Cuba

In October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union on the island of Cuba. President Kennedy did not want the Soviet Union and Cuba to know that he had discovered the missiles. He met in secret with his advisors for several days to discuss the problem. After many long and difficult meetings, Kennedy decided to place a naval blockade, or a ring of ships, around Cuba. The aim of this "quarantine," as he called it, was to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies. He demanded the removal of the missiles already there and the destruction of the sites. On October 22, President Kennedy spoke to the nation about the crisis in a televised address.

The United States government had supported the American-friendly Batista regime since it came to power in 1952. After Fidel Castro, together with a handful of supporters that included the professional revolutionary Che Guevara, landed in Cuba to unseat Batista in December 1956, the U.S. continued to support Batista. Suspicious of what they believed to be Castro’s leftist ideology and fearful that his ultimate goals might include attacks on U.S. investments and properties in Cuba, American officials were nearly unanimous in opposing his revolutionary movement.

On April 17, about 1,400 well-armed Cuban exiles trained by the United States landed at the Bay of Pigs on the island’s south coast. Before their arrival, U.S. planes had failed to neutralize the Cuban air force, leaving the mercenaries vulnerable to heavy air attack. More importantly, the invasion did not incite the Cuban people to rise up and join the rebellion, as had been predicted. Castro routed the mercenaries within 72 hours.

When John F. Kennedy became president in 1961, CIA director Allen Dulles informed him about a plan to remove Castro that was conceived at the end of Eisenhower’s term. Kennedy, who had previously attacked Eisenhower and Richard Nixon for “losing Cuba,” did not want as much overt U.S. involvement as Dulles suggested.