Matt+Knox

Question: Why did the Bay of Pigs operation fail?

> The question of this investigation is was there an overarching and main factor that contributed to the Bay of Pigs operation failing during the Cold War? This can be done by analyzing the main reasons why it failed and analyzing the amount of impact each of the factors truly had on the failure. Overall there seems to be 3 main reasons why the Bay of Pigs invasion failed. This was done by analyzing the book The Bay of Pigs edited by Christina Fisanick. As well as looking at the web site of Britannica as well as other web sites. These sources will be evaluated according to their origin purpose value and limitations.
 * A. Plan of the investigation**
 * 1) 1. **A. Plan of the investigation**


 * 1) 1. **B. Summary of Evidence**

In the 1950s America was in the height of the cold war with the USSR. In the fear of the domino affect, and the fear of communism approaching the US, the US government devised a plan to assassinate Cubans leader Castro as well as over through the government. On April 17, 1961 about 1300 exiles, armed with U.S. weapons, landed at the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on the southern most of Cuba. Hoping to find support from the local population. After it all though, the invasion failed horribly and it caused great scrutiny to the US government and its president. The Bay of Pigs did not fail for no reason, in fact there were many factors for why the Pay of Pigs invasion failed, they can be put into 3 categories.


 * Main Reasons**


 * I. No Air Support**

The original plan for the Bay of Pigs was for there to be air support. But with just three days from the invasion, Kennedy called CIA Operations Chief Bissell to find out how many planes will be used in the invasions. Bissell told President Kennedy that they were planning on using 16 B-26’s. But JFK felt that 16 planes were too big of a scale and ask Bissell to tone it down to about 8 B26’s. Bissell did as commanded and the next day the 8 planes attack three airfields of the Cuban air force, knocking out some of the aircraft, but did not do major damage to the Cuban fleet.[i] The next day on April 17, when the invasion began, they came under heavy fire. The 8 American B26s gave the men on the beach cover for about forty minutes but were forced to leave because of low fuel. [ii] On April 18, Kennedy authorized six fighter jets from the aircraft carrier // Essex // to provide one hour of air cover for the CIAs attacking B-26s for the invasion. But the jets from the // Essex // and the B-26s missed their rendezvous because they forgot to factor a one hour difference between the two time zones, with the base in Nicaragua and the beach in Cuba.[iii]


 * II. Lack of Support in Cuba **

When the Cuban Revolution ended in the late 1950s and Castro came to power many Cubans were content with their new government. The people were also very overjoyed from overthrowing their old authoritative government. Castro used the feeling of accomplishment that his citizens had to his advantage. He attempted to isolate himself and his country from the rest of the world, mostly the US.[iv] Also, because of the harsh oppressions of their past government many people had open minds about Castro’s communist government. Castro tried to rally people behind these ideas. Castro said “The anti-imperialist, socialist revolution could only be one single revolution, because there is only one revolution. That is the great dialectic truth of humanity: imperialism, and, standing against it, socialism.” He thumped the table in front of him and shouted, “I am a Marxist-Leninist and I shall be a Marxist-Leninist until the last days of my life.”[v] With Castro rallying his people and getting them behind his ideals, when the US invaded and hoped to start an uprising, they did not stand a chance.


 * III. Cubans had knowledge of an attack **

When Castro came to power in Cuba and started to implement communist policies the people, the US knew they had take action. After much discussion the Government believed it was best if they attempted an invasion. The US did not want to use their own men for it would be too risky on many accounts. So they decided to use Cuban exiles.[vi] In April 1960, the CIA began to recruit anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the Miami area. Until July 1960, assessment and training was carried out on Useppa Island and various other facilities in South Florida. But as the government recruited people the word spread. Some Castro Supporters who were in Florida at the time found out and brought it back to Cuba.[vii] Castro may have already had an idea that the US was going to take some form of action anyways. So when the US invaded, it was no surprise to Castro and his army. They easily fought of the invaders, and stopped the invasion.viii

