Cuba Essay Research Paper In this paper free essay sample

Cuba Essay, Research Paper In this paper I hope to turn out that the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion was one of misdirection, certitude, and deficiency of security. The incrimination for the failure of the operation falls straight in the lap of the Central Intelligence Agency and a immature president and his dvisors. The consequence of the invasion caused a rise in tenseness between the two great world powers and ironically 39 old ages after the event, the individual that the invasion was meant get rid of, Fidel Castro, is still in power. On April 17th 1961 the assault on the Bay of Pigs began at 2 a.m. with a squad of trained Cuban expatriates who went ashore to interest out the country for the chief undertaking force. At 2:30 a.m. and at 3:00 ante meridiem two battalions came ashore at Playa Girn and one battalion at Playa Larga beaches. The military personnels at Playa Girn had orders to travel north-west, up the seashore and meet with the military personnels at Playa Larga in the center of the bay. A little group of work forces were so to be sent North to the town of Jaguey Grande to procure it every bit good. When looking at a modern map of Cuba it is obvious that the military personnels would hold jobs in the country that was chosen for them to set down at. The country around the Bay of Pigs is a boggy fen land country which would be hard on the military personnels. The Cuban forces were speedy to respond and Castro ordered his T-33 trainer jets, two Sea Furies, and two B-26s into the air to halt the invading forces. Off the seashore were the bid and control ship and another vass transporting supplies for the invading forces. The Cuban air force took out the supply ships, droping the bid vessel the Marsopa and the supply ship the Houston. In the terminal the 5th battalion was lost, which was on the Houston, every bit good as the supplies for the landing squads and eight other smaller vass. With some of the invading forces # 8217 ; ships destroyed, and no bid and control ship, the operation shortly broke down as the other supply ships were kept at bay by Castro # 8217 ; s air force. Over the 72 hours that the invasion lasted the Cubans pounded on the US backed expatriates of about 1500 work forces. By Wednesday the encroachers were pushed back to their landing zone at Playa Girn. Surrounded by Castro # 8217 ; s forces some began to give up while others fled into the hills. In all 114 work forces were killed while 36 died as captives in Cuban cells. Many where left in the Cuban cells for over 20 old ages as captives of war. The 1500 work forces of the occupying force neer had a opportunity for success from about the first yearss in the planning phase of the operation. The invasion was called Operation Pluto and it had originally been suggested by the Eisenhower disposal yet carried over when John F. Kennedy became president. American policies holding to cover with Latin America in the late 1950 # 8217 ; s to the early 1960 # 8217 ; s were based on America # 8217 ; s economic involvements and its anti-communism. In 1950 George Kennan spoke about the American policy with Latin America he said that American policy had several intents in the part, # 8220 ; To protect the critical supplies of natural stuffs which Latin American states export to the USA ; to forestall the # 8216 ; military development of Latin America by the enemy # 8217 ; [ The Soviet Union ] ; and to debar # 8216 ; the psychological mobilisation of Latin America against us. # 8221 ; By the 1950s trade with Latin America accounted for about 25 % of American exports, and 80 % of the investings in Latin America was besides by the United States. In the spring of 1960, President Eisenhower approved a program to direct little groups of American trained, Cuban exiles to work on subverting Castro. By the autumn, the program was changed to a full invasion with air support by exiled Cubans in American supplied planes. The group was to be trained in Panama, but with the growing of the operation and the accelerating gait of events in Cuba, it was decided to travel things to a base in Guatemala. The program was going rushed and this would get down to demo. The adult male in charge of the operation, CIA Deputy Director Bissell said, # 8220 ; There didn # 8217 ; t seem to be clip to maintain to the original program and have a big group trained by this initial cell of immature Cubans. So the larger group was formed and established at La Finca, in Guatemala, and at that place the preparation was conducted wholly by Americans. # 8221 ; It was now autumn and a new president had been elected. President Kennedy could hold stopped the invasion if he wanted to yet he didn # 8217 ; t. There were a few cardinal factors in which he believed it was a good thought to travel with it, one he had campaigned for some signifier of action against Cuba and it was besides the tallness of the cold war, to endorse out now would intend holding groups of Cuban expatriates going around the Earth stating how the Americans had backed down on the Cuba issue. In competition with the Soviet Union, endorsing out would do the Americans look weak on the international scene. Furthermore by domestic ingestion the new president would be seen as endorsing off from one of his run promises. The 2nd ground Kennedy likely didn # 8217 ; t abort the operation is the chief ground why the operation failed, jobs with the CIA. The failure at the CIA led to Kennedy into doing hapless determinations, which would impact future dealingss with Cuba and the Soviet Union. The failure at CIA had three causes. First the incorrect people were managing the operation, secondly the bureau in charge of the operation was besides the one supplying all the intelligence for the operation, and thirdly for an organisation purportedly obsessed with security the operation in itself it had security jobs. In charge of