President Eisenhower had early on suspected that Castro would take Cuba down the  communist path, so in March 1960 he had secretly authorised the use of thirteen million dollars to train Cuban exiles, the people who had fled Cuba, to carry out an  invasion of Cuba and oust (remove) Castro. 
Approximately fifteen hundred (1 500) exiles volunteered to be trained for this job by  the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The top secret training took place in the  central American countries of Guatemala and Nicaragua. 
When President Kennedy took office, he inherited the Cuban problem. He had been  briefed by Eisenhower's administration about the plans to remove Castro. Surprised,  Kennedy nevertheless allowed the CIA and the Cuban exiles to proceed. However,  knowing that it would look bad for a powerful nation to invade a tiny island, he refused  to involve the American military: US military aircraft would not be allowed to provide  cover for the invasion. Kennedy hoped it would appear that the United States had  played no part. The CIA and the 1 500 exiles, sure that the Cuban people would rise  up and help their efforts against Castro, went ahead with their invasion on  17 April 1961, at a swampy beach area known as the Bay of Pigs. 
Castro had received word of the planned invasion through informants who knew of the  exiles and had his army ready with Soviet-made tanks. The defeat of the invading  exiles was swift and complete. It was clear the failed invasion was backed by the  United States, because the band of exiles could have never become so organised or  bold … 
Now firmly in the communist camp, Castro was against American imperialism. 

 [From http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/uhic/ReferenceDetailspage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?   Accessed on 18 November 2017.]

Mr President, I send you this message in an hour of alarm, fraught (troubled) with  danger for the peace of the whole world. Armed aggression has begun against Cuba.  It is a secret to no one that the armed bands invading this country were trained,  equipped and armed in the United States of America. The planes which are bombing  Cuban cities belong to the United States of America; the bombs they are dropping are  being supplied by the American government.  
All of this evokes (arouses) here in the Soviet Union an understandable feeling of  indignation (anger) on the part of the Soviet government and the Soviet people.  
Only recently, in exchanging opinions through our respective representatives, we  talked with you about the mutual desire of both sides to put forward joint efforts  directed toward improving relations between our countries and eliminating (removing)  the danger of war. How can what is being done by the United States in reality be  understood, when an attack on Cuba has now become a fact?  
It is still not late to avoid the irreparable (damage). The government of the USA still  has the possibility of not allowing the flame of war ignited (started) by interventions in  Cuba to grow into an incomparable conflagration (disaster).  
As far as the Soviet Union is concerned, there should be no mistake about our  position: We will render the Cuban people and their government all necessary help to  repel (prevent) armed attack on Cuba.  

 [From The Kennedy-Khrushchev Letters by T Fensch, ed.]

Although he had defeated the Cuban exiles' who invaded at the Bay of Pigs, Castro  was afraid the United States still wanted to invade Cuba in order to get rid of him,  change the government, and destroy Cuba's communist revolution. So he asked his  friend, Soviet Chairman Khrushchev, for more help.  
Khrushchev secretly began sending nuclear missiles to Cuba. Weapons of mass  annihilation (destruction) were now only 90 miles away from the United States. It is  likely that Khrushchev and Castro believed that these deadly missiles would convince  the United States to leave Cuba alone. They were wrong. 
The United States, using special spy planes equipped with powerful cameras,  discovered that missile sites were being built and also came to the conclusion that  Soviet ships were sailing from Russia to Cuba with offensive missiles (they did not  know that some of these missiles had already reached Cuba).  
President Kennedy and his advisors were horrified (shocked) and angry by these  discoveries. They felt that they had to respond to the situation. The problem was:  'how?' What should they do about the possibility of nuclear missiles pointing at them  from only 90 miles away?  

