The Bay Of Pigs Invasion Into Cuba

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

Kennedy did his best to avoid an invasion of Cuba, like the CIA’s failed Bay of Pigs invasion which occurred only 1 year earlier and attempted to take over the Castro-led government. Because of Kennedy’s strong dislike for any sort of military action, he encouraged the members of the Executive Committee to devise different routes of handling the Crisis in Cuba. While Kennedy did not want to take action, he understood that he needed to protect the U.S. Several air units became positioned on the southern coast of the United States, to remain for 12 months unless changed (“PENTAGON LISTS AIR UNITS CALLED: Action Lasts for 12 Months Unless It Is Changed” 17). The President exchanged letters with Premier Khrushchev, usually daily, and often several pages in length (Kennedy 1). These letters between the two leaders ultimately determined the solution to the Crisis in Cuba, and could have even strengthened the diplomatic ties between the two countries (Finney 1). When the Executive Committee realized how well the daily letters between the American president and Khrushchev were going, they chose to not take drastic actions against Cuba, but to instead take a more calm role and negotiate with the Soviet Union. This more peaceful decision ended up being the best decision to make, and earned Kennedy a lot of respect and praise for his actions (“CAPITAL PRAISES KENNEDY'S STAND: Some Congressmen Caution on Khrushchev

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.

History: The Bay of the Pigs was a Cuban government attack to overthrow Fidel Castro, the Prime Minister at the time. It was a CIA backed and was executed under the administration of John F. Kennedy. With Castro being a communist, the Kennedy and Eisenhower administrations tried their best to remove him. Their opportunity to overthrow Castro came in the form of the Cuban exiles, who under Castro’s rule, fled from the island ultimately losing their investments and properties. This fact made it easier to convince the Cuban exiles to participate in the invasion against Castro’s government. US ships sailed on the 13th of April and chose to land on “Bahía de los Cochinos” which became the attacks downfall. The area was barely

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

John F. Kennedy also struggled with the Bay of Pigs invasion. The failed Bay of Pigs invasion was an attempt to incite the popular rise

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.

On the one hand, there was tension internationally with soviet Russia. As their manifesto spread, tensions grew higher. This was a huge topic of interest during the 1960 presidential election. Both Nixon and Kennedy understood the importance of preventing the spread of communism, and domestic tranquility. Shortly after Kennedy won the election, tensions peaked. As communism spread in nearby Cuba, Kennedy decided to try and slow the spread by sending armed Cubans in to the country to overthrow the new regime. The troops surrendered almost as soon as they had landed. This disaster became known as the “Bay of Pigs.” Fueled by this moral victory, the Soviets attempted to move nuclear missiles to Cuba. This attempt was met by a blockade from the United States Navy. This “Cuban Missile Crisis” was the peak of the international tension.

The aftermaths of the CIA’s failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, an operation, set in motion by the previous Dwight Eisenhower Administration, were now laid down on Kennedy. The failed operation was a major backslide for the CIA. "The Bay of Pigs fiasco broke the dike," said one report at the time and now senior military leaders wanted to take matters in their own hands. President Kennedy’s administration was accused of being soft on Fidel Castro, a then-new communist leader, who took powers during the 1959 Cuban revolution. With the Cold War

Before John F. Kennedy moved into the White House, President Eisenhower approved the CIA’s plan to overthrow Castro. John F. Kennedy was informed on the plan during his campaign, but recently after he was briefed on the new information, the CIA abandoned the plan. Even though Eisenhower approved of the 13 million plan, John F. Kennedy was unaware of the restrictions and requirements Eisenhower agreed on. Once elected, Kennedy was briefed in the details and plan for the invasion, already feeling the stress and pressure. If the plan for the invasion did not change so much without Kennedy’s knowledge, the process of the invasion may have been successful. Kennedy’s lack of experience with invasions made the plan get on a bad start. With his suggestion

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

“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

JFK was not willing to invest a lot of resources and take huge risk of sending a lot of U.S. troops into Castro homeland because the small commando units kept getting caught. The CIA urged Kennedy to send in more troops but he was worried about Moscow’s reaction to the attack and called off the strip in Cuba, thereby giving the invasion the possible cover of being a covert act by Cuban defectors. Kennedy rejected the plea, believing that the invasion did not justify the risk of a Soviet countermove in West Berlin. He thought a confrontation could trigger a nuclear war between them (Matthew, 1996, p. 197).

Castro intended on helping Cuba’s high poverty, but Castro did not turn Cuba into a democracy like he said he would (“Cuban missile Crisis”2). In 1960 the soviet premier attempted to convince Castro to become communist, soon after this castro became communist, probably influenced by the soviet premier (“Cuban missile Crisis”3). A new american president, that could probably change the war, was coming into office around this time, President Kennedy. The new president would take on the problem of this new cuban leader (International Encyclopedia of the… 1). Before him, Eisenhower trained about 1,500 Cuban Exiles in secret to try to take over Cuba, Kennedy allowed this to go on. On april 17, the exils attempted to invade Cuba(“Cuban missile Crisis”3). Since Castro had found out about the invasion, he was ready and defeated the the incoming force easily(“Cuban missile Crisis”3-4). The failed invasion seemed to help the Cuban opinion of Castro. He was now an obvious threat and so the U.S. decided to start operation Mongoose. Operation Mongoose was a secret operation to get rid of Castro, it was an operation where the U.S. would try to sabotage Cuba, but Operation Mongoose never ended up happening. The U.S.S.R. did not want to lose Cuba so they decided to secretly send weapons into Cuba, including nuclear weapons (“Cuban missile Crisis”4). These arm shipments would lead to one of the