Having been an independent country for 57 years, the Cuban government, run by the dictator Fulgencio Batista y Zalvidar, fell to the Communist leader Fidel Castro in 1959. Because of Cuba’s Communist government, the United States severed its relationship with Cuba, forcing the island to ally itself with the Soviet Union. In October 1962, the presence of this nearby Communist country caused extreme terror in the United States when the U.S.S.R. attempted to place nuclear missiles within Cuba. The “Cuban Missile Crisis” is thought to be the closest the Cold War ever got to a real nuclear war.