such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, China, and North Korea were communist’s states with the influence of the USSR having an impact; it could be argued that the crisis didn’t need to prove that containment had failed. The presidents after Truman attempted to uphold containment but did not succeed as well as they could have. Containment had failed as the crisis did not have enough commitment from Kennedy, therefore the policy and Truman’s doctrine had failed. The crisis ended with Cuba still being communist, the only real success for America was that the missiles had been removed, America did not need to remove their Jupiter missiles from Turkey and Castro was wary of Khrushchev; the actual fact that Cuba was still as communist state was not focused upon enough. Containment may have of failed and been made evident with the Cuban missile crisis however it led to a growing awareness of the need to create some control over the nuclear arms race by placing restrictions on nuclear tests.
The intended animosity and hunger for retribution against Cuba from the American public was to serve as the justification necessary for a declaration of war. The operation had the backing of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was green-lit for execution, but fortunately, it was rejected by President Kennedy when the plans reached his desk inside the oval office. Although Operation Northwoods never fully came to fruition, it is extremely important to note that a plan so diabolical and nefarious was ever conceived in the first place The knowledge of Operation Northwoods has only recently came to light, and more information like it is coming out now with alarming
Much of it is contained within our government's own prehistory of the war which it fought so hard to keep from the American public - the documents which later became known as the Pentagon Papers. When one delves into the Pentagon Papers it becomes immediately clear why the government wanted them kept secret, for they expose the many lies that our government generated in order to get the American people strongly behind the war effort. Yet, the importance of these documents goes beyond their intrinsic historical value since they establish a precedence of governmental deceit that would be practiced again and
The rest of the article brings into play what is considered to be new evidence supporting the idea that the CIA was intending to eliminate Fidel Castro. This plan was supported by JFK and then the plan turned against JFK. According to the article it is not certain where the inside support for the assassination came. Was it the KGB, the US government? There is a lot of evidence supporting the Mafia’s involvement.
(Thanks to Howard Zinn's A People’s History of the United States [2] for inspiration.) Unfortunately the vast majority of Americans are either unaware of these harmful practices or have been misled about their necessity. These are some clear examples of why we should not trust the military rhetoric: •At the top of the list, of course, is the war in Vietnam, where we fought to free people who didn’t want to be freed, much less killed, and against a country which had little chance of threatening us. •But besides that, instead of responding with outrage, we’ve bowed to our own self-interest and supplied actual money and military manpower to torturous regimes and murderers of their own citizens in such countries as the Philippines (in 1980), Nicaragua (early 80’s), El Salvador (80’s), East Timor (90’s and earlier), and Colombia (now). •For dubious or even manufactured reasons, we’ve invaded Cuba (Bay of Pigs, 1961) and Grenada (1983).
It’s been four years since a group of US Navy Seals assassinated Osama bin Laden in a night raid on a high-walled compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The killing was the high point of Obama’s first term, and a major factor in his re-election. The White House still maintains that the mission was an all-American affair, and that the senior generals of Pakistan’s army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) were not told of the raid in advance. This is false, as are many other elements of the Obama administration’s account. The White House’s story might have been written by Lewis Carroll: would bin Laden, target of a massive international manhunt, really decide that a resort town forty miles from Islamabad would be the safest place to live and command al-Qaida’s operations?
The Iran Contra Affair is one of the black marks that were left on Reagan’s presidency. The former President has distanced himself from the affair ever since it was disclosed in November 1986 that arms were secretly sold to Iran with profits going to the Nicaraguan rebels, sometimes denying outright he had any knowledge of critical events and sometimes issuing blurred statements about his involvement. This event happened halfway through Reagan’s second term his popularity was high going into his second term. But as this event occurred his presidency was called into suspicion. Unshredded documents and interviews with several major players indicate that the actions, which ran counter both to the Administration's much-publicized policy of no
During the Reagan Administration and immediately followed by the Bush Administration, the CIA had been covertly looking for ways to aid Iran. Additional covert operations in Iran were designed to aid Iranian paramilitary and political exile groups, in order to counter soviet influence in Iran (Richelson, 419). It was also meant to give the United States a role of its own in the event that the Khomeini regime fell. The arms deals with Iran accomplished multiple objectives at one time. The United States felt that it needed a role in Iran if the current regime failed.
One criticism of intelligence agencies that people were shocked to hear through the 9/11 Commission Report was that the Central Intelligence Agency had information on some of the suspects involved in the 9/11 plot. This information was requested by FBI agents multiple times but was not handed over because it would have jeopardized the case CIA was building against other operatives. (Soufan, 2011). The PATRIOT Act also allowed warrants to be issued in any district, whether or not the activity being investigated was being conducted in that district or not (Landahl, 2007). It also created penalties for harboring terrorists, increased maximum sentences for terrorism related activities, and most importantly eliminated the statue of limitations for terrorist activities (Landahl, 2007).
The lengths they go to in order to keep our country safe are obscured by popular opinion and a general lack of understanding surrounding the topic. Unbeknownst to many, the CIA has changed the course of history in both the United States and the world. The United States has been carrying out intelligence activities since the birth of our country, but World War II is the first