Teddy BaziotisCuban Missile Crisis When prominent leader Fidel Castro took power in Cuba and introduced major reforms, many Cubans fled to America and brought with them stories that outraged the American press (History Learning Site). America now decided that it would cut off all trade with Cuba and that's when Russia came in to purchase Cuban sugar and other exports that were previously headed to America. This event pushed Castro to support Russia (History Learning Site). The Cuban Missile Crisis began on October 16 when an American spy plane took photographs over Cuba and saw obvious missile bases. These missiles were later discovered to be nuclear (History Learning Site). The United States had repeatedly warned the Soviets not to place nuclear weapons in Cuba and the Soviets had assured them that they would not do so and had told the United States that Cuba would receive only non-nuclear weapons for the defense of their island (The Cuban Missile La crisis, considering its place in Cold War history). No one knew what Russia and Cuba's intentions were in placing these missiles there. Theodore Sorensen, one of President Kennedy's close advisors, said: “The only honest answer I have is: I don't know now, and I didn't know then. None of us knew. We could only speculate about what Khrushchev was doing” (The Cuban Missile Crisis…). The United States had no idea what Cuba and Russia would do with those missiles and their main goal was to get them out. People in the White House agreed that nuclear weapons in Cuba would constitute a huge threat to the security of the United States and the American territory would be quite vulnerable to nuclear missiles (the Cuban Missile Crisis…). At first, President Kennedy decided to keep knowledge of the missiles a secret from the public, while... middle of paper... the United States, perhaps would have found a way to find out because Russia eventually had to bring it anyway away their bombs, so maybe it was worth trying to ask the US and they could reach an agreement. There could have also been more communication during the crisis and I think if it had been maintained, we would have been more on the same page. I also observed that it was not a good idea for Cuba to participate in all this, because in addition to losing its missiles, its relations with the USSR crumbled when it fell and they lost a lot of economic support. I think next time Cuba should probably ally with someone like maybe the United States which is not on the other side of the world and has a much more stable government unlike Russia. The Cuban Missile Crisis teaches many lessons to leaders then and to people learning it today.