In 1959, with the rise of Fidel Castro to power in Cuba, the Soviet Union gained a Caribbean ally. Two years later, U.S. President John F. Kennedy tried to sway the nation away from communism by approving a counter-revolutionary invasion of Cuba. This venture, known as the Bay of Pigs invasion, failed miserably. In October 1962, Kennedy’s America and Nikita Krushchev’s USSR faced off over Soviet nuclear missiles placed in Cuba and ready to strike the U.S. For two weeks, the threat of nuclear war had the future of America hanging in the balance.