the operation was the Director of Central Intelligence, Allan Dulles and chief duty for the operation was left to one of his deputies, Richard Bissell. In was geared chiefly for European operations against the USSR, both work forces were missing in experience in Latin American personal businesss. Those in charge of Operation Pluto based this new operation on the success of a past Guatemalan escapade, but the state of affairs in Cuba was much different than that in Guatemala. In Guatemala the state of affairs was sti ll helter-skelter and Arbenz, the Guatemalan president, neer had the same control over the state that Castro had on Cuba. The CIA had the United States Ambassador, John Puerifoy, working on the interior of Guatemala organizing the attempt, in Cuba they had none of this piece Castro was being supplied by the Soviet block. In add-on, after the overthrow of the authorities in Guatemala, Castro was cognizant that this may go on to him every bit good and likely had his guard up waiting for anything that my indicate that an invasion was at hand. The 2nd job was that the CIA was a new organisation, which felt that it had to turn out itself, it saw its chance in Cuba. Obsessed with secretiveness, it kept the figure of people involved to a lower limit. The intelligence wing of CIA was kept out of it, their Board of National Estimates could hold provided information on the state of affairs in Cuba and the opportunities for an rebellion against Castro one time the invasion started. Besides kept out of the cringle were the State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff who could hold provided aid on the military side of the escapade. In the terminal, the CIA kept all the information for itself and passed on to the president merely what it thought he should see. Lucien S. Vandenbroucke, in Political Science Quarterly of 1984, based his analysis of the Bay of Pigs failure on organisational behaviour theory. On the CIA # 8217 ; s behavior he concludes that, # 8220 ; By fall backing to the typical organisation scheme of specifying t he options and supplying the information required to measure them, the CIA therefore structured the job in a manner that maximized the likeliness the president would take the bureau # 8217 ; s preferred option. # 8221 ; The CIA made certain the deck was stacked in their favour when the clip came to make up ones mind whether a undertaking they sponsored would travel through. President Kennedy # 8217 ; s Secretary of State at the clip was Dean Rusk, in his autobiography he says that, # 8220 ; The CIA told us all kinds of things about the state of affairs in Cuba and what would go on one time the brigade got ashore. President Kennedy received information which merely was non right. For illustration, we were told that elements of the Cuban armed forces would desert and fall in the brigade, that there would be popular rebellions throughout Cuba when the bri gade hit the beach, and that if the expatriate force got into problem, its members would merely run into the countryside and go guerillas, merely as Castro had done.† As for senior White House Plutos, most of them disagreed with the program every bit good, but Rusk says that Kennedy went with what the CIA had to state. Yet he said that he # 8220 ; Did non function President Kennedy really good, # 8221 ; because he should hold told him about his concerns. He concluded that # 8220 ; I should hold made my resistance clear in the meetings themselves because he [ Kennedy ] was under force per unit area from those who wanted to proceed. # 8221 ; When faced with colored information from the CIA and quiet advisers, it is no admiration that the president decided to travel in front with the operation. For an organisation that deals with security issues, the CIA # 8217 ; s deficiency of security in the Bay of Pigs operation is dry. Security began to interrupt down before the invasion when The New York Times reporter Tad Szulc # 8220 ; learned of Operation Pluto from Cuban friends # 8221 ; earlier that twelvemonth while in Costa Rica covering an Organization of American States meeting. Another dislocation in security was at the preparation base in Florida, local occupants near Homestead [ air force base ] had seen Cubans boring and heard their speaker units at a farm. As a gag some bangers were thrown into the compound. The ensuing incident was the Cubans firing their guns and the federal governments holding to convert the local governments non to press charges. Operation Pluto was get downing to acquire blown broad unfastened, the advantage of surprise was lost even this early in the game. After the initial bombardment foray of April 15th, and the landing of the B-26s in Florida, images of the planes were taken and published in newspapers. In the exposure of one of the planes, the olfactory organ of the theoretical account of the B-26 the Cubans truly used had a Plexiglas olfactory organ, the CIA had taken the strivings to mask the B-26 with # 8220 ; FAR # 8221 ; markers [ Cuban Air Force ] . All Castro # 8217 ; s people had to make was read the newspapers and they # 8217 ; vitamin D know that something was traveling to go on, that those planes that had bombed them were non their ain but American. In The New York Times of the 21st of April, stories about the beginnings of the operation in the Eisenhower disposal appeared along with headlines of # 8220 ; C.I.A. Had a Role In Exiles # 8217 ; Plans # 8221 ; uncovering the CIA # 8217 ; s engagement. By the 22nd, the narrative is to the full known with headlines in The New York Times saying that # 8220 ; CIA is Accused by Bitter Rebels # 8221 ; and on the 2nd page of that twenty-four hours # 8217 ; s issue is a full article on the inside informations of the operation from its beginnings. The decision one can pull from the articles in The New York Times is that if newsmans knew the whole narrative by the 22nd, it can be expected that Castro # 8217 ; s intelligence