Bay of Pigs: America’s biggest blunder

Name
History 102
Professor W
July 13, 2014

It’s no surprise that the Bay of Pigs is named as one of America’s worst battles in History. It is not considered one of the worst battles because America was simply overpowered either. The U.S. mistakenly sent over a thousand inexperienced men into a hostile area with very little equipment, no support, and no element of surprise. The battle was poorly thought out and badly executed from the planning stages through the execution. In 1959 communist Fidel Castro led an armed group of rebels in the successful overtaking of U.S. backed Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista. (John F Kennedy, n.d.) After assuming power, Castro first tried convincing everyone he was not communist. He had initially turned towards the U.S. looking for help, but was turned away. He then turned toward the Soviet Union and received $100 million in aid. (Wilbanks, 2014) The U.S. became uncomfortable with Castro’s bond with Russia and started boycotting Cuba. This caused Castro to attack U.S. companies in Cuba and form an even closer relationship with Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev. Fearing the rise of communism in Cuba and the close relationship with the Soviet Union, President Eisenhower turned to the CIA to develop a plan to overthrow Fidel Castro. President Eisenhower’s CIA created the original plan of recruiting Cuban exiles and training them to lead a revolt in Cuba. The revolt was to be led by Cuban exile José Miró Cardona a former member of Castro’s government. (John F Kennedy, n.d.) The plan was to send a small group into Cuba with the idea that Cuban nationals would join the revolt. In 1960, training camps were set up in Guatemala. These camps were set up so far away because the U.S. did not want anyone to know that it was backing the revolt. To further disguise its involvement the U.S. government had hired civilians through the National Guard to train the exiles. Secrecy also meant that the U.S. could only contribute a small amount of gear and only a few planes. Hiding the U.S. backed revolt proved to be impossible as many of the recruits in training were exiles living in Miami. Recruits shared information with friends and family who in turn shared the information with loved ones in Cuba. This led to both Fidel Castro and Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev receiving news of the training camps well before the battle took place. In 1961 John F Kennedy took over the presidency and was introduced to Eisenhower’s plan through the CIA. In the beginning Kennedy, his military leaders, and his cabinet were skeptical that the plan would work because they were relying on a small number of lightly armored exiles to carry out the attack. (History, 2014) On top of that, Cuba had already approached the United Nations with proof of the US backed training. The secret of a U.S. backing and the element of surprise were already compromised. The CIA who was headed by Allen W. Dulles however, was able to convince the President that the plan would work. (Wilbanks, 2014) Despite the warnings from his advisors, President Kennedy approved the plan. On April 15th 1961, the doomed battle began. The first wave of the attack was to send bombers over Cuba to take out their air support. The problem was that the bombers were old World War II bombers that would go on to miss a majority of their targets, thus causing little damage to Cuba’s air force. (John F Kennedy, n.d.) Photos were quickly released from the attack that exposed U.S. involvement. One such photo that was released was of exile leader Cardona posing by a poorly painted bomber. It was clear that the bombers were painted to look like Cuban planes to try to hide U.S. involvement. (John F Kennedy, n.d.) Two days after the unsuccessful attacks from the bombers, the 1,500 trained Cuban exiles (otherwise known as Brigade 2506) made their attack. The exiles were boated to the Bay of Pigs by American boats. This area was chosen because it was well hidden and would protect the U.S. boats from being detected. The problem with this area however, was that it was 80 miles from any kind of protection for the men. The exiles were met with almost immediate resistance from Cuban forces. To make matters worse the local nationals did not join the revolt as the CIA had planned. It was discovered that the Cuban nationals actually supported Castro. Cuba’s air support went after the support boats and sank four of them. One was of them was a command-and-control ship, one was a troop transport, and two were carrying supplies and armor for the exiles. (Wilbanks, 2014) The air support consisted of old B-26 bombers that were provided by the U.S., these were slower than the Cuban planes causing 10 of the 12 to be shot down. Kennedy’s advisors suggested halting any further assistance to the rebels. With the lack of supplies and air support, Castro’s forces easily overtook the exiles. By the end, 114 exiles were killed and 1,189 were captured. The men who were captured were tried and sentenced to prison. They stayed there for 20 months while President Kennedy tried to negotiate their freedom. He had to ask drug companies and baby food manufacturers for donations to send to Cuba. In the end, he was able to get $53 million of donations in baby food and medicine in exchange for the release of the exiled prisoners. (John F. Kennedy, N.D.) The battle at the Bay of Pigs will always be known as one of the worse battles in American history. Not just for the battle itself, but for all of the poor planning and execution as well. Using poorly trained Cuban exiles compromised the whole mission along with the U.S. donating minimum supplies and old slow planes providing inadequate support to the troops, and trying to hide U.S. support by deceiving everyone brought a lot of distrust from other countries. In the end 114 people lost their lives, the U.S. greatly increased tensions with the Soviet Union, and the U.S. will always be well known for the embarrassing battle at the Bay of Pigs.

Bibliography
History. (2014). Apr 17, 1961: The Bay of Pigs invasion begins. Retrieved from http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Bay-of-Pigs.aspx.
John F. Kennedy. (n.d.) The Bay of Pigs. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-bay-of-pigs-invasion-begins.
Willbanks, James H. (2014). Bay of Pigs Invasion: Cold War. In World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. Retrieved July 12, 2014, from http://worldatwar2.abc-clio.com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/.