LYCOS RETRIEVER 
John F. Kennedy: Cuba
built 190 days ago
On April 17, 1961, the Kennedy administration implemented a modified version of Kennedy predecessor Dwight D. Eisenhower's plan to depose Fidel Castro, the communist leader of Cuba. With support from the CIA, in what is known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion, 1,500 Cuban exiles returned to the island to depose Castro, but the CIA had overestimated popular resistance to Castro and the exiles did not rally the Cuban people as expected. By April 19, Castro's government had killed or captured most of the exiles and Kennedy was forced to negotiate for the release of 1,189 of them. After 20 months, Cuba released the exiles in exchange for $53 million in food and medicine. The incident was a major embarrassment for Kennedy, but he took full responsibility for the debacle (See Bay of Pigs Invasion for more information).
Source:
Messages were sent back and forth between Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Pope John XXIII (1881–1963), who was volunteering as a peacemaker. During this time Soviet ships were moving toward the area of the blockade in the Atlantic Ocean. They slowed, then stopped. On October 28, 1962, the Soviet Union said it would remove its missiles from Cuba.
Source:
In his first two years of office a combination of Republicans and conservative southern Democrats in Congress had blocked much of Kennedy's proposed legislation. The polls suggested that after the elections he would have even less support in Congress. Kennedy feared that any trouble over Cuba would lose the Democratic Party even more votes, as it would remind voters of the Bay of Pigs disaster where the CIA had tried to oust Castro from power. One poll showed that over 62 per cent of the population were unhappy with his policies on Cuba. Understandably, the Republicans attempted to make Cuba the main issue in the campaign.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Cuba