Bay of Pigs - Was the United States Jusified?

BAY OF PIGS

WAS THE UNITED STATES JUSIFIED?

In my research I find that United States involvement in the Bay of Pigs Invasion was important and necessary. The reasoning behind the invasion was to protect the Western hemisphere from the onset of communism. The way the invasion was handled and the outcome was the failure, but The United States, using covert operations was trying to destroy the communist threat that was quite close to our shores and, in the process, made the CIA and our government officials look incompetent.

Excerpt from the Green Left Weekly which is an independent weekly newspaper that is committed to pointing out what they may believe to be social injustices in the society

"Today, the spirit of the revolution is still strong among the majority of the Cuban people despite the hardships imposed by the US blockade, by the collapse of their major trading partner, the Soviet Union, and by the US Helms-Burton Act, which seeks to restrict other countries from trading with Cuba.

The revolution has brought many gains to the population. Cuba is the only Latin American country with a free health and education system, a social security system which pays 60% of the normal wage and in which the people have a real say in the way the country is run.

The United States unremitting policy towards Cuba over the past 37 years has been to try to destroy the revolution. But the determination and revolutionary spirit shown by those young Cubans in the attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953 has now inspire a whole nation.

Today the Cuban people's determination to defend their revolution against the US is a show of strength for people all around the world fighting for justice and freedom. To mark this anniversary and to protest against the US blockade of Cuba, pickets and rallies are being held in most cities."

Actually, when you look at Cuban activists' stories of how bad the United States actions were during the beginning of Castro's regime and the main reason for U.S. intervention is to protect investments, we seem to look bad. I have looked at the timeline of events from the U.S. perceptive and tried to put myself in the Presidents' place, during the 1950's through the actual invasion, and find myself defending the United States.

Communism and the ideology behind it is what President Eisenhower saw when Fidel Castro took over the Cuban Island that is located just south of the U.S. borders of the Florida. The National Security Act of 1947 established the CIA which is responsible for "coordinating the nation's intelligence activities and correlate, evaluate, and disseminate intelligence which affects national security and to perform other duties and functions related to intelligence." The head of the CIA was given the title of Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, or DCI, and is appointed by the president. The CIA's own definition of "covert action" is "any secret activities designed to influence foreign governments, events, organizations, or persons in support of U.S. foreign policy conducted in such manner that the involvement of the U.S. Government is not apparent." This Act of 1947 was created primarily to protect the U.S. from future attacks such as Pearl Harbor and this is what the officials were trying to prevent with the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Events leading up to the invasion during the Eisenhower presidency included:

January 1, 1959: Following a six-year revolution Fidel Castro assumes power in Cuba after the US backed Fulgencio Batista flees.

February 4-13, 1960: Soviet First Deputy Prime Minister Anastas Mikoyan visits Cuba and attends the opening of a Soviet trade exhibit in Havana. He negotiates economic and trade agreements that make Cuba more economically independent of the United States.

Winter 1960: President Eisenhower and advisors see Fidel Castro as a potential problem for the United States and the Western Hemisphere.

March 17, 1960: Eisenhower authorizes a CIA plan called "A Program of Covert Action against the Castro Regime." Shortly thereafter the CIA begins recruiting and training a group of 1,400 Cuban exiles from Miami in Guatemala.

May 7, 1960: The Soviet Union and Cuba establish diplomatic relations.

July 8, 1960: The United States suspends the Cuban sugar quota, effectively cutting off 80 percent of Cuban exports to the United States. The following day, the Soviet Union agrees to buy that sugar at a higher than market price.

October 6, 1960: In response to the sugar situation, Castro nationalizes U.S. private investments in Cuba worth about $1 billion.

August 16, 1960: A CIA official receives a box of Castro's favorite cigars and is told to poison them. It is not clear whether they were ever passed on to Castro, but this represents the first of at least eight assassination plots by the United States.

August 28, 1960: The United States imposes an embargo on trade with Cuba.

September 1960: A large Soviet Bloc arms shipment arrives in Cuba along with advisors and technicians.

December 19, 1960: Cuba openly aligns itself with the domestic and foreign policies of the Soviet Union, pledging Sino-Soviet Bloc solidarity.

January 2, 1961: Soviet Premier Krushchev denies the existence of a Soviet military base in Cuba.

January 3, 1961: The United States and Cuba sever diplomatic and consular relations.

According to several websites including The Betrayed Liberation: Remembering the Bay of Pigs by Myles B. Kantor, published Thursday, April 17, 2003 on NewsMax.com, John F Kennedy continued to find Cuba's new found friendship with the Soviet's a national threat after taking office, January 20, 1961. Kennedy had used the communist political issues in his Presidential platform against Eisenhower and Nixon; it wasn't until after taking office that Kennedy realized the extent of planning that was already done to resist the current situation in Cuba. Bay of Pigs was already in the works and Kennedy felt obligated to continue with the plan to invade. Kennedy was aware of the way the United States would be perceived by the other countries if it was known that the big and powerful U.S. was attempting to take over power of the small neighbor. This may have been his downfall