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Kennedy decided to implement the plan. on April 17, 1961, a CIA-led force of Cuban exiles attacked Cuba in the Bay of Pigs invasion. The invasion was not planned well, and almost the entire army got destroyed. As a result, it strengthened Castro's position in Cuba, and many Cuban Americans distrusted Kennedy.
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The Berlin Wall became a visible symbol of the reality of the two Germanys and the gulf between the communist East and democratic West. Kennedy responded by sending 1,500 U.S. troops to West Berlin. For a time, Russian and American tanks moved within sight of each other. Yet, neither side could fully claim a victory.
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U.S. intelligence discovered that the Soviets were building nuclearmisile sites in Cuba, apparently to protect Castro from another American invasion. During this, Kennedy and Khrushchev stood on the edge of a nuclear war and the slowly backed away.
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The year after the crisis, the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the first nuclear-weapons agreement, which ended above ground nuclear tests. Thirty-six other nations soon signed the agreement.
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President Nixon refused to accept the North Vietnamese peace terms. He was committed to a policy of "peace with honor" and believed that there were still military options. He countinued a gradual pullout of American troop, and expressed faith in the ability of the army of Republic Vietnam to assume the burden of war.
