Fidel Castro Research Paper

On April 17, 1961, 1400 CIA-backed Cuban exiles launched a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. This invasion was called The Bay of Pigs Invasion. This invasion "Was intended to provoke popularity for an uprising against Fidel Castro, who had overthrown American-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista" (Web).The goal of the unfortunately failed invasion was the overthrow of Castro and the establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the United States. Before John F. Kennedy took office, he was informed of this plan by the CIA. Developed during the Eisenhower administration, the plan was to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their

CIA director Allen Dulles ensured to Kennedy that this was going to be the perfect invasion. On April 17, 1961, the invasion of Bay of Pigs had begun. The invasion was a total failure, since nobody in the island showed any interest of joining the coup against Castro. Castro's men captured 1189 prisoners and ransomed them for ten million dollars. It was the first major step for Kennedy during his administration, which gave him total humiliation. Later in his term, Kennedy refers to Bay of Pigs "Cuba was a hell of a time." This convinced Kennedy never to trust anyone ever again. Moreover, maybe perhaps, this was why he was successful during the Cuban missile crisis.

The Bay of Pigs was a failed invasion by the United States to overthrow the communist government in Cuba run by the infamous Fidel Castro. The CIA-operated campaign attempted to use Cuban exiles as a Guerilla army in hopes of conducting a secret invasion. The objective was to remove the Cuban leader and establish a non-communist government that would benefit the United States. President John F. Kennedy, Commander in Chief during this time, wanted to prove to China, Russia, and even pessimistic Americans that he was determined to win the Cold War. Unfortunately, the campaign was extremely underprepared, which led to a disastrous outcome with Castro’s troops having the aggressors pinned on the beach under heavy fire. Soon after, the exiles surrendered in less than a single day of fighting, making the assault widely known as the CIA’s “perfect failure”. This topic was selected because the Cold War era intrigues me greatly; there is an abundance of covert operations, heightened tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as technological competitions such as the space race. The Bay of Pigs ties into all of this, which led to the Cuban missile crisis, causing one of the closest calls in history in regards to nuclear war. The information found for this paper is from sources including the History Chanel website, the JFK Library, the CIA website, and the United States History website.

“One of our greatest assets is that all men aspire to be equal and free. This fact haunts the rulers of the Kremlin today for they cannot change the law of nature and they know it.” stated Allen Dulles, the fifth director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Cold War, Bay of Pigs Invasion began on April 17, 1961 and has had an everlasting effect on the history of the United States and the world. The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an encounter between Cuban exiles, armed and trained by the American Central Intelligence Agency and the military forces of Fidel Castro. The failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion proceeded to unite the Soviet Union and Cuba to create mass terror in the United States and for its allies. The belief was that if the Soviet

Before the invasion happened, the CIA had to train Cuban exiles to hate and destroy the Cuban government and economy. The reason they started training these Cuban exiles is because Fidel Castro overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista with an armed revolt. This made the CIA really mad because Batista was good allies with the US and Castro wasn’t. The CIA set up training camps in Guatemala in 1960, and in November the operation had trained a small army for an assault landing and guerilla warfare (jfklibrary.org). After a while, Kennedy confirmed the invasion plan, and was determined to disguise US support. The plan called for two airstrikes against Cuban air bases, a 1,400-man invasion, paratroopers would drop in before the invasion happened, and time after time, small forces would land on the

During the same time as Cuba and the Soviet Union's relationship, the significant events of the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis brought in the United States, Cuba, and Soviet Union into conflict. John F. Kennedy believed that Castro was becoming a threat and that he would become to powerful. So on April 16, 1961, the CIA launched the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Over 2,000 "Anti- Castrolies" stormed up the Bay of Pigs in Southern Cuba. In fact, most of the Anti- Castrolies were Cuban exiles who disagreed with Castro's ideas for Cuba. For some months prior, the CIA had gathered these people to train for an assassination attempt on Castro. This group was given the codename "Brigade 2506," and in less then 24-72 hours 100 were dead and 1,189

This secret operation was viewed as far less dangerous than a direct invasion by American troops.As the election of 1960 approached, the CIA had already made plans to overthrow Castro with the Cuban exiles. However, to the surprise of just about everyone, a young John F. Kennedy defeated favorite Richard Nixon by the slimmest of margins.Nonetheless, the invasion had to go on. The plan was to bomb Cuba's airfields to prevent the Cuban military from killing the invading exiles. However, two things went wrong in the invasion. First, the CIA underestimated the Cuban army, and second, the airstrips were not all taken out, allowing the Cuban airforce to retaliate.

