How can we best explain the failure of Kennedy administration in the Bay of pigs fiasco but its successes in the Cuban missile Crisis?

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KHALIFA  S  ALMAZROUEI                                                                      203INT

Q. How can we best explain the failure of Kennedy administration in the Bay of pigs fiasco but its successes in the Cuban missile Crisis?

In this essay I will argue about the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and why is it failed. Actually, the Bay of Pigs was mismanagement in 1961 and was an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government. Essay outlines the approaches followed in this essay. During this essay I would explain the failure of Kennedy administration and how they treat this fiasco. Politically, I used to put the question with which people are concerned as: how Kennedy overthrow Castro and make his decision?.  The aim of this essay, first of all is to explain what the Bay of Pigs was?, how the Bay of Pigs invasion related to the crisis as well as how John F. Kennedy and his administration handled the crisis?. Secondly, I would highlight my understanding of Cuban missile crisis and the involvement of John F. Kennedy's administration in the crisis. This essay will also address the following issues; How Kennedy played an important role in the crisis?; how did the failure of the Bay of Pigs affect his solution to the Cuban Missile Crisis?; and how Kennedy waited until after the Bay of Pigs before making a public announcement about the crisis. Although, many Americans refer to the Kennedy administration’s fiasco as either the administration’s fiasco as either the Bay of Pigs invasion or the Cuban missile crisis.

In fact the whole story of the failed of Cuba 1961 at the Bay of Pigs is one of overconfidence, mismanagement, and the lack of security. In this case the one who were blame for the failure of the operation falls directly in the heart of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a president and his advisors. The only factor of rise in tension between the two superpowers and ironically 34 years after the event was caused by fall out from the invasion. Meanwhile, John F Kennedy, because of his assassination thirty years ago, has gone down in history. However, in the early months of his administration, Kennedy found it necessary take total responsibility for an embarrassing failure in United States foreign policy. Kennedy’s reaction to the disaster at the Bay of Pigs was to ask “How could I have been so stupid to let them go ahead?” (1).

1. Welch,R.E, (1985) Response to Revolution: United States and the Cuban Revolution, University of North Carolina: Paperback. P.80.

The plan to arm and prepare a group of Cuban exiles in an attack on their homeland was a policy that he inherited from his predecessors, P.resident Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon. Blame for the plan's failure has fallen on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). There is also a fact that brings atomic war in October 1962 which was the dispute between America and Fidel Castro nearly led to.

After the United States had vetoed any further arms shipments to that tyrannous government, the result was the Batista government in Cuba collapsed. Fidel Castro, leader of the guerrilla opposition, did not have to win an armed battle, since Fulgencio Batista and many of his followers fled the country at the end of 1958. Castro was a popular, and as Smith writes, “Increasing numbers of Americans...were looking for a ‘good revolution’ to embrace to prove that the United States really did support social and economic reforms” (2). So, the American government did not hinder private citizens from sending arms and money to the Cuban rebels. During April in 1959, he was invited to America by a group of newspaper editors. This necessitated a meeting with the executive, in the form of Vice President Nixon. Nixon wrote a famous critical memorandum of Castro, this cold warrior thought he knew a Communist when he saw one. This memorandum was sent to various relevant departments of the government, along with “a recommendation calling for the organizing of Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro” (3). This was the first time such an operation had been suggested, but it took Eisenhower till March 1960 to implement such a plan, which Kennedy inherited.

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Probably, as Kennedy himself pointed out in the 1960 presidential election, that had the executive chosen to embrace Castro during that first visit, he would not have been a problem during 1961. As former Ambassador to Cuba Bonsai said:

2. Freeman, S.R, (1983) the united states and the Latin American sphere of influence, Kreige Pub co, Paperback. P.54.

3. Langley. L.D, (1985). The united states and the Caribbean in the 20th Century, University of Georgia, hardcover, P.216

 “We did not force Castro into the arms of the Communists, but we were...unwisely cooperative in removing the obstacles to his chosen path” ...

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