A: PLAN OF INVESTIGATION The purpose of this investigation is to determine to what extent the United States’ failed invasion of Cuba in the Bay of Pigs was caused by fear of the Soviet Union. This investigation will use sources to be summarized in section B, mostly coming from the CIA’s released documents on the Bay of Pigs investigation. These released documents were broken down into five volumes, of which I used volumes one through three most prevalently. This investigation will also reference memos and other documents from various government officials on the subject of the Bay of Pigs. This investigation will determine how much of the failure was poor planning and how much was due to fear of an alliance of Cuba and the Soviet Union.
B: …show more content…
This information was released in 5 volumes of which I found the 3rd volume, Evolution of CIA’s Anti-Castro Policies, 1959- January 1961 the most useful in this research. This source is a firsthand account from the CIA which worked with the federal government in plans with regards to Cuba at this time, giving the reader evidence of the events that led to the decisions reached. This source provides a chronological sequence that led to the United State’s point to put the Bay of Pigs into action. The source gives the reader the backstory of the invasion, beginning with Castro’s rise to power. The purpose of the source as outlined by the source itself in the foreword is to focus on the policy decided on by the United States against Cuba in 1960 calling for the displacement of Fidel Castro while presenting the reader with bias free evidence. This source pulls from only credible sources coming from only CIA documents all put together to make the …show more content…
The arms race that occurred led to an increased fear across the globe of nuclear warfare between the two large superpowers of the time, the US and the Soviet Union. In 1961 the Soviet Union had been developing missile bases in Cuba merely 94 miles from Florida. This reaffirmed a suspicion that Fidel Castro had aligned Cuba with the Soviet Union. This suspicion had began as early as when Fidel Castro overthrew the Batista regime in 1959, despite the fact that the Batista regime was ruthless Batista was supported by the US in a time when it was better to be ruthless than communist. In 1959 when Fidel Castro took power in Cuba US President Dwight Eisenhower began to plan for a potential overthrow of the Castro regime using Cubans who had fled to the US. However this plan was not initiated by Eisenhower. On January 20th, 1961 President Kennedy was inaugurated promising to “oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”. In April of 1961 newly inaugurated President Kennedy initiated the plan for the invasion of Cuba. While it seems that this was a quick and rash decision by Kennedy, history proves that this was not the case. In Kennedy’s memo to Secretary of Defense McNamara Kennedy uses caution and asks McNamara many questions about potential repercussions for the United States, mostly
B: …show more content…
This information was released in 5 volumes of which I found the 3rd volume, Evolution of CIA’s Anti-Castro Policies, 1959- January 1961 the most useful in this research. This source is a firsthand account from the CIA which worked with the federal government in plans with regards to Cuba at this time, giving the reader evidence of the events that led to the decisions reached. This source provides a chronological sequence that led to the United State’s point to put the Bay of Pigs into action. The source gives the reader the backstory of the invasion, beginning with Castro’s rise to power. The purpose of the source as outlined by the source itself in the foreword is to focus on the policy decided on by the United States against Cuba in 1960 calling for the displacement of Fidel Castro while presenting the reader with bias free evidence. This source pulls from only credible sources coming from only CIA documents all put together to make the …show more content…
The arms race that occurred led to an increased fear across the globe of nuclear warfare between the two large superpowers of the time, the US and the Soviet Union. In 1961 the Soviet Union had been developing missile bases in Cuba merely 94 miles from Florida. This reaffirmed a suspicion that Fidel Castro had aligned Cuba with the Soviet Union. This suspicion had began as early as when Fidel Castro overthrew the Batista regime in 1959, despite the fact that the Batista regime was ruthless Batista was supported by the US in a time when it was better to be ruthless than communist. In 1959 when Fidel Castro took power in Cuba US President Dwight Eisenhower began to plan for a potential overthrow of the Castro regime using Cubans who had fled to the US. However this plan was not initiated by Eisenhower. On January 20th, 1961 President Kennedy was inaugurated promising to “oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”. In April of 1961 newly inaugurated President Kennedy initiated the plan for the invasion of Cuba. While it seems that this was a quick and rash decision by Kennedy, history proves that this was not the case. In Kennedy’s memo to Secretary of Defense McNamara Kennedy uses caution and asks McNamara many questions about potential repercussions for the United States, mostly