Political Decisions: The Bay Of Pigs Invasion

The Cuban Revolution was touchy topic for the United States and Cuba. America’s alienation of Cuba didn’t help when communism from the USSR was brewing over the revolution. When the revolution gained Castro as its leader, the worry and hatred from the United States was unbearable, especially when the Soviet Union landed in Cuba to interest Castro in its aid. The US’s fear of communism, Fidel Castro, and aid from the Soviet Union was significant because it changed the US’s political role in Cuba during the Cuban Revolution.

The planning for the Bay of Pigs began under President Eisenhower’s administration. President Eisenhower approved the CIA’s Bay of Pigs plan to oust Fidel Castro and overthrow Cuba’s communist government on March 17, 1960. The planning and preparation continued throughout the rest of the year. On January 20, 1961, John F Kennedy became the President of the United States. He had learned of the Bay of Pigs plan months earlier, and now as President, after consulting with his advisors, also approved the CIA planned Bay of Pigs

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

CIA director Allen Dulles ensured to Kennedy that this was going to be the perfect invasion. On April 17, 1961, the invasion of Bay of Pigs had begun. The invasion was a total failure, since nobody in the island showed any interest of joining the coup against Castro. Castro's men captured 1189 prisoners and ransomed them for ten million dollars. It was the first major step for Kennedy during his administration, which gave him total humiliation. Later in his term, Kennedy refers to Bay of Pigs "Cuba was a hell of a time." This convinced Kennedy never to trust anyone ever again. Moreover, maybe perhaps, this was why he was successful during the Cuban missile crisis.

     At first Bush, Nixon, Cabel, and Hunt decided to just go ahead with the corporate/CIA planned invasion on Cuba. Just 2 hours before the invasion General Cabel called JFK and asked for permission to provide U.S. air cover for the CIA invasion. Kennedy said no.

One theory behind the Bay of Pigs Invasion failure was that the original plan from the Eisenhower administration was altered. Another of these mistakes was the belief that Cuban nationals shared the same animosity of Fidel Castro that Cuban exiles did. If the Central Intelligence Agency chose to look at all sides of the Cuban argument instead of only seeing the opinions of the Miami Cuban exiles then the design of the invasion strike would have been changed. Consequently, the Cuban exiles were angry with Fidel Castro for the downfall of President Bastia and wanted democracy. Furthermore, the Cuban population living within Cuba was agreeable with Fidel Castro’s plan of isolation. The Central Intelligence Agency did not consider that the Cuban citizens would want to keep Fidel Castro in power as President. “Castro had a sixty to seventy percent approval rating in Cuba,” stated Central Intelligence Agency hemisphere division chief Joseph C.

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

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 CIA initiated the training process by setting up training camps in Guatemala and trained "counter-revolutionary Cubans serving as the armed wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Front, known as Brigade 2506" (The Bay of Pigs Invasion and its Aftermath). Soon, by November the United States had prepared a small army to perform assault landing and guerilla warfare. If the invasion turned out to be a success a former member of Castro's government, José Miró Cardona, was going to take the presidential position of Cuba. However, the plan was already in trouble by October of 1960 when Castro found out about the guerilla training camps that were based in Guatemala. Once John F. Kennedy became president, one of his first decisions in office was authorizing the plan in February of 1961. Although Castro was aware of the United States' intentions, President Kennedy still put in effort to keep the U.S. support disguised. One of the ways he attempted to do this was by assigning The Bay of Pigs as the landing point. "The site was a remote swampy area on the southern coast of Cuba, where a night landing might bring a force ashore against little resistance and help to hide any United States involvement" (The Bay of Pigs). The down side to this was that the Bay of Pigs was 80 miles from refuge in Cuba's Escambray Mountains, giving us an excessive distance which would be a problem if we were faced with an

The Bay of Pigs invasion, has been a hotly debated topic since its occurrence in April of 1961. Many historians place blame on the shoulders of the President, whose administration carried out the plan, John F. Kennedy. However, others place blame on the President Dwight Eisenhower whose administration devised the plan. Some cite the failures in the planning committed by Kennedy, while others say the failure of the invasion lies on Eisenhower 's failure to give the planners guidelines. Although his administration did not plan the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, President Kennedy and his administration are to be blamed for the debacle, for they did not carry out the plans set forth by President Eisenhower and committed errors which led to failure.

in such a manner as to avoid any appearance of U.S. intervention.” The plan went on to describe four points: 1) the creation of a responsible and unified Cuban opposition to the Castro regime located outside of Cuba; 2) the development of a means for mass communication to the Cuban people as part of a powerful propaganda offensive; 3) the creation and development of a covert intelligence and action organization within Cuba which would respond to the orders and directions of the exile opposition; and 4) the development of a paramilitary force outside of Cuba for future guerrilla action.

Namely, Castro and his regime. President Dwight D. Eisenhower began preparations to do just that. In March of 1960, Eisenhower ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to concoct a plan to overthrow Castro. The CIA’s subsequent plan involved training, arming, and funding a group of “exiled counter-revolutionary Cubans” that became known as Brigade 2506. President Kennedy, elected the same year, concurred with former president Eisenhower that the Castro regime was a threat and gave the green light for the continuation of the CIA’s operation ("The Bay of

The Bay of Pigs invasion of April, 1961 is considered to be one of the unsuccessful covert military invasions of the 20th century. In 1959, the Cuban revolutionist Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista through an armed conflict that lasted nearly five and a half years. Castro and his comrades were Socialists and they believed a Communist social system would better suit their nee. In order to fulfill this agenda, the new Cuban government not only nationalized properties belonging to different religious organizations, but also permanently expelled many religious figures from the country, including the bishop. Following these events, in July of 1961, Fidel Castro merged the July 26 Movement, the People's Socialist Party, and the March 13 Revolutionary Directorate. This was the beginning of a socialist system in a country which was previously an ally to the United States.

On April 15, 1961 the Bay of Pigs invasion began to invade Cuba and remove Castro from the leadership. The unsuccessful invasion was stopped two days later. Now Castro needed the strong arm of the Soviets even more. With the Cold War arms race in effect, Castro knew that the Soviets could protect him from future invasions from the United States.