How the Cuban Revolution Made Miami a Cold War Front

The revolution made Miami the main U.S. landing point for Cuban exiles and, between 1960 and 1962, a Cold War front line that hosted an exile invasion movement and Army missile batteries.

The first change was people. The Park Service ties the flow to geography, naming Miami's nearness to the island as the reason so many exiles came there, and by the end of 1960 approximately 40,000 Cubans had fled to the United States (National Park Service). The separate Digital Towns guides to the Cuban exile community, the Freedom Flights and the Mariel boatlift follow those arrivals; this guide follows the second change, the Cold War that came to Miami with them.

Diplomacy broke first. The United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba on January 3, 1961, after relations steadily deteriorated following the revolution of 1959 (Office of the Historian). From then until 2015 there was no U.S. embassy in Havana, and Miami saw the conflict up close: the exile invasion of 1961, the welcome for its prisoners in 1962, and the missile defenses that protected the Miami metropolitan area after the October 1962 crisis.

Miami was the home base of the exile community behind the Bay of Pigs invasion, whose plans the JFK Library says became common knowledge among Cuban exiles in Miami before Brigade 2506 landed on April 17, 1961.

President Eisenhower approved the program in March 1960, and the CIA set up training camps in Guatemala (JFK Library). The original plan called for a 1,400-man invasion force landing under cover of darkness. Despite efforts to keep it covert, the plan was widely known among exiles in Miami, and Castro learned of the Guatemala camps as early as October 1960.

The landing failed fast. Components of Brigade 2506 landed at the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961 and were defeated within 2 days by Cuban armed forces under Castro's direct command (Office of the Historian). Almost 1,200 members of the brigade surrendered (JFK Library). The brigade prisoners then remained in captivity for 20 months while the United States negotiated a deal with Castro.

Kennedy went to the Miami Orange Bowl on December 29, 1962 to receive the flag of Brigade 2506 from its freed members, days after the first prisoners returned from Cuba.

Before the Miami ceremony, the release was bought with goods. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy sought contributions from drug and baby food makers, and Castro settled on $53 million worth of baby food and medicine in exchange for the prisoners; the first plane of freed prisoners landed in the United States on December 23, 1962 (JFK Library).

The ceremony came a week after that first flight home. On Saturday, December 29, 1962, surviving brigade members gathered in Miami's Orange Bowl, where the brigade's flag was handed over to President Kennedy (JFK Library). Kennedy promised that the flag would be returned to this brigade in a free Havana. The Orange Bowl date also sits two months after the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which the next section follows.

The October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis brought Army air defense units to South Florida, and missiles were trucked to four Nike Hercules and eight Hawk missile batteries from North Miami to Key West.

The crisis that reached Miami ran for two weeks. A U.S. U-2 photographed missile sites under construction in Cuba on October 14, 1962; on October 22 Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine; and on October 28 Khrushchev said the Soviet missiles would be dismantled and removed (Office of the Historian).

South Florida had no defense pointed south. The Park Service says U.S. air defense had been poised against attacks over the North Pole, and as the crisis played out the military scrambled to seal the U.S. perimeter in south Florida (National Park Service). In late October 1962 the Army's 2nd Missile Battalion, 52nd Air Defense Artillery deployed with four batteries of about 150 men each, and two of them set up tent camps just outside the entrance to Everglades National Park.

On November 26, 1962 Kennedy traveled to the Homestead Air Force site to award the men of the 52nd Air Defense Artillery the Army's Meritorious Unit Commendation (National Park Service). The Park Service notes that these missile sites served to protect the Miami metropolitan area.

Yes, the HM-69 Nike Hercules base in Everglades National Park is open to visitors most days from early December to late March, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with ranger-guided tours in winter (National Park Service).

The Army chose a site within Everglades National Park, 160 miles from the Cuban coast, and the Army Corps of Engineers completed HM-69 in 1964; A Battery moved in during 1965 (National Park Service). The Park Service says the base remains virtually the same as when official use ended in 1979, with 22 buildings and structures, including three missile barns, a missile assembly building, a guard dog kennel and barracks. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

Season dates differ between two Everglades pages. The current HM-69 page, updated October 8, 2026, gives early December to late March and says program times vary with staffing, so the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center is the place to check (National Park Service). A January 7, 2025 release placed the site near the Homestead entrance and said it is open seasonally from November through March, with about 140 soldiers staffing the base from 1965 to 1979 (Everglades National Park release). From early April through late November, access is only through the Everglades Institute.

Entry to Everglades National Park for a private vehicle costs $35 and is good for 7 consecutive days at all park entrances, and the park does not accept cash; non-US residents aged 16 and over pay an additional $100 per person unless admitted with an Annual or America the Beautiful Pass (National Park Service fees). The park phone line for Everglades National Park and the Nike site coordinator is 305-242-7700. The January 2025 release announced the inaugural Nike Site Festival at HM-69 for January 18, 2025, free with park admission, to commemorate South Florida's role in the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis (Everglades National Park release).

The break shaped Miami for 54 years: relations were severed on January 3, 1961 and resumed only on July 20, 2015, and the wet-foot/dry-foot policy for Cuban arrivals lasted until January 12, 2017.

During the break, Switzerland stood in. A U.S. Interests Section opened in Havana under the protection of the Swiss Government on September 1, 1977, and the United States and Cuba resumed diplomatic relations on July 20, 2015, when both Interests Sections became embassies (Office of the Historian).

For arrivals in Miami the bigger change came in 2017. On January 12, 2017 the Department of Homeland Security ended the so-called wet-foot/dry-foot policy, and from that date a Cuban national arriving without legal entry and without grounds for humanitarian relief could be removed, as for migrants from other countries; the Cuban government agreed to accept the return of nationals ordered removed (White House statement). Last verified: October 18, 2026, with each Miami Cold War date checked against the National Park Service, Office of the Historian, JFK Library and archived White House pages cited on this page.