The Bay of Pigs

The Bay of Pigs Invasion

Spencer Thompson

CHT 3OI

Mr. Figueira

December 17, 2011

On April 17, 1961, in Cuba, the United States of America was meant to be a part of an attack. Very many people were killed and the whole plan turned to utter failure. There are many embarrassing situations in United States’ history such as the Japanese-American Internment during World War II. From failure to overthrow Fidel Castro’s Communist Cuba and losing many Cuban Exiles and American weaponry, decisions that were made to result in the failure to strategies that were proven non-useful in the ordeal are just a few reasons to prove that the Bay of Pigs Invasion was one of the most embarrassing chapters for the U.S. With friction between the U.S. government and Castro 's leftist communist regime increasing, President Dwight Eisenhower was led to take away diplomatic relations with Cuba. The fact that the United States’ government had a growing dislike of Fidel Castro’s communist led to the idea of an invasion attack on Cuba.

“On that unhappy island, as in so many other arenas of the contest for freedom, the news has grown worse instead of better. I have emphasized before that this was a struggle of Cuban patriots against a Cuban dictator. While we could not be expected to hide our sympathies, we made it repeatedly clear that the armed forces of this country would not intervene in any way,”[1]

Kennedy said this in his speech regarding the planned invasion of Cuba. He speaks of how American Soldiers were to not enter Cuba for the invasion but who was to enter the Bay of Pigs were approximately 1,300 Cuban Exiles armed with U.S. weapons. They landed at the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) at the Southern coast of the island of Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro had become the leader of Cuba. Castro, a communist, became hostile to the United States two years after he became the Cuban. People associated with Castro took ownership over United States companies and Eisenhower was forced to create an embargo on trade. During this time, Cubans had gone to the U.S. to flee the communist leadership that Castro had been imposing on the people. When Eisenhower told the Central Intelligence Agency to train Cuban exiles, they then planned an invasion that happened when Kennedy became president. When the invasion started, the exiles were about 1,300 strong while the Castro’s followers had give or take 234,000 men with his army, militia and armed police amalgamated. Though Castro’s forces had more deaths, the exiles had a higher percentage of loss with approximately 1,200 men captured and jailed by Castro’s forces.

In April 1961, 1500 Cuban exiles made a landing at the Bay of Pigs. The plan they had was to join with people who were against Castro to start a revolt but plans did not follow through because Kennedy did not send in the air support that he promised them. The followers of Castro killed most of the exiles and kept the some more as prisoners. Castro wanted money for him to release them but Kennedy was hesitant to even negotiate with him but on December 25, 1962, 1113 men in a “brigade prisoners remained in captivity for 20 months, as the United States negotiated a deal with Fidel Castro”[2] prisoners were released in exchange for medical supplies and food that was worth an approximate amount of $53 million. This would never have happened if Kennedy did not withdraw the aerial cover. Generally, the Invasion was ruined and was acutely catastrophic because of President John F. Kennedy’s failure to sent help.

A strategy that the United States had was to use guerilla tactics. The troops there were not trained and not suitable for them. Terrain and skill was against them because there was no place to hide, no way to communicate, no food, and no inhabitants to support them. The Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) chose the Zapata Peninsula for the invasion and convinced them of the plan. Cubans thought it would be hard to get there because of the length of the mountains there and that there were no motorized vehicles to drive in or get around with in there. “The Zapata Peninsula, where the Bay of Pigs is located, was swampy, isolated, and uninhabited, so there could have been no possibility of a spontaneous uprising, because no indigenous Cubans would have seen the landing.”[3] Cubans would have known what was coming to them if there had been pre-invasion propaganda, which there was not. Kennedy wanted to know what the purpose of this operation was. People in the government had explained it was because they wanted to hold up a government and build it up to make it stronger. Kennedy was skeptical because he did not want to risk a small amount of men against thousands of militia. By this point, the Secretaries of Defense and State thought there was going to be an uprising attack.

In conclusion, the invasion of the Bay of Pigs was a very embarrassing affair in American history. Not only did the U.S. fail to overthrow Communism in Cuba, but they lost many of the Cuban exiles that were involved and they lost multitudinous amounts of their own American-made weapons. The decisions that the U.S. made like Kennedy not calling in an air strike emphasized the failed result of the invasion and strategies like the decision to use a “guerilla army of Cuban exiles”[4] aided in that result too. These are just a few reasons why the Bay of Pigs Invasion was plausibly one of the most embarrassing periods for U.S history.

Bibliography

“Bay of Pigs,” http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Bay_of_Pigs (accessed November 30, 2012)

“Bay of Pigs Invasion,” Bay of Pigs: The Plan, http://www.history.com/topics/bay-of-pigs-invasion (accessed December 14, 2012)

“The Bay of Pigs Invasion Speech,” http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/ John_F_Kennedy/7.htm (accessed December 7, 2012)

“The Bay of Pigs,” The Aftermath, http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Bay-of-Pigs.aspx (accessed December 13, 2012)

Minster, Christopher, “Cuba: The Bay of Pigs Invasion,” http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/historyofthecaribbean/a/09bayofpigs.htm (accessed December 16, 2012)

Morrissey, Michael D, “The Bay of Pigs Revised,” The Uprising, http://www.serendipity.li/cia/bay-of-pigs.htm (accessed December 14, 2012)

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[1] “The Bay of Pigs Invasion Speech,” http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/7.htm (accessed December 7, 2012)
[2] “The Bay of Pigs,” The Aftermath, http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Bay-of-Pigs.aspx (accessed December 13, 2012)
[3] “The Bay of Pigs Revised,” The uprising, http://www.serendipity.li/cia/bay-of-pigs.htm (accessed December 14, 2012)
[4] “Bay of Pigs Invasion,” Bay of Pigs: The Plan, http://www.history.com/topics/bay-of-pigs-invasion (accessed December 14, 2012)

Bibliography: “Bay of Pigs,” http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Bay_of_Pigs (accessed November 30, 2012) “Bay of Pigs Invasion,” Bay of Pigs: The Plan, http://www.history.com/topics/bay-of-pigs-invasion (accessed December 14, 2012) “The Bay of Pigs Invasion Speech,” http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/ John_F_Kennedy/7.htm (accessed December 7, 2012) “The Bay of Pigs,” The Aftermath, http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Bay-of-Pigs.aspx (accessed December 13, 2012) ----------------------- [1] “The Bay of Pigs Invasion Speech,” http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/7.htm (accessed December 7, 2012) [2] “The Bay of Pigs,” The Aftermath, http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Bay-of-Pigs.aspx (accessed December 13, 2012) [3] “The Bay of Pigs Revised,” The uprising, http://www.serendipity.li/cia/bay-of-pigs.htm (accessed December 14, 2012) [4] “Bay of Pigs Invasion,” Bay of Pigs: The Plan, http://www.history.com/topics/bay-of-pigs-invasion (accessed December 14, 2012)