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Taylor Scott
Advanced CP English
Ms. Walker
November 21, 2008
John F. Kennedy’s Mistake
John F. Kennedy was said to be the greatest president the United States has had. He was
a brilliant man and did many things for our country. He is said to have been flawless, almost
perfect. Though he was said to be so great, he is human and did make errors. He and his
administration did make one large accident that greatly affected our country. It is known as the
“Bay of Pigs”.
On April 17, 1961, the United States had a plan to invade Cuba in an attempt to
overthrow Fidel Castro. The plan was originally created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and
his administration, but Eisenhower fulfilled his term as president before the plan was completed.
John F. Kennedy then became the U.S. president and decided to go forward with the attack. To
many people the plan sounded like a life changing event for the Cubans. Little did Kennedy
know of his upcoming failure that would be life changing for the United States. The minor
errors he and the CIA created caused this major effect on the U.S.
The first major mistake was that there were an unequal number of individuals in each
army. The United States army was only supported by 1,500 people. Castro’s army was much
larger. How did Kennedy’s administration expect us to invade an army that size without any
extra help? It’s an impossible thought that should have stopped the attack in the first place. He
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could have at least used the U.S. Air Force more. However, our “perfect” president decided we
could find ways to get past them. He thought we could hoodwink the Cubans. This was a
mistake also (library.thinkquest.org).
This accident happened on April 15, the set date to start the bombing on the Cuban
airfields. The attacking planes were painted to be disguised as Cuban air force planes so the
Cubans wouldn’t suspect anything. Though this sounds to be a brilliant plan, the CIA failed to
paint every detail imprinted on the Cuban planes (www.jfklibrary.org). One of the painters,
Mario Zuniga, was introduced to the press, also showing the plane he painted (www.u-shistory.com). After the news became public and there were pictures being shown of the painted
planes, John F. Kennedy cancelled the air strike to fix these errors and to think of more plans.
This was a smart move, but it wouldn’t stop his failure (www.jfklibrary.org).
The second attempt to invade Cuba occurred on April 17, shortly after midnight.
American U-2 spy planes were checking to make sure the landing area was safe. They
mistakenly insinuated that the beaches they were landing at were only covered with seaweed.
Seeming it was actually coral reefs, this held up the landings. The coral reefs sank two ships
eighty yards from shore, damaging some important heavy equipment. This landing accident
destroyed half of the exile’s air support, as they immediately came under flames when they hit
the coral (www.jfklibrary.org).
As this was happening, men were jumping out of planes to land inland. As they
parachuted downward, wind caught most of the parachutes. This resulted to them landing into
the swamps instead of on the land. Approximately 172 men landed in swamps and were lost in
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the operation. Because there was already a shortage in exiles, this greatly affected the number of
people helping with the attack and the impact we made in the invasion (library.thinkquest.org).
Another issue during this landing was the weather. Though Kennedy could not control
the weather and it’s not his fault, it was still a major dilemma that did an extreme amount of
damage. The awful weather completely destroyed the ground force. This made it difficult to
walk around without making a big scene. It also made the ammunition useless as it became wet.
All the equipment was drenched with mud and everything was a mess. Even though it couldn’t
have been controlled, Kennedy should have waited until the weather was clear. If Kennedy
would have checked the weather reports, it would have saved the supplies they needed to
complete the invasion (www.jfklibrary.org).
As they began arriving to the beaches, they waited for the Cubans on their side to arrive
and support them in the attack to overthrow Dictator Castro. Unfortunately, only a few showed
up. No where near as many Cubans were against Castro as they thought. This made yet another
dent in the number of U.S. supporters. We thought they would be on our side and want to get rid
of Fidel, but to our great surprise, many supported him and his ruling ways. This didn’t stop
Kennedy though. He kept trying (www.u-s-history.com).
Within the next twenty-four hours, over 20,000 troops belonging to Castro were
approaching the bays. Cuban Air Force planes covered the skies. As things were continuingly
turning for the worst, Kennedy called for an “air-umbrella”. This is where six unmarked
American planes come to help defend our aircraft. This was almost useless though, for they
didn’t arrive until hours after they needed to be there. They believe this mistake was due to time
zone confusion, but because of their being late, Castro discovered their coming. He ordered his
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men to shoot them down as soon as they arrived, putting another dent in our support number
(www.jfklibrary.org).
In the end of the attack, the United States looked terrible. Approximately 1,200 U.S.
supporters surrendered and over one hundred were killed (www.jfklibrary.org). 1,189 American
men were captured, some being shot as war criminals. Most were allowed to return back to
America but were held ransom for $53 million. No one is sure how many of Castro’s men were
killed but it is assumed only to have been a few hundred (library.thinkquest.org).
Afterwards, it was reported that the failure was the agency’s mistake. It tells of how the
CIA treated the exiles like “puppets”. They didn’t really care if the men lived or died, which was
obvious during the attack. All the men that were captured didn’t get a second glance at.
Kennedy didn’t want a full scale war so he just abandoned the exiles, without any regret
(library.thinkquest.org).
So as we see, our president was far from perfect. His famous words are “Ask now what
your country can do for you---ask what you can do for your country”. We know now that his
words obviously didn’t apply to him. He may have done great things to improve our great
country, but he also did one thing that killed our country. It will be forever known as the “Bay of
Pigs”, John F. Kennedy’s mistake.
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Work Cited
“What Went Wrong?”
<www.jfklibrary.org>
<library.thinkquest.org>
<www.u-s-history.com>