The Failure Of The Bay Of Pigs Invasion

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.

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

“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

To begin with, if I were president during the Bay of Pigs invasion, I would have made the major militaries of America (Navy, Marines, etc.) go along with the Cuban exiles. In addition to this, I would hire a trustable friend, who would be great at thoroughly planning attacks, to be my CIA leader. Training the Cuban exiles would be a key goal and I would take the time, considering that they would be most of the army. More bombers, troops, and ammunition from the U.S. military would go for ultimate success. If the first army is defeated, I would charge with another and another and it will keep going on until either I ran out of troops or claim victory.  Unlike Kennedy, I would follow through with the plan and show that, as president, I would

The United States and Cuba have struggled to find common ground in regards to foreign policy over the past few decades. In the Cold War, Fidel Castro, who would later become the dictator of Cuba took control of Havana and with his revolutionaries overthrew Fulgencio Batista. The United States disagreed with the communist ideology of Castro, but let him rule anyway. The United States took economic issue only after Cuba began increasing trade with the communist Soviet Union. What began as a reducing sugar imports from Cuba soon became a ban on almost of the products Cuba was exporting. The Bay of Pigs invasion, where the United States tried to oust Fidel Castro with help from the Central Intelligence Agency, was unsuccessful and deepened the rift between these two countries. Cuba retaliated by granting permission to the Soviet Union to construct a missile base on Cuba. The United States then threatened to invade Cuba. This famous Cuban Missile Crisis was eventually averted. More importantly, it effectively demonstrates the mistrust between the United States and Cuba.

During the same time as Cuba and the Soviet Union's relationship, the significant events of the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis brought in the United States, Cuba, and Soviet Union into conflict. John F. Kennedy believed that Castro was becoming a threat and that he would become to powerful. So on April 16, 1961, the CIA launched the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Over 2,000 "Anti- Castrolies" stormed up the Bay of Pigs in Southern Cuba. In fact, most of the Anti- Castrolies were Cuban exiles who disagreed with Castro's ideas for Cuba. For some months prior, the CIA had gathered these people to train for an assassination attempt on Castro. This group was given the codename "Brigade 2506," and in less then 24-72 hours 100 were dead and 1,189

Among the multiple steps taken by the CIA to remove Castro, a squad of approximately 1,400 Cuban exiles were hired to create a large-scale invasion on the island, with the help of its own air force. The assumed result of such actions would trigger mass rising to overthrow Castro's regime. Despite this, Eisenhower, who had been Supreme Allied Commander at D-Day, recognised the risks it posed.

An infamous cold war blunder. A failed invasion. It is also considered as one of John F Kennedy’s worst foreign policy failures after he took office. All these facts are known as The Bay of Pigs Invasion. In 1959, the Cuban dictator Batista was overthrown by Fidel Castro. Castro and the Cubans were fed up with the American Corporations owning over half of Cuba’s sugar plantation and a majority of their cattle. He wanted to reduce the American influence on the island. In 1960, Castro added to that anger by established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. To answer back, U.S. responded by prohibiting the importation of Cuban Sugar and they supported Batista because he had done so much for them. After that in 1961, the relation between

The Cuban revolution has affected US relation in and with Latin America since 1959 because first Marxist social reform had emerged from mountain hideouts to overthrow the oppressive government of Fulgencio Batista a close ally of American business. Then, Fidel Castro confiscated $1 billion worth of American property, which made the United Stated brake diplomatic relation. To add in, it side crossed Latin America and try to make it communist. Also, many Latin American countries had suffered civil war, and Latin America saw a rise of rural guerrilla conflict and urban terrorism. Lastly, Fidel Castro would not come out of the closet as a communist until later which made both US and Latin America

Castro’s involvement with the foreign and domestic politics during the early Cold War period greatly influenced the outcome of the Cuban Revolution. Without the actions taken by foreign powers like the United States and Russia, some events on the domestic front may have had very different results. It is important to understand how every nation’s foreign policies can influence more than just one other nation, and this was especially true for Cuba. It was this mix and chain of events which produced the communist Cuba that we are familiar with today.

Another consequence of the United States withdrawing her hand from barring the totalitarian grip of Communism was the 1950s insurgency of Communist Fidel Castro in Cuba. In 1959, after years of conflicts with the incumbent

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

Economic antagonism from the United States caused Castro to nationalize all American property. The U.S. has tried various schemes to assassinate Fidel Castro and continues to economically isolate Cuba. The CIA tried to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs to remove him from power but the Cubans fought off the US. After the Bay of Pigs, Cuba because closely aligned with the Soviet Union. The Soviets provide Cuba with large amounts of sugar and supplies. They also assisted in supplying Cuba with economic and military aid. The money from the Soviet Union allowed Castro to create many of his social programs such as his war on illiteracy and free universal health care. Unfortunetly the alliance between Cuba and the USSR created even more friction between Cuba and the US.

Throughout 1961, relations between the US, the USSR, and Cuba had become progressively more strained, beginning in July with the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. In 1959, communist revolutionary Fidel Castro had ousted the former dictator of Cuba, Fulgencio Batista. Castro’s growing alliance with the Soviet Union alarmed