On April 17, 1961, a group of Cuban exiles underwent two years of training with the support of the United States Intelligence Service, and the United States planned and directed them to land in the Bay of Pigs, Cuba, in an attempt to overthrow Castro and establish a new one backed by the United States.
However, it was strongly counterattacked by Cuba, and in just three days, it was repelled by Cuba. Letting the United States lose its weight in front of the whole world was the first important action approved by Kennedy after taking office, and it was also the first setback.
Castro. 1. The cause of the Bay of Pigs incident
After the victory of the Castro Revolution, a large number of anti-Castro people fled to the United States, and Miami became a gathering place.
On March 17, 1960, Eisenhower made a decision to organize the homeless Cubans, especially the Battistas and the Communists, into Castro's counter-group, to be trained by the CIA.
The original plan was to set up several squads in Cuba with the goal of fighting Castro, and the United States would provide food and ammunition, as Castro had done at the beginning, to expand his power and enlist more popular support until Castro was overthrown.
In August 1960, Eisenhower approved a budget of $13 million. But soon the C.I.A. changed its mind, believing that guerrilla warfare was difficult to fight, and switched to training regular combat units for surprise attacks, while the United States provided a B-26 (piloted by Cubans) as cover.
The United States controlled this force politically and organizationally, and the Americans were responsible for all supplies, and the Americans had the final say on the timing and plan of the attack.
When Kennedy came to power, the C.I.A. Allen Dulles vigorously promoted the plan to him. Alan Dulles believes that to defeat Cuba, every second and most of the time must be taken without delay.
The C.I.A. advised that it should not be later than the spring of 1961, otherwise Cuba would be too much to deal with, and the resentment of the Cubans in exile against the United States would grow deeper and deeper, and it would be difficult to control.
For all these reasons, as well as domestic political factors, if Kennedy did not approve it, he would inevitably be attacked by Republicans, accusing him of sabotaging the plan, betraying Cubans who were ready to "return to their homeland," and giving up the opportunity to overthrow Castro.
2. The bombing of Cuba
Kennedy agreed with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lemnitz, Secretary of State Rusk, and Secretary of Defense McNamara to formally approve the invasion plan.
The requirements are: The US military will never make it public, will not directly participate, not only will it not send ground troops, but it will also not send air force to cover it. At the same time, the United States was ready to defend itself and called on Castro to distance himself from the international communist movement, otherwise, the Cuban people's desire for freedom would continue to fight for Cuba.
Both Arthur Schlesinger and Assistant Secretary of State Chester Bowes have made their objections clear. Fulbright, chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, also expressed his opposition in writing.
He pointed out that if the United States overthrew Castro, it would violate the Charter of the Organization of American States and would be condemned by the whole of North and South America for secretly supporting such activities, which is also a "hypocritical" approach.
However, these objections were not heeded. The United States has reached the point of interfering in Cuba.
Kennedy believed that there were too many Cubans in the United States, and that it was better to keep them in the United States than to keep them in Cuba.
Cuban homeless people believe that the United States will not abandon them and will help them when necessary.
After that, Kennedy held a press conference in which he once again reaffirmed the principle of non-interference with Cuba. However, the plan to invade Cuba also included a plan of air strikes against Cuba aimed at destroying the Cuban Air Force before landing.
As a result, the United States used Cuba's existing B-26 planes to attack Cuba's three major airports in the early hours of the morning, disguised as Cuban pilots who had betrayed Castro.
At that time, Stevenson, the US representative to the United Nations, defended the United States, accusing Cuba of intent on offending the United States. The whole world knew that American planes had bombed Cuba, but the United States insisted that it was Castro's air force that betrayed the United States.
In the end, under the pressure of **, the second US air raid was canceled.
3. The reason for Kennedy's failure
The CIA completely underestimated Castro's military strength, and the "cooperation between the inside and the outside" envisaged in the plan did not materialize.
Although the United States did not directly send troops, and it is indeed "seeing death and not saving it", all this is driven by the United States behind the scenes. All Cubans were single-handedly cultivated by the United States, even the members of the Revolutionary Committee, which were arranged by the Americans, and the entire invasion plan was kept secret only from the wandering Cuban leaders.
Moreover, the United States also bombed Cuba, and the American "frogmen" were the first to land, and after the landing, the US Navy also joined the battle.
U.S. intervention in Cuba. After the fact, it caused an international outcry. Anti-American sentiment among the Latin American people has intensified, demonstrations have erupted one after another, Kennedy's disappointment in Western Europe has spread, and the prestige of the United States in the international community has been greatly reduced.
After the incident, although the United States and its aides made various summaries and reviews, most of them questioned the basic issue of US interference in sovereignty from the aspects of tactics and intelligence analysis.
After his defeat, Kennedy tried to regain his influence by other means.
4. Aftermath. After that, Kennedy issued the "Lessons from Cuba" statement. In fact, this statement is just a cover for the United States, but it still emphasizes that the "Bay of Pigs incident" is"The revolt of Cuban patriots against Cuban **", and the United States did not intervene in this.
At the same time, a high-profile declaration listed opposition to Cuba as one of the world's anti-Soviet movements, believing that Cuba would not threaten the United States. He also said that there was no limit to the age-old restraint and that the United States would fulfill its obligations if countries failed to do their duty to prevent foreign communist infiltration.
This statement reminds us of Truman's "Truman Doctrine," in which he saw communism as a terrible beast that posed a great threat to the United States and emphasized the principle that the United States had the right to interfere in the actions of other countries in the name of anti-Sovietism.
This claim is mainly for the Western Hemisphere. Since then, the United States has seen Castro more than a thorn in its side.
