Why Did the Bay of Pigs Invasion Fail? Documentary
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Date: 2022-07-19
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Comments and reviews: 20
Serendipitous
The book The Devils Chessboard by David Talbot touched a bit on the subject of the Bay of Pigs invasion and offers some pretty unique insight as to why it went so wrong.
The director of the CIA at the time, Allen Dulles, was not a fan of JFK, and the feeling was mutual. The book tells it that the team Dulles put together for overseeing the Bay of Pigs was almost purposefully unqualified for the task at hand. Dulles was heavily in favor of Plan A; supporting the exiles with air support and other direct military assistance as needed. But when Kennedy nixed that, the book theorized that Dulles put together a rag tag team to supervise the operation out of spite in hopes that either 1) once the invasion went poorly, Kennedy would cave into pressure and call in the Navy and Air Force or 2) if he didnt do that, the failure of the invasion would make JFK look bad and show him that Dulles decisions should be trusted. On the day of the invasion itself, Dulles wasnt even at the CIA headquarters.
Unfortunately, when 1 failed to happen, 2 only halfway happened (JFK certainly took flak for the invasion) but it also led to secret option 3, that being JFK forcing Dulles to resign from the post that he had held through several continuous presidential administrations at that point.
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The book The Devils Chessboard by David Talbot touched a bit on the subject of the Bay of Pigs invasion and offers some pretty unique insight as to why it went so wrong.
The director of the CIA at the time, Allen Dulles, was not a fan of JFK, and the feeling was mutual. The book tells it that the team Dulles put together for overseeing the Bay of Pigs was almost purposefully unqualified for the task at hand. Dulles was heavily in favor of Plan A; supporting the exiles with air support and other direct military assistance as needed. But when Kennedy nixed that, the book theorized that Dulles put together a rag tag team to supervise the operation out of spite in hopes that either 1) once the invasion went poorly, Kennedy would cave into pressure and call in the Navy and Air Force or 2) if he didnt do that, the failure of the invasion would make JFK look bad and show him that Dulles decisions should be trusted. On the day of the invasion itself, Dulles wasnt even at the CIA headquarters.
Unfortunately, when 1 failed to happen, 2 only halfway happened (JFK certainly took flak for the invasion) but it also led to secret option 3, that being JFK forcing Dulles to resign from the post that he had held through several continuous presidential administrations at that point.
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Luca
Your short animations are a form of art: interesting and informative content in a simple and enjoyable format! Thank you! :) If I may add my 5 cents of personal experience, in this case: I was there, I was young, I was volunteering for the Revolution to cut sugar cane, I fought at the Bay of Pigs. Without resorting to complicated geopolitical elucubrations, the Cubans fought off the invasion for a simple reason, which I could witness with my own eyes: the Cubans fought to the extreme, like possessed tigers, to defend the Revolution, that is, their first real hope for a better future, for a more just and humane society, after centuries of colonialism and decades of American exploitation under dictatorships, one more brutal and bloody than the other. It's that simple. They kicked the gusanos butt. :)
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Your short animations are a form of art: interesting and informative content in a simple and enjoyable format! Thank you! :) If I may add my 5 cents of personal experience, in this case: I was there, I was young, I was volunteering for the Revolution to cut sugar cane, I fought at the Bay of Pigs. Without resorting to complicated geopolitical elucubrations, the Cubans fought off the invasion for a simple reason, which I could witness with my own eyes: the Cubans fought to the extreme, like possessed tigers, to defend the Revolution, that is, their first real hope for a better future, for a more just and humane society, after centuries of colonialism and decades of American exploitation under dictatorships, one more brutal and bloody than the other. It's that simple. They kicked the gusanos butt. :)
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D. E
Americans really underestimate how much people don't like to be invaded XD
Here in Mexico during the revolution it's remembered as a terrible offense when Wilson sent marines to take Veracruz. Despite being actually helping the good guys (Carranza) cause Veracruz was fortress of the current dictator (Huerta) and the entry for foreign weapons. But everyone got mad at the USA 'till now cause we hated Huerta but we it was our problem and we hate more foreigneres touching our country.
Like the national anthem was literally a battlecry against Americans and french.
Maybe Americans need to get invaded more often to understand why nobody ever has raised up when they invaded to liberate.
No offense to anyone XD its a sincere thought.
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Americans really underestimate how much people don't like to be invaded XD
Here in Mexico during the revolution it's remembered as a terrible offense when Wilson sent marines to take Veracruz. Despite being actually helping the good guys (Carranza) cause Veracruz was fortress of the current dictator (Huerta) and the entry for foreign weapons. But everyone got mad at the USA 'till now cause we hated Huerta but we it was our problem and we hate more foreigneres touching our country.
Like the national anthem was literally a battlecry against Americans and french.
Maybe Americans need to get invaded more often to understand why nobody ever has raised up when they invaded to liberate.
No offense to anyone XD its a sincere thought.
