Cold War tensions increased.
The Bay of Pigs invasion was carried out by Cuban exiles that had been trained by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The Cuban counter revolutionaries failed and Kennedy was embarrassed. Within just days, the force of exiles was soundly defeated by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, commanded by Fidel Castro. In the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs affair, Cuba requested that the USSR, as its communist sponsor, place missiles in Cuba to deter further US-sponsored action against the Castro regime.