service and that of the Soviet Union knew about the planned invasion every bit good. Tad Szulc # 8217 ; s study in the April 22nd edition of The New York Times says it all, # 8220 ; As has been an unfastened secret in Florida and Central America for months, the C .I.A. planned, coordinated and directed the operations that ended in licking on a beachhead in southern Cuba Wednesday. # 8221 ; It is clear so that portion of the failure of the operation was caused by a deficiency of security and attending to detail on the portion of the Central Intelligence Agency, and misinformation given to the president. On the international scene, the Bay of Pigs invasion lead straight to increased tensenesss between the United States and the Soviet Union. During the invasion messages were exchanged between Kennedy and Khrushchev sing the events in Cuba. Khrushchev accused the Americans of being involved in the invasion and stated in one of his messages, # 8220 ; A alleged # 8220 ; little war # 8221 ; can bring forth a concatenation reaction in all parts of the universe. . . we shall render the Cuban people and their Government all necessary aid in crushing back the armed onslaught on Cuba. # 8221 ; Kennedy replied giving American positions on democracy and the containment of communism, he besides warned against Soviet engagement in Cuba stating to Khrushchev, # 8220 ; In the event of any military intercession by outside force we will instantly honour our duties under the inter-American system to protect this hemisphere against external aggression. # 8221 ; Even though this crisis passed, it s et the phase for the following major crisis over Soviet atomic missiles in Cuba and likely led to the Soviets increasing their military support for Castro. In the disposal itself, the Bay of Pigs crisis led to a few alterations. First off person had to take the incrimination for the matter and, as Director of Central Intelligence, Allen Dulles was forced to vacate and left CIA in November of 196. Internally, the CIA was neer the same, although it continued with covert operations against Castro, it was on a much-reduced graduated table. Harmonizing to a study of the Select Senate Committee on Intelligence, future operations were # 8220 ; To nurture a spirit of opposition and alienation which could take to important desertions and other byproducts of unrest. # 8221 ; The CIA besides now came under the supervising of the president # 8217 ; s brother Bobby, the Attorney General. Harmonizing to Lucien S. Vandenbroucke, the result of the Bay of Pigs failure besides made the White House suspicious of an operation that everyone agreed to, made them less loath to oppugn the experts, and made them play # 8220 ; devil # 8217 ; s advocates # 8221 ; when oppugning them. In the terminal, the lessons learned from the Bay of Pigs failure may hold contributed to the successful handling of the Cuban missile crisis that followed. The long-run effects of the Bay of Pigs invasion are a small harder to measure. The ultimate indicant of the invasions # 8217 ; failure is that 39 old ages subsequently Castro is still in power. This non merely indicates the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, but American policy towards Cuba in general. The American policy instead than sabotaging Castro # 8217 ; s support, has likely contributed to it. As with many wars, even a cold one, the leader is able to beat up his people around him against an attacker. When Castro came to power he instituted reforms to assist the people and stop corruptness, no longer having aid from the Soviet Union things are get downing to alter. He has opened up the Cuban economic system for some investing, chiefly in telecommunications, oil geographic expedition, and other ventures. In an effort to remain in power, he is seeking to accommodate his state to the new world of the universe. Rather than stamp downing the educated leaders, he is giving them a topographic point in steering Cuba. The inquiry is, will they finally want more power and a right to command Cuba # 8217 ; s destiny without Castro # 8217 ; s counsel and support? If the prostration of past governments is any indicant, they will finally desire more power. When Castro came to power in 1959, the major oppositions in America to him, as with Guatemala, were the concern involvements who were losing out as a consequence of his constabularies. The major force per unit area for the Americans to make something came, non merely from the Cuban expatriates in Florida, but from those concerns. Today, the tabular arraies are turned and concerns are fring out because of the American trade stoppage against Cuba. It is estimated that if the trade stoppage were lifted, $ 1 billion of concern would be generated for US companies that first twelvemonth. Right now, 100 houses have gone to Cuba to speak about making concern at that place after the trade stoppage is lifted. Will American policy alteration toward Cuba because of force per unit area from concern involvements and turning jobs with refugees from Cuba? Given the grounds why the United States got involved in Latin American political relations in the first topographic point, it is really likely tha t their place will alter if they can happen a manner to make so. American policy at this clip though is still stuck in the cold war, the former presidents of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jesse Helms said that, # 8220 ; Whether Castro leaves Cuba in a perpendicular or horizontal place is up to him and the Cuban people. But he must and will go forth Cuba. # 8221 ; The failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion was caused by misinformation and misdirection, the effects of for the Americans was an addition in tenseness between the world powers at the tallness of the cold war. We will merely hold to wait and see if the Americans have truly learned their lesson and will non lose another chance to put things right in Cuba.