Even before the Spanish-American War, the United States held interest in the island of Cuba. As far back as 1820, even then-President Thomas Jefferson believed the United States should add Cuba to the young nation in remarks to John C. Calhoun American interest continued through the Ten years War as Cuba first attempted rebellion against their Spanish colonizers. The Cubans gained significant sympathy and support from the American public and the government (Schlesinger, 2005; Campbell, 1976). US interest in Cuba and interest in removing Spain from the Americas culminated in the Spanish-American War and started direct relations between the countries. Slowly but surely relations deteriorated significantly between the 1890s and the Cold War, and the reasons behind this will be explored in this post.
The topic of US-Cuba relations has been covered extensively over literature and research breaking down each set of events discussed in this blog post. After reading the literature in the textbook and other books, the research question became clear: What caused the American-Cuban relationship to degrade so quickly from the Spanish-American War to the Cuban Missile Crisis? When reading all the data and information, it was interesting to learn the causes of these many conflicts in Cuba, and it became easier to connect all of the information together in one unifying theme. Using the information learned, this post uses Google Earth and Google Maps to create maps of Cuba relating to several military interventions into Cuba, and the maps supplement the data gathered. The gathered data describe the events on the island and underlying forces within them. With all of this information, it became clear that relations degraded due to continued United States meddling in Cuban government in addition to Cuba becoming Communist and allying with the Soviet Union.
The Spanish-American War
The Spanish-American War was America's first major excursion in Cuba that helped establish Cuban independence. During the period leading up to the Spanish-American War, there was a large American presence in Cuba's economy. Current president William McKinley even offered to purchase Cuba for $300 million, but the Spanish declined. When the USS Maine exploded in a Havana harbor, the United States leaped at the opportunity to expel the Spaniards from Cuba. As one can see in this map here, the United States ordered a naval blockade of Cuba while also destroying Spanish ships in Manila Bay. The map also shows the US forces embarking from Florida and around Cuba till they eventually converged on southern Cuba, where important battles like San Juan and Santiago de Cuba occurred. Soon after the American army defeated the Spanish at several junctures like San Juan, as listed on the map. After many defeats, the Spanish army weathered fighting Americans and Cuban insurgents as the blockade starved them of supplies. In early July, the US navy destroyed the rest of the Spanish navy in Cuba at Santiago Bay, which effectively ended the war with Spain. After the conflict, the Americans could not control Cuba at the time, so they left the existing bureaucracy in charge, which did not sit well with the Cubans. After years of fighting to remove this government, they resented leaving them in control, and this ill-prepared Cubans for actual self-governance (Clawson and Tillman, 2017; Vitor, 2012).
The Second Intervention
The second military occupation of Cuba, called The Second Intervention, occurred years after the Spanish-American war during 1906-1909. This intervention stemmed from conflict over elections in Cuba. The previous administration in Cuba was led by President Tomás Estrada Palma, who had pretty significant ties to the United States, and concerns over the election process prompted several political groups to call for US intervention. Once the Americans arrived, William Howard Taft established a provisional government and left Americans in charge. Though the American troops were in Cuba under the guise of handling this issue, protecting American interests was the administration's biggest priority as well as disbanding insurgents against the Cuban administration. Cubans strongly supported American intervention in this conflict on all sides, but the lack of social reforms passed by the provisional government failed to address issues on the island that led to this conflict. As one can see, the more interventions into Cuba seemingly propagated the status quo that favored the United States and their interests rather than Cuban interests, which continued to sour opinions of Americans in Cuba (Vitor, 2012).
The Sugar Intervention (1917 - 1922)
The Sugar Intervention is yet another example of US military action in Cuba. More liberal insurgency stemming from agitation over elections of conservative politicians arose and prompted the United States to send troops to protect American sugar crop. Destruction of American property and estates by anti-American liberal rebels led to American intervention. The Americans felt the sugar situation was "extremely serious" and considered the rebels a serious threat, and troops were to be sent to "protect sugar production, which must not be interrupted" ( Perez, Jr. 90). The American troops worked in conjunction with the Cuban administration, but their presence caused "anti-American protests and denunciations against Conservative authorities for their apparent collusion with Washington to violate Cuban sovereignty" (92). Many Cubans, mainly liberals, believed the Cuban government was giving in to US demands on the issue and resented continued American "meddling" in the issue. Despite these roadblocks, the United States succeeded in ending the insurgency for the time, and their troops protected sugar production. Unfortunately for them, it seems that Cuban citizens were becoming more and more disgruntled with United States support of conservative Cuban governments and their repeated interventions on the island nation (Perez, 1979).
Batista Period
Fulgencio Batista was a military strongman who ruled Cuba for decades through corruption and military suppression with support from the United States. The United States State Department supported his coup overthrowing a previous provisional government. While Batista passed labor and social reforms to appeal to the people, he used military repression to hold order. Despite the idea that democracy was becoming prevalent in Cuba, Batista appointed himself president via coup in 1952. During his rule, the United States took a stranglehold over the Cuban economy, controlling large percentages of railways, sugar production, public utilities, mines, and bank deposits. The nation was growing corrupt under Batista, and soon, Cuban revolutionaries engaged Batista's forces in armed conflict. These revolutionaries under Fidel Castro fought for years against Batista's forces until they finally overthrew him in 1959 (Whitney, 2000; Geiling, 2007). The United States was wary of Castro and his communist ways, especially since they supported Batista's regime. With the communists' control of Cuba, relations between the countries became much colder, which culminated in the Bay of Pigs invasion.
