Part 4/10:
Initially viewed as just another nationalist movement, Cuba’s decision to nationalize American businesses quickly turned it into a significant threat for the US. The Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, a failed coup plan organized by the CIA, only solidified Cuba's allegiance to the USSR, culminating in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The standoff rendered Cuba both a key Soviet ally and a symbol of communist resistance, reverberating across the Caribbean and Latin America.