Enchanted Air is a beautifully written poetic memoir as the author shares her difficult childhood growing up as a Cuban-American when revolution breaks out in Cuba. Countdown is a fascinating "documentary novel" about 12-year-old air force kid Franny navigating her life in school and at home through the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Serena, share with us what you've learnt about this period in history?
After the Treaty of Paris between the U.S. and Spain, Cuba set up its first local government. Fulgencio Batista came to power as a democratic president for his first term. He decided to run for presidency again, but when he realized he was destined to lose he used his military force to get himself in. He became a dictator, turning Cuba into a military state. He executed his enemies, promoted organized crime and personal power and wealth.
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Cubans were tired of Batista and supported rebels such as Fidel Castro and his brother Raul. The U.S. finally said they couldn't support Batista any longer and suggested he flee the country. He did. After Batista was gone Fidel Castro took power once he ousted the original government. He first served as prime minister then president, promising every citizen a job and promoting health care. He also made Cuba the first communist state in the Western hemisphere.
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Then there was the Bay of Pigs invasion, a disastrous attempt by the U.S. to overthrow Castro's government. The embarrassing episode increased tensions and led to the U.S. having to pay $53-million in food and supplies to Cuba for the release of the 1,113 U.S. prisoners captured during the fighting. Then came the tensest thirteen days possibly in the history of the world - the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Everyone knows of the USSR missiles that were placed in Cuba but not many people know of the missiles the U.S. put in Italy and Turkey at that time. Khrushchev (then leader of the USSR) and Kennedy sweated and waited, both of their fingers poised to launch their missiles. At the last second an agreement was made between the USSR and the U.S. where all missiles would be removed and the U.S. promised never to invade Cuba without provocation.
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"We and you ought not to pull on the ends of a rope in which you have tied the knots of war. Because the more the two of us pull, the tighter the knot will be tied." Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, October 1962