The Relationship of USA and Russia: Cuba's Negative Impact

The Relationship of USA and Russia: Cuba's Negative Impact

The relationship between the two superpowers of USA and Russia

worsened between 1959 and the summer of 1963 because of Castro’s

revolution in Cuba. This increased tensions between the two

superpowers, as Castro was a Marxist who had overthrown Batista who

was a pro America dictator. This angered America as now they had a

communist country right next to them. America did not want communism

to spread out of Eastern Europe, and they were using policies of

containment to stop the spread. This revolution led America to

stopped buying Cuban sugar, which caused a further build up of tension

between the USA and Russia. They stopped buying the sugar in an

attempt to weaken the Cuban economy and therefore try and get Cuba to

become a capitalist state. To help Cuba, Russia stepped in and

started buying their sugar helping Cuba, which is not what the

American’s wanted. This then created more tension between USA and

Russia and their relationship worsened. The result of this revolution

and the Russian trade with Cuba was the Bay of Pigs fiasco, which

again worsened the relations between the superpowers. It was an

American attack on a communist state. The invasion was a total

disaster, Russia viewed it as an American attempt to overthrow Cuba’s

legal government, and thus helped Cuba. This led to Russia seeing

Kennedy as a weak leader, as he made too many mistakes such as the Bay

of Pigs invasion. Their relationship was worsening due to this, as

Russia was less likely to talk peace if they believed America’s leader

was weak.

Two years earlier, when Eisenhower was still p...

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... Limitation Talks 1 (SALT 1) in 1972. In this the two

countries agreed to limit some types of missiles and to hold talks of

limiting more. It is a result of the Cuban missile crisis as both

countries learnt that having a lot of missiles and weaponry is not a

good thing as it could very easily cause a war.

In conclusion the Cuban missile crisis was definitely a turning point

in relations between the superpowers for the better. However some

events did make their relationship worse but they were not results of

the Cuban missile crisis, for example the Russian invasion of

Afghanistan. The Cuban Crisis led to détente, the telephone hotline

and the realisation that both sides have a responsibility to the whole

world not to go to war so this proves that it was a turning point in

relations between the superpowers.