The world was at the edge of a third world war. This was the result of a variety of things: the Cuban Revolution, the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, US anti-communism, insecurity of the Soviet Union, and Cuba's fear of invasion all made causes for war. However, war was not the result due to great cooperation from both President Kennedy and President Khrushchev and each of the decisions made by the leaders was crucial in the outcome of The Crisis. Kennedy's choice to take action by means of quarantine instead of air-strike and Khrushchev's decision to abide by the quarantines were perhaps the two most significant decisions made by the leaders in order to prevent war. The Cuban Missile Crisis showed the world that compromising and discussion can in-fact prevent war. The world had almost seen another world war, the effects of which would have been devastating because of the weapons involved. The Cuban Revolution was a background cause to the crisis. To the communist party in Cuba, Fidel Castro appeared tempestuous, irresponsible and stubbornly bourgeois. In 1943 President Batista appointed a communist to his Cabinet, as he used communists as leaders of the labor unions. Batista started to fail the Cuban communists and their loyalties transferred gradually to Castro, completely by 1958. Most Cubans idolized Castro, supported his government and at least accepted his measures. He claimed to have a desire to help the poor and said he would have found it impossible to follow the dictates of a single philosophy. In 1960 Castro was swiftly pushing Cuba to the left wing, and as a result many Cubans left . There was so much opposition to Castro's developments that he created a Committee for Defense of the Revolution out of fear of invasion from the US, and internal guerrilla uprisings. Castro had taken away the profit producing properties which had been owned by Americans, and this angered them.
