The Bay Of Pigs: A Giant Intelligence Mistake

Was The Bay of Pigs a giant intelligence mistake and how things would have been different if the invasion worked? The events in 1961 would arguably be one of the biggest failures for a Presidential administration in the United States. The reasoning for the invasion is also up for debate, was it because of the alignment of Cuba with the Soviet Union, or was it a plan for the United States to occupy a country and annex it much like Puerto Rico. The key is to figure out what was the exact reasoning for the invasion and was it justified to the administration or was the administration and appropriate members of congress and what would have been the intelligence communities of that period / lack thereof, spoon fed information. The use of covert …show more content…
This event was the turning point in previous relations with the United States under Batista. Castro began pulling Cuba further away from American influence and instead starting aligning with the former Soviet Union. During this time the Central Intelligence Agency was already planning and conducting intelligence gathering activities on Cuba. John F Kennedy himself was briefed on this situation even before he was officially inaugurated into the White House. The exact plan was to have Cuban Nationals who themselves were exiled trained well enough to invade their native Cuba. These trained exiles or rebels you could call them, were expected to invade and then be supported by the Cuban people and coupled with the Cuban Military. This ended up not being the …show more content…
The Cuban exiles were to be trained in amphibious assault as well as guerilla warfare. This would be the equivalent to the United States training the Afghanistan Security Forces but not to the exact same level. The whole training event and invasion was to be close guarded information, but the media and Castro eventually found out and would report on these activities. This leakage of information would also prove to be a detriment to the invasion and the chances of taking Cuba from Castro. The Cuban National who was the led for the training was Jose Miro, who used to be a member of Fidel Castro’s government and also the head of the Cuban Revolutionary Council. The initial landing point of the invasion was also a key part to keep the operation disclosed. The Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) was on the Southwestern coast of Cuba and approximately 110 miles Southeast of Havana and the strong hold of Fidel Castro. This was far enough away to remain undetected and close enough to make their way north towards the capital. Landing closer would be too dangerous and if chosen to land on the east coast of Cuba, that would put the exiles over 500 miles from the capital. A part of the playbook from Normandy may have been adopted for this invasion, considering the multiple beach landings. This may have been in part due to the massive success that the Normandy