Bay of Pigs: Historiography
Michael Wolf
ENC1101
Dr. Brown
July, 08, 2013
The Bay of Pigs
On April, 17, 1961 the Bay of Pigs, the biggest foreign affairs disaster in U.S. history, occurred. At first the operation was supported but as the years went by the feelings of it changed, showing mostly in the policy changes of the some of the presidents over the next 49 years.
June 24 1961 reporter Stewart Alsop published an article in the Saturday Evening Post titled “The Lessons of the Cuban Disaster.” In this article Alsop describes what happened at the Bay of Pigs and why though it supported at the operations launch, and how such a short time later it was viewed as a disaster. Alsop explains how he interviewed several officials in Washington and how they supported the operations at its conception but in hindsight view the operation as a failure. These officials in turn told the Alsop that there are several key lessons to learn from this debacle. One such is stated in the article as “The men responsible for mounting a major covert operation like the Cuban landings must not also be responsible for judging the operation’s chance of success or failure”(Alsop p.27).
Alsop wrote this article in the wake of the Bay of Pigs, he views the operation the same as though he interviewed, necessary at the time but in hindsight a failure. In this article he goes over how some of the top officials in Washington admit that they supported it in the beginning., but in the end deemed it a failure.
In this article “Beyond the Bay of Pigs” published by Peter Kornbluh in The Nation on
April 27, 1998, Kornbluh discusses his views on how the military’s opinion of the crisis changed and now does not view Cuba as a threat. Within this article he discusses several points on why these views have changed as well as points out some of the mistakes that were made during this time. One of these mistakes quoted as “the loss of the operations covert nature back to November 1960-the month that this
ENC1101
Dr. Brown
July, 08, 2013
The Bay of Pigs
On April, 17, 1961 the Bay of Pigs, the biggest foreign affairs disaster in U.S. history, occurred. At first the operation was supported but as the years went by the feelings of it changed, showing mostly in the policy changes of the some of the presidents over the next 49 years.
June 24 1961 reporter Stewart Alsop published an article in the Saturday Evening Post titled “The Lessons of the Cuban Disaster.” In this article Alsop describes what happened at the Bay of Pigs and why though it supported at the operations launch, and how such a short time later it was viewed as a disaster. Alsop explains how he interviewed several officials in Washington and how they supported the operations at its conception but in hindsight view the operation as a failure. These officials in turn told the Alsop that there are several key lessons to learn from this debacle. One such is stated in the article as “The men responsible for mounting a major covert operation like the Cuban landings must not also be responsible for judging the operation’s chance of success or failure”(Alsop p.27).
Alsop wrote this article in the wake of the Bay of Pigs, he views the operation the same as though he interviewed, necessary at the time but in hindsight a failure. In this article he goes over how some of the top officials in Washington admit that they supported it in the beginning., but in the end deemed it a failure.
In this article “Beyond the Bay of Pigs” published by Peter Kornbluh in The Nation on
April 27, 1998, Kornbluh discusses his views on how the military’s opinion of the crisis changed and now does not view Cuba as a threat. Within this article he discusses several points on why these views have changed as well as points out some of the mistakes that were made during this time. One of these mistakes quoted as “the loss of the operations covert nature back to November 1960-the month that this