Essay on Charlie Higson and Relation with the 1960s

The Bay of Pigs was a failed invasion by the United States to overthrow the communist government in Cuba run by the infamous Fidel Castro. The CIA-operated campaign attempted to use Cuban exiles as a Guerilla army in hopes of conducting a secret invasion. The objective was to remove the Cuban leader and establish a non-communist government that would benefit the United States. President John F. Kennedy, Commander in Chief during this time, wanted to prove to China, Russia, and even pessimistic Americans that he was determined to win the Cold War. Unfortunately, the campaign was extremely underprepared, which led to a disastrous outcome with Castro’s troops having the aggressors pinned on the beach under heavy fire. Soon after, the exiles surrendered in less than a single day of fighting, making the assault widely known as the CIA’s “perfect failure”. This topic was selected because the Cold War era intrigues me greatly; there is an abundance of covert operations, heightened tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as technological competitions such as the space race. The Bay of Pigs ties into all of this, which led to the Cuban missile crisis, causing one of the closest calls in history in regards to nuclear war. The information found for this paper is from sources including the History Chanel website, the JFK Library, the CIA website, and the United States History website.

People on both sides wondered if this would cause World War III. On October 22, 1962, President Kennedy appeared on national television to speak about the crisis; the people need to know what was going on directly (Edwards, 9). President Kennedy said the missiles stationed in Cuba could strike Washington, DC, or the Panama Canal. They could also strike Cape Canaveral, Florida, or Mexico City; nowhere in the US was safe. He explicated that he warned Cuba not to strike any American cities; this meant cities in Central American and South America, too (Edwards, 9). President Kennedy also shared with the American people his plan of surrounding Cuba with the US Navy. Now, it was just a matter a

Imagine living your life in the US as a normal Cuban exile, then you get pulled away from your family and friends to go fight for the US against the culture you grew up with? How would you feel being captured and beat to the point you really don’t want to be there anymore? During the 1900s, the Cold War was a war of words between the US and the USSR. During the Cold War, the Bay of Pigs invasion happened in which the US trained Cuban exiles to land in Cuba and take over Cuba from the leading dictator, Fidel Castro. In this essay, I will write about one event in the Cold War- The Bay of Pigs: the CIA and the training of the Cuban exiles, the invasion, and the aftermath.

about Cuba: the Castro brothers, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The

Following World War II, Cuba experienced a communist revolution with the takeover of Fidel Castro. To make matters worse, America discovered the soviets had been supplying cuba with missiles. This meant that the USSR could bomb the US with nuclear power at any given moment. Document D illustrates the danger as it shows that the missiles range all the way from New York and Washington D.C. to Houston and Miami. The US proceeded cautiously by initiating a quarantine which stopped the flow of soviet ships to Cuba. This hindered the process and allowed the U.S. to eliminate a chance of communistic

tried to attack, they used a quarantine line, and they faced missiles toward Turkey. The United States tried to attack Cuba called the Bay of Pigs. The U.S. knew that communism was spreading in that country by, Fidel Castro. This attack soon failed. Leaders of America were very disappointed at this action and we're ready to fight back again anytime. After this unsuccessful attack, the Soviets were secretly shipping in supplies and weapons to Cuba. Soon, the United States found out. The Americans decided to put a quarantine line around Cuba. The quarantine line meant that any ships that were sending offensive supplies to Cuba were going to be destroyed. That line sent a message to the Soviets, and many of the ships did not go in that area anymore. The Soviets and Cuba, shortly afterwards, started to face Nuclear missiles towards the United States. The U.S. then faced Nuclear missiles at Turkey. After moments of waiting, the Soviets removed their missiles and so did the United States. Everything was removed and nothing happened in this crisis (Doc

One of the most tragic murders of American history happened in 1963, when John F. Kennedy, then president of the United-States of America, was brutally shot when while in Dallas for a visit. Indeed, during the cold war, there were two principal enemies: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R) and the United States of America (U.S.A). The U.S.A were capitalists while the U.S.S.R were communists. Both believed that their ideology was the best and they wanted to be the most powerful country in the world. However, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was not the only enemy from the United States of America, Cuba was also a big threat for them. Thus, the United States decided to spy on Cuba to gather information and eventually, attack

