Cuba was only ninety miles away from the US and they feared that communism would spread. The Bay of Pigs was a disaster for Kennedy’s presidency. It was an embarrassment for him and it was not a good start for any President. However, the United States feared communism, because a communist regime was so close to their borders. They feared that communism would spread and become popular in the US.
After the US discovered the presence of the missiles the US issued a naval quarantine of Cuba. This brought the world to the brink of nuclear war as Soviet ships approached the quarantine line, but at the last minute the ships turned back as part of the US/Soviet agreement to withdraw their missiles from Cuba and the US’ from Turkey and secret clause of agreement that the US would not invade Cuba
The book gives information of both the embargo and the inner damage it did to both nations. Cuba had been taking steps towards isolation years before we closed trade. Author, Peter Schwab, believes that Castro had been planning this once he entered power. These events have helped limit are economy which obviously a bad thing. I think that the U.S. once again step there foot in Cuba to spread are Americanized culture as we once did.
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.
U.S. trained Cuban insurgents were to invade Cuba and instigate an uprising among the Cuban people in hopes of removing Castro from power. On April 17, 1961, Kennedy ordered the previously planned invasion of Cuba to proceed. With support from the CIA, in what is known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion, 1,500 U.S. trained Cuban exiles, called “Brigade 2506,” returned to the island in the hope of deposing Castro. However, Kennedy ordered the invasion to take place without U.S. Air support. By April 19, 1961, the Cuban government had captured or killed the invading exiles, and Kennedy was forced to negotiate for the release of the 1,189 survivors.
He criticized the Spanish government and the way it controlled Cuba. Through yellow Journalism and anti-Spanish propaganda Hearst was able to upset the America public, and put the United States against Spain. Revolts against Spain had been occurring in Cuba for Some time. Then February 15th 1898 the USS Maine mysteriously sank in Havana harbor. This was all the America public needed.
After the failure of that he introduced things such as the strategic hamlets (Agrovilles) which were villages that were surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by troops, to isolate National Liberation Front (NFL) guerrillas from political recruits and other responses. In November 1961 Kennedy agreed to provide aircraft, intelligence equipment and additional economic aid which show that he was keen to introduce military forces to Vietnam. But due to the takeover of the NFL this meant that Kennedy had to up his enforcement in Vietnam so he left Johnson with a US military force of 16,000 troops and a commitment to the growing Vietnamese war. Source B also suggests that Kennedy was willing to use military force and it does this by saying “Kennedy would have agreed that withdrawal would case the fall of the dominos” this is suggestion that if Kennedy withdrew from Vietnam then this would be the realisation of the domino theory and everyone would see if Vietnam was the trigger that set of the domino theory. This source shows that Kennedy was willing to us military force and would not withdraw from
In my opinion Operation Rolling Thunder (ORT) was a massive failure. As the US did not meet its official aims and objectives of stopping the spread of communism to Vietnam. It caused a lot of inexperienced soldiers to lose their lives. Also having a major effect on America its self as the country battled to juggle money to afford the cost of the war. But one of the hardest battle’s for the US was to keep their own countries support.
The Americans also had to keep the invasion a secret from their enemies. They used many tactics to divert the Germans’ attention from the actual plan. They developed many misleading operations, created fake armies, tanks, and trucks; sent false spy reports; and broadcasted fictitious radio messages. This led Hitler to believe the real attack would occur at Pas de Calais. Before the invasion, Allied forces bombed the area and dropped rubber paratroopers to confuse the German commanders.
These developments changed the US policies of brinkmanship and massive retaliations, as these methods only worked while the USA remained militarily superior. The Cuban missile crisis showed how back dated these policies were, something Kennedy’s military advisors failed to notice, his understanding of the dangers and his controlled response helped save the USA from the most destructive war ever seen. However the military assured destruction that came with the power of the nuclear era forced the USA and USSR into the standoff of Cuba. This crisis was inevitable and the only way of bringing the arms race to the end. However the driving