The Bay Of Pigs Case Study

The administration considered and carried out a number of operations against the Castro regime. A number of these operations have come to light due to the declassification of documents. A collection of such documents are housed at the National Security Archive at George Washington University. Kennedy probably did not approve of all of these operations. One ridiculous idea that was rejected outright was Operation Northwoods, a planned series of false-flag actions drawn up by the Joint Chief of Staff in 1962 that was meant to be a part of the larger Operation Mongoose (Lemnitzer, 1962, 5). The proposal called for the CIA to commit acts of terrorism in and out of the US. The terrorist acts were to be blamed on Cuba to create public support in the US. for a war against the island. The plan was drafted and signed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Lyman Lemnitzer and sent to Secretary of Defense McNamara (ibid.,

Very early in Kennedy’s presidency he had his first major conflict in foreign affairs in the Bay of Pigs, which ended in disaster. He was told of a secret plan

It seems that the United States has been one of the most dominant, if not the most dominant, countries in the world, since the Declaration of Independence. Yet, on Monday, April 17, 1961, our government experienced incredible criticism and extreme embarrassment when Fidel Castro, dictator of Cuba, instantly stopped an invasion on the Cuban beach known as the Bay of Pigs. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, his advisors, and many Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials, made the largest error of their political careers. Once the decision was made to invade Cuba, to end Castro and his Communist government, Kennedy and his administration were never looked at in the same light nor trusted again. Russian leader Nikita

On April 17, 1961, 1400 CIA-backed Cuban exiles launched a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. This invasion was called The Bay of Pigs Invasion. This invasion "Was intended to provoke popularity for an uprising against Fidel Castro, who had overthrown American-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista" (Web).The goal of the unfortunately failed invasion was the overthrow of Castro and the establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the United States. Before John F. Kennedy took office, he was informed of this plan by the CIA. Developed during the Eisenhower administration, the plan was to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their

The Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Challenger Disaster, and the U.S. failure to anticipate the attack on Pearl Harbor – all notable examples of how groupthink tends to plague groups with high cohesiveness (What is Groupthink, n.d.). Oxford Dictionaries defines groupthink as “the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility” (Groupthink, n.d.). With this in mind, it is no surprise that groupthink is going to be a major problem in an organization, such as the military, that values uniformity and a strict chain of command. There is a lot of research on groupthink and evidence of groupthink is apparent in nearly every social group, no matter the size. So, how does a junior officer in the military go about minimizing groupthink among his subordinates and peers without affecting values such as uniformity and chain of command? In order to minimize groupthink, you must minimize the symptoms by encouraging honesty, accountability, and differing opinions. This paper will demonstrate how a junior officer can combat groupthink within the decision making process, standard operating procedures, and the culture of the command.

This was a problem for Kennedy because Cuba was within a 90 mile radius from the United States, easy sticking distance. The United States had missiles in Turkey, which were in striking distance from the Soviet Union, which Khrushchev used as a weighing option when deciding to place missiles in Cuba. Kennedy saw the missiles that were being held in Cuba as almost an act of war from the Soviet Union. Khrushchev assured President Kennedy that the missiles were not an act of war, but yet only a defense for Cuba, who was feeling Having Soviet Union missiles this close to the mainland was a problem for the United States. Kennedy decided that the only way to stop the Soviet Union from fully equipping Cuba with enough missiles to destroy the United States, was to stop the missiles from getting to Cuba. To stop them Kennedy dispatched U.S. warships into the Atlantic, which was able to prevent the Soviet missile fleet from reaching Cuba. Unfortunately there were already missiles in Cuba from earlier fleets and they were

