The Bay Of Pigs: The Rise Of Communism

The Cold War 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.

revealed to the World, the invasion may have been successful. If these 2 Intelligence platforms

The cold War was a stressful war and it was after World War II. The cold war abroad. The cold war was a fight against at home mirrored a growing concern with the soviet threat. In June 1950, the first military action of the cold war began when the soviet backed North Korean people’s army invaded its pro-western neighbor to the south. Many American officials feared this was the first step in a communist campaign to take over the world and deemed. Truman sent the American military into Korea, but the war dragged to a stalemate and ended in 1953. In early 1960s, President Kennedy faced a number of troubling situations in his own hemisphere. The Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.

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.

The Bay of Pigs invasion has come to be known as the perfect failure in American history. The invasion only lasted two days but the effects of the invasion lasted for decades. One of the most significant consequences of the Bay of Pigs was the thirteen day standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States over the installation of nuclear armed Soviet missiles on Cuba a year after the Bay of Pigs. The standoff, known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, is the closest the world has come to nuclear war. The causes and the responsibility for the Cuban Missile Crisis are many. Was the Bay of Pigs just another event in a timeline that was destined for the Cuban Missile Crisis or did the Bay of Pigs cause the Cuban Missile Crisis? A historical analysis of the events leading up to the Bay of Pigs as well as the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs will substantiate the fact that the Bay of Pigs was a substantial critical event causing the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Bay of Pigs “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

Kennedy defeated Nixon and became President of the United States. It was also during this time that the Soviet Union announced that it would support “wars of national liberation”. Kennedy took this announcement as a challenge. This led to the battle on Cuba’s Bay of Pigs, where a force of 1,400 was crushed by Castro’s troops. After this incident the relations between the U.S and the Soviets was deteriorating. “A perilous Cold War confrontation came next, in October 1962” (Henretta et al., 2015, p. 756). On October 22, the U.S spotted Soviet built missile bases in Cuba. The United States was concerned that this meant war, however, in on October 25, the ships carrying the Soviet missiles turned back. While Khrushchev promised to dismantle the

In 1959 the Cuban Revolution culminated with Fidel Castro’s overthrow of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Although wary of Castro’s communist philosophy, the U.S. initially accepted his governance. But unease turned to turmoil: “As Castro’s regime increased trade with the Soviet Union, nationalized U.S.-owned properties, and hiked taxes on American imports, the United States responded with escalating economic retaliation,” (CFR, 2015). Eisenhower cuts Cuban sugar imports and bans all U.S. exports with the exception of food and medicine. Soon after president elect John F. Kennedy takes office January 20, 1961. He leads the botched April 17, 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion intended to topple Castro, and imposes a complete economic embargo against Cuba on February 7, 1962 involving restricted travel and banned trade, with the exception of food and medicine. By October 1962 tension culminated with the Cuban Nuclear Crisis. Kennedy invoked a naval blockade of Cuba after a U.S. spy plane identifies Soviet missile sites. After intense negotiations between Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Kennedy the Soviet Union agreed to remove its missiles from the island in exchange for the U.S. not invading Cuba and removing missiles from Turkey. Afterwards tensions continued with mass Cuban immigration to the U.S., passage of the March 1996 Helms Burton Act after two U.S. planes, piloted by Cuban American exiles, were shot down and the arrest of the Cuban Five, Cuban spies sent to Florida by Castro’s government to spy on Cuban

Before Kennedy got elected as president, Nikita Khrushchev, who was the leader of the Soviet Union, had communicated with Kennedy and mentioned to him that Soviet ships were taking only defensive weapons and farming equipment to Cuba. At the time, Soviet missiles and military equipment were actually transported. This lie

Intro The Bay of Pigs invasion is historical event of a failed us invasion of Cuba. The failure was due to overconfidence, mismanagement, and lack of secrecy by the US. President Kennedy and the CIA hold the blame not only embarrassing the US but also increasing tensions between

While relations with United States and Cuba were dwindling, Castro and Khrushchev, the Russian Leader at the time were growing a tighter bond. Many event’s occurred during Castro's leadership position including the Bay of Pigs Invasion. This was when the United States was trying to rise up and overthrow Castro. The CIAs made it seem like a great idea to Kennedy, president at the time, and it lead to Cuba losing many men, and also led to the Cuban Missile

Upon his release, Castro went to Mexico where he spent the next year organizing the "26th of July Movement", which was based on the date of the failed Santiago de Cuba barracks attack. On December 2, 1956, Castro and the rest his fellow rebels of the 26th of July Movement

“When Fidel Castro’s revolutionary July 26 Movement assumed power in Cuba in 1959, it marked the end of U.S. political and economic dominance over the island. Ever since the late nineteenth century, the United States, supported by loyal Cuban politicians, had enjoyed control over all Cuba’s commerce and industry. Castro, however, refused to adhere to U.S. interests, and as a result, the United States attempted to overthrow Castro’s government.” (Salem Press Encyclopedia). The Cuban Missile Crisis was as a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet ballistic missiles deployed in Cuba. The tension between the two countries begins after the United States failed to overthrow the Cuban regime in Cuba in an invasion called the Bay of Pigs. Skeptical of the United States planning another invasion of Cuba, the Soviet Union leader, Nikita Khrushchev settled a classified agreement with the Cuban premier Fidel Castro to place nuclear missiles in Cuba to prevent any future intrusion attempt. When rumors spread

The Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis began on the 14th of October 1962 when an American U2 spy plane flying over Cuba discovered Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads. President Kennedy set up a small group of

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