Crisis Over Berlin and the Bay of Pigs

The Berlin crisis occurred in 1961, just 11 years after the Berlin Airlift. The issue was brought about due to the fleeing of an approximate 3 million East Berliners to the democratically-controlled West Berlin. Not only did East Berlin lose much of its people, the people leaving were often in skilled positions such as doctors and tailors. To stop this mass exodus, Khrushchev made the decision to erect a wall splitting off West Berlin from East Berlin. Within a few days, the Berlin Wall was made with soldiers manning it day and night. While this wall did fulfill its task of preventing East Berliners from leaving, it was also a sign of weakness that Kennedy full took advantage of. He told the American people that Communism had to build walls to keep people from fleeing, which gave the Americans
confidence in capitalism and democracy.

Another crisis that arose was over the situation in Cuba. The United States tried to secretly overthrow the Cuban government and Fidel Castro, but the plan went seriously awry. The small advance group did not even reach the shore, while the main force of 1,300 Cuban exiles was met by 25,000 Cuban troops with air and tank support. Overpowered as they were, the Cuban exiles were either killed or imprisoned, which reflected badly upon the U.S. Kennedy, who had approved the mission with the advice of his staff, wondered how the mission could go so wrong.
Both of these events were just the start of the Cold War, and they tested both the U.S. and the Soviet Union to see to what lengths each were willing to go to.