The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most central fronts of the Cold War because it was a communist nation and because it was only ninety mile from the United States. The Bay of Pigs invasion was a humiliating defeat for the United States. It demanded a counterstroke. Kennedy's attitude towards the Cuba after the Bay of Pigs fiasco became a matter of personal dignity and honor, almost a vendetta. Cuba was the number one priority in the United States government, all else would be secondary. However the Kennedy administration would fail in every aspect of liberating Cuba from Castro. The failure of the Bay of Pigs opened Cuba's door to Khrushchev. Fidel Castro accepted the argument that Cubans needed to accept missiles for their self-defense. Castro did not accept the logic but, as a member of the Soviet Bloc, felt Cuba had a duty to sustain socialism and sustain socialism and render aid to Russia.
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U.S. reconnaissance photograph of soviet missile s...
English: Nikita Kruschev letter to President Kenne...The Russians campaigned during much of the Cold War not so much on achievement as on appearance that said the Russians needed to scare the Americans themselves. Berlin was of course of great importance to the United States and Kennedy told the world that that the reunification of Berlin under East Germany would lead to war. Cuba however was only 90 miles away from the United States and was of much greater importance than one half of Berlin. Khrushchev was smart not to waste his time in Berlin and not supporting the East Germans as they declared that all of Berlin must be united under the communists. Khrushchev built the Berlin wall as a symbol to the west that Russia would not enter West Berlin.
Operation Mongoose was the CIA code to kill Castro and replace his government. The Bay of Pigs was...