...discussion, what will be reviewed over is the details on the Bay of Pigs Invasion. What is the Bay of Pigs? The Bay of Pigs was actually not a war but rather an invasion in Cuba on a bay called Bahia de Cochinos or otherwise known as Bay of Pigs (“JFK Waits for Word on the Bay of Pigs Invasion”). The invasion’s name was different on what was thought to what to be caused by. The Bay of Pigs was caused because of an American – backed president, General Fulgencio Batista, was overthrown by Fidel Castro, a young nationalist that was pro communism, on January 1, 1959 (“Bay of Pigs Invasion”). This then caused the Americans to get involved. During this era, the foreign policy was the Cold War era, when the Americans were trying to stop communism (“Bay of Pigs Invasion”). Since Fidel was pro communism, this then had the Americans fearful of it spreading even more, since it was during the Cold War. During this invasion,...
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...Bay of Pigs Invasion The Bay of Pigs was a significant event in world history. In 1959, Fidel Castro overthrew the dictatorial President Fulgencio Batista. After this occurred the string of events began to ensue. “American corporations and wealthy individuals owned almost half of Cuba’s sugar plantations and the majority of its cattle ranches, mines and utilities. Batista did little to restrict their operations. He was also reliably anticommunist. Castro, by contrast, disapproved of the approach that Americans took to their business and interests in Cuba. It was time, he believed, for Cubans to assume more control of their nation. “Cuba Sí, Yanquis No” became one of his most popular slogans” (History.com, 2009). This was just the start of a war between the U.S. and Castro. After Castro started taking over Cuba, some of the citizens were upset and exiled into Florida. The exiles were a key component to the invasion in April of 1961 along with the CIA of the United States. Before the Invasion It is important to understand some of the events that ensued prior to the actions of the U.S. in the Bay of Pigs. This is vital to...
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...Davis AP US History 31 May, 2012 Bay of Pigs They Bay of Pigs was a failed operation by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with encouragement from the US government, attempting to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The Bay of Pigs took place in Cuba and was launched in April 1961 shortly after John F. Kennedy became president. The defending force were trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations, defeated the invading exile combatants within three days. In January 1959 counter-revolutionary groups grew, after the success of the Cuban Revolution; the guerrilla continued until 1965. On March 11th 1961, Jesus Carreras and American William Alexander Morgan (a former Castro ally) were executed after a trial. On April 6th 1961, the Hersey Sugar factory in Matanzas was destroyed by sabotage. On April 14th that same year, a Cubana airliner was hijacked and flown to Jacksonville, FL to stage a ‘defection’ of a B-26 and pilot at Miami on April 15th. In 1960, the CIA started hiring Cuban exiles to train them for the upcoming invasion. The Cuban intelligence network knew the invasion was coming and the media estimated conflict throughout the world. Soviet Radio broadcasted a newscast predicting the invasion "in a plot hatched by the CIA" using paid "criminals" within a week. The invasion took place four days later. The well equipped Cuban Armed Forces posed a huge threat to the invaders. On April 15th, the invasion commenced and eight bombers attacked...
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...Critical Reasoning Battle Analysis: Bay of Pigs This paper will cover the Bay of Pigs failed invasion. It will provide a brief background on the actual events and the intelligence failures. It will also cover what could have been done to help achieve victory from an intelligence stand point and the new outcome of the battle had these practices taken place. Background Battle Analysis In October 1959, President Eisenhower gave approval for covert planning to overthrow Castro, a perceived communist threat to the U.S. The planning of the invasion of the Bay of Pigs took approximately one and a half years and had multiple phases. Besides overthrowing Castro a major part of the plan was to ensure it did not look like the United States of America had any part in overthrow. The first part of the plan was to recruit exiled Cubans and train them to fight and launch an...
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...The Bay of Pigs One of the most embarrassing things about the United States is the failed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. President at the time, John F. Kennedy, along with his administration, was the main one to blame for the failure of this invasion. This event was probably what led to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which comes later on. The main objective of the invasion was to end communism in Cuba by putting an end to its leader, Fidel Castro (Hanson n.p). Unfortunately the invasion failed and Cuba still remained communist for many years. Before becoming the dictator of Cuba, Fidel Castro led a revolution to overthrow the regime of General Batista. Castro, along with a group of rebels, was successful in overthrowing Batista and later, became the new dictator of Cuba (DePalma n.p). This raised concern for the United States because now Communist Cuba posed a threat to our country. Communism is defined in the dictionary as, a system where the government owns all means of production. The United States has always been anti-communist, so a country so close to our shores had to be taken seriously. The plan to invade Cuba was actually already in place before President John F. Kennedy was elected. The Central Intelligence Agency was planning the invasion when President Eisenhower was in office. Although he did not plan the invasion all by himself, John F. Kennedy was still held responsible for the failure. The plan consisted of training roughly about 1,400 Cuban exiles that were...