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James
I don't know if JFK viewed the Bay of Pigs as a failure. It seems there were two rational choices have the freedom fighters invade Cuba with USA air support or hold off on the invasion until the freedom fighters had their own air support such as helicopters protected by anti-aircraft missiles. JFK made an irrational choice, but perhaps there was method to his madness. He made a terrible mistake, but he also had a very powerful propaganda machine to help him out, and he was an excellent propagandist himself. He was a celebrity president. His popularity went up after the failure of the invasion. Turning his irrational behavior into a political plus was a good test of the operational efficiency of his propaganda machine.
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I don't know if JFK viewed the Bay of Pigs as a failure. It seems there were two rational choices have the freedom fighters invade Cuba with USA air support or hold off on the invasion until the freedom fighters had their own air support such as helicopters protected by anti-aircraft missiles. JFK made an irrational choice, but perhaps there was method to his madness. He made a terrible mistake, but he also had a very powerful propaganda machine to help him out, and he was an excellent propagandist himself. He was a celebrity president. His popularity went up after the failure of the invasion. Turning his irrational behavior into a political plus was a good test of the operational efficiency of his propaganda machine.
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Luboman411
I love how deluded the CIA and the Kennedy Administration were in thinking the Cuban people hated Castro so much that they would rise up and overthrow him. He got rid of Fulgencio Batista, the previous very unpopular pro-American dictator, kicked out all the hated corrupt rich people, and then parceled out those rich peoples' lands and properties rather equitably among all Cubans. That was a VERY popular move. Americans were also mostly DESPISED in Cuba in the 1950s. They owned a huge chunk of the Cuban economy and treated Cubans like peasants in their own country. That's why Castro gained power so quickly and with so few men in 1959--no one was stopping him. The Cubans were fine and dandy that he took over.
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I love how deluded the CIA and the Kennedy Administration were in thinking the Cuban people hated Castro so much that they would rise up and overthrow him. He got rid of Fulgencio Batista, the previous very unpopular pro-American dictator, kicked out all the hated corrupt rich people, and then parceled out those rich peoples' lands and properties rather equitably among all Cubans. That was a VERY popular move. Americans were also mostly DESPISED in Cuba in the 1950s. They owned a huge chunk of the Cuban economy and treated Cubans like peasants in their own country. That's why Castro gained power so quickly and with so few men in 1959--no one was stopping him. The Cubans were fine and dandy that he took over.
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Geo
Cuban political history has been one domino falling effect. That is one bad dictator overthrown by another worse dictator. Batista had gotten rid of the Platt Amendment which would have given the U. S. rights to intervene well before Castro took power. Batista left the country in the middle of the night on New Years leaving Havana wide open for Fidel to simply march in on Jan. 1st. There was no real overthrow. there was no resistance or battle. It was just Batista taking as much money out of the country as he could and then abandoning Cuba with his cronies. In the wake of that the Cubans got 60+ years of communist misery. Waiting for another domino to fall.
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Cuban political history has been one domino falling effect. That is one bad dictator overthrown by another worse dictator. Batista had gotten rid of the Platt Amendment which would have given the U. S. rights to intervene well before Castro took power. Batista left the country in the middle of the night on New Years leaving Havana wide open for Fidel to simply march in on Jan. 1st. There was no real overthrow. there was no resistance or battle. It was just Batista taking as much money out of the country as he could and then abandoning Cuba with his cronies. In the wake of that the Cubans got 60+ years of communist misery. Waiting for another domino to fall.
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Alex
Modern estimates place 1/3 of Castro's total followers at the Battle of Las Mercedes. i don't know where they thought the rest was, maybe preparing for another campaign or something. If those estimates are correct, the pay of pigs invasion was slightly larger than Castro's own revolution, and better trained. Given that people didn't spontaneously join Castro in 1958 to join the Revolution because they were secretly sympathizing with him, the idea that a Cuban exile force larger than Castro's original revolution wasn't such an outrageous idea. It turned out to be wrong, but hindsight is 20/20.
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Modern estimates place 1/3 of Castro's total followers at the Battle of Las Mercedes. i don't know where they thought the rest was, maybe preparing for another campaign or something. If those estimates are correct, the pay of pigs invasion was slightly larger than Castro's own revolution, and better trained. Given that people didn't spontaneously join Castro in 1958 to join the Revolution because they were secretly sympathizing with him, the idea that a Cuban exile force larger than Castro's original revolution wasn't such an outrageous idea. It turned out to be wrong, but hindsight is 20/20.
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Seed_drill
I had a professor who was the former head of the CIA in Central America. During the Bay of Pigs he was just a newbie desk jockey. One day he got a call, it was President Kennedy. Kennedy no longer trusted the chain of command in the CIA after the Bay of Pigs and would call ground level agents to get unfiltered reports before they could be run through their superiors.
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I had a professor who was the former head of the CIA in Central America. During the Bay of Pigs he was just a newbie desk jockey. One day he got a call, it was President Kennedy. Kennedy no longer trusted the chain of command in the CIA after the Bay of Pigs and would call ground level agents to get unfiltered reports before they could be run through their superiors.
