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The Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story

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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.

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.

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

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

Peter Wyden's The Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story is a thorough telling of the entire story of the planning, the invasion, and why it failed. More than that it is a sobering look at the underlying political manipulations that created the project and were the ultimate reasons for its failure. The shame and grief of those who were compelled to stand by and do nothing is heart wrenching. If you want to know more about why and how President John F. Kennedy was convinced to allow the invasion and about the men who participated in it, this book is for you.

Factual book, and revealing of what really happened, and who is responsible for the failure of the invasion. The objective of the plan was to free Cuba from communism. The initial military plan was sound, but then the politicians changed the location of the invasion from Trinidad (very close to the mountains to establish a guerrilla stronghold in case the invasion was not succesful) to the Bay of Pigs, a peninsula surrounded by swamps, far from the mountains. Then politicians (mainly President Kennedy) cancelled crucial air strikes two days prior to D Day, and on the morning of D Day. The result being that Castro's air force was not eliminated. Then on D Day, President Kennedy refused to provide air support, allowing Castro's air fighters to sink anything approaching the beaches. Bottom Line: The US Government allowed 1,500 men to invade Cuba, then left them to be killed or captured, refusing to help with air cover. It was more important to "keep the noise down" instead of achieving victory. Does this sound familiar?

In "Bay of Pigs", Peter Wyden pulls out all the stops- and asks the many questions that remained unasked for nearly two decades after the infamous episode in America's foreign relations. The Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 had originally been planned by Eisenhower before he left office in January 1961- and he handed over the plan of action to Kennedy- who was trying to paint himself as a tough anti-Communist at a time when the Cold War was raging. It's well known that the U.S. backed the unpopular dictator Fulgencia batista in Cuba and millions of Cuban citizens were not happy with the status quo. Fidel Castro saw an opening and fought a guerilla war against the government, taking power in January 1959 and quickly seizing control of major industries, the press and many other operations, including the lucrative casinos and illicit operations run largely by the America Mafia. Mafia leaders were outraged and wanted retribution and their property back. It has been speculated for almost four decades exactly what Kennedy discussed with his advisors in the CIA and other intelligance agencies- and how he came to the fateful decision to invade Cuba (it had only been in the planning stages until then). Yet- he made the final decision- somewhat half-heartedly- and it turned out to be a public relations disaster, leading Kennedy to go before reporters and utter his famous quote "It's been said that success has a thousand fathers, yet failure is an orphan".

The meetings leading up the the Bay of Pigs invasion- one meant to overthrow the Castro government and return Cuba to democracy- are said to have involved "groupthink"- the reluctance of individuals to disagree with a train of thought which appeared popular to the group overall. Indeed, Bobby Kennedy- JFK's Attorney General- tried unsuccessfully to argue against this invasion and thought it unwise and reckless. Yet, JFK gave in- but only halfway. He actually allowed the ground troops to land via several ships hitting the Cuban coast- but called off the air support at the last minute- stranding the infantry and dooming them to failure. As a result, the Bay of Pigs invasion is routinely quoted as one of the worst planned, illogically conceived and poorly enacted foreign relations activities in American history.

Peter Wyden interviewed dozens of critical observers and participants- including Fidel Castro- in writing this important book. Fans of American history- and those who follow government policy- will enjoy his detailed analyses and hard-hitting commentaries. This book was an important contribution to the body of knowledge on this famous event (it came out in 1980- several books on the topic have followed) and any history buff or watcher of the "world stage" will like what it tells us all...

-Gene Pisasale,
Author, "Lafayette's Gold- The Lost Brandywine Treasure" and
"Vineyard Days"