Central america

Cuba and Central America timeline

  • Fidel Castro leads the Communist revolution with Che Guevara and the rebel army overthrows President Fulgencio Batista

    leads the Communist revolution with Che Guevara and the rebel army overthrows President Fulgencio Batista
  • Period: to

    Cuba and Central America

  • Cuba openly aligns itself with the Soviet Union and their Communist policies. A Cuban Communist State was set up with Russian backing. Fidel Castro allows the USSR to deploy nuclear missiles on the island

  • The U.S. terminates diplomatic relations

  • The Bay of Pigs" - A group of Cuban exiles, backed by the US, invades Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in a failed attempt to trigger an anti-Castro rebellion

  • Khrushchev and Kennedy hold summit talks in Vienna regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis

  • Senator Kenneth Keating tells the Senate that there is evidence of Soviet missile installations in Cuba

  • Soviet Foreign Minister, Andrei Gromyko, warns that an American attack on Cuba could mean war with the Soviet Union

  • A U-2 flying over western Cuba obtains photographs of missile sites

  • The Joint Chiefs of Staff strongly advise Kennedy to make an air strike ( the discussions are referred to as the EX-COMM's )

  • Gromyko assures Kennedy that Soviet Cuban aid has been only for the "defensive capabilities of Cuba."

  • Congressional leaders are shown the photographic evidence of the Soviet missile Cuban installations and the President addresses the nation regarding the Cuban crisis

  • U.S. military forces go to DEFCON 3

  • Kennedy receives a letter from Khrushchev in which Khrushchev states that there is a, "serious threat to peace and security of peoples." Robert Kennedy speaks with Ambassador Dobrynin

  • Soviet ships, en route to Cuba, reverse their course except for one. US Military forces go to DEFCON 2

  • JFK sends a letter to Khrushchev placing the responsibility for the crisis on the Soviet Union

  • Khrushchev sends a letter to President Kennedy proposing to remove his missiles if Kennedy publicly announces never to invade Cuba

  • An American U-2 is shot down over Cuba killing the pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson

  • A U-2 strays into Soviet airspace, near Alaska, and is nearly intercepted by Soviet fighters

  • Cuba becomes a member of the Soviet based Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.

    Year is accurate. May 16 is not accurate so dont follow
  • Fidel Castro elected president.

    Year is accurate. May 16 is not accurate so dont follow
  • Cuba withdraws its troops from Angola following an agreement with South Africa.

    Year is accurate. May 16 is not accurate so dont follow
  • Collapse of the USSR

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  • US trade embargo

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  • President Fidel Castro undergoes surgery and temporarily hands over control of the government to his brother, Raul.

    Year is accurate. May 16 is not accurate so dont follow