On April 17, 1961, one of the greatest foreign policy mistakes of the Cold War, the attempted invasion of the Bay of Pigs, Cuba, was committed. The failed invasion occurred under the administration of John F. Kennedy and caused the death and incarceration of over 1,500 Cuban exiles fighting to overthrow Fidel Castro's government. The consequences have caused much greater impacts on US foreign policy. The invasion made the United States appear imperialistic in the eyes of the rest of the world and allowed the Soviet Union to portray America as an aggressive and hostile country to its neighbors, which in turn allowed the Soviet Union to further aid more Cuba for future business. The Bay of Pigs also caused President Kennedy to distrust many of his CIA advisors for providing him with incorrect information. The CIA led him to believe that the invasion would end quickly and successfully after Kennedy had been in office for only three months. This distrust of his advisors certainly influenced how Kennedy acted in future crises involving both Cuba and the USSR. This obviously leads to the question: Did the Kennedy administration act appropriately in the Bay of Pigs invasion and how did the outcome affect US foreign policy towards Cuba and the USSR? Fidel Castro was a growing problem towards the United States. Castro was the communist prime minister of Cuba. He came to power through the Cuban Revolution in 1953 and governed Cuba according to communist philosophies. Fidel Castro also posed a threat to the national security of the United States due to his affiliation with the Soviet Union and his alliance with Nikita Khrushchev. Tensions were growing between the United States and Castro's government because American-owned oil companies operating in Cuban territory refused to produce crude oil for t...... half of paper ......r, 2011 .Walsh, Daniel C. "An Air War with Cuba; the U.S. Radio Campaign Against Castro." Reference & Research Book News, October 7, 2012. Accessed March 15, 2014. Academic OneFile /Gale (A304010214).Wood, Jeff. "Cuban Missile Crisis". In Disasters, Accidents, and Crises in American History. Accessed February 11, 2014. American History Online (DACH0151). Prados, John. "The perfect failure." MHQ: The Quarterly Journal 19, no. 3 (Spring 2007): 82-92. Endnotes “Cuban Missile Crisis,” in Encyclopedia of American Foreign, “Fidel Castro,” Hastedt, “Political Aspects of the Bay of Pigs,” Kreiser, “JFK: Trials, Triumph and Tragedy,” The New York Times Overview John F. Kennedy, "Rasenberger, The Brilliant Disaster Walsh, "An Air War With", Wood, "Cuban Missile Crisis", in Disasters, Accidents and Crises Prados, "The Perfect Failure", [Page #].