WI: Normandy-Style Landings Carried out Against Cuba in 1961?

West Berlin makes sense as long as they don't push it too far. The thing is Cuba has little to offer anyone except some good tobacco. Nobody is going to start a big war over the loss of their tobacco supply.

Cuba has more the offer the Soviets than West Berlin does to NATO. People/countries pick their spots to make a stand and often symbolism or prestige matter than practicality.

But as of 1961, the Soviets havent lent the Cubans any credibility so they are likely to let it go.
 
Cuba has more the offer the Soviets than West Berlin does to NATO. People/countries pick their spots to make a stand and often symbolism or prestige matter than practicality.

But as of 1961, the Soviets havent lent the Cubans any credibility so they are likely to let it go.

What exactly does Cuba have to offer more than West Berlin? West Berlin was a major city, Cuba was/is a Third World backwater known mainly for tobacco. Was there a tobacco disease epidemic in the early 1960's that I don't know about and the Russians were all having nicotine fits?
 
cuba is an unsinkable air carrier right in front of the US,a missile base,a forward base to reach central america for operations,and just all about a pain in the ass for the US. West berlin is a city full with millions of civilians you have vowed to protect,in a place that is absolutly impossible to protect.
 
cuba is an unsinkable air carrier right in front of the US,a missile base,a forward base to reach central america for operations,and just all about a pain in the ass for the US. West berlin is a city full with millions of civilians you have vowed to protect,in a place that is absolutly impossible to protect.

Cuba can't support enough aircraft to be much of a threat to the US, the Soviets backed down over the missiles, and the Soviets never accomplished very much in Latin America unless you consider Cuba and Nicaragua powerhouses. West Berlin is far more valuable having factories that could produce things of value outside of Germany.
 
What exactly does Cuba have to offer more than West Berlin? West Berlin was a major city, Cuba was/is a Third World backwater known mainly for tobacco. Was there a tobacco disease epidemic in the early 1960's that I don't know about and the Russians were all having nicotine fits?

For the Soviets it offers a base 90 miles from the US. You dont even need to go the point of installing nukes there. It provides a base for intelligence gathering, communications as well as aerial and naval. It provides a base for supplying communist insurgencies. It provides a base for Soviet naval forces if only for resupply and shore leave. It's a potential landing spot for long range Soviet aircraft on recon. In short, it allows the Soviets to project power in a way they had never dreamed of until Castro came to power.

West Berlin offers intel and that's it. You cant add much there to project power and its close enough to the west to offer only marginal incremental value. The garrison there would have lasted a day or two in the event of hostilities. Economically its a major city but its not that big of a deal. Its not like losing a trade hub or resources. It wasnt an industrial powerhouse like the Ruhr river region. It's value was as much symbolic as anything else.
 
For the Soviets it offers a base 90 miles from the US. You dont even need to go the point of installing nukes there. It provides a base for intelligence gathering, communications as well as aerial and naval. It provides a base for supplying communist insurgencies. It provides a base for Soviet naval forces if only for resupply and shore leave. It's a potential landing spot for long range Soviet aircraft on recon. In short, it allows the Soviets to project power in a way they had never dreamed of until Castro came to power.

West Berlin offers intel and that's it. You cant add much there to project power and its close enough to the west to offer only marginal incremental value. The garrison there would have lasted a day or two in the event of hostilities. Economically its a major city but its not that big of a deal. Its not like losing a trade hub or resources. It wasnt an industrial powerhouse like the Ruhr river region. It's value was as much symbolic as anything else.

Cuba is just as vulnerable as Berlin. The US could take Cuba on a whim.
 
Cuba is just as vulnerable as Berlin. The US could take Cuba on a whim.

Yes, in a war Cuba goes pretty quick. Of course, in a conventional war it requires the use of the 82nd airborne and a marine division that you might prefer heading to Europe. And whatever Soviet units are tied down by Berlin will get to the front much faster than anything deployed to Cuba by the US.

War scenarios aside, it offers the Soviets capabilities they cant replicate due to proximity whereas most of what Berlin offers can be supported from other locations such as Austria, Sweden or West Germany.
 
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