In January 1962, the Eighth Consultative Conference of the Organization of American States (OAS) led by the United States adopted the "Final Charter", which removed Cuba from the "Inter-American System" and the "Inter-American Defense Council" and stopped exporting ** and all strategic goods to Cuba.
The United States itself has imposed a complete embargo on Cuba, prohibiting the use of United States ships and ports by those doing business with Cuba. Total political, economic and military isolation of Cuba. This is a huge blow to Cuba, which makes it even more anti-American.
In October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis broke out, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, and after the "Bay of Pigs Incident", Cuba's anti-American sentiment was high, and its support for the Soviet Union naturally increased.
Castro openly declared that he wanted to take the path of socialism. After that, he considered himself Marxist several times and actively sought refuge in the Soviet Union.
5. The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Soviet Union regarded Cuba as a stronghold of Latin America and must fully support it. Especially in the context of the total blockade of Cuba by the United States, Cuba was completely dependent on the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, both economically and militarily.
Both Cuba and the Soviet Union believed that the United States could launch another military aggression. So, what Cuba wants, the USSR gives.
The Soviet Union has always advocated a direct conflict with the United States, so it is better to take deterrent measures so that the United States does not dare to act casually.
In 1962, when Khrushchev visited Bulgaria, he came up with the idea of deploying a carrying nuclear warhead in Cuba. He planned to secretly deploy missiles in Cuba, and when the United States reacted, everything was ready, and the United States would not dare to blow it up, because it could not destroy everything at once, even if only a small part was left, it would be enough to destroy New York.
He believes that only in this way can the United States not dare to use force against Cuba.
In addition, Khrushchev believed that the United States also deployed missiles around the Soviet Union, such as Turkey, Italy, and West Germany, and that the Soviet Union might as well treat them in the same way.
In short, from the standpoint of the Soviet Union, the deployment of missiles was for defense rather than offense, and at the same time to avoid a direct conflict with the United States.
6. U.S. vigilance
In July 1962, Castro visited the Soviet Union and signed a secret agreement to prepare for the deployment of medium-range missiles. At the beginning of August, Soviet missiles were delivered to Cuba, and everything was installed by the Soviets themselves, and the Cubans could not interfere.
By the time the U.S. officially proposed it in the middle of the year, most of the missiles had been deployed as planned, and only a small number were still being delivered. The attention of the United States is mainly focused on Berlin.
Once again, the US Congress gave Kennedy the power to mobilize reserve forces if necessary, and this power also applied to Berlin. In the face of Republican pressure for military action against Cuba, Kennedy said at press conferences on August 24 and September 13 that the United States had a "comprehensive" responsibility to the world. And the Soviet Union did not send enough ** to Cuba to pose a significant threat to the United States.
Since August, the United States has been conducting aerial surveillance of Cuba, and the US Navy has also photographed all Soviet ** that went to Cuba.
On 31 August, the United States detected an anti-aircraft missile, as well as a large number of military personnel. But there is not a single "offensive" equipment.
Most American** and Soviet experts believe that the Soviet Union has never deployed offensive missiles on territory other than Eastern Europe, and that the Soviet Union's general policy is to avoid conflict with the United States, and it is clearly not going to do so because it would provoke the United States if it deploys an offensive **.
During this period, the United States and the Soviet Union warned each other. The United States said it would "take the necessary measures to protect itself and the security of its allies" if Cuba were to be used as an offensive base for the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, for its part, said that if the United States took military action against Cuba, it would be a "declaration of war."
However, the Soviet Union repeatedly assured the United States that the Soviet Union provided military assistance to Cuba for defensive purposes.
Since then, the United States** has launched a study of tense situation analysis and countermeasures.
Kennedy had to report to the committee every evening. At the outset, the commission made various speculations about the motives of the actions of the USSR, which can be roughly summarized as:
1) "Cold War" politics: The belief that the United States does not dare to assume the danger of nuclear war is used to blackmail and force the United States to submit to the international community. If this approach works, it can also be generalized to more important places like Berlin.
2) Diverting the tiger away from the mountain: If the United States strikes back against Cuba, the result will be that Western allies**, Latin American people will oppose the United States, the United Nations will condemn the United States, and the Soviet Union will take advantage of the situation and act quickly in Berlin.
3) Defend Cuba: To protect Castro, the USSR did whatever it took to protect it, as it was an inspiration that its position in the Western Hemisphere was so important.
4) Bargaining capital: The Soviet Union was well aware that the Cuban issue could cause problems for U.S. domestic politics, and it wanted to use it as a bargaining chip to negotiate with Kennedy** and persuade it to make concessions on other fronts, such as Berlin, such as negotiations at the highest level, such as the withdrawal of the United States from some bases overseas.
5) Closing the missile gap:
This is because vigorously developing intercontinental missiles to bridge the gap with the United States is expensive and time-consuming, and deploying medium-range missiles around the United States can both make up for the shortcomings of long-range missiles and evade the American early warning system.
The third point was repeatedly emphasized by the USSR itself. Kennedy himself was also more inclined to the former at that time. The U.S. analysis of the Soviet Union was presumably to make a sudden announcement after the deployment was completed (probably in November), putting the United States in front of a fait accompli, and then proposing to convene a supreme conference for the Soviets to put forward conditions.
If the USSR had succeeded, then the balance of power in the "cold war" would have changed dramatically. So, the United States decided to thwart this plan.
Therefore, the United States must respond to the Soviet Union's military deployment before it is completed, and before the Soviet Union realizes that the United States is aware of this, and make a public statement.
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