Key Events - Activity 3

The Cuban Missile Crisis

The USA had been very hostile towards Cuba ever since a Communist revolution overthrew the US-backed dictator Batista to bring in the charismatic and fiery Fidel Castro as Cuban President. The US President John F Kennedy even backed an attempt to overthrow Castro by supporting Castro's enemies in an attempted invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. By October 1962, the USA's gaze was even more tightly focused on Cuba. On the following pages, there is a timeline of the events which followed.