In January, 1959, when Fidel Castro led a guerrilla army to drive dictator Fulgencio Batista out of Havana, the United States was not over alarmed that it would have much impact. But relations swiftly soured as the Cuban communists expropriated companies; 1961 ushered in an ideological ice age.

Washington decided to remove Castro by force. On 17th April, Cuban exiles took part in the island’s Bay of Pigs invasion, conceived under Eisenhower, launched by Kennedy and funded by the CIA — but it failed.

As plan B, Washington imposed an economic embargo. But Cold War comrade Moscow was happy to help Havana.

In February 1962, spy planes spotted Soviet nuclear weapon silos in Cuba, threatening the US. The Cuban Missile Crisis sorely tested Kennedy’s abilities, until he and Khrushchev in the Kremlin negotiated a stand down.

In 1982, the US listed Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, for its role aiding revolutionaries in Africa and Latin America.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union had