Perhaps naïvely, most Cubans believed the revolutionary government’s story that the Soviet Vice Premier Anastas Mikoyan had come to Cuba in February 1960 in order to promote an exhibit of Soviet Culture in Havana. His real motives were to assist Fidel Castro in deepening Cuba’s ties to the Soviet bloc, particularly in areas of trade, security, and intelligence training. Yet Fidel Castro’s government went to great lengths to portray Mikoyan’s visit as evidence that Cuba had simply consolidated its national sovereignty and could now trade freely with both “The West” and “The East”.
