CSC 270 Midterm Examination

Question #4:

Following the American government's rebuff of Fidel Castro in 1959, Nikita Khruschev moved to cultivate Soviet relations with the new Cuban leader, seeing an opportunity to expand Soviet influence in Latin America and tarnish American prestige during the Cold War. Rather than attempting to mollify Castro, the United States chose to view him as hostile, thereby cementing the rapidly expanding relationship between the Soviets and Cuba. These early errors on the part of US Government officials weighed heavily in later crises including the 1961 Bay of Pigs debacle and the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.

a) Assuming you were to write a large simulation program to help analyze the causes of the Cuban missile crisis, discuss what kind of simulation you would use to help draw your conclusions. For example, would a deterministic, static, time-driven simulation be appropriate?

b) What Latin dance originated in Cuba?