Bay of Pigs Fiasco

            First, Dean Rusk, the secretary of state, warned him that “We might be confronted by serious uprising all over Latin America if US forces were to go in” he was also worried that it would trigger “Soviet and Chinese moves in other parts of the world”.  Then, Chester Bowles, who opposed the plan, approached Kennedy and said, “If the operation appears to be a failure in its early stages, the pressure on us to scap our self-imposed restriction on direct American involvement will be difficult to resist,” and then went on to say that “A failure would greatly enhance Castro’s prestige and strength.”  It was the plan from the beginning that if the mission failed that American forces would stay away from the matter. 

            Later, when Kennedy described the plan to the veteran former Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, he stated that the exiled forces would number around 1,500 and they could be met with around 25,000 Cubans.  To that Acheson replied, “It doesn’t take Prince Waterhouse to figure out that 1,500 aren’t as good as 25,000.” The author goes on to state that the whole affair was a rare case in history – a “Perfect failure”.

            That leads me to my second article, which puts the entire blame of the failure on Kennedy’s shoulders.  According to the article there had been talks that had promised the invading Cuban’s American air support if the mission were about to fail.  It is then said that Kennedy lost his nerve and doomed the expedition by calling off said air cover.  The author pits testimony from remaining members of the Cuban Revolution against the word of JFK’s brother Bobby Kennedy.  He then goes on to state that “Bobby’s comments on the Bay of Pigs only revived grim memories and nagging doubts.”

            What the author is trying to say here is that the main blame for the Bay of Pigs belongs to Kennedy and Kennedy alone.  He had the opportunity to stop the catastrophe from ever happening and after it had started, he had the chance to lessen the damage. This is especially true because of all the doubt that was brought before him that I presented from the first article.  There were so many people that doubted that the operation would succeed that it’s a miracle that he even went through with the plan.

            The Bay of Pigs is considered to be the epitome of failure when it comes to military operations.  It was America’s attempt to rid the western hemisphere of the communist, and thus preventing Russia from extending its iron fist closer to the states.  Although the blame ultimately fell on the CIA, many feel that it should go to Kennedy.