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...During Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidential tenure, a disagreement with Fidel Castro caused friction between the United States and Cuba. The turmoil between the United States and Cuba continued after John F. Kennedy took office. Each one these men, Fidel Castro, President Eisenhower, President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev struggled for power and almost led our nations to a nuclear war. What led to the Cuban Missile Crisis? Fidel Castro was a lawyer in Cuba, he was unhappy with Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship and tried to use the law to remove Batista from power.1 After his failed attempts he became a rebel with the intent of overthrowing Cuba’s dictator Fulgencio Batista. His vision was to spread the wealth of the rich and give to the poor; and provide everyone with the same resources.2 Batista’s cruel behavior and murder of the Cuban people made him a target, he eventually fled.3 After winning public support and overthrowing their dictator, Fidel Castro began to spread the wealth among the Cuban people.4 This was a positive movement for the poor, but not popular among the more educated people who knew how to make money, so they began to flee Cuba.5 On April 15th 1959, Fidel Castro made an attempt to meet with President Eisenhower, instead, President Eisenhower went to play golf to avoid interaction with Castro.6 His intentions may have been to address the turmoil between the United States and Cuba. Instead, Vice President Nixon met with Fidel Castro, the vice presidents...
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...Bay Of Pigs The story of the failed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, which is located on the south coast of Cuba about 97 miles southeast of Havanna, was one of mismanagement, poor judgment, and stupidity. The blame for the failed invasion falls directly on the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and a young president by the name of John F. Kennedy. The whole intention of the invasion was to assault communist Cuba and put an end to Fidel Castro. Ironically, thirty-nine years after the Bay of Pigs, Fidel Castro is still in power. First, it is necessary to look at why the invasion happened and then why it did not work. From the end of World War II until the mid-eighties, most Americans could agree that communism was the enemy. Communism wanted to destroy our way of life and corrupt the freest country in the world. Communism is an economic system in which one person or a group of people are in control. The main purpose of communism is to make the social and economic status of all individuals the same. It abolishes the inequalities in possession of property and distributes wealth equally to all. The main problem with this is that one person who is very wealthy can be stripped of most of his wealth so that another person can have more material goods and be his equal. The main reason for the Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba was the change to communism. On January 1, 1959, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the country for the safety of the Dominican Republic. Fidel Castro and his...
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...The bay of pig was supposed to be a full scale breach with one thousand four hundred exiled cuban-american soldiers into Havana. The plan was formulated because of young cuban nationalist Fidel Castro who had pushed his men the guerilla army in to Havana. Fidel successfully drove his army in and overthrew general Fulgencio Batista on january first nineteen fifty nine . Batista was corrupt but he was considered to be pro-American and he was an allie to the american companies. Also very wealthy individuals and corporations had owned almost half of Cubans sugar plantations. Batista was openly against communist. Fidel felt that it was time for his people to take back their island and short after taking over the he took the steps he needed to...
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...unjust or justified. The assassination of JFK was justified because he caused the Cuban Missile Crisis and The Bay of Pigs invasion; however, others believe differently about his actions. Kennedy’s assassination was justified because of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The United States provoked the Soviet Union into what could have been nuclear war. Before JFK placed the nuclear missiles in Turkey, Nikita Khrushchev, a Soviet Premier, placed missiles in...
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...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...
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...Representatives, Kennedy became a part of the US Senate twice until running for president in the 1960 election. JFK won the 1960 election and began his short run presidency on January 20, 1961. The Bay of Pigs invasion began the downfall of John F. Kennedy’s plans for foreign policy. The Bay of Pigs invasion was one of John F. Kennedy’s worst decisions in his presidential career. The Bay of Pigs occurred on American soil in the year of 1961. The proposal for the Bay of Pigs invasion was created by Dwight Eisenhower during his presidency to get rid of Fidel Castro -the president of Cuba at the moment- and the Communist influence in Cuba. After John F. Kennedy came into office, he decided to adopt Eisenhower’s proposal despite hearing strong opposal against the plan. Thus on April 17, 1961, 1500 Cuban exiles disciplined by the CIA landed at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The Cuban exiles were meant to overthrow the Cuban government. The exiles were against multiple Cuban soldiers and Castro’s slightly weakened air force. During the fighting, the exile brigade requested for extra air support but Kennedy denied their proposal. Therefore after two of fighting, the exile numbers were cut in half and the ammunition supply was low. Causing the exiles to surrender to the Cuban soldiers and air force, the Cuban exiles were hit hard with more than 100 dead and 1, 189 were taken as prisoners. The mission’s humiliating and quite public failure generated major shock all around the world and the Western...