[From On the Brink: from the Bay of Pigs to the Cuban Missile Crisis by M Mooney]

Three main military movements had been fighting for Angolan independence since the  1960s. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) was a Marxist  organisation centred in the capital, Luanda, and led by Agostinho Neto. The National  Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), led by Holden Roberto, was based in the  north of the country and had strong ties to the US ally (friend), Mobutu Sese Seko, in  neighbouring Zaire. The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA),  an offshoot of the FNLA, was led by Jonas Savimbi and supported by the country's  largest ethnic group, the Ovimbundu.  
Following the Portuguese coup (revolution), these three revolutionaries met with  representatives of the new Portuguese government in January 1975 and signed the  Alvor Agreement that granted Angolan independence and provided for a three-way  power sharing government. However, trust quickly broke down among the three  groups, and the country descended (fell) into civil war as each vied (competed) for sole  (total) power.  
The crisis in Angola developed into a Cold War battleground as the superpowers and  their allies delivered military assistance to their preferred clients. The United States  supplied aid and training for both the FNLA and UNITA while troops from Zaire  assisted Holden Roberto and his fighters. China also sent military instructors to train  the FNLA. The Soviet Union provided military training and equipment to the MPLA.  During the summer of 1975, the Soviet-supported MPLA was able to consolidate  power in Luanda and oust (get rid of) the US-supported FNLA from the capital, but the  FNLA continued to attack. 

 [From http://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/angola. Accessed on 16 September 2017.] 

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) made its first major weapons shipment to the  FNLA in July 1975. Thus, like the Russians and the Chinese, the United States was  giving aid to one side of the Angolan civil war on a level far greater than it had ever  provided during the struggle against Portuguese colonialism. 
The United States was directly involved in the civil war to a marked (noticeable)  degree. In addition to training Angolan combat units, US personnel did considerable  flying between Zaire and Angola carrying out reconnaissance (investigation) and  supply missions, and the CIA spent over a million dollars on an ambitious mercenary  (hired soldiers) programme. Several reports appeared in the US press stating that  many American guerrillas were fighting in Angola against the MPLA from 'scores' to  '300' and that many others were being recruited and trained in the United States to join  them. But John Stockwell, the head of the CIA's Angola task force, puts the number of  American mercenaries (hired soldiers) who actually made it to Angola at only 24.  The CIA was also directly financing the arming of British mercenaries (fighting in  Angola).  
Subsequently (later) the Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, informed the Senate that  'the CIA is not involved' in the recruitment of mercenaries for Angola … Through  recruited journalists representing major news services, the Agency (CIA) was able to  generate international coverage of false reports for Soviet advisers in Angola. One CIA  story, announced to the press by UNITA, was that 20 Russians and 35 Cubans had  been captured. Another fabrication (lie) concerned alleged rapes committed by Cuban  soldiers in Angola; this was elaborated to include their capture, trial, and execution … 

[From https://williamblum.org/chapters/killing-hope/angola. Accessed on 20 September 2017.]

'We arrived in Luanda, Angola, on Sunday, 3 August, and made contact with the  MPLA,' Diaz Arguelles reported to Raul Castro … 'In our first conversation with Neto … we explained the purpose of our visit, which we based on the following points: 

• The request made by the MPLA … in January and the request made later in  Mozambique by Cheito (Xiyeto), the chief of staff of FAPLA.
• We wanted to clarify what aid we should offer, given the FNLA's and Mobutu's  aggression against the MPLA and the possible course of events before  independence in November. We knew the forces of reaction and imperialism would  try all their might to prevent the MPLA from taking power because it would mean a  progressive government in Angola. Therefore we were bringing Neto the militant  solidarity of our Commander in Chief, our party and our government, and we gave  him 100 000 dollars. 

In the course of this conversation the Angolans complained about the paucity (lack) of  aid from the socialist camp, and they pointed out that if the socialist camp does not  help them … whereas the imperialists (USA) are helping the FNLA in every way  possible. They also complained that the Soviet Union stopped helping them in 1972  and that the military aid is now sending is paltry (worthless), given the enormity (scale)  of the need …' 
Meanwhile Diaz Arguelles' proposal for a military mission had been dramatically (greatly) expanded in Havana. The revised plan called for the dispatch of 480 men who  would create (establish) and staff training centres, which would train some  5 300 Angolans in three to six months. Cuba would supply the weapons as well as  food, clothing, camping gear, toiletries, medicine, cots and bedclothes. In other words  Cuba, decided to offer Neto almost five times as many instructors as he had  requested. 

