Bay of Pigs Fiasco

[Steel_atlas]

So I need to do a paper on the pathologies of intelligence and use a real world example to high light the pathological failures.

And my choice is going to be the failed Bay of Pigs operation, and I was looking for some more informed opinions on it.

From what I have read the real failing of the Bay of Pigs invasions was that Kennedy changed the locaton and the amount of support the operation would receive due to wanting more plausible deniability (Because clearly the US would somehow be able to deny it). It was originally supposed to happen in Trinidad Cuba which would have been easier to reinforce but the location was switch again due to political motivation.

So any more informed opinions would be appreciated as well as good sources for information.

 

[Dinglehoff]

Go to the library of your university and get the reference desk people to help you search for sources.

Go to wikipedia and search the Bay of Pigs, then use the internet to search for the same information from that site, but look for university websites; or authors of books about it or interviews from the people involved.

 

[hagagaga]

Go to the library of your university and get the reference desk people to help you search for sources.

Go to wikipedia and search the Bay of Pigs, then use the internet to search for the same information from that site, but look for university websites; or authors of books about it or interviews from the people involved.

What he said. Outsourcing your research onto us is lazy. I've talked about things relating to my research (for example a thread about the Battle of Hastings, I'm going to be presenting a paper about Snorri Sturluson's saga of Harald Hardrada at a conference in a month and a half), but I've always done my own research.

If you have access to either JSTOR or EBSCO, use it.

 

[Henry IX]

Look up stuff on 'group-think' and documents on the decision making processes and who was involved and see if you can identify it.

 

[Steel_atlas]

I know how to do research mate.

I was just looking for the unique opinions and insight present fromt he forums.

Also there are often times articles or sources which dont come up on stuff like EBSCO.

Also for you know maybe an actual discussion of such a pivotal event, and perhaps I should have framed the OP more so.

From what I have found it apears that the invasion failed for 3 related reasons:

CIA Dulles had organized several other coupes in Central America leading him and the rest of the CIA to underestimate just how difficult the coupe would be to execute.

Not only because Cuba is much more geographically isolated then places like Guatamela but because Castro did have the support of the people and the army, and unlike those other countries was in league with the Soviet Union

The final part was that Kennedy took over near the final stages of the planned operation, and even though he had talked heavily about intervention in Cuba during the campaign it was clear he was not willing to commit the same level of resources to the mission. Both in changing the location to the Bay of Pigs vs Trinidad, Cuba and by limiting the actual US militaries involvement. Which again comparing it to Guatemala was doomed to fail because part of the reason the Military turned against the Guatemalan President was that they thought that even if they fought back the rebels the US would get directly involved.

 

[Herbert West]

What was the US's goal, exactly?

Was it to remove Castro, and the July 26th movement guys (which would be doable, as long as internal and external support can be galvanized around the Directorio, or any other non-castro, non-communist rebel group)?
Was it to remove revolutionary forces altogether, and impose democracy?
Or was it to restore Batista?

Or, as would be my guess, was it "land some rebels, give some support, hope for the best"?

 

[Steel_atlas]

What was the US's goal, exactly?

Was it to remove Castro, and the July 26th movement guys (which would be doable, as long as internal and external support can be galvanized around the Directorio, or any other non-castro, non-communist rebel group)?
Was it to remove revolutionary forces altogether, and impose democracy?
Or was it to restore Batista?

Or, as would be my guess, was it "land some rebels, give some support, hope for the best"?

The idea from what I understand was that Castro was quickly becoming more and more entrenched in power. There had been some significant insurgencies against him but they were being defeated. He actually was usng some of the old Spanish tricks such as moving the peasants from the areas that the rebels were occupying to cut off support.

That a military intervention was going to be the last shot at deposing him.

Part of the problem was that the CIA had succesfully toppled a few other regimes in Central Amerca quite easily and had gotten complacent and over confident in their ability to actually pull off a coupe.

So when Kennedy and his new staff started changng the parameters for what the CIA could do, they assumed that they could still pull it off.

The big changes Kennedy did was changing the landing spot from Trindad to the Bay of Pigs. Trinidad was a more defensible position and was near the mountains that the anti-castro rebels were in, so even if it went south the invaders could flee to the mountains and start guerilla operations. But there wasnt a big enough of Airport to launch the B-52s they were going to use, which meant the B-52s would have to launch from outside of Cuba, which meant it would be obvious were the coupe was coming from.

The Bay of Pigs meant the rebels could be bottle necked easily and had no were to run if things went south, add on that the airport there was actually too small to be used with out construction meant that it was basically a terrible location.

TLDR: Kennedy might have talked a big game about ousting Castro but he really wasnt interested in commiting a lot of resources into the endeavor, and the CIA was overconfident in its abilities to overcome the extra difficulties this lack of commitment would require.

 

[Herbert West]

Are you sure you mean B-52s, not B-26s? There was only one country operating B-52s anyway, so no matter where they come from, they would be obvious

 

[Steel_atlas]

Are you sure you mean B-52s, not B-26s? There was only one country operating B-52s anyway, so no matter where they come from, they would be obvious

You are correct B-26.

Yeah Kennedy (and his advisors) were using poor judgement, no one was not going to know the Americans were behind it but also that was half the reason the other coupes suceeded.

The Guatemalan coupe succeeded because the military refused to act because it thought even if it fought back the rebels the Americans would just invade.