The Invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs was a failure of mismanagement. The invasion itself was faulty. The failure of the invasion was due to mismanagement on the part of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and John F. Kennedy. The invasion had many long term affects. Even before the Bay of Pigs invasion, there was very high friction between the United States and Castro’s army. In the spring of 1960, President Eisenhower approved a plan to send a small group of Cuban exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro and his army.
The Cuban exiles were supported and trained by the United States government After President Kennedy was elected, the plan for invasion was continued, however it was completely changed by the fall. It was changed to a full invasion with air support by exile Cubans supplied with American planes. The plan was being rushed and inaccurately planned. The Bay of Pigs area was a swampy area, which would be hard on troops.
The invasion started on April 15, of 1961 with the bombing of Cuba by what appeared to be Cuban air force pilots. At 6 a. m in the morning three Cuban military bases were bombed by B-26 bombers. (Triumph and Tragedy, pg. 2). The airfields at Camp Libertad, San Antonio de los Banos and Antonio Maceo airport at Santiago de Cuba were fired upon. Seven people were killed and forty seven were killed at other sites on the island.
The battle of the Bay of Pigs began on April 17th at 2:00 a. m. , with approximately 1300 Cuban exiles armed with U. S. weapons, landing in the “Bahia de Cochinos”, the Bay of Pigs, on the Southern Coast of Cuba. (Chronicle of a Disaster, pg. 132). At 2:00 a. m. , a team of frogmen went ashore to set up equipment to indicate the exact location of their objectives and to clear the area for the battalions to arrive.
At 2:00 and 3:00 a. m. two batallions came ashore to Playa Giron and another batalion landed at Playa Larga. The troops at Playa Giron had orders to move northwest up the coast and meet with the troops at Playa Larga in the middle of the Bay(http://www. timeinc. com). From this point, the troops were prepared to move Northward to the city of Jaguey Grande. However, this invasion was never carried out because Castro’s military stopped it. The troops when arriving at Cuba, expected to gain the support of their fellow Cubans yet this support was never shown.
By 3:00 a. m. Castro knew about the landing and the Cuban government responded almost immediately. In the air, Castro won over the invading force. Castro’s air force sank the U. S. command vessel, Marsopa, and supply ship, The Houston(Kennedy John Fitzgerald, pg. 295). More than 90 exiles were killed, and many were taken as prisoners. These troops were well armed but they wasted ammunition with excessive firing. They believed they would have extra supplies arriving but, their supply ship sank. The Cuban exiles were also led to believe that they would be backed by American forces.
The Central Intelligence Agency did not communicate well with the exiles. The exiles were not only led to believe that American forces would back them but also that they would join forces with people working underground in Cuba. The Central Intelligence Agency not only miscommunicated with the exiles but also with the president(The CIA’s Secret Operations, pg. 72) . Before giving his approval he had one condition. This was that U. S. forces would not be used in this invasion.
The CIA did not listen and thought this decision could be reversed. When the need arose for U. S. tervention there was nobody there to help. If the CIA had listened then they would not have put those exiles on the island. Also, the CIA did not secure the situation. The only thing Castro had to do was look in a newspaper and he would know that something was going to happen and that the planes were not his but they were American.
The CIA had the wrong people handling the situation and they miscommunicated with the president. The Central Intelligence Agency led Kennedy to make bad decisions in the situation(President’s Secret Wars, pg. 187). John F. Kennedy the newly elected president was also at fault here.
He became president of the United States in 1960 when the plan was almost completed (America the Beautiful, pg. 17) He could have stopped this invasion but he didn’t. The reasons he had for not backing out were not good enough to risk peoples lives. One reason he did not stop the invasion was that he had campaigned for some form of action against Cuba. So if he backed out he would break campaign promises and make Americans look bad. He was also not in office long enough to be making these decisions. He was only in office for three months when he made the decision to put peoples lives in danger.
He was given wrong information from the CIA. He should have looked farther into the situation. The long term affect of this failure is that Castro is still in power thirty four years later. In the administration some affects were that the Director of Central Intelligence, Allen Dulles was forced to resign. President Kennedy took full responsibility and gained popularity and respect from people around the world. The only good thing that came of this crisis is that the failure of the Bay of Pigs contributed to the successful handling of the Cuban missile crisis.
