Cuban Missile Crisis Investigation

Identification and evaluation of sources

"Was the Bay of Pigs invasion the main cause of the Cuban Missile Crisis?" is the question that this investigation will solely focus on responding to. The evidence to accurate answers to the question are what appeared on the lines of investigation while searching for the causes of events that lead to the crisis. Thus, two sources are of particular significance to the investigation: My Life by Fidel Castro and Meeting Sheds New Lights On Cuban Missile Crisis article written by Richard Bernstien, as they both explicitly state the causes of the crisis and provide an overall hindsight about what happened afterwards.

Source: An article from The New York Times: Meeting Sheds New Lights On Cuban Missile Crisis.

In order to fully understand the way in which the revolution contributed to the cause of the crisis, it is important to note the factors that caused Castro to spark the revolution. The leader of Cuba whom the revolution sought to overthrow was Fulgencio Batista, a puppet controlled and assisted by the United States who allowed Cuba to become a "playground for America’s rich" (C N Trueman). One of the most common examples of how Batista allowed the U.S to play around with the Cuban economy was when the American-owned Cuban telephone company presented a gold telephone to Batista for allowing "excessive telephone rate increase" that the American government had requested (Kennedy speech). This all changed once Castro was in power. He started removing all the American influence which Batista had allowed in Cuba by nationalizing the industry, economy, re-distributing the land and confiscating American business and agricultural belongings (Britannica). However; Castro could not do this without directly affecting the American interests in Cuba (history.com). Thus, turning to a big anti-American power like the Soviet Union was an option that Castro chose to guarantee himself and the nations security. Professor Jutta Weldes mentions in Constructing National Interests that "elements of the Castro movement were engaged in anti-American activities even during the revolution against Batista.". These actions of nationalizing Cuba were what created tensions between the U.S and Cuba, which lead to a various number of problems throughout time and the missile crisis as result of it at some