266 a short history of the united states
there was a sense of urgency among Americans to seize the island and
restore a liberated administration, especially after American property
on the island was seized and Castro became an ally of the Soviet
Union. Prior to leaving office, Eisenhower had approved a plan for the
invasion of Cuba by anti-Castro Cubans trained and supplied with
American arms and money and protected by U.S. aircraft. But it was
President Kennedy who gave the executive order to begin the invasion
after his military and intelligence officials assured him that Castro did
not have sufficient forces to repulse an invasion and that the Cuban
people would rise up and join the rebellion. So the invasion began on
April 17 , 1961, and ended disastrously when the invaders became bogged
down in the marshes of the Bay of Pigs. Kennedy refused to allow air
support and, as a result, over a thousand anti-Castro Cubans were cap-
tured, tried, and sentenced to thirty years in prison. Furthermore,
Premier Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union threatened to come to
Cuba’s aid if the United States did not “call a halt to the aggression
against the Republic of Cuba.”
Worse, during the summer and autumn of 1962 the Soviets began
building missile sites in Cuba capable of launching nuclear bombs
against the United States. In a televised speech to the nation on Octo-
ber 22 , 1962 , President Kennedy, risking a possible war with the Soviet
Union, demanded that the bases be dismantled and the missiles re-
moved. Pending compliance, he ordered the U.S. Navy to commence
“a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment
to Cuba.” In other words, the United States would stop and search all
ships bound for the island, regardless of nationality, and turn back any
carrying military weapons. Kennedy said he was requesting an emer-
gency meeting of the UN Security Council to consider a resolution to
demand immediate removal of the missiles. “It shall be the policy of
this nation,” he continued, “to regard any nuclear missile launched
from Cuba against any nation in the western hemisphere as an attack
by the Soviet Union on the United States requiring a full retaliatory
response upon the Soviet Union.”
Fortunately, Khrushchev realized he had overplayed his hand, and
in an exchange between the two leaders of the communist and free
worlds it was agreed that the Soviet Union would remove the missiles
and the United States would promise not to invade Cuba. Both sides