John F. Kennedy

Kennedy's Role in The Bay of Pigs

Kennedy, now president elect, was told by Richard Bissel, CIA deputy director for operations, that the Eisenhower administration had allowed them to train and arm Cuban exiles. They were being prepared for an invasion in order to overthrow Castro.

Kennedy had come into office with this plan almost in operation. Thousands of Cuban exiles waