ABSTRACT
In 1967-1968, relations between the Soviet Union and Cuba reached the breaking point. To understand the role of Cuban foreign policy in the Cuban-Soviet relationship, it is important to understand not only structure and the boundaries of the relationship, but the process of interaction. The Soviets are on occasion disturbed or perplexed about Cuban policy, but they are likely to interfere only when their direct interests are involved. The Cubans do make tactical foreign policy decisions themselves, but strategic decisions such as those that involve Cuban troops require Soviet consent. Cuba earned significant new amounts of economic and military aid from the Soviet Union for the operation. Cuba tightened its relationship with the Soviet Union and the world communist movement, and it tried to align the Nonaligned Movement with the Soviets. One of the major intellectual contributions of Marxism to social science is the concept that human or institutional behavior is shaped, and sometimes determined, by economic and political structures.