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...This containment policy meant that the United States needed to fight communism abroad and promote democracy worldwide. During President Kennedy’s time in office he was faced with the Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961, the Berlin Wall Erecting in 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the escalation the United States involvement in Vietnam. John F. Kennedy implemented his own version of the Containment policy with the Flexible Response policy. Kennedy’s Flexible response was the doctrine implement and used during political situations that occurred under his watch. The Bay of Pigs was the first situation John F. Kennedy had to deal with as president. The Bay of Pigs was an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidal Castro. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) trained a force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba all with the support and encouragement of the United States government. The Cuban exile force was named Brigade 2506. The Invasion happened in the first three months of President Kennedy’s term in office. The CIA had trained the Cuban exiles in various facilities locations in South Florida while guerilla training took place in Panama at Fort Gulick and Fort Clayton. The infantry train took place on the Pacific coast of Guatemala near Retalhuleu. The actual invasion...
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...The movie Thirteen Days directed by Roger Donaldson is about the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. It is often referred to as a docudrama as it is very entertainment oriented but still remains close to the roots of what actually happened. Since it was produced at a later date than many other films portraying the events, Thirteen Days was able to access recently declassified information which helped in attaining a more historically accurate film. Although there were some discrepancies with what happened in real life compared to the film. The year is 1962 and American surveillance planes discover that the USSR is in the process of placing nuclear ballistic missiles in Cuba. The missiles have a said capability to reach 80 million Americans striking every major city but Seattle. As well they are capable of reaching the majority of the United States Air Force bomber bases effectively crippling their ability to retaliate. It is a race to find a means of removing the missiles before they become operational. Thus the problem for the President is to decide whether to use force or diplomatic means to keep the missiles un-operational. Initial diplomatic attempts to come to a peaceful conclusion fail and the Secretary of Defence proposes a naval blockade which they call a “quarantine” and if the Soviets ignore the blockade, the Navy will forcibly remove the ships from going to Cuba. This would quickly escalate the situation which is clearly what the Secretary of Defence wanted but the President...
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...The Cuban Missile Crisis The world was at the edge of a third world war. This was the result of a variety of things: the Cuban Revolution, the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, US anti-communism, insecurity of the Soviet Union, and Cuba's fear of invasion all made causes for war. However, war was not the result due to great cooperation from both President Kennedy and President Khrushchev and each of the decisions made by the leaders was crucial in the outcome of The Crisis. Kennedy's choice to take action by means of quarantine instead of air-strike and Khrushchev's decision to abide by the quarantines were perhaps the two most significant decisions made by the leaders in order to prevent war. The Cuban Missile Crisis showed the world that compromising and discussion can in-fact prevent war. As Khrushchev said in 1962, "They talk about who won and who lost. Human reason won. Mankind won." 1 The world had almost seen another world war, the effects of which would have been devastating because of the weapons involved. Humanity, indeed, was the prevention of the war. The Cuban Revolution was a background cause to the crisis. On January 1st, 1959 a Marxist regime in Cuba would have seemed unlikely. To the communist party in Cuba, Fidel Castro appeared tempestuous, irresponsible and stubbornly bourgeois. In 1943 President Batista appointed a communist to his Cabinet, as he used communists as leaders of the labor unions. Batista started to fail the Cuban communists and their...
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...Introduction The Cuban Missile Crisis originated because of a number of different issues, stemming from the ongoing struggle between The United States of America and The Soviet Union and between Capitalism and Communism. There were various events and circumstances which caused this standoff. Firstly, the decision to place missiles on Cuban soil was taken by the Soviets as a means to offset their strategic inferiority. The second main cause was the fact that America felt threatened by a Castro lead Communist Cuba. Their continued efforts to oust Castro, was a significant factor in creating a very real fear in Castro of a US invasion of Cuba. This led him to form strong bonds with the Soviets and subsequently allowing them to place missiles in Cuba. We also look at Americas failed attempt to remove Castro with their ‘Bay of Pigs’, invasion of Cuba, in 1961. A final factor in the cause of the crisis is the possibility of the Soviets using the missiles as a means of strengthening their power, with regards to negotiating with America in matters outside of Cuba. The first aspect to look at when dealing with this question is Soviet insecurity and strategic inferiority with the US. The Soviets had many reasons to feel insecure or threatened in the period directly preceding the Cuban Missile Crisis. Khrushchev had long known that the Soviets had a disproportionally lower amount of missiles than the Americans, however it was not until after events surrounding the building of the Berlin...
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