasion fail?

The invasion failed because the US did not provide the necessary air support to the Cuban rebels. Tey were outnumbered and faceing a much stronger, better equipped, and better trained adversary without the help they depended on.

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.

The USSR's ability to have missles in Cuba took away the US advantage of stratigic missle location. Before this point, the US had missles that could strike the Soviet Union in a very short amount of time, but after this the USSR had missles that could be equally quick and devistateing if ever used.