Cuban Missile Crisis colonies and European affairs but holding that the Western Hemisphere was in the US sphere of influence. The Kennedy administration had been publicly embarrassed by the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in May 1961, which had been launched under President John F. Kennedy by CIA-trained forces of Cuban exiles. Afterward, former President Dwight Eisenhower told Kennedy that "the failure of the Bay of Pigs will embolden the Soviets to do something that they would otherwise not do." The half-hearted invasion left Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and his advisers with the impression that Kennedy was indecisive and, as one Soviet adviser
Cuban Missile Crisis and Secretary-General of the Organization of American States, José Antonio Mora to brief them on the US intelligence and their proposed response. All were supportive of the US position, except Macmillan who advocated appeasement. Shortly before his speech, Kennedy called former President Dwight Eisenhower. Kennedy's conversation with the former President also revealed that the two were conspiring during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The two also anticipated that Khruschev would respond to the Western world in a matter that was similar to his response during the Suez Crisis and would possibly wind up trading off Berlin. On October 22 at 7:00