Why was Cuba important to United States?

Answer 1

President Kennedy admitted to lack of missile gap unlike Eisenhower. He said that the US was way ahead of the Soviets in the developing missiles. This made Khrushchev (The Soviet leader) look bad. And this angers Cuba a lot especially, after our failed attempt with the Bay of Pigs. Castro starts to buddy up with the Soviets a lot more. Khrushchev doesn't want to see the US take Cuba down. So he offers to arm Castro with weapons. The US had the Soviet Union surrounded with missile sites and the Soviets wanted at least one site near the US. If they could get Cuba they would have their "one place". A U2 planes discovered installation sites being built in Cuba by the soviets. Kennedy called together the National Security Council, DOD, etc. to discuss what to do with this. We came up with three options. 1)Invade Cuba-Bay of pigs was a failure. 2) Air Strike- were afraid if we did do that ,t hey would shoot our planes3) Leave it alone. No one was really satisfied with those three option so we decided to Quarantine AKA Blockade Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis scared everyone to death; we were on the verge of nuclear war. In 1963 the US and the Soviet Union Signed a nuclear Test Ban Treaty which banned the testing of atomic weapons. A hotline was also set up between Moscow and Washington D.C.

Answer 2

Cuba was known as "America's getaway." Before Fidel Castro took over the government, Cuba was really popular for tourism. Cuba also had many items and foods that people from America couldn't easily get. Such as Cuban Cigars and some rare tropical fruits. Cuba used to be a huge ally with U.S.A.