JFK waits for word on the Bay of Pigs invasion
President John F.Kennedy waits for word on the success of a covert plan to overthrow Cubas government on this day in 1961.Kennedy had authorized Operation Zapata the attempt to overthrow Cubas communist leader Fidel Castro on April 15.
The failed coup became what many have called the worst foreign-policy decision of Kennedys administration.When Kennedy entered the White House in January 1961 he inherited from his predecessor Dwight D.Eisenhower an ongoing conflict with the leftist regime in Cuba.Aided by Soviet-bloc weaponry Castro led a brutal clampdown on human rights and dissent after taking power in 1959.
That same year Eisenhower had implemented a trade embargo on Cuban goods and in 1960 broke off diplomatic relations with the island nation.Before he left office Eisenhower had approved but did not launch a covert plan devised by his vice president Richard Nixon and the CIA to overthrow Cubas leader Fidel Castro.When Kennedy assumed the presidency he retained Eisenhowers CIA and military advisors who had helped plan the mission.
At their urging Kennedy made the final decision to send approximately 1200 CIA-trained Cuban exiles to land at the bay on Cubas southern coast called Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs).The attempted coup failed miserably largely due to faulty intelligence.Kennedy and the CIA leaders in charge of the mission (all inherited from Eisenhower) believed that Cubas people and its military would spontaneously rise up to help the exile army overthrow Castro a grave miscalculation.
Instead Castros forces captured most of the exile army executed some and held the rest prisoner until private American groups raised funds for their ransom.The CIA and JFKs administration blamed each other for the plans failure.The CIA cited JFKs failure to order prolonged offensive air strikes against Cubas air force at the same time as the land operation while JFK and his advisors blamed the CIA for keeping information from the president including several analysts conclusions that the plans success was dubious.The ensuing tension between the president and his military and intelligence advisors prompted JFK to rely even more heavily on the advice of his brother Robert F.
Bobby Kennedy who was also his attorney general when making future foreign-policy decisions.A former special assistant to JFK Arthur Schlesinger has since recorded Bobby Kennedys recollections of the Bay of Pigs invasion.In a memorandum written in June 1961 Bobby Kennedy concluded that the mission broke down from the incompetency of the CIA and a complete lack of communication.He also noticed that the disaster weighed heavily on his brother who was concerned about how it would reflect upon his leadership and the nations credibility.
In an oral history interview Bobby Kennedy recounted that he and his brother had been through a lot of things together and he was more upset [by the Bay of Pigs failure] than any other.
