We don’t think about Communist Cuba very often these days. But do you remember the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 — and Elian Gonzalez from 2000? They remind us of very tense days involving Cuba, the United States — and the threat of U.S. war with the Soviet Union!
In 1959, Communist revolutionary Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba, just 90 miles from Florida!
Then in 1962, the Soviet Union dispatched ships to Cuba carrying missiles — that could have borne nuclear warheads threatening the United States!
President John F. Kennedy responded with a blockade of Communist Cuba. He sent U.S. Navy ships and Navy and Air Force fighters and bombers to prevent Soviet missiles from reaching Cuban bases. There were very tense days in October 1962 — until the Soviet vessels turned back, avoiding a possible U.S.-Soviet war.
But American tensions involving Communist Cuba continued.
In 2000, a very different kind of U.S.-Cuba confrontation occurred — in Miami.
Over several years, thousands of Cubans escaped Castro’s Communist regime by daring to board flimsy water craft to seek refuge in the United States. Among them were nearly 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez and his mother, who was estranged from Elian’s father, who remained in Cuba.
Elian was found by fishermen, floating in an inner tube off Fort Lauderdale after his mother and many other refugees had tragically drowned when their boat sank.
Elian was placed with his father’s relatives in Miami — until a contentious court fight led to action by President Bill Clinton’s Attorney General Janet Reno, who sent a raiding party on April 22, 2000, to send Elian back to Cuba. It created a great uproar among many Americans.
Now, nearly 16-year-old Elian remains in Cuba. And the tense stories of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the drama of Elian Gonzalez are a part of history.