Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"US public opinion, fanned by the press, was outraged and blamed Spain for sinking the ship. War fever was encouraged by the rival press barons William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, and after a navy inquiry concluded that a mine had sunk the Maine, war was declared on Spain. The subsequent Spanish-American War ended Spanish rule in Cuba, replacing it with the US presence, which lasted until Castro's takeover in 1959." [Furtado: 1001 Days] "The Spanish–American War (...) was an armed conflict between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana harbor in Cuba, leading to U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. The war led to emergence of U.S. predominance in the Caribbean region, and resulted in U.S. acquisition of Spain's Pacific possessions. That led to U.S. involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately in the Philippine–American War." [Wikipedia] "Of the 274,000 US troops mobilized for the Spanish American War of 1898 only 379 were killed and 1600 wounded, but more than 5000 died of tropical diseases." [Hobsbawm: Empire, p, 305]