[From Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, Pretoria by P Gleijeses]

One of the most radical of all Black Power groups, the Black Panther Party, was  founded by Huey Newton, age 24, and Bobby Searle, age 30, in Oaklands, California, in October 1966. In ideological terms Newton and Searle were strongly influenced by  Malcolm X and revolutionaries like Che Guevara, Frantz Fanon and Mao Zedong. The  principle demands of the Panthers were incorporated into a ten-point manifesto. The  manifesto was nationalistic in tone. Individual aims in it included: a payment of  reparations to African Americans by the federal government, as compensation for  slavery; an exemption of blacks from military service; and freedom for blacks held in  federal, state, county and city prisons, unless tried by a jury of their peers from within  the black community … 
… The Panthers undertook to monitor levels of police brutality and the harassment of  black communities by law-enforcement officers. They also adopted a paramilitary style  uniform of black berets, pale blue shirts, black leather jackets and black trousers and  shoes. They asserted the constitutional right of all US citizens to carry arms (guns), as  defined in the second amendment to the US constitution. Party members appeared  heavily armed in public and Panther patrols followed police cars around the ghetto  (townships/urban areas with a majority African American population). This resulted  in tense relations with law-enforcement agencies and, in some instances, violent  shoot-outs.  

[From Black Civil Rights in America by K Verney]

By 1970 the Black Panther Party had nearly 5 000 members in more than 20 states.  From San Diego to New Haven, Panthers and sympathisers were active in scores of  programmes and service projects … The Panthers made copious (many) attempts to  meet people's fundamental needs. More than anything these programmes attracted  people to the party. By 1969 the Black Panther Party had free breakfast programmes  in 19 locations, feeding 20 000 children weekly. The Panthers developed liberation  schools, as well as the celebrated free health clinics that provided free sickle-cell  (a genetic disease mainly affecting people of African origin) testing in Chicago,  Portland, Los Angeles, New York and other cities.  
The Panthers founded the National Committee to Combat Fascism which brought  together a broad collection of organisations to resist the war in Vietnam, police brutality  and a range of other issues which were deemed (thought) harmful to African American  people … To the young and determined rank and file (ordinary members) of the party,  the Panthers were the vanguard (spearhead) of the revolution.  
The Panthers spread across the country, attracting thousands of young people to  commit to the struggle in ways few organisations demanded … Different chapters  (groups) would have different characteristics that reflected provincial (local) issues …  The Black Panthers wanted to walk with the people towards revolution, even if this  meant that its member must take the first step. 

[From Black Power, Radical Politics and African American Identity by JOG Ogbar]

The FBI denounced (criticised) the Black Panther Party itself as a group of 'communist  outlaws' bent (determined) on overthrowing the US government. 
Armed with that definition and all the machinery of the federal government,  J Edgar Hoover directed the FBI to wage a campaign to eliminate (destroy) the Black  Panther Party altogether, commanding the assistance of local police departments to do  so. Indeed, as Hoover stated in 1968 that the party represented 'the greatest threat to  the internal security of the US,' he pledged that 1969 would be the last year of the  party's existence … By the end of that year, nearly every office and other facility of the  Black Panther Party had been violently assaulted by police and the FBI … There had  been every kind of assault imaginable on the Party's social programmes and  destruction of party property. Police raiders smashed the eggs of the breakfast  programme, crushed the party's free clinic supplies and caused the destruction of  batches of the party's newspapers. The FBI's so called counter-intelligence  programme, known as COINTELPRO, directed its field offices and local police to  destroy the party through the use of informants, agents provocateur (troublemakers)  and covert activities involving mayhem (chaos) and murder. 
Nevertheless, the party survived and continued to build its survival programmes, which  came to include not only the free breakfast programmes and free clinics, but also  grocery giveaways, the manufacture and distribution of free shoes, school and  education programmes, senior transport and service programmes, free bus services to  prisons and prisoner support and legal aid programmes, among others.  

[From http://www.lebbunawi.tumblr.com/post/111798191610/black-panthers-party-18-freedom-by-any means. Accessed on 20 September 2017.]