History of U.S. presence in Guantanamo Bay http://msnbc.com/local/pencilnews/291565.asp Located on the entrance of Guantanamo Bay is U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay. How did America end up with a military base on enemy soil? It's a story that goes back to 1898. On Feb. 15, 1898, the battleship USS Maine was sunk in the harbor of Havana, Cuba. At the time, Cuba was a Spanish colony. Some in America were itching for a fight with Spain, and the sinking of the Maine - which may well have been an accident - was blamed on Spanish agents. America prepared for a fight that would be known as the Spanish-American War. In April 1898, the Navy scouted the Guantanamo Bay area as a base location for the war. Finding it to their liking, a team of about 650 U.S. Marines landed at Guantanamo Bay on June 10, 1898. It was the beginning of a military presence that would last more than 100 years. Just two months after the Marines landed, the war was over. But the American presence in Cuba was not. In December 1903, with a new, favorable Cuban government in place, America agreed to lease 45 square miles of land and water at Guantanamo Bay. In 1934, the special arrangement was worked into a treaty. Under the treaty, America agreed to pay Cuba $4,085 dollars a year to lease the base. More importantly, the two nations agreed that the treaty could not be broken unless both nations agreed to it. This insured that America would be in Cuba as long as it wanted. Guantanamo Bay became an important base for American sea power. It was strategically located for action in both the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. During World War II, it was an important installation to support anti-submarine activities. After World War II, Communism rose throughout Europe, beginning with Soviet domination of the Eastern European nations. In 1959, the Communist threat got closer to America. A young radical named Fidel Castro led a revolution in Cuba against the U.S.-sponsored dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Castro!/s forces took over in 1960, and suddenly, Guantanamo Bay was a front-line installation in the Cold War. In January 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower cut diplomatic ties with Cuba. Many ordinary Cubans wanted to defect to the United States, and hoped to do so through the base. Castro, hoping to discourage them, planted eight miles of cactus along the U.S. Naval Base border. By 1962, the Cold War was getting very hot in Cuba. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency backed a group of Cuban exiles in a botched attempt to invade the island nation. The failed "Bay of Pigs" invasion made Castro even more hostile toward the United States, and more open to the Soviets. In October 1962, American reconnaissance planes spotted Soviet missiles at Cuban installations. President John F. Kennedy told the Cubans and Soviets to remove the missiles. It was the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis - and the closest America ever got to nuclear war. At Guantanamo Bay, all wives and children of soldiers and sailors were sent home to America on just a few hours notice. Ever since, dependents have been required to keep a suitcase ready at all times for a rapid evacuation. The naval base at once became both more dangerous and more important. It was now a forward location in the Cold War and a thumb in Castro's eye - which it remains to this day. Castro remains so irked by the base that he refuses to cash the yearly rent checks of $4,000! Guantanamo Bay has become a self-sufficient community of about 6,000 people. It makes its own fresh water and power, and has schools, Boy Scout troops, youth baseball, grocery stores, exchanges and homes. In the 1990s, Gitmo's primary mission as a logistics base for the Atlantic Fleet was overshadowed by some humanitarian missions. Beginning in 1991, Guantanamo Bay was the temporary home for migrants from other countries. That year, 34,000 Haitian refugees came through the base after fleeing violence in their homeland. In 1994, the base hosted more Haitian and Cuban refugees after more strife in the two Caribbean neighbors. At one point, all dependents and civilians were sent home to make room and create enough resources for the migrants. Now, Guantanamo is home to a very different kind of international visitor. In January, the first al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners from the war on terror were taken to Gitmo, where they are being imprisoned.