Failure At The Bay Of Pigs example essay topic

Emily Steadman June 7, 2005 History Bay of Pigs Invasion In Cube on April 17, 1961, the United States was supposed to be apart of a missile attack. Many people were killed during this time and the whole thing became a complete failure. A week before the actual bombing was to occur, Kennedy had withdrawn his order to land aerial cover (Morrissey). This loss of nerve at a critical moment in time had caused the failure at the Bay of Pigs (Fernandez-Za yes). Kennedy's decision to cancel air strikes was the result of the loss at the Bay of Pigs. In 1959, Fidel Castro had become the powerful leader of Cuba.

Castro was a communist and became hostile to the Unite States two years after he became Cuba's leader (Encarta). People associated with Castro had taken ownership over United States companies and Eisenhower was forced to put in place a trade embargo. Cubans during this time had gone to the United States to escape the communist leadership that Castro was imposing on people. When Eisenhower had told the CIA to train Cuban exiles, they were planning on an invasion when Kennedy became president (Encarta). In April 1961, 1500 Cuban exiles made a landing at the Bay of Pigs (Encarta). The plan they had was to join with people who were against Castro to start a revolt.

But things didn't follow through because Kennedy didn't send in the air support that was promised. Castro's followers had killed most of the exiles and kept the others as prisoners. Castro wanted money for their release but Kennedy had refused to negotiate with him (Encarta). On December 25, 1962, 1113 prisoners were released in exchange for food and medical supplies that was worth a total of $53 million (J.A. Sierra). This never would have happened if Kennedy didn't withdraw the aerial cover.

The other strategy that the United States had was to "go guerilla". The troops there were not trained and not suitable for them. Things were against them because there was no place to hide, no way to communicate, no food, and no inhabitants to support them (Morrissey). The Zapata Peninsula was chosen by the CIA for the invasion and convinced them of the plan. The people thought it would be hard to get there because of the length of the mountains there. There were no motorized vehicles too get around.

The area was swampy, isolated and uninhabited so there was no possibility of an uprising (Morrissey). Cuban people would have known what was coming to them if there had been pre-invasion propaganda, which there wasn't. 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 didn't want to risk a small amount of men against thousands of militia.

By this point, the secretaries of Defense and State were counting on an uprising attack (Morrissey). When Kennedy had found out that the United States had failed at the Bay of Pigs mission, he knew exactly what he had done wrong. He shouldn't have withdrawn the aerial cover if he had had some questions about in the first place. Kennedy was wrong to approve the attack and then when everyone was ready to fight, find out that their promised aerial cover was going to be withdrawn.

After the failure had occurred, Kennedy was worried that about the limitations imposed upon the government by the institutions of free speech and a free press.