In 1972 Cuba joined the COMECON, an economic organization of states designed to create cooperation among the socialist planned economies dominated by the large economy of the Soviet Union. Moscow kept in regular contact with Havana, sharing varying close relations until the collapse of the bloc in...
In both cases, their defense depends on the continued support from a superpower, and each has linked its armed forces and intelligence closely to the US or Soviet Union.Superpower relations: Israel is less than 1,000 miles from the USSR; Cuba is less than 100 from the US. Yet each is ...
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's relations with the rest of the world have changed dramatically. The disappearance of the socialist bloc meant that Cuba lost not only its military allies but also its principal trade partners and source of foreign assistance. Since then, Cuba's ...
Later, Obama even raised the possibility of his visiting the island not far from the coast of Florida. Cuba was ground zero of the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 that brought a nervous world to the verge of nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union. The European Union, which i...
There’s no longer a Soviet Union, so Cuba doesn’t represent a strategic threat. So, yes, relax restrictions on trade and travel, just like we have for China, Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Russia, Venezuela, and other nations that have unsavory political systems. But the opening of relations doesn...
The central theme that appears throughout the book, and which Gott summarizes in the Epilogue is that "Cuba has been the victim of three empires [Spain, the United States and the Soviet Union] and has rejected them all" (p. 324). While others have described this pattern before, Gott ...
At first, Castro was reluctant to discuss his plans for the future, but eventually he declared himself a communist, explained that he was trying to build socialism in Cuba, and opened diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. A new government, led by the reborn Communist Party of Cuba, ...
For Cuba, a country which has learned the dangers of relying heavily on a single country, be it the United States in the pre-revolutionary years, or Soviet Union, or Venezuela, as some analysts say, now that it's determined to update its economic model, it will take its time to diversi...
After Fidel Castro's government banned horse racing along with gambling and professional sports in 1959, Cuba continued to participate in amateur equestrianism, producing top-notch horse riders and trainers. The costly sport slipped into decline in the 1990s, when the fall of the Soviet Union prov...
when Cuba faced the crisis of the downfall of the Soviet Union. Also included are a timeline, biographies of key players, and a bibliographic essay. With special emphasis on the 20th century, the Castro era, and Cuban-U.S. relations, this is the most recent, accessible, and current histor...