Our Arms in Havana: British Military Sales to Batista and Castro, 1958-59

When the United States—the traditional supplier of arms to Cuba—decided not to supply Fulgencio Batista's government after March 1958 and the dictator approached Britain, this presented a dilemma for Harold Macmillan's administration so soon after the 1956 Suez crisis. Whitehall was keen to sell arms but wary of doing business with a country so firmly located in the United States' sphere of influence. It will be seen that the Foreign Office conferred with Washington at every stage in its decision process, both in deciding to arm Batista after gaining US acquiescence, and later in acceding to pressure and not supplying military hardware to Fidel Castro's nascent regime.