After Fidel Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista on July 26, 1959, he adopted a communist platform and instituted agrarian land reform programs to push the U.S. out of Cuba. President John F. Kennedy was alarmed that communism was close to the U.S. shores and was worried that Castro would spread his communist ideology throughout Latin America. Kennedy implemented the Bay of Pigs invasion on April 17, 1961, which was a plan to depose Castro and end the communist government in Cuba, but failed because Castro defeated the Guatemalan and Nicaraguan forces trained by the U.S.. The failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion exemplifies the failure of the containment policies in the 1960s because Cuba remained a communist country, and therefore shows that the U.S. was unsuccessful in curbing the spread of communism that George Kennan advocated for in his Long Telegram. Kennedy was aware that Castro was trying to spread the Domino Theory, which was the spread of communist ideology into neighbouring countries, so he established the Peace Corp and the Alliance for Progress in March 1961. These organizations were used to send aid to Latin American countries through economic development, which was supposed to reduce the attraction to communism. However, these organizations were a failure in Latin American countries like the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Chile because they turned to Castro’s communist ideology and resisted U.S. land reforms and

The failed invasion of the Bay of Pigs in April 1962 ultimately led to the crisis. After Castro obtained power of the Caribbean island in 1959 Kennedy’s advisors told the president that Castro was no real threat. However Kennedy wanted to show that he was intent on winning the cold war and he adopted the plan for the invasion from former president Eisenhower. The invasion was to ship 1400 Cuban exiles to the Bay of Pigs on the south side of the island however world war two era aircraft painted with Cuban markings failed to destroy Castro’s air power.

It all began On April 17, 1961, about 1400 Cubans were launched at what became to be known as the invasion of Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. It lasted two days from April 17, 1961, to April 19, 1961. It became one of United States biggest screw-ups and failed operations. Causing the death of 114 Americans and over 1,100 were taken prisoner each was sentenced to 30 years in prison (“History.com”). After twenty months of negotiation, most of the prisoners were released in exchange for $53 million in food and medicine (. This event gave Fidel Castro a means to claim there was a threat from the USA while in reality the US barely supported the invasion.

“First, I want to say that there will not be, under any conditions, an intervention in Cuba by the United States Armed Forces. This government will do everything it possibly can, I think it can meet its responsibilities, to make sure that there are no Americans involved in any actions inside Cuba… The basic issue in Cuba is not one between the United States and Cuba. It is between the Cubans themselves.” These words were spoken by President John F. Kennedy at a press conference on April 12, 1961, just five days before the Bay of Pigs invasion took place. Little did the American public know that in five short days, the United States would support an attempted invasion on the Cuban shore—unsuccessfully. The $46

The turmoil brewing in Cuba began in the 1950s, prior to the Kennedy presidency. Fidel Castro staged a coup d’etat in Cuba, overthrowing Fulgencio Batista from power and beginning the Cuban Revolution. With Batista, the United States had a friendly and amicable relationship, but with Castro, the United States was immediately turned away for a stronger relationship with communist Soviet Union. This new relationship Cuba developed led to the United States formulating a plan known as the Bay of Pigs.

A number of advisors told the new president JFK that Castro was no real threat to America but JFK thought that the invasion in Cuba would show the Russia, China and other anti-Americans that the president was thinking seriously about the cold war. Kennedy started to continue Eisenhower’s policy but had some doubts about its planning. He declared that instead of covert invasion the overt and direct invasion would be beneficial. However, the CIA didn’t agree with this plan and therefore the covert invasion took place. The first step of this attack was to destroy the air-force of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. However, the battle between Cuba and America didn’t remain the battle between two countries. Instead, it went ahead as the fight between two powerful leaders- John F. Kennedy and Fidel Castro. The authors- Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard beautifully depicted this battle in following

In order to understand the importance of the Cuban Missile Crisis in American history one must first understand the Cold War drama, Castro’s rise to power, and the American operations that set up the crisis. “The term Cold War refers

The year was 1961 as the United States started to plan an invasion of Cuba with undercover agents known as the Bay of Pigs. The Bay of Pigs was launched from Guatemala, the attack went wrong almost from the start. The soldiers landed at the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961 and were defeated within 2 days by Cuban armed forces under the direct command of Castro. Quickly the Castro regime quickly severed the country’s formerly strong ties with the United States by expropriating U.S. economic assets in Cuba and developing close links with the Soviet Union. Directly after the Bay of Pigs the US was quick to start planning for another operation, Operation Mongooss, but it was never fulfilled. Secondly March a U-2 spy plane started capturing images. In April 1961–October 1962, “Meanwhile, throughout the spring and summer of 1962, U.S. intelligence reports indicated expanded arms shipments from the Soviet Union to Cuba” FBI director John A. McCone. The Soviet Union began building missile sites in Cuba in 1962; Together with the earlier Berlin Blockade, the