10: Cuba: 1959-1962 | Cold War
Fidel Castro comes to power following the Cuban Revolution. Cuba aligns itself with the Soviet Union and the government starts nationalising American interests, resulting in the United States imposing an economic boycott, and the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. Following the detection of Soviet medium range missiles stationed in Cuba, the United States imposes a blockade on the island, and the Soviet Union mobilises for war. The Cuban Missile Crisis is eventually resolved through secret negotiations, in which the USSR and the United States agree to withdraw missiles from Cuba and Turkey respectively. Interviewees include Fidel Castro, Walter Cronkite, Pierre Salinger and Theodore Sorensen. The pre-credits scene has interviews of Fidel Castro, Robert McNamara and Anatoly Dobrynin explaining how close they felt the world was to a nuclear holocaust.
Tweet- Clip length: 46'25''
- Broadcast year: 1998
- History | The Cold War
Licence: ERA Licence required
UK only
Staff and students of licensed education establishments only
Cannot be adapted
- Provider: BBC
- Channel: BBC Two
- Programme: Cold War
- Episode: 10: Cuba: 1959-1962
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