The aftermaths of the CIA’s failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, an operation, set in motion by the previous Dwight Eisenhower Administration, were now laid down on Kennedy. The failed operation was a major backslide for the CIA. "The Bay of Pigs fiasco broke the dike," said one report at the time and now senior military leaders wanted to take matters in their own hands. President Kennedy’s administration was accused of being soft on Fidel Castro, a then-new communist leader, who took powers during the 1959 Cuban revolution. With the Cold War

Fidel Castro rose to power in the late 1950s and became dictator of Cuba. Tensions started to grow between America and Cuba when Cuba cut American ties to isolate Cuba so Castro could gain more power. Castro also developed ties with the Soviet Union which was problematic since the United States was engaged in the Cold War with the Soviet Union (History.com). When the presence of Soviet Union missiles in Cuba was announced, a new crisis had taken over. In an attempt to keep the United States

Investigation After ousting U.S. supported Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Fidel Castro came to power and began to nationalize American assets in retaliation to a trade embargo. The CIA and the Eisenhower administration began to formulate a plan to remove Castro from power. While Eisenhower had started the process for the Bay of Pigs invasion, it would take place 3 months after Kennedy was sworn into office. Inspired by an U.S. led revolution in Guatemala in 1954, the CIA and the White House sought to create a revolution in Cuba without any ties to U.S. interference. Lyman B. Kirkpatrick, CIA inspector general, stated “‘no one seriously studied whether it was even possible to overthrow Castro in the first place.

     It was after Castro took power that the United States changed its way in which it dealt with Cuba dramatically. The United States decided it would

The training took place when President Eisenhower was leaving office and President-elect Kennedy was coming into office. Upon coming into office, President Kennedy was told of the training of Cuban exiles in Guatemala by CIA director Allen Dulles. Kennedy gave his approval for the training of the exiles to continue. He later went to the Joint Chiefs of Staff to evaluate the situation. They came to the conclusion that even though the CIA was training the exiles they wouldn't have a very good chance of succeeding in overthrowing the dictator of Cuba. They felt that even to have a chance of success they would need the people still living in Cuba, who were unhappy with the government, to rebel at the same time they were to come ashore (Think Quest). After Kennedy had a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff the President Guatemala ordered the CIA and the Cuban exiles out of his country. Kennedy was forced to make a quick decision. The president was then informed that the Cubans were receiving a shipment of fighter crafts from the Soviets. After this President Kennedy got this news he gave the green light for the mission, but had the right

“Victory has a thousand fathers while defeat is an orphan,” remarked John F. Kennedy. The Bay of Pigs invasion code named operation Zapata began in March of 1960 one month and a year before the famed invasion took place. United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to begin a covert operation to bring down the pro-communist Cuban government. Nonetheless Fidel Castro’s potential pro-communist beliefs, the seizure of American owned companies and land lead to extreme concern from United States policy makers and officials. The mission, however would become possibly one of the greatest intelligence failures in the history of the United States. The failed Bay of Pigs invasion lead to a new era in the military and intelligence fields that continues to affect foreign policy

In 1940 to 1944, communist Fulgencio Batista withheld power as the president of Cuba and then from 1952 to 1959, United States backed dictator until fleeing Cuba because of Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement. Socialist Fidel Castro governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President from 1976 to 2008. Fidel Castro’s intent was to provide Cuba with an honest democratic government by diminishing the corrupt way in which the country was run, the large role the United States played in the running of Cuba as well as the poor treatment & the living conditions of the lower class.

On April 15, 1961 the Bay of Pigs invasion began to invade Cuba and remove Castro from the leadership. The unsuccessful invasion was stopped two days later. Now Castro needed the strong arm of the Soviets even more. With the Cold War arms race in effect, Castro knew that the Soviets could protect him from future invasions from the United States.