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The Bay of Pigs
In order to try and ignite another Cuban revolution and overthrow Castro, Eisenhower had given the CIA the power to train Cuban exiles with the intent of invading Cuba. Kennedy found out a little over a week after his election. He was weary of the plan bt her gave it the go ahead anyways. -
The Failed Invasion
Backed up by the US military an exiled Cuban force of just under 1500 men land on the Southern Coast in the 'Bay of Pigs'. The plan unraveled as soon as it started. There was supposed to be an airstrike to knock out the Cuban Airforce. The CIA mis-reported this strike as sucessful. Also an advance force meant to mislead the Cubans never reached shore, so when the main force landed they faced the full force of 25,000 backed up by Soviet tanks and jets, Kennedy was pubicly blammed for the failure -
The Missile Crisis
The soviets had evoled into one of Castro's strongest allies. He gladly welcomed soviet money & weapons. The flow of supplies was ever increasing and then the CIA reported sightings of Cuban missle sites with a number of US cities in range. Kennedy responded: the US will not tolerate offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba. More Soviet ships ssteamed toward Cuba in defiance of the US so the Navy pepared to surround the waters of cuba not letting anything get in. Nuclear war has never been closer.
