Cuba's economic and political development: A casualty of the Cold War

This research presents a descriptive study of Cuba's involvement in the Cold War during the period 1959-1962 and its economic consequences.;This study proves that the Cuba's hostile relations with the US were primarily an artifice of the Cold War. The US/USSR tensions due to this confrontation brought about economic losses and loss of development potential in Cuba.;The Cold War between the United States (US) and United Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was based on conflicting ideology rather than economic conflict. Nevertheless, the Cold War brought economic consequences. Cuba was swept into this conflict.;Cuba was left in isolation and in a critical economic situation after the termination of Soviet aid. Cuba's change in 1959 into a socialist-Marxist system, bartering trade with the Soviet block, did not provide Cubans a better standard of living. Cubans suffered economic losses that restricted the basic population goods availability, resulting in food rationing.