Kennedy permitted a band of Cuban exiles, already armed and trained to invade their homeland. In April 1961 the"Bay of Pigs" invasion ended in failure. It has been suggested that this led the Soviet Union to conclude that Kennedy was a weak leader, and that they could get away with installing nuclear weapons on Cuba 1962. The subsequent Cuban missile crisis did much to restore Kennedy's reputation, as Soviet Communist Party leader Khrushchev withdrew the missiles after a 13-day stand-off that seemed to bring the world to the brink of nuclear war