remely embarrassed. It was just before this time that the United States sent nuclear missiles to Turkey, just over the USSRs horizon. Russia responded to these and other actions by placing missiles in Cuba, 90 miles away from Americas southern tip, spawning the Cuban missile crisis. It was in fact the United States governments hostility towards Communist Cuba that led up to the Cuban missile crisis. Presently, Cubas economy is a centrally planned state-owned economy in which the state organizes, directs, and controls the economic life of the nation. Foreign trade, according to the constitution is the exclusive function of the state. (Article 18) The ministry of foreign trade was created in 1961 to be the only state agency authorized to conduct foreign trade. All trade is conducted through the ministry which controls 40 foreign trade enterprises, each responsible for a different product. It was not always this way in Cuba however. Cubans endured numerous revolutions to convert their economic system from mercantilism, to capitalism, and eventually to communism. Cubans, however refer them as different stages of one single revolution. Unique social aspects that needed changing marked each stage of the Cuban revolution. Cubas landowning aristocracy (Ranchers, coffee and sugar planters) initiated the wars of independence (from Spain) in 1868 and 1895. They opposed Spains political control and mercantilist economic policies. Although Jos Marti addressed questions internal to Cuba, such as racism and the need for a new national cultural culture and identity, the first and second wars of independence were primarily aimed at freeing Cuba from the grip of Spanish colonization. (Brenner 327) Cuba won its long and bloody war against Spain, but lost its struggle for nationhood when the United States transformed the island from a Spanish colony to a U.S. protectorate. After occupying the island from 1898 to 1901, the U.S. intervened (1906-9,1912,1917...