The Bay of Pigs Invasion
After the downfall of the Batista regime, the American government became more and more concerned with the pro-communist forces within the Castro regime, and US intelligence began probing how friendly Castro's group was towards the US. By 1958, the anti-American and pro-communist sentiments among the regime became of heavy interest to the Americans. Plans to replace Castro with a pro-US junta arose, and the CIA proposed plans to develop anti-Castro forces for the attack. Soon after, US President Dwight Eisenhower approved the plans. Over the course of time, Cubans exiles throughout the United States, like in Miami, and some in Latin America were trained with the aid of the US government in Guatemala. New President John F. Kennedy approved invasion plans after his inauguration. Roughly 1400 exiles embarked from Nicaragua as one can see on this map blow, and they landed on the bay. After days of fighting, the Cuban forces put down the invasion forces and imprisoned the exiles. Before the invasion, the Castro government increased trade with the Soviet Union in addition to nationalizing American-owned properties and raising taxes on US imports. Already rocky relations between the two countries became even more icy, as the invasion fueled Cuban mistrust of the United States and led to closer ties with the Soviet Union. Ultimately these ties would lead to the Cuban Missile Crisis (Central Intelligence Agency: https://www.cia.gov; Felter et al. 2019; John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum: https://www.jfklibrary.org/).
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a pivotal moment in Cuban-United States relations that involved dire implications for the safety of the countries involved. When one looks at this crisis, it is also important to consider the Soviet Union and their thoughts on the situation. Before this event, the United States had a large lead of ICBMs with 203 missiles to the Soviet Union's 36, and with American missiles being installed in Turkey, the Soviets felt very threatened by the close proximity of the weapons. At the same time range, Cuba was a close ally led by Fidel Castro, who was the target of American plans to attack him. After the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Soviets and Cubans grew close, so Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev wanted to exert his influence on his allies to install missiles on the island. After a meeting with Raul Castro in Moscow, the two nations agreed to the missiles. Castro privately was not a fan of the missiles, but he felt pressured to accept by his ally. After repeated United States intervention in Cuba, it is understandable that Castro felt the need for protection from the Americans.
In October of 1962, US spy planes over Cuba captured images of missiles at launch sites on Cuba. As one can see on the map below, placemarks represent several launch sites the spy planes recorded images of. One can also click on the placemarks and view an image of said sites (Atomic Archive; John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum; The National Security Archive). The United States was naturally stunned by the placement of missiles on an island just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. In the second map below, one can see a map detailing estimated ranges of different types of missiles on Cuba set in ranges of nautical miles. These ranges were based on beliefs at the time, and as one can see, the largest range covered nearly the entire continental United States, which is understandably problematic for American safety. In response, the United States placed a naval quarantine around Cuba. The first map below represents this with the green outline. The quarantine aimed to prevent any more armaments from reaching Cuba. The situation was very tense for the Cubans and Soviets. Castro even planned to use the missiles in case of attack by the US. After days of standoff, the Soviets and the Americans reached an agreement to remove missiles on Cuba in exchange for the United States removing missiles on Turkey. Castro felt betrayed by the Soviets with this agreement, and Castro felt Khruschev did not consult the Cubans in these discussions, which caused some weakening of Cuban-Soviet relations (Hayek, 1974; Castro and Ramonet, 2008).
Conclusion
After reviewing all of the information on United States-Cuba relations, it is quite interesting to note how little Cuba's relationships with larger nations changed. Cuba started as a Spanish colony being exploited by a colonial power, but despite gaining independence with the aid of the United States, it remained in this role but with the United States. Even after breaking away from US influence with Fidel Castro coming to power, Cuba entered into another almost subservient relationship with the Soviet Union. All of these countries exerted influence on the island nation in terrible ways. Cuba itself was exploited for centuries by foreign powers, and it is quite understandable why relations with America deteriorated as quickly as it happened. As explained here, the United States repeatedly intervened, often militarily, in Cuba to protect its business interests, and the nation controlled much of Cuba's economy, especially the sugar industry. Over time, Cuba's problems rarely were solved, and the Americans helped propagate the status quo by supporting conservative regimes that had the US's interests in mind. The Cubans understandably wanted change and supported the Communist regime. This regime marked the time US-Cuba relations took their sharpest downturn, as the Americans refused to support Communism during the Cold War. Cuban policies towards American business only fueled the conflict. Ultimately the tension in the relationship reached breaking points with the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, which affected relations for decades. Overall, the United States and Cuba experienced icy relations for decades because of repeated United States intervention in Cuba as well as Cuban conversion into a Communist nation in addition a strong relationship with the Soviet Union.
References
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