Introduction
. The Cuban missile crisis was one of the tensest moments in America history; it brought home to the American people the reality of a nuclear War. During the 1950’s, Cuba was on the brink of revolution. The nation, which had suffered numerous corrupt and oppressive governmental regimes, fell victim to yet another when Fulgencio Batista seized power under a military coup in March of 1952. A cry for a just Cuba, that was economically, politically, and socially free continued to echo throughout the island. In 1959, a group of radical revolutionaries, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, overthrew the Batista dictatorship and put in place the political and social structures that exist in Cuba to this day. While initially the U.S. had offered support and encouragement to Castro, that quickly soured as Castro began expropriating lands owned by such companies as United Fruit. Castro struck a deal in February 1960 to purchase oil from the USSR, and when U.S. refineries in Cuba refused to process that oil, he expropriated their facilities. This led the US to break off diplomatic relations. In 1962, the United Stated and the Soviet Union stood on the brink of nuclear war. Their quarrel was over the island of Cuba, a soviet ally that lies just 90 miles from the coast of Florida. Photographs taken by U.S spy planes showed that the Soviets were building nuclear missile sites in Cuba