Source: The Bay of Pigs, Book Fisanick, Christina. //The Bay of Pigs//. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven Press, 2004. Print. The author of the book is Christina Fisanick. Christina Fisanick is a published author and an editor of young adult books. The book was published in 2004 by Greenhaven Press. The purpose of this book is to inform the public on the evens that transpired before, during and, after the invasion. The way language is used and the complexity of it shows is this book is made for young adults to adults. The value of the book is very good and helps answer some aspects of my research question. Which is some reasons for the failure of the pay of pigs invasion. Nearly one third of the book discusses this. This book was very valuable to my research. As for the limitations on this source, the problem is it focuses on the events before the Bay of Pigs which this is not important to my research question. Because of this about half of the book has no use to me. But it does supply great value for the information that I do need.
 * C. Evaluation of Sources**

The Bay of Pigs Invasion Web Site

Minster, Christopher W. "The Bay of Pigs Invasion." //Latin AMerican History// N.p., 2012. Web. 2 Mar. 2012. . The web site is called The Bay of Pigs Invasion, it was optioned from Latin American History. The article was written by Christopher Minister who has a PhD, and is a literature professor and writer living in Quito, Ecuador. The source was published to inform people of The Bay of Pigs went into detail of the men who were in the invasion. The article was of great value because it went into great depth on the people in the invasion. The limitations in this article are the writer in an Latina American and lives in Ecuador, so it could be a bit bais toward exiles of the invasion, but overall it was a great source.

D. Analysis

One of the main reasons the Bay of Pigs failed was because of the lack of air support. But there were many opportunities in the coming days before the Bay of pigs fix the lack of air support. It can be seen that the operation was poorly planed because the president called just 3 days before the invasion to see how many planes are in the attack. The original idea was to have 16 B-26’s but JFK did not like the idea of that many planes attacking Cuba because of this it was cut to 8 planes.[ix] It seems Kennedy thought there was a fine line between just an evasion and starting a war, and 16 planes was too much. The failure of Kennedy to not commit to the invasion seemed to have hurt the operation greatly. If Kennedy kept the 16 planes then it could have been very possible that they could have done more damage to Cuba thus increasing the chances of success for the invasion. Although it does seem that Kennedy made a mistake only sending 8 planes there was another major problem overlooked. [x] The 8 planes that did attack had to leave early because they were running low on fuel. Similarly the fighter jets that were supposed to have cover fire missed their rendezvous because the US government forgot to factor in the difference in time zones. So overall it seems the US government in this situation was just not prepared and did not look at all factors of the attack.

Another reason the Bay of Pigs was a failure was because of the lack of support of a rebellion in Cuba. During this time Cuba just put in a new government with Castro after overt thronging the Batista régime. [xi] The Batista regime was an authoritarian government that was very cruel and limited the people. The United States supported this government though because it was not communist. [xii]Early on it is important to note that Castro himself said he was not a communist, but Castro took almost all of American influence out of Cuba. This angered the US and caused the relationship between the two countries to worsen. This caused people in Cuba to not have a favorable opinion on the United States. Plus the people in Cuba were content with Castro being in power, for they were sick and tired of being oppressed by the old government. The US was being told by Cuba refugees that escaped to the US that a revolution could take place under the right circumstances. But the Bay of Pigs was not the right circumstance. [xiii] Plus these opinions were very bias for these people were Batista supporters. Possibly is the US took this into consideration they may have realized the low probability of an revolution.

The Bay of Pigs also failed because Cuba and Castro may have had prior knowledge of the invasion. For the invasion the US need men to invade Cuba, they did not want to use US men so they recruited exiles from Cuba. [xiv] To recruit someone the word needs to go out, and when the word goes out many people find out. Some supporters of Castro heard the news and relayed it over to Cuba. [xv] From here Castro was able to prepare for anything that could have happened. Castro was also getting suspicious on an invasion too because of the increasing hostility between the two countries. It seems th US could have carried the recruiting our more secretly and not so open, this could have help and taken away some of the lack of surprise.

