The Global War: Confrontation between the superpowers -> Causes and long term causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis Flashcards
What did the US regard the Caribbean as?
As its ‘back yard’
How did the US present its relationship with Cuba?
As a ‘benign and malevolent one’
Who was Fidel Castro?
The Cuban nationalist who after a period of exile, returned to Cuba in December 1956
Was Castro a communist?
Not communist when he started but a left-wing nationalist
Who was Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara?
An Argentine revolutionary who came with Castro
What did President Roosevelt introduce in Latin America to improve relations?
The ‘Good Neighbour Policy’
What did this policy entail in Cuba?
- create new economic opportunities in the form of reciprocal trade agreements and reassert US influence in Latin America
- U.S. gov expressed to the Cuban gov that it should increase American quotas for Cuban sugar under a trade agreement, with the idea that it would benefit Cuba’s local economy.
How did the US implement this policy?
Used Cuban thugs who were in the interest of the American sharehold
- Batista was a beneficiary of this
What did Cuban landholders produce for the US in the 1930s ?
Big Cuban landholders produced huge amounts of rum for Americans
- mutually profited
How did Batista exploit this link with the US?
Decided to make Havana the capital of Cuba and a holiday place for the pleasure-seeking, Puritanical Americans
- Cuba’s tourist sector booms as a result
What doctrine represents long-term issues for the US in Cuba?
The Monroe Doctrine introduced in 1823
What was this historical US doctrine?
A regional US policy introduced in 1823 in response to the receding influence of the imperial powers (Spain)
- for the US to fill the power vacuum
How did Noam Chomsky describe the Monroe Doctrine?
“A declaration of hegemony and a right of unilateral intervention in the Americas”
- a sphere of influence “to leave America to the Americans”
In which brief period did the Americans admit to being imperialists?
1848-1914 during the Spanish-American war
- majority of Americans started becoming opposed to open imperialism, leading to the anti-imperialism movement
How did the nature of US imperialism create long-term issues?
Its economic influence/values led it to believe Cuba was “a natural extension of the North American continent” (John Adams 1783)
What did Cuba emerge as?
“Independent” Cuba emerged as the model for US imperialism
How did the Americans secure domination over Cuba?
- American economic and political domination had been secured without the seizure of a colony
- The US could continue to boast its anti-colonial tradition and beliefs despite having made Cuba a dependency
What ammendment gave the US political domination in Cuba?
The Platt Amendment (1901) gave the US the right to intervene in newly independent Cuba’s political and military affairs
What evidence is there to suggest the US had economic domination in Cuba?
- By 1877, the US accounted for 83% of Cuba’s total exports, meaning it was able to control price and hence production levels closely (sugar/tobacco) -> primary exports
- US investment in Cuban industry and infrastructure (60% of the Cuban sugar industry was US owned by 1626
What were the implications on Cuba?
It became poor, predominantly agricultural, underemployment, illiteracy and low life expectancies
When was the US civil war?
1861-65
- Free market capitalism in North vs aristocratic slave-owned capitalism in South
What was the Cuban context?
The Cuban Revolution was at bay
What does the US assume about Castro?
That he is a communist - anyone who questions the US is
- American blindness pushes Castro to the Soviets
Who was Fulgencio Batista
Cuban President 1940-44 and 1952-59
- pro-American -> close political cooperation between US and Cuban governments
- had a regime over Cuba