Cuban Project by late August, the Soviet military build-up in Cuba disgruntled the Kennedy administration. The fear of open military retaliation against the United States and Berlin for the US covert operations in Cuba slowed down the operation. By October, as the Cuban Missile Crisis heated up, President Kennedy demanded the cessation of Operation Mongoose. Operation Mongoose formally ceased its activities at the end of 1962. The first assassination plots began in the late summer of 1960, according to the Church Committee’s documentation. Some of the plots and ideas ranged from “poisoned pills, an exploding seashell, and a planned gift of a
Cuban Missile Crisis assured destruction. Mutually assured destruction means that if America decided to launch a nuclear strike against the USSR, the latter would react by launching a nuclear strike against America. Additionally, placing nuclear missiles on Cuba was a way for the USSR to show their support for Cuba and support the people in Cuba whose rights were taken away by the United States, as the latter had become their ally after the Cuban Revolution of 1959. According to Khrushchev, the Soviet Union's motives were "aimed at allowing Cuba to live peacefully and develop as its people desire". An indirect reason why