On April 17th, 1961: 1,500 armed, anticommunist Cuban exiles landed at Playa Giron beach in the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, hoping to overthrow the Communist dictatorship government of Fidel Castro.
The Bay of Pigs Invasion marked the climax of anti-Cuban US actions.
Cuban forces took control of the situation in less than 72 hours, and 114U.S. men were killed, and 1,200 taken hostage, and would not be released until months later.
Relations between the U.S. and Cuba had been tense since 1959, when Castro overthrew the government of General Fulgencio Batista. The Kennedy administration - and the Eisenhower administration before Kennedy - determined that Castro's shift toward Communism was intolerable, thus marking a decision to overthrow the government.
This failed attempt proved to be an international embarrassment for the Kennedy administration. Some critics of the Bay of Pigs regard it as an ideal case of groupthink decision-making, while other critics - especially Cuban-Americans - regard the Bay of Pigs as a US attempt to rid itself of Cuban exiles. That may very well have been a reason. It is impossible to know, at this point.
The Bay of Pigs had serious consequences for the American political landscape. A number of Cuban-Americans were elected to the U.S. Congress and the Bay of Pigs set about electoral conditions that favor the Republican party.
Cuba attempted to condemn the Bay of Pigs invasion in later 1961, during debates in the United Nations Security Council. This attempted condemnation failed, due to a U.S. veto.
The U.S.-led Gunboat diplomacy, or direct military intervention to overthrow the Cuban government, later caused international protests against interfering with the matters of foreign states common during the Cold War.
The seeds were sown; there was no turning back; the anti-Communist tensions of the Cold War would continue to grow for nearly three more decades.
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The Sixties is a continuing series I posted originally in 2006 on Gather.
It discusses certain events that were in the news during the 1960s, in chronological order.
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Writing is a form of Activism.
You can join my group, The Renewed Activist.
Join my group, The Sixties.
You can join Tom Brokaw's group,Boom!
Previous articles in The Sixties series:
The Sixties: Early Stirrings - JFK Elected President (3)
The Sixties: Early Stirrings - Martin Luther King is Jailed (2)
The Sixties: Early Stirrings - Lunch Counters (1)
The Sixties: Rosa Parks and her effect on Ruby Bridges - (prequel)
Previous Boom! articles:
My review of Tom Brokaw's book:
Boom! Voices of The Sixties: Personal reflections on the 60s and Today
Other Boom! articles:
Copyright © 2006-2009. Kathryn Esplin-Oleski. All rights reserved.
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Comments: 38
Teresa, thanks.
Have a Great & powerful day W/J!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! /a>
i sent the instructions to you and Lynn.
It's nice to finally see some criticism of "Saint" John Kennedy. Much of the impact of his failed actions in Cuba and Vietnam fell on the shoulders of future presidents, including Nixon, who took great political risk in pulling the U.S. out of Vietnam.
I don't know if Bobby would have been any better but, from my perspectives, the Kennedy's have been an embarrassment to this country for almost 50 years.
Good, bad, or ugly, once you start sending our troops onto foreign soil under fire, you have to support their efforts on all fronts (including the homefront.) Otherwise, the enemy sees weakness inpublic support and holds out for a political change in the climate. Sound familiar?
I was one of the first to enlist in the all volunteer (VOLAR) Army in the mid-70's. The Army was in a shambles and trying to rebuild after a humiliating withdrawal from Viet Nam.
Gregory, you will enjoy the entire SIXTIES series I did...
Thank you all...
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.~I Timothy 1:15, a-c
Definitely not Kennedy's finest hour, either in the demands on the planners or the aftermath.
As for this being a milestone in US manipulation attempts with other nations, it was simply one of the more recent glaring examples of such. Think of US intrusions in Mexico, most of the Caribbean states and much of Central America. Most of this was earlier in the 20th century but we did some later too.
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i am glad you posted this, i can live it through you