stly due to the “cases” being totally fabricated and unsupported by fact. When Joseph Stalin died, power went to an obscure Communist official named Nikita Khrushchev. His goal was to have the Soviet Union be an equal to the United States militarily and economically. Although he tried to soften Stalin’s brutal tactics, Soviet foreign policy remained the same. This ruthless treatment of satellite nations that tried to break free fostered further distrust between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. At the inauguration of our new president, John F. Kennedy, Khrushchev decided to test Kennedy’s resolve with renewed pressure on Berlin via the construction of the Berlin Wall. However, none of these events were to equal the effect that came from one small island ninety miles off of the coast of Florida, the small island of Cuba.When Fidel Castro took over Cuba by means of a revolution, he quickly established his government as the first openly Communist government in the western hemisphere. He petitioned the Soviet Union for aid, which was cheerfully given him. These events went against our current policies, as well as the Monroe Doctrine, which established us as the police force of the western hemisphere. Ninety miles away from the greatest bastion of Capitalism was now residing its greatest foe. This tense situation was brought to a boiling point by the arrival of Soviet technicians and soldiers on the island, followed by shipments of Soviet technology. Our frequent U-2 flyovers had produced evidence of the beginning construction of missile sites, which we were assured were to be of a purely defensive nature. John F. Kennedy, who was young, inexperienced, and nave about the reality of his professional relationship with the Soviet leader, chose to trust Khrushchev on the matter of the missile sites. It was not until much later that he learned the truth, that the Soviets had actually begun construction on offensi...
