The year is 1962 and the United States is embroiled in a global struggle for power known as the Cold War. On one side stands the US and its democratic allies, and on the other the Soviet Union and its expanding network of Communist states. Cuba has recently fallen to communism, replacing the military dictatorship that was propped up by the United States- and acting more in its own interest rather than in an interest to promote democracy, the US has decided that this cannot stand.