Fidel Castro was born on May 13, 1927 near Biran, Oriente province, Cuba. As a young boy, Castro worked on his families sugar plantation. At the age of six, he convinced his parents to let him attend school.

    In 1945 Castro attended the University of Havana's Faculty of law. After he received his law degree, he started a practice with two business partners. The practice was devoted to helping the poor.

    In 1952 Castro wanted to campaign for a parliamentary seat. This campaign never occurred because the election was canceled when General Fulgencio Batista overthrew the government of President Carlos Prio Socarras in a coup d'etat.
 

Castro opposed the new military dictatorship in a peaceful way. He organized Cuban exiles in Mexico into another fighting force called the 26th of July Revolutionary Movement. 82 men attacked the north coast of Oriente province on December 2, 1956. This attempt was defeated and only 12 of the original attackers survived. These 12 continued to fight against the Batista government. Castro's movement eventually grew to 800 men and began to win battle after battle. On New Year's Day 1959 Castro's force made a victorious entry into Havana after defeating Batista. Current Biography, 1970; Who's Who in the World, 1996
With this victory Castro wanted to turn Cuba into a developed and independent nation.

    The Cuban government began expropriating American-owned properties for inadequate compensation. In February 1960, Cuba became friendly with the USSR, and made an agreement to buy Russian oil. After Cuba had seized nearly all U.S.-owned properties in Cuba and made further agreements with other communist governments, the United States broke diplomatic relations with the Castro government. (Current Biography, 1970; Who's Who in the World, 1996)
After the United States broke diplomatic relations with the Castro government, the Kennedy administration put into motion the Bay of Pigs invasion.

    "On March 17, 1960, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower agreed to start a program to overthrow the Cuban Government. Run by the CIA, this program would train, arm, and recruit Cuban exiles to participate in an invasion of Cuba".

    When Kennedy became President he decided to go through with the Bay of Pigs invasion. President Kennedy thought that the Cuban people would go against Castro and assist in the attack, because Cuban exiles from the United States were involved. They were mistaken.

    The Bay of Pigs invasion was a victory for Castro. The United States failed in their attempts to overthrow him and his government. "After weathering the failed Bay of Pigs invasion by CIA-backed Cuban exiles in 1961, Castro observed as U.S. armed forces staged a mock invasion of a Caribbean island in 1962. The purpose of the invasion was to overthrow a leader whose name, Ortsac, was Castro spelled backwards. Although Ortsac was a fictitious name, Castro 'got the message' and soon became convinced that the U.S. was serious about invading Cuba"(http://www.hpol.org/jfk/cuban/).

    After the United States'; many attempts to invade Cuba, Castro began to secretly build up Cuba's military and weapons arsenal. The "secret" did not go undetected for long. The United States was able to see shipments going to Cuba from satellites.

    It was apparent to the world that there were strong tensions between the United States and Cuba. This is when the Soviet Union eagerly extended an offer of assistance to Castro(http://www.hpol.org/jfk/cuban/). Khrushchev, the Soviet Prime Minister, offered Castro an opportunity to trade with the Soviet Union and a shield from U.S. hostilities.

    Khrushchev saw installing Soviet Missiles in Cuba as a double benefit of protecting the island from attack and of equalizing the balance of power in the nuclear arms race. Before allowing Soviet missiles in Cuba, Castro sent his brother Raul and a military delegation to Moscow to negotiate the terms of an agreement (Isaacs, 190). Plagued by internal difficulties and fearful of another American-backed invasion, Castro had agreed to accept Soviet missiles on Cuban soil(Robbins, 17). In July 1962, sixty-five Soviet ships sailed to Cuba, ten of them carrying military equipment. This alliance between the Soviet Union and Cuba is what sparked the beginning of the Cuban Missile crisis.
 
 

    In this new alliance, Castro allowed the Soviet Union to place nuclear weapons in Cuba. When President Kennedy was aware of what was going on in Cuba, he ordered all cargo going there to be put under quarantine. The Cuban missile crisis lasted thirteen days in October 1962. When the United States confronted the Soviet Union over its installation of missiles in Cuba, Kennedy said that if any missile were fired from Cuba then it would be seen as an attack from the Soviet Union and retaliation would be aimed at the Soviet Union. (Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis)

    On Thursday, October 25, 1962 Castro went to the Soviet Embassy in Havana. He dictated a cable to Khrushchev predicting a US invasion and assuring the Kremlin that any landings would be resisted. Castro then ordered his own military to shoot down any US aircraft that was spotted flying over Cuba.
Saturday, October 27, 1962 was a terrible day in Cuba. A tropical storm hit the island. During the storm, Soviet technicians moved quickly to prepare their missiles. They worried that the rain would short-circuit their electronics. While all of this was going on, the Soviets spotted an American U-2, and fired a SAM missile, which exploded next to the aircraft and killed the pilot.

    After this attack, Soviet and American leaders began to discuss the situation at hand. Finally a decision was reached. Khrushchev got Kennedy to pledge that the United States would not attempt another invasion on Cuba. In return, the Soviet Union would remove all missiles from Cuba. Castro was not consulted over the decision to have the Soviet missiles withdrawn. He cursed Khrushchev as a "son of a bitch, bastard, asshole" (Isaacs, 231).
 
 
 
 

Bibliography:
 

 Keith Robbins, The World Since 1945, A Concise History. Oxford Paperbacks, Oxford University Press, Oxford New York, 1998

Jeremy Isaacs and Taylor Downing: Cold War an Illustrated history, 1945-1991. Little, Brown and Company. Boston, NY, London, Toronto 1998
 

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Quelle: http://www.eagle2.american.edu/~re0074a/Castro.html