John F. Kennedy
35th President 1961-1963
Campaign
Vienna Summit
Cuba
As Cuban leader Fidel Castro began to grow closer with the Soviet Union, America became more concerned with the possibility of a nuclear launch site so close to the mainland. In an attempt to overthrow the dictator, Kennedy ordered the Bay of Pigs operation in 1961, which had 1500 U.S. trained Cuban revolutionaries land on the island and capture or kill Castro. This plan utterly failed, which resulted in the U.S. being forced to give $53 million dollars worth of relief supplies in exchange for the captured troops.
In 1962, U.S. intelligence observed the construction of missle silos in Cuba. This would be known as the Cuban Mistle Crisis. Kennedy had to decide the best course of action; attack and dissable the missles or negotiate his way through the issue. The decission was eventually made to quarentine the island. Eventually, the missles were dismantled by order of Khrushchev due to pressure from the U.N.