E. Conclusion The Bay of Pigs was an absolute failure, there is no way around that. From looking at it from a broad view point it can be said that there were many reasons for the failure of the Bay of Pigs. But if each of these reasons are looked in deeper they all have a striking similarity. It seems the main and overarching reason for the failure of the Bay of Pigs was the failure of the US government to fully commit to the invasion. With the US not giving full air support, not doing enough research on the mood of Castro in Cuba, and failing to give the exiles an oppertunity to succeed, the Bay of Pigs was destined to Fail.

F.

Works Cited

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“History of Spain.” //History World//. N.p., 2011. Web. 11 Sept. 2011. .

Payne, Stanley G. “Francisco Franco.” //Encyclopaedia Britannica Online//. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2011. .

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“Primo De Rivera.” //The Spanish Civil War//. N.p., 2011. Web. 28 Sept. 2011. .

“Spain.” //Fact Monster//. N.p., 2010. Web. 11 Sept. 2011. .

Viñas, Raimundo Viejo. “Spanish Politics and Society.” //Departament de Ciències Politiques i Socials//. Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Fall 2009. Web. 14 Sept. 2011. .

Vinas, Raimundo Viejo. “Spanish Politics and Society.” //Hispanic and European Studies Program//. N.p., 2003. Web. 30 Sept. 2011. .

word count: 1895

[i] Thomas J. Craughwell with M. William Phelps. "Failures of the Presidents: JFK's Bay of Pigs Disaster."History New Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.< [] >.

[ii] <span style="background-color: #fff9e5; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Britannica. "Kennedy Failure at the Bay of Pigs."Britannica. N.p., 2009. Web.14 Mar. 2012. < <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">[]

<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">[iii <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">] <span style="background-color: #fff9e5; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Thomas J. Craughwell with M. William Phelps. "Failures of the Presidents: JFK'sBay of Pigs Disaster."History New Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.< <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">[] <span style="background-color: #fff9e5; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">>.

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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">[iv <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">] <span style="background-color: #fff9e5; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Cuban Revolution ."Oracle. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.

<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">[v <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">] <span style="background-color: #fff9e5; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Rayne, Trevor. "Easynet."History of the Cuban Revolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 14Mar. 2012. < <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">[] <span style="background-color: #fff9e5; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">>.

<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">[vi <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">] <span style="background-color: #fff9e5; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Bay of Pigs."Spartacus. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.< <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">[] <span style="background-color: #fff9e5; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">>

<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">[vii <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">] <span style="background-color: #fff9e5; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> Cuban Revolution ."Oracle. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.

[viii] Fisanick, Christina. The Bay of Pigs. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven Press, 2004. Print.

[ix] Britannica. "Kennedy Failure at the Bay of Pigs."Britannica. N.p., 2009. Web.14 Mar. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2009/01/

[x] Thomas J. Craughwell with M. William Phelps. "Failures of the Presidents: JFK'sBay of Pigs Disaster."History New Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.<http://hnn.us/articles/55759.html>.

[xi] Thomas J. Craughwell with M. William Phelps. "Failures of the Presidents: JFK's Bay of Pigs Disaster."History New Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.<http://hnn.us/articles/55759.html>.

[xii] Rayne, Trevor. "Easynet."History of the Cuban Revolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 14Mar. 2012. <http://www.rcgfrfi.easynet.co.uk/ratb/cuba/cuba_rev.htm>.

[xiii] Fisanick, Christina. The Bay of Pigs. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven Press, 2004. Print.

[xiv] Berry, Jason. "Bay of Pigs."Exploring the Culture of Little Havana. N.p., n.d.Web. 14 Mar. 2012. <http://www.education.miami.edu/ep/littlehavana/

[xv] Bay of Pigs."Spartacus. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.<http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDbayofpigs.htm>