6.2 U.S.-Cuba Relations and the Cold War Context

U.S. Covert Operations Against Cuba

The U.S. and Cuba's relationship was shaped by Cold War tensions and ideological conflict. After the 1959 Cuban Revolution brought Fidel Castro to power, the U.S. pursued a two-track strategy: covert operations to remove Castro and economic pressure to weaken his government. Cuba's growing alliance with the Soviet Union only deepened the hostility, eventually pushing the two superpowers to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Bay of Pigs Invasion and Operation Mongoose

The Bay of Pigs Invasion (April 1961) was a CIA-sponsored military operation in which roughly 1,400 Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on Cuba's southern coast, aiming to overthrow Castro's government. The invasion failed within three days. The exiles were outnumbered, Kennedy withheld promised air support, and the CIA had badly underestimated both Castro's military strength and his popular support. Over 1,100 invaders were captured. The whole episode was a major embarrassment for the Kennedy administration and actually strengthened Castro's position at home.

Operation Mongoose (1961–1963) followed the Bay of Pigs failure. This was a broader covert CIA program designed to destabilize Cuba through sabotage, propaganda, and psychological warfare.

• Plans included assassination attempts against Castro and other senior officials, some of them bizarre (exploding cigars, poisoned wetsuits)
• The CIA collaborated with anti-Castro exile groups and even organized crime figures (the Mafia) who had lost profitable casino operations in Havana after the revolution
• The program never achieved its goal of toppling Castro, but it reinforced Cuba's perception that the U.S. posed an ongoing military threat, which helped justify Cuba's turn toward the Soviet Union for protection

U.S. Embargo on Cuba

The U.S. imposed a trade embargo on Cuba beginning in 1960, after Castro's government nationalized American-owned oil refineries, sugar mills, and other properties without adequate compensation. By 1962, the embargo had expanded into a near-total ban on trade and travel between the two countries.

• The embargo was designed to strangle Cuba economically and isolate it from the international community
• It prohibited most U.S. exports to Cuba, blocked Cuban imports, and restricted American citizens from traveling to the island

The embargo has remained in place for over six decades, making it one of the longest-running trade embargoes in modern history. Despite this sustained pressure, Cuba has survived by trading with other nations (the Soviet Union until 1991, then Venezuela, China, and Canada) and developing domestic industries like tourism and biotechnology. The United Nations General Assembly has voted nearly every year since 1992 to condemn the embargo, though the U.S. has maintained it with only minor adjustments.

Cold War Tensions

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962) was a 13-day confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that became the closest the Cold War ever came to full-scale nuclear war. Here's how it unfolded:

1. The Soviet Union secretly began installing nuclear missiles in Cuba, capable of reaching most major U.S. cities within minutes
2. On October 14, a U.S. U-2 spy plane captured aerial photographs confirming the missile sites were under construction
3. President Kennedy convened a group of advisors (the "ExComm") to debate options ranging from a full invasion of Cuba to diplomatic negotiation
4. On October 22, Kennedy announced a naval blockade (which he called a "quarantine") around Cuba and demanded the Soviets remove the missiles
5. For several days, Soviet ships approached the blockade line while both sides' nuclear forces went on high alert
6. On October 28, the crisis was resolved through a deal: the Soviets agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba and the secret removal of U.S. Jupiter missiles from Turkey

The crisis had lasting consequences. It scared both superpowers into establishing a direct communication link (the "hotline") between Washington and Moscow so that future crises could be managed before they spiraled out of control. It also contributed to the 1963 Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Soviet-Cuban Alliance

Cuba became a close ally of the Soviet Union shortly after the 1959 revolution. This alliance served both countries' interests:

• For Cuba: The Soviets provided massive economic and military aid, including subsidized oil, guaranteed purchases of Cuban sugar at above-market prices, and modern weapons. This support kept the Castro government financially afloat despite the U.S. embargo.
• For the Soviet Union: Cuba served as a strategic outpost in the Western Hemisphere, just 90 miles from Florida. It allowed the Soviets to project influence directly into a region the U.S. considered its backyard.

The U.S. viewed this alliance as a direct security threat and worked to isolate Cuba diplomatically, pressuring other Latin American nations to cut ties. By 1964, every country in the Organization of American States (OAS) except Mexico had severed diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Cuba remained a staunch Soviet ally until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, which triggered a devastating economic crisis in Cuba known as the "Special Period." Without Soviet subsidies, Cuba's GDP dropped by an estimated 35% in just a few years.

Cuban Migration to the U.S.

Mariel Boatlift and Cuban Migration Waves

Cuban migration to the U.S. has occurred in several distinct waves since the revolution, each driven by different political and economic circumstances:

• First wave (1959–1962): Roughly 200,000 Cubans left, mostly from the upper and middle classes who had the most to lose under Castro's socialist reforms. Many were professionals, business owners, and landowners.
• Freedom Flights (1965–1973): An organized airlift program negotiated between the U.S. and Cuban governments brought over 260,000 Cubans to the U.S.
• Mariel Boatlift (1980): When Castro announced that anyone who wanted to leave could depart from the port of Mariel, over 125,000 Cubans fled to the U.S. on boats and makeshift rafts. Castro also deliberately released prisoners and patients from mental institutions among the emigrants, which created social and political tensions in the U.S. and shaped negative media coverage of the migrants, even though the vast majority were ordinary Cubans seeking better opportunities.
• Balsero crisis (1994): Following the economic collapse of the Special Period, thousands of Cubans took to the sea on rafts and small boats. This crisis led to new immigration agreements between the U.S. and Cuba, including the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, which allowed Cubans who reached U.S. soil to stay but returned those intercepted at sea.

Cuban-American Community and Political Influence

The Cuban-American community has become a significant political and economic force in the U.S., concentrated especially in South Florida (Miami-Dade County in particular).

• Cuban-Americans have traditionally been strongly anti-Castro and supportive of maintaining the U.S. embargo. This stance made them unusual among Latino voters, as they tended to vote Republican during the Cold War era.
• The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), founded in 1981 by Jorge Mas Canosa, became one of the most influential ethnic lobbying groups in U.S. politics, playing a major role in shaping a hardline U.S. policy toward Cuba.

Cuban-Americans have also achieved notable success in U.S. politics and public life:

• Politics: Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, and Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (the first Latina elected to Congress) and Mario Diaz-Balart
• Culture: Musicians like Gloria Estefan, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Oscar Hijuelos, and baseball Hall of Famer Tony Pérez

Younger generations of Cuban-Americans, however, tend to hold more moderate views on Cuba policy than their parents and grandparents, reflecting a gradual shift in the community's political outlook.