-- 'The Whole Bay of Pigs Thing' --
Few foreign policy misadventures (those that became public knowledge at least), resulted in a more immediate and vociferous response from the American public and international community, as did the BoP. Even fewer ended in such obvious and enduring ignominy. If JFK had been enjoying the ride in Air Force One up until that point then, the 'flight' became very turbulent with the Cuban 'situation'. By giving the nod for the BoP, the POTUS, to coin an apt phrase, bought himself and his country a 'whole mess o' 'whoopass'' down the mountain.
In the wake of its highly publicized failure (another textbook case study, this time of 'blowback in real time'), then CIA chief Allen Dulles and two of his senior CIA spook colleagues were eventually forced to hang up their trilbies and trench-coats. Although JFK reportedly had a measure of respect for Dulles -- part of the reason he was held over from the previous administration -- the president fired him. This was a decision Dulles neither forgot nor forgave, and one, which as hinted, would have fatal consequences for the president, and we might add, fateful consequences for the country and the world. It propelled him further down that "mountain"; all of which is to say, JFK would not live to regret it. That so many others would though is axiomatic.
For his part, Number 35 was so rattled by the experience, he threatened to 'splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the four winds'. Whilst the reputation of the CIA was sullied in the wake of the BOP, it was however an American institution that was synonymous with fighting the dreaded, so-called 'red menace', itself personified by Castro. It remained intact and eventually recovered, whether for better or worse though is a matter of perspective.
As for the Company itself and the remaining key figures though after the purge, they never forgot Kennedy's threat nor his perceived 'betrayal' of the BoP invaders when the mission went pear-shaped. In the end JFK backed off on 'chopping up' the agency. To the extent Kennedy might've been able to achieve such a goal even if he was determined, either way it may again still have been another fateful decision by the president.
If it wasn't before, in hindsight it became very clear to JFK that with respect to the BoP gamble, he'd had a lot of presidential skin in this game. The presidential prints were all over the order to 'nod' the 'regime renovators'. Even though he privately felt the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCOS, the Pentagon brass) had railroaded him, JFK publicly took one for the team on what president Richard Nixon later referred to as the 'whole Bay of Pigs thing', instead preferring to abide by Harry S Truman's dictum, 'the buck stops here'.
So what exactly happened with the BoP? In order to better grasp how it all came together -- a phrase not entirely appropriate because when it really counted it all came spectacularly unstuck -- some background is needed. Whilst a detailed 'blow by blow' is not necessary herein, it's still anything but a short story.
The original plot was hatched during the Eisenhower administration under Dulles's direction and in concert with his big brother John Foster Dulles, Ike's Secretary of State and the archetypal, old school Cold Warrior, a man for whom leaders like Castro were anathema. It involved enlisting the support of Cuban exiles, all of whom were mightily chagrinned at the new Cuban leader. If anything the Cuban exiles hated Castro more than the Americans did, and were eager to bed down with anyone who'd help restore them to their former glory.
The truly ironic thing is that the Americans at one point did have opportunities to bring Castro inside the tent before the Soviets did. Despite the fact he'd expropriated the property of some U.S. corporations (including that of the ubiquitous, notorious United Fruit Company, of Guatemalan coup fame, and the 'poster-child' of rapacious, exploitative U.S. corporate fuelled neo-colonialism), he denied being a communist.
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