The U.S. Attempts to Contain Cuba

1. Why was Cuba so important to the United States?
Cuba was important to the United States because it was very close to the US and if it became a communist nation, than the Soviets would be able to use it as a military base. From Cuba they could invade the Southern US, although this was unlikley, but the USSR could use it to influence events in South and Latin America, so that the US would not have full control over them. Cuba could also, and was, used as a sight to house nuclear weapons, weapons that could be used to easily bomb the US without having to be ICBMs, rather short or medium range missiles.
2. Why do you think the Americans chose to equip Cuban exiles rather than invading themselves?
I think that the Americans chose to equip Cuban exiles rather than directly invade Cuba because if they lost, the US would not be directly affected beyond taking a little political flak, and the US had successfully done this in other South American countries. Also, the US would not directly involve itself in the war, and thus would not tempt the Soviet Union to do so as well.
3. Why did the invasion fail?
The invasion failed because the rebels were outnumbered almost twenty to one, Castro was well equipped with Soviet technology and the invaders were not as well equipped.
4. Compare Source 17 on page 345 (in the Arms Race.pdf reading) with Source 24 on page 348. Describe how the Soviet Union missiles on Cuba changed the Cold War balance of power.
The presence of missiles on Cuba changed the balence of power drasticly. Suddenly, the Soviet Union was able to attack the US with nuclear weapons from a much smaller distance, and the US would still need to send the missiles over the Atlantic. This meant that the Soviets could attack the US more quickly that the Americans could attack them (or so the Americans thought at the time, we now know the Soviets still probably would have had no time to launch their missiles in time), meaning that the Soviets had a very large advantage, and might be able to overcome the threat of mutual destruction because of it.