We welcomed Castro's victory, of course, but at the time we were quite certain that  the invasion was only the beginning and that the Americans would not let Cuba alone  … one thought kept hammering away at my brain. What would happen if we lost  Cuba? I knew it would be a terrible blow to Marxist-Leninism. It would gravely  diminish (reduce) our stature throughout the world, but especially in Latin America.  If Cuba was to fall, other Latin American countries would reject us, claiming for all  our might, the Soviet Union hadn't been able to do anything for Cuba but make empty  protest to the United Nations. We had to think up some way of confronting America  with more than words … 
The logical answer was missiles. I had the idea of installing nuclear missiles in Cuba without letting the United States find out they were there until it was too late to do anything about them. We had no desire to start a war. We sent the Americans a  note saying that we agreed to remove our missiles on the condition that the president  gave us his assurance that there would be no invasion of Cuba by the forces of the  United States ... he gave in … It was a great victory for us … a success without  having to fire a single shot. 

[From Khrushchev Remembers by S Talbott.]

… This Government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance (close watch) of the Soviet military build-up on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites  is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be  none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western  Hemisphere … These long-range weapons of sudden mass destruction constitute  an explicit threat to our peace and security … I call upon the Soviet government to  halt this offensive build-up.  
I have instructed a strict quarantine (blockade/keep under control) on all offensive  military equipment under shipment to Cuba. All ships bound for Cuba …, if found to  contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back. We are not at this time,  however, denying the necessities of life as the Soviets attempted to do in the Berlin  Blockade of I948. I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to abandon this course of world  domination, and to join in an historic effort to end the perilous (dangerous) arms race  and to transform the history of man. 

[From http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/2.htm. Accessed on 3 June  2017]

Dobrynin cable (telegram) to the USSR Foreign Ministry, 27 October 1962.   

TOP SECRET 
Making copies prohibited
Copy no. 1

CIPHERED (SECRET) TELEGRAM 
Late tonight R Kennedy invited me to come see him. We talked alone.  
The Cuban crisis, R Kennedy began, continues to quickly worsen. We have just  received a report that an unarmed American plane was shot down while carrying out  a reconnaissance (investigation) flight over Cuba. The military is demanding that the  president arm such planes and respond to fire with fire. The USA government will  have to do this.  
'I want,' R Kennedy stressed, 'to lay out the current alarming situation the way the  president sees it. He wants NS Khrushchev to know this. This is the thrust (focus) of  the situation now.' 
…. because this is the only way we can quickly get information about the state of  construction of the missile bases in Cuba, which we believe pose a very serious  threat to our national security. But if we start to fire in response – a chain reaction  will quickly start that will be very hard to stop. The same thing applies in regard to  the essences (heart) of the missile bases in Cuba. The USA government is  determined to get rid of those bases, in the extreme case, bombing them, since, I  repeat, they pose a great threat to the security of the USA. But in response to the  bombing of these bases, in the course of which Soviet specialists might suffer, the  Soviet government will undoubtedly respond with the same against us, somewhere  in Europe. A real war will begin, in which millions of Americans and Russians will  die.'  
'And what about Turkey'? I asked R Kennedy. 
'If that is the only obstacle to achieving the regulation (law) I mentioned earlier, then  the president doesn't see any insurmountable (challenging) difficulties in solving this  issue,' replied R Kennedy. 'The greatest difficulty for the president is the public  discussion of the issue of Turkey ... However, president Kennedy is ready to come  to agreement on that question with NS Khrushchev, too. I think that in order to  withdraw these bases from Turkey,' R Kennedy said, 'we need 4–5 months.'  

[From: We All Lost the Cold War by RN Lebow and JG Stein] 

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 for the  MPLA. During the summer of 1975, the Soviet-supported MPLA was able to  consolidate power in Luanda and oust the U.S.-supported FNLA from the capital,  but the FNLA continued to attack ... 
The MPLA also had long-established relations with Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Before  November 11, the MPLA had negotiated with Castro for Cuban assistance. At the  same time, UNITA, which enjoyed U.S. support, approached the Apartheid  government in South Africa for military reinforcement. Pretoria, with the aim to end  the use of Angola as a base for rebels fighting for the independence of South Africa occupied Namibia, contributed forces that entered southern Angola in October and  made rapid progress toward the capital. The U.S. Government had encouraged the South African intervention, but preferred to downplay its connection with the  Apartheid regime.  

