JFK's Foreign Policy

Kennedy faced several foreign policy crises during his presidency including the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, the Berlin Wall, and most dangerously, the Cuban Missile Crisis. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, U.S. spy planes discovered nuclear missile sites being built in Cuba with help from the Soviet Union. Kennedy established a naval blockade of Cuba and initiated secret negotiations with Khrushchev to resolve the crisis and remove the missiles, bringing the U.S. and Soviet Union dangerously close to nuclear war. The crisis ended when Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles, averting war but demonstrating the threat of nuclear proliferation.