The Kennedy Administration: 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.

B. Support for #3: President Kennedy was most well-known for the Cuban Missile Crisis which began on October 14, 1962 and ended peacefully on October 28, 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest America had ever come to nuclear war (Reeves). President Kennedy wanted to put an end to racial discrimination.

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.

President Kennedy was forced to face the civil rights as a persuasive cause. He was for racial equality, but did little to support it. President Kennedy felt that the Freedom Riders were a nuisance and he

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.

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.

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.

The Kennedy Administration adverted many catastrophes during its shortened term using its leader's young mind and ability to negotiate with their peers. The Cold War tested the young John F. Kennedy because he had to stay composed to his country yet control the melt down his administration had just been put through with The Bay of Pigs Invasion. Kennedy had always tried to search for ways to avoid any military actions and he found the correct ways to use language rather than weapons to get his point across to Soviet Russia that he would not tolerate any missiles so close to his country. The Cold War challenged the President even further with the Soviets advances into Cuba to plant new missiles. The Cuban Missile Crisis is etched into

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

Kennedy became the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic to hold that office. He was born into one of America’s wealthiest families and parlayed an elite education and a reputation as a military hero into a successful run for Congress in 1946 and for the Senate in 1952. As president, Kennedy confronted mounting Cold War tensions in Cuba, Vietnam and elsewhere. He also led a renewed drive for public service and eventually provided federal support for the growing civil rights movements. Meanwhile, Fidel Castro was looking for a way to defend his nation from an attack by the U.S. After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, he was convinced another attack was inevitable.

While radio listeners “call the debate a tie or lean to the side of Nixon, TV views overwhelmingly took to Kennedy’s charming demeanor” which would ultimately aid in his ascent to the White House through a steady rise in public opinion. Yet another example of Kennedy’s appeal to the public eye was his appeal the civil rights issue afflicting the nation at the time. Weeks prior to the general election, JFK’s brother and campaign manager Robert F. Kennedy secured the release of known civil rights activist, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Later that same day, MLK Jr. expressed his gratitude and thanks to the Kennedy administration, placing JFK on an elevated pedestal in the otherwise lightly voiced area of civil rights. It was the release of MLK Jr. that gave Kennedy a foothold in the minority community, and he used this foothold to garner support to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, illustrating his leadership through “policy responsiveness”. 3 Kennedy did have his missteps however, most notably during the ‘Bay of Pigs’ invasion of 1961. The failed invasion and overthrow of

In 1960, John F. Kennedy became the President of the United States. Kennedy was a young man with a vision and he wanted to forge a New Frontier for the American people. During Kennedy’s time as President there were many issues that arose, such as, the construction of the Berlin Wall, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Civil Rights Act, and the war in Vietnam. These issues merely started in the early sixties and continued throughout parts of the seventies. Not only did these issues affect President Kennedy but they also affected President Johnson and President Nixon.

Kennedy was the president at the time of the Civil Rights movement. He was reluctant (quality adj) to push civil rights because (beca cl) he wanted to get re-elected. The reason was because of the whites, who (w-w cl) were the only people who could vote at the time. (5)Although (cl) he wanted to get re-elected he still sent 400 marshals to protect freedom riders from being harassed. Freedom riders are people who challenged (sv) racial laws in the American South in the 1960’s. At the school campus, he even mobilized the National Guard to protect black students. This is how John F. Kennedy respectively (ly adv) helped the blacks gain

The primary initiative involved a 1961 CIA backed attempted large scale operation titled the Bay of Pigs invasion, that involved an the landing of 1,400 Cuban Guerilla exiles which subsequently failed. The CIA then oped for a more covert, assassination route and contacted their sources within the Mafia. The plan was to have Fidel Castro ingest a poison capsule through the help of old Mafia contacts in Cuba who opposed Fidel. Their man for the job was the prominent Chicago and Vegas Mob Boss Handsome Johnny Roselli; however, after failed attempts in both late 1961 and 1962 the program was shut down and the Mafia assets were put on notice. (Gangsterismo: The United States, Cuba, and the Mafia: 1933 to 1966, Chapter 2, Location 4871). The reasoning behind this is because the CIA began to fear that Roselli and other associates were gathering information to expose the American Government for working with criminals, using that as future information blackmail.

Fidel Castro had contrive to outlast not only the Bay of Pigs but also multiple later assassination attempts. Diem and Trujillo were not so fortunate. And President Kennedy, who made a lot of Cuban enemies after the botched Bay of Pigs operations, had also submit to an assassin’s bullet. This was a legacy that might well seize the heed of one of Kennedy’s successors.