[From: https.//history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/angola. Accessed on 22 September 2016]

By 1986, Angola began to assume a more central role in the Cold War, with the Soviet  Union, Cuba and other Eastern bloc nations enhancing support for the MPLA  government, and American conservatives beginning to elevate (increase) their support  for Savimbi's UNITA. Savimbi developed close relations with influential American  conservatives, who saw Savimbi as a key ally in the U.S. effort to oppose and rollback  Soviet-backed, non-democratic governments around the world. The conflict quickly  escalated (increased in intensity), with Washington and Moscow seeing it as a critical  strategic conflict in the Cold War. 
The Soviet Union gave an additional $1 billion in aid to the MPLA government and Cuba  sent an additional 2,000 troops to the 35,000-strong force in Angola to  protect Chevron oil platforms in 1986 …  
… In addition to escalating its military support for UNITA, the Ronald Reagan (then  President of the USA) administration and its conservative allies also worked to expand  recognition of Savimbi as a key U.S. ally in an important Cold War struggle. In January  1986, Reagan invited Savimbi to meet with him at the White House. Following the  meeting, Reagan spoke of UNITA winning a victory that "electrifies the world" at  the White House in January 1986. Two months later, Reagan announced the delivery  of Stinger surface-to-air missiles as part of the $25 million in aid UNITA received from  the U.S. government. Jeremias Chitunda, UNITA's representative to the U.S., became  the Vice President of UNITA in August 1986 at the sixth party congress. Fidel  Castro made Chester Crocker's (US Secretary of State at the time) proposal, the  withdrawal of foreign troops from Angola and Namibia, a prerequisite (condition to be  met first) to Cuban withdrawal from Angola …  

[From: https.//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angolan_Civil_War#War_intensifies. Accessed on 24 September  2016.]

The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale and the Cuban intervention in Angola is one of the turning  points in Southern African history. It led to the movement of powerful Cuban armed force,  into the west, towards the Namibian border. The fighting in the south western part of  Angola led to the withdrawal of the South African, ANC and Cuban presence in Angola,  and to the independence of Namibia. 
The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale is, however, a contentious (open to debate) issue, widely  discussed and debated by ordinary people, participants and historians. Depending on  where you stand, Cuito Cuanavale is described as a defeat of the South African Defence  Force (SADF), a tactical withdrawal by the SADF, or, a stalemate. 
The battle, or more correctly termed the siege, of Cuito Cuanavale was fought on the  banks of the Lomba River in the vicinity of Cuito Cuanavale, in south-eastern Angola,  between UNITA (aided by the SADF) and the Angolan army (FAPLA) aided by Cuba, the  Soviet Union and to a lesser extent East Germany. The stakes were high for both sides  and the battle involved the biggest conventional operations of South African forces since  World War II. 

[From: www.sahistory.org.za/topic/battle-cuito-cuanavale-1988. Accessed on12 October 2016.]

We should begin with the basic fact that black Americans have two problems: they  are poor and they are black. All other problems arise from this two-sided reality:  lack of education, the so-called apathy (lack of interest) of black men. Any  programme to end racism must address itself to that double reality …  
The need for psychological equality is the reason why SNCC (Student Non-violent  Co-ordinating Committee) today believes that blacks must organise in the black  community. Only black people can convey the revolutionary idea that black people  are able to do things themselves. Only they can help create in the community an  aroused and continuing black consciousness that will provide the basis for political  strength. In the past, white allies have furthered white supremacy without the whites  involved realising it or wanting it, I think. Black people must do things for themselves 
… This is one reason Africa has such importance: the reality of black men ruling  their own nations gives blacks elsewhere a sense of possibility, of power, which  they do not now have. 

[From: For the Record: A Documentary History of America, Volume Two by DE Shi and HA Mayer,  1999] 

Black people are fed up with the dillydallying … compromising approach that we’ve  been using toward getting our freedom. We want freedom now, but we’re not going  to get it by saying ‘We Shall Overcome.’ We’ve got to fight until we overcome. 
The economic philosophy of black nationalism is pure and simple. It only means  that we should control the economy of our community. Why should white people be  running all the stores in our community? Why should white people be running the  banks of our community? Why should the economy of our community be in the  hands of the white man? … The philosophy of black nationalism involves a re education programme in the black community in regard to the economics. Our  people have to be made to see that any time you take your dollar out of your  community and spend it in a community where you don’t live, the community where  you live will get poorer and poorer, and the community where you spend your  money will get richer and richer. 

[From: www.malcolm-x.org/quotes.ttm. Accessed on 10 November 2016.]

The Black Power movement instilled a sense of racial pride and self-esteem in blacks.  Blacks were told that it was up to them to improve their lives. Black Power advocates  encouraged blacks to form or join all-black political parties that could provide a  formidable power base and offer a foundation for real socio-economic progress. For  years, the movement's leaders said, blacks had been trying to aspire to white ideals of  what they should be. Now it was time for blacks to set their own agenda, putting their  needs and aspirations first. An early step, in fact, was the replacement of the word  "Negro" (a word associated with the years of Slavery) with "black." 
… The same spirit of racial unity and pride that made the Black Power movement so  dynamic also made it problematic — and to some, dangerous. Many whites, and a  number of blacks, saw the movement as a black separatist organisation bent on  segregating blacks and whites and undoing the important work of the civil rights  movement. There is no question that Black Power advocates had valid and pressing  concerns. Blacks were still victims of racism, whether they were being charged a  higher rate for a mortgage, getting paid less than a white co-worker doing the same  work, or facing violence at the hands of white racists. But the solutions that some  Black Power leaders advocated seemed only to create new problems … 

 [From:http://law.jrank.org/pages/4776/Black-Power-Movement.html. Accessed on 10 November  2016.]