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Texas
United States: All people around the world have a God-given right to self determination.
Also United States: .as long as that determination is free-market capitalism that allows exploitation by American corporations.
The problem, of course, was that the Soviet version of communism was authoritarian, murderous, and lacking of any civil rights.
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United States: All people around the world have a God-given right to self determination.
Also United States: .as long as that determination is free-market capitalism that allows exploitation by American corporations.
The problem, of course, was that the Soviet version of communism was authoritarian, murderous, and lacking of any civil rights.
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MPhilbin
They DID have air support. The landings were preceded on 15 April 1961 by air attacks on Cuban airfields by 8 CIA-supplied B-26 bombers, launched from Nicaragua & landed in Florida. Kennedy was right not to follow-up an obvious failure. Of course, who knew what that decision could've led to.
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They DID have air support. The landings were preceded on 15 April 1961 by air attacks on Cuban airfields by 8 CIA-supplied B-26 bombers, launched from Nicaragua & landed in Florida. Kennedy was right not to follow-up an obvious failure. Of course, who knew what that decision could've led to.
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sabin97
to be fair, the brutal dictator usa had imposed in cuba STOLE the cuban lands and gave them to some rich people from usa to make them even richer.
fidel recovered those rightfully cuban lands.
those capitalists had no right to complain about their stolen lands being recovered by cuba.
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to be fair, the brutal dictator usa had imposed in cuba STOLE the cuban lands and gave them to some rich people from usa to make them even richer.
fidel recovered those rightfully cuban lands.
those capitalists had no right to complain about their stolen lands being recovered by cuba.
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Steadyjumper
This was basically a half measure and ended up being an embarrassment. Loud and proud would have been more politically effective and strategically. This was the US backyard and should have been given attention. Cuba would have been better off today and thats a fact.
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This was basically a half measure and ended up being an embarrassment. Loud and proud would have been more politically effective and strategically. This was the US backyard and should have been given attention. Cuba would have been better off today and thats a fact.
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Stephan
At the beginning of the Revolution, Fidel didn't really have any problem with the USA; however, The dormer dictator Batista was a US Puppet, so they never wanted to get along with Fidel. That pushed Fidel to seek help at the communist side, the USSR.
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At the beginning of the Revolution, Fidel didn't really have any problem with the USA; however, The dormer dictator Batista was a US Puppet, so they never wanted to get along with Fidel. That pushed Fidel to seek help at the communist side, the USSR.
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unclejoeoakland
Problem- a bunch of Cubans are demanding you fight a civil war for them and they enjoy public sympathy.
Solution- give them some antique landing crafts and no air support, and point them at a narrow, heavily defended bay.
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Problem- a bunch of Cubans are demanding you fight a civil war for them and they enjoy public sympathy.
Solution- give them some antique landing crafts and no air support, and point them at a narrow, heavily defended bay.
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Arvid
What i learned from this video is that if you die young like Che Guevara did, people remerber you that way and get the benefit of getting drawn young in yt vids but if you grow old like Castro youre drawn like an old man.
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What i learned from this video is that if you die young like Che Guevara did, people remerber you that way and get the benefit of getting drawn young in yt vids but if you grow old like Castro youre drawn like an old man.
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Chad
If I remember correctly Che Guevara either sarcastically or seriously said that without the invasion it would have been impossible for them to keep power. I guess all sides need an outside enemy to control the masses.
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If I remember correctly Che Guevara either sarcastically or seriously said that without the invasion it would have been impossible for them to keep power. I guess all sides need an outside enemy to control the masses.
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Lucciano
Kennedy should've waited out a few years before trying the Bay of Pigs invasion. Maybe on 1962 onwards, by that point Castro was showing its communist colors and people were fleeing the island once more.
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Kennedy should've waited out a few years before trying the Bay of Pigs invasion. Maybe on 1962 onwards, by that point Castro was showing its communist colors and people were fleeing the island once more.
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the
Democrats have a weird history of withdrawing vital support from allies, then acting surprised when they fail. Cuba, Vietnam, and now Afghanistan.
Starting to wonder if they did that deliberately?
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Democrats have a weird history of withdrawing vital support from allies, then acting surprised when they fail. Cuba, Vietnam, and now Afghanistan.
Starting to wonder if they did that deliberately?
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Dave
The Bay of Pigs invasion failed because the air support was from Texas which is an hour behind Cuba and so by the time it was figured out the time difference was not adjusted for it was too late.
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The Bay of Pigs invasion failed because the air support was from Texas which is an hour behind Cuba and so by the time it was figured out the time difference was not adjusted for it was too late.
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Conor
America, look, we dont have a problem with dictators per se, just dictate is that dont get the message that global business starts and stops in the United States. Oh, and something about freedom
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America, look, we dont have a problem with dictators per se, just dictate is that dont get the message that global business starts and stops in the United States. Oh, and something about freedom
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