The Bay of Pigs, Declassified

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THE BAY OF PIGS, DECLASSIFIED The Bay of Pigs invasion in April of 1961 has been a source of embarrassment for the Kennedy administration and has been seen as an immense failure on the part of the CIA and our intelligence. The reasons for this embarrassment and failure are many and as we see in the film, Bay of Pigs Declassified, they are not so easily deciphered. In the following paragraphs we will look at, the reason for the invasion, what was supposed to happen during the invasion, what actually happened and why. The first things we need to look at are why were we invading Cuba and what was our objective in the invasion? In order to understand the reasons for the invasion we must look at the fear and loathing the U.S. had for Communism. The “Red Scare” and the “Domino Theory” were dominating American Culture and America had an extreme paranoia against the Soviet Union and the spread of Communism. Cuba was a country that sat about 90 miles off the shores of Florida and had a fierce dictator in charge, Fulgencio Batista. Fidel Castro had overthrown the government of Batista and established a new government. A few weeks after the ousting of Batista, Castro is appointed premier. In the eyes of the U.S. this was a welcome change from the Batista regime. Soon after gaining the role of premier, Castro made a sharp turn toward the Soviet Union and announced his transformation to Marxism and Leninism. This startling change in policy caused alarm in the American camp because Cuba was just over 90 miles off the coast of Florida and a Communist Country that close to the U.S. could not be tolerated. The Cold War was in full swing and the domino theory was a house hold word at this time. The Kennedy administration felt that they had to make a move but felt like it could not be a full blown American invasion. How were the Americans going to
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