The Kennedy Doctrine, which was to “Respond flexibly to communist expansion, especially guerrilla warfare” (Roskin & Berry, 2010, p. 58), was executed in this history-making event to the letter. Kennedy could have, and had the power to cease the unfolding events with an all out air strike on the Soviet Union. Some say it is due to bureaucratic politics and the accessibility of information that was provided to the National Security Council by the CIA and air force that this did not occur. In responding flexibly to what The Soviet Union and Cuba were planning, America assessed the volatile situation, forethought possible outcomes and negated all their options albeit under a tight time constraint. America’s forces were mobilized and ready to strike, had word been given nuclear war was on the cards. Kennedy wanted to give The Soviet Union an out and put a halt to a possible war, rethink the situation and allow an alternative to occur. Due to this diplomacy, The Soviet Union entered into negotiations “the Kremlin offered a deal: no Soviet missiles in Cuba if Washington promised not to invade” (Roskin & Berry, 2010, p. 87). By using the flexible response tactic, Kennedy was

This secret operation was viewed as far less dangerous than a direct invasion by American troops.As the election of 1960 approached, the CIA had already made plans to overthrow Castro with the Cuban exiles. However, to the surprise of just about everyone, a young John F. Kennedy defeated favorite Richard Nixon by the slimmest of margins.Nonetheless, the invasion had to go on. The plan was to bomb Cuba's airfields to prevent the Cuban military from killing the invading exiles. However, two things went wrong in the invasion. First, the CIA underestimated the Cuban army, and second, the airstrips were not all taken out, allowing the Cuban airforce to retaliate.

The plan sent Americans into worse countries as volunteers to teach the people ways of advancing their own countries.In foreign problems, President Kennedy faced the continued problem of Communism and the threat of nuclear

First, the Bay of Pigs location was far from any assistance should it be required. Secondly, the air strikes that planned to hit Cuban air bases missed many of their targets, and the Cuban’s Air Force was still mission capable (JFKlibrary.org, 2017). Although President Kennedy assumed the Bay of Pigs would be a desolate landing point, it was not. The Cuban Exile Brigade immediately came under heavy fire. Additionally, because the Cuban Air Force was still mission capable they were able to stop the movement of exile troops and sink reinforcement ships. Not only did the plan fail because the Cuban Air Force was still complete, the weather played a vital role in stopping the success of the United States. “Bad weather hampered the ground force, which had to work with soggy equipment and insufficient ammunition” (JFKlibrary.org, 2017). Though President Kennedy had some foreign obstacles to overcome, his greatest legacy became what he did for the United

Unbeknownst to Kennedy at the time, the first actions binding himself to the future operation was during the campaign of 1960. ‘JFK had stressed the Eisenhower-Nixon administration’s failure to prevent Castro’s rise, and promised if elected to take bolder action to oust the Cuban leader.’ This tough on communism campaign rhetoric, though effective for the times, trapped Kennedy into having to deal with Castro as a top priority, and failure to do so associated the administration with weakness. The problem facing the candidate was the lack of information he possessed. ‘Although the CIA had no clear policy for briefing presidential candidates, briefers often omitted highly sensitive covert actions, signal intelligence, and Human intelligence

Like all presidents before and after, Kennedy also had failures. One of his biggest was the Bay of Pigs. Although during the Eisenhower administration, Kennedy was still briefed by the CIA before his inauguration, on the plan to train Cuban exiles for an invasion on their homeland. The main goal was to overthrow Castro and his establishment of a non-communist government that would be pleasant with the U.S. The original plan was to have two secret air strikes to launch a surprise attack. And

If Kennedy had utilized a system of reverse planning and determined the desired end state for U.S. support of Vietnam, then determined intermediate actions and goals to achieve that end state I think it's highly likely we could have seen a significantly different history unfold in Vietnam. Flying by the seat of his pants and making day to day decisions was quite possibly the most haphazard option the

“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

Cuban exiles were trained to land on the south shore of Cuba and raise the Cuban population in an overthrow of his regime, but the plan went horribly wrong (Bay of Pigs). Not only did the bombers meant to cripple the Cuban air force miss many of their targets, but also the Cuban population then failed to insurrect against their government. Castro, having already garnered intelligence of the exiles’ training camps years earlier, ordered troops to advance on the exiles at the beach, and Kennedy made the decision to cancel air support in an attempt to disguise