High school history books describe the Bay of Pigs invasion as a botched up attempt to liberate Cuba; but they leave key details out. Over 1,000 Cuban exiles trained, with the U.S. military, for months prior to the invasion.
Humberto Fontova, Cuban born political writer focusing on Latin American politics, found facts missing from these books. What he discovers shows how close we were to securing freedom and democracy for the Cubans. But one man stood in the way.
The Cuban exile's job was to make a landing, then take out the Cuban ground forces. The United States Navy was to provide a few combat fighter planes to wipe out the Cuban fighter planes, and to eliminate Cuban armor and reinforcements. This was a job the U.S. Navy was ready, and capable, of doing.
With Cuban air power and ground reinforcements gone, "Brigada 2506" would take over the airport. They'd secure it, then pave the way for their air wing to arrive to provide them with ammunition and resupply. Then they'd join up with the resistance movement already underway in Cuba, and lead them to liberating Cuba.
When the ground invasion got underway, the Cuban exiles proved their worth. Despite being subjected to heavier fire, despite being drastically outgunned and outnumbered (40 to 1); the Cuban exiles pushed the Cuban army back. They almost pushed Castro's army to the other side of Cuba. Keep in mind that these exiles were civilians.
Even though John F. Kennedy canceled the pre-invasion bombardment, the Navy could've wiped the Cuban advantage out with two fighter planes. When John F. Kennedy said we "can't get involved," Admiral Arleigh Burke lost his cool and made this statement: "We put those boys there, Mr. President, by God we are involved!"
Without the planned U.S. backing, the Cuban exiles had no choice but to fight till their ammo ran out. The Bay of Pigs invasion failed because the Kennedy Administration failed them.
The Soviets saw that as a sign of weakness, then made plans to position nuclear missiles into Cuba. People credit Kennedy with the way he handled the Cuban Missile Crises, but we lost face in that one to.
The Russians couldn't stomach a fight in Cuba, so had we invaded, we would've succeeded. In exchange for them pulling their missiles out of Cuba, we pulled our missiles out of Turkey, and promised not to liberate Cuba.
We ended up in a weaker position; starting a historic trend of democratic administrations weakening America in the face of its enemies.
Our involvement with Vietnam started with President Kennedy. Both President Kennedy and Johnson ignored advice from the Pentagon; advice that would've ended the Vietnam War.
It wasn't till President Nixon became president that we made headway with the Vietnam War. Nixon cut our troop numbers in Vietnam, then mixed massive bombardment of strategic points in addition to continuing the ground campaign. This forced the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table. They previously refused to do so in response to Democrats announcing that they'll cut funding for the Vietnam War.
We pulled our combat units out of Vietnam in 1973; the South Vietnamese Government needed funding to stand against the North Vietnamese. The Democratic Congress refused, cutting their funding and forcing an end to the Vietnam involvement. Had that funding continued at needed levels, we'd have a prosperous Democratic South Vietnam bordering a Communist North Vietnam today.
Travis is a freelance writer that specializes in information market, political writing, fundraising and communications. |
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