26th of July Movement in
Cuba (1953)-Castro's failed attack on the Moncada
army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Castro was captured
and put on trial.
Castro's Revolution in Cuba
(1956-1959)-After being freed from prison in a
government amnesty, Castro returned to Cuba to begin a
guerrilla war in the countryside, that led to the fall
of the Batista dictatorship, and the rise of Castro to
lead Cuba.
See also Fidel
Castro's Second Declaration of Havana (Feb. 4,
1962)
Bay of Pigs Invasion
(1961)-Anti-Castro Cuban exiles, heavily aided and
supplied by the United States, attempted an invasion
of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. The invasion
failed.
Cuban Missile Crisis
(1962)-Following the Bay of Pigs attack, Castro
sought closer military ties with the Soviet Union. The
Soviets installed nuclear missiles in Cuba, prompting
the Cold War crisis known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.
This event nearly led to World War Three between the
U.S. and the Soviets, but compromise was reached and
the Soviet missiles were removed from Cuba.
Congo Civil Wars (1965)-The
new African nation of Congo was torn by multiple
rebellions and civil war following independence in
1960. In 1965, Che Guevara led about 120 Cuban
guerrillas to Congo to provide expertise and
leadership to the Marxist Simba rebels in Congo. After
several months, Guevara and his surviving Cuban troops
fled to Tanzania, ending Cuban involvement in the
Congo Wars.
Bolivia (1966-1967)-After
leaving Congo, Che Guevara traveled to Bolivia to
bring a Castro-style revolution to that Andean nation.
His guerrilla army, called Ejército de
Liberación Nacional de Bolivia (ELN), and made
up of a small number of Cubans and Bolivians, enjoyed
some success against the poorly trained Bolivian
military, but as American aid to Bolivia increased,
the Bolivians and their CIA advisors hunted down the
insurgents, capturing Guevara and killing him in
October, 1967.
Support for Latin American and
African Independence Movements (1960s-1991)-Cuba
sent advisors overseas, and also brought rebels from
many nations to Cuba for training. Anti-colonial and
anti-Western forces that were trained and aided by
Cuba in this period include those from Africa:
Portuguese colonies of Angola, Mozambique, and
Guinea-Bissau, along with Eritrea, Congo, and
Namibia.
Latin American nations and forces
aided by Castro's Cuba include: Sandinista rebels of
Nicaragua (and the Sandinista government of Nicaragua
after 1979), Marxist rebels in Guatemala, El Salvador,
Honduras, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Peru,
among others.
Eritrean War of
Independence-Prior to the Marxist takeover of the
Ethiopian government in 1974, Cuba, the Soviet Union,
and other communist nations, had aided the Eritrean
rebels against the pro-Western government of Ethiopia.
After the Marxist overthrow of the old Ethiopian
government, the Soviets decided that backing the
Ethiopians was better policy for them. Cuba, however,
was reluctant to halt aid to the Eritreans (who had
received military training in Cuba beginning in the
1960s), for some time, and only reluctantly aided the
Ethiopian military against the Eritreans. This is also
the same time period in which the Cuban military was
heavily involved in Ethiopia's other war, against
Somalia.
Ogaden War (1977-1978)-After
Ethiopia's new Marxist government allied itself with
the Soviet Union, both the Soviets and Cubans
supported the Ethiopians in defend against an invasion
of the Ogaden region of Ethiopia (populated largely by
ethnic Somalis) by Somalia. The role of Cuban military
forces enabled the Ethiopians to defeat the Somali
invasion.
Angolan Civil War-During the
Angolan War of Independence against Portugal, Cuba and
the Soviets had aided the Marxist MPLA rebel movement.
After independence, a civil war broke out in Angola
that saw the MPLA take control of the capital of
Luanda, and became the de facto government. At this
point, (1975), Castro saw Africa as a more fertile
post-colonial environment for spreading Communist
revolution. Cuba sent thousands of troops to Angola to
fight alongside the MPLA against the non-Communist
forces of the UNITA and the FNLA, both of whom were
supported by the United States and South Africa. Cuban
troops were in Angola from 1975-1991,
South African Border
War-Cuba had long supported with training and
material, the anti-South African and anti-Rhodesian
nations and rebels of southern Africa. Part of the
Angolan intervention by Cuba involved supporting the
SWAPO guerrilla forces based in Southern Angola
who were fighting for independence of their homeland,
now known as Namibia, from South African rule. South
Africa, in turn, was supporting the anti-Communist
UNITA rebel army in southern Angola. These conflicts
brought Cuban and South African troops into combat
against each other.
Invasion
of Grenada (1983)-A
Marxist coup in the Caribbean island of Grenada in
1979, established a government friendly to Cuban
interests, and Cuba began sending aid to that island.
In October of 1983, political violence in Grenada
provided an opportunity to the United States to invade
and overthrow the Marxist forces in Grenada. Several
hundred Cuban troops were on the island, which
resulted in combat between U.S. and Cuban forces. Cuba
suffered 25 killed, 59 wounded, and 638
captured.
