Smathers had a chance encounter with Fidel Castro in April 1948. Smathers was attending the Pan-American Conference in Bogota, Colombia, and Castro was participating in the opposition Pan-American Students Conference. Smathers would later claim that Castro admitted to Communist leanings at their encounter. As such, Smathers became an early opponent against Fidel Castro and an early advocate of an economic and arms embargo of Cuba. Smathers described the Bay of Pigs fiasco as "an ill-conceived, ill-planned deal" that lacked the planning and firepower to succeed. He was the only Senator with Kennedy the night the President announced the U.S. Naval embargo of Cuba during the Missile Crisis of October 1962 – the historic moment when the global superpowers came closest to nuclear war. Senator Smathers amended the Immigration Act to provide permanent visas for Cubans fleeing Communist Cuba, as well as efforts to provide federal assistance in food, education, housing and work for Cuban refugees. He worked closely with the Catholic Welfare Bureau and State Department officials to support Operation Pedro Pan which brought over 14,000 Cuban children to America. Alliance for Progress Smathers received partial credit for much of Kennedy's Alliance for Progress which incorporated Smathers recommendations of the need for the U.S to aid Latin America in sanitation, infrastructure, education, increased trade and economic assistance, including the Inter-American Bank which Smathers helped pass. President Kennedy lauded Smathers for being "one of the first Americans to recognize the importance of Latin America". Relationship with JFK Both Smathers and Kennedy entered Congress the same year. They became fast friends, which lasted until Kennedy's assassination. At the wedding of Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier, Smathers was chosen by the Kennedys to speak on behalf of Jack Kennedy at his wedding rehearsal dinner. In 1960, Jack Kennedy asked Smathers to give him a nominating speech to the Democratic Convention and to manage the Kennedy-Johnson campaign in the South. Presidential politics In 1960, to keep the Florida Democratic Party united, Smathers agreed to run as a "Favorite Son". Winning the Democratic Presidential Primary, Smathers became the first Floridian popularly elected to represent Florida as a presidential candidate at a national convention. In 1968, Floridians again nominated Smathers as their Favorite Son candidate for president. Retirement from politics After leaving the Senate in 1969, Smathers was divorced from his first wife and married Carolyn Hyder. He achieved considerable success as a lobbyist and businessman. Smathers