Research paper on bay of pigs

Introduction

As a nation increases its political power influence at the global arena, it usually becomes fearful of any potential emerging threats and can deploy any measure in order to combat such entities that are perceived as external threats. The Bay of Pigs Invasions was an instance of one such occurrence, which was accelerated by dire need of the United States to maintain its powerful status quo, while at the same time maintaining its reputation as a prime protector of the human and civil rights. As a response to the perceived threat that the Cuba posed, the United States, with the help of the Cuban exiles, initiated the Invasion at the Bay of Pigs. The invasion was hastily initiated and poorly planned (Howard 60). This played a significant role in stained the United States image both at the domestic and foreign levels, this ultimately led to the United States brink to a nuclear war at the helm of Cuban missile crisis. The principal argument is that the failed invasion of the Bay of Pigs was a terrible embarrassment to the Kennedy administration, and it is of the belief that the failed Invasion ultimately led to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Bay of Pigs invasion is one of the significant events that marked the Cuban revolution. The invasion was initiated by the CIA trained force that comprised of Cuban exiles, who had the intention of invading the southern part of Cuba. The invasion had the required support and the encouragement from the United States Government, which had the principal objective of the overthrowing the Cuban government that was led by Fidel Castro (Lynch 102). The resistance to the invasion was principally by the armed forces of Cuba, which received training and necessary support in terms of equipment from the Eastern Bloc, which in turn resulted to a defeat of the invaders in three days.

President John F Kennedy had the choice of deploying the US Air Force during the invasion, bur decided not to use it, as a result, the Cuban army managed to halt the invasion at the Bay of Pigs. The Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion was a significant embarrassment to the President Kennedy administration, which had only stayed in office for only three months. There has been various critics regarding the unsuccessful invasion, with some citing lack of adequate support from the Kennedy administration, while other criticizing it on grounds of allowing the invasion at the Bay of Pigs to take place (Craughwell and Williams 125).

In order to evaluate the thesis of this paper, it is imperative to analyze the various levels of the Kennedy administration involvement in the Bay of Pigs invasion, and the aftermath of the invasion. Prior to the inauguration of President John F Kennedy to assume the presidency of the United States, there were plans that were underway by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which was established during the President Eisenhower administration to provide training to the exiles from Cuba, in preparation for an invasion to their homeland in order to overthrow Fidel Castro. It can be inferred that the Bay of Pigs Invasion was fuelled by the existence of the contentious relationship that existed between Cuba, which was communist country, and the USSR. The US government was uncomfortable with the concept of communism gaining spread in country that was close to its borders. The US, being the largest nation and one of the free countries at the time, had the responsibility of ensuring that there was lack of spread of communism, and the US government believed that the invasion was a justified cause aimed at protection of the human rights and civil liberties of the inhabitants of Cuba. In addition, the good relationship that existed between the communist Cuba and the USSR, which was the only, super power that was somewhat equivalent to the United States. An underlying fact is that communism was a significant constraint in terms of foreign relations between the US and Cuba, especially in terms of trade. The initial anticipation of the plan was that they combatants will receive the support from the citizens of Cuba, and that a vast fraction of the Cuban military will also provide the required support to initiate the invasion. According to the Kennedy administration, the Bay of Pigs invasion was to establish a non-communist government in Cuba that would maintain good relationship with the United States (Walsh 41). A significant factor that resulted to the failure of the invasion is that its success solely depended on the cooperation of the Cuban population in joining the invasion, which ultimately did not turn as expected. In addition, despite various alternatives at the disposal of the President John F Kennedy, he chose not to deploy the US Air force during the invasion, and this significantly contributed to the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The failure can be perceived as an embarrassment to the Kennedy administration owing to the fact that detailed planning and training of the Cuban exiles, the provision of the necessary support and equipment was done by the United States Government, yet it turned out to be unsuccessful.

The impact of President John F Kennedy on the Bay Of Pigs Invasion

President John F Kennedy played a significant role in the Bay of Pigs Invasion; in fact, it was within duration of three months after he had assumed presidency. It can be stated that the effectiveness in the execution of the invasion was dependent on the successor of President Eisenhower, President John F Kennedy. The Kennedy administration was aware of the fact that their full involvement in the invasion would result a political criticism of the United States, and result to an immediate backlash at the United States from the globe for initiating an attack on another country without a justified provocation (Craughwell and Williams 152). With regard to this, the Kennedy administration wanted to conceal its involvement in the invasion, and this can be said also be one of the principal causes for the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The Kennedy administration was unsatisfied with the initial plan established by the Eisenhower administration, and later drafted a new hasty plan that would soon result to its failure during the initiation of the invasion (Craughwell and Williams 47).

The aftermath of the invasion

The failure of the invasion was imminent and unavoidable due to the planning errors and other flaws during the invasion that made the whole operation a failure. All of the errors that occurred during the invasion can be integrated back to a single factor which ultimately had an influence on the overall failure of the operation, the United States government feared exposure compared to their fear for defeat, in the sense that the exposure of its involvement on the attacks could have resulted to a disastrous political influence of the US at the global context (Craughwell and Williams 56). The conflicts of interests were because of the advantages associated with lack of exposure, and at the same the need to offer more military support for the invasion. The Kennedy administration chose to sacrifice victory at the expense of lack of exposure of their involvement in the Bay of Pigs invasion (Hawkins 41). In fact, the failure of the invasion resulted to extensive ramifications, which were to the disadvantage of the United States. The outcome of poor planning was the CIA and the Kennedy administration started pointing fingers at one another with respect to acceptance of blame for the failure. The United States also suffered a tainted foreign relation with most of its allies (Hawkins 58).

The failure of the invasion ultimately had an effect on the confidence that other countries had in the United States, the failure was a mileage for the USSR and Cuba in global influence. An important aspect of the failure of the invasion is that it laid a framework for the development of the Cuba Missile Crisis. This was due to the increasing fear from Cuba due to fear from attacks by the United States, this resulted to a steady supply of weapons to Cuba from the USSR, which almost resulted to a complete nuclear war.

Conclusion

It is evident that the failure of the bay of Pigs Invasion scales down to a single issue, the United States perceived itself as being powerful and deployed measures that were aimed at making sure it remained powerful by invasion of Cuba, which it perceived as threatening. However, the United States ended up failing in its quest to remain a super power. The failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion was a terrible embarrassment to the Kennedy administration, and it is of the belief that the failed Invasion ultimately led to the Cuban Missile Crisis

Works cited

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Hawkins, Jack. ” Classified disaster: the Bay of Pigs operation was doomed by presidential
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Howard, Jones. The Bay of Pigs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Lynch, Grayston. Decision for Disaster: Betrayal at the Bay of Pigs. Washington DC: Brassey’s
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Walsh, Stephen. The Bay of Pigs: Cuba 1961. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2009.