The Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story [Paperback]

Peter Wyden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1980

The complete inside story of the CIA's mismanaged and private war to overthrow Fidel Castro. Based on painstaking research and personal interviews with combatants on both sides--including Fidel Castro and Richard Bissell, former CIA Deputy Director--Bay of Pigs uncovers previously secret information and re-creates the events that led up the confrontation. 352 pages; 32 pages of b&w photos plus maps throughout; 6 x 9.25 inches.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Paper) (May 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671254138
• ISBN-13: 978-0671254131
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,244,405 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Receipe of Disaster, February 9, 2004

By 

Thomas H. Savery (Loganville, Ga) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bay of Pigs (Hardcover)

The writer gives a blow by blow discription of what happened to cause the Bay of Pigs disaster.
Allen Dulles was on a roll, having just used the CIA to take over Guatamala, and install a government we liked there.
Ike had never signed off the the Cuban plan, but let it continue. Kennedy came in and thought that Ike had approved it.
It was a fiasco from the start, with Kennedy demanding that he might pull the plug on the last day before the invasion, if he did not like it. The CIA and the military could not conceive that once things started that air support would be refused.
I knew from years ago that Kennedy had denied air support from our own Navy for the invasion.
What I did not know until reading this book was that Kennedy also reduced the size of the liberation forces B26 strikes, and eliminated 2 of them, thus allowing Fidel's air force to survive and slaughter the freedom fighters on the beach and their supplies coming in from the sea.
Also, the Alabama National guard had and pilots who trained the Cubans in flying the B26 and 2 of them were killed when they flew strikes in for ground support of the invasion.
Moving the target landing zone from Trinidad to the Bay of Pigs at the last minute eliminated any chance of survivors escaping into the mountains to fight as guerillas if anything went wrong, and everything went wrong.
The CIA flaws are numerous. They did not know about a reef that everybody in the area knew about, and sunk the supply ships.

They refused to place guns on the supply ships as unneeded, as there would be air cover, and were forced to because the owner of the ships would not let them use the ships unless they were armed. The guns were used a lot. All the communications equipment was in one crate and went to the bottom, making it impossible to communicate with the beach. CIA officials were not on the supply ships.
The air strike plan was not made clear to the Pres in advance.
The plan assumed an uprising that never took place. It was only in the minds of the invaders.
After the air strikes were cancelled, the CIA went ahead with the plan as there was no place to take a bunch of armed, pissed of Cuban freedom fighters, other than to Cuba.
It is a frustrating book to read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Bay Of Pigs:The Untold Story-Wyden's side.-his story that is., January 7, 2012

By 

Jose Lopez "Jose Lopez" (Miami,Florida USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story (Paperback)

I am glad I was lent this book because while yes the book is full of graphs and photos(black and white)and information the way it begins and the way it concludes is not surprise To me given the FidelOMania since the very start by the few feebleminded people parading as experts whether in statedept or as "authors",Journalists,etcera. The book is basically in a nutshell a apology for JFK,it criticizes him and his administration to a minimum.It Parrots So-called Historians(Partisans,the first thousand days sure.)Other sources,it has a problem with Haynes Johnson's Account,and it seems apologetic for "The Cuban People" of course the author's people being referred to are Castristas(Fidel's People)he says if Cubans wanted to go and fight and they failed fine that was their problem,not The FACT that JFK Canceled the airstrike which the Author Either Naively/Mistakenly or on Purpose(To Defend Camelot)says Was "Bad Intelligence" and that it was Eishenhower's baby that got passed to poor little John who was so Young and Inexperienced(Right on both.)Even if that argument can be justified,you cannot justify by any means why The POTUS would Cancel AirStrikes.He and his whizkids at the helm thought the UN would be mad(Never mind We Made the UN and could finish it if we wanted to,cut off funds same with OAS.),Nevermind that He did Have "Intelligence" suggesting that Airstrikes were Crucial,Even if the Coral Rock argument comes into play The CIA cannot be held responsible because Kennedy did indeed "Chicken" Out(the author says his words"Kennedy did not chicken".),Sadly It is thanks to Kennedy and the Reason Why a Respectable Cuban Exile of any Class/Social Status will never vote Democrat again,If your a Partisan Myth Lover be my guest and read the book and form your own conclusions,but if you know history has Been Revisionist and has been ad-verbatim source to source the same trumpet and you Know Kennedy was All style and no substance then Read this and compare it to Grayston Lynch's Account who saw the Betrayal First hand(Decision For Disasted Betrayal at Bay of Pigs,book)as well as Triay's Brigade 2506,there are many sources besides Pro-Kennedy Accounts.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wyden's Bay of Pigs, May 29, 2010

By 

Gus Venegas (Cocoa, Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story. (Hardcover)

A detailed account of the Bay of Pigs landing derived from the author's interview with Fidel Castro and various U.S. government officials. The author goes into detailed explanations for the fiasco: From the Bay of Pigs CIA planner Richard Bissell's explanation of basically lacking control of the air to smaller mistakes, such as the reluctance to place anti-aircraft guns on the invasion ships. The interviews with Castro reveals his planning and expectations of the landing and his concern for been assassinated. There is hardly any reference to the imprisonment of the Cuban exiles for two years and the efforts to get them released. Mainly for that reason I prefer Haynes Johnson's account of the Bay of Pigs