In an effort to weaken Castro's government, the Kennedy administration launched the Bay of Pigs Invasion, a covert CIA-directed attempt to take advantage of Cuban exile dissatisfaction.
But American aircraft refused to support the ground incursion when it came, resulting in a military disaster and causing a serious breach in US-Cuban relations.
The Cuban Missile Crisis, brought on by the installation of Soviet tactical nuclear missiles in Cuba that could hit anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, escalated the already existing Cold War animosity between the United States and the Soviet Union to one of its closest moments of direct war.
Due to Cuba's role in the worldwide conflict that resulted in numerous military engagements and near-nuclear incidents, Cuba was expelled from the Organisation of American States and was the subject of an ongoing US financial, commercial, and economic blockade that is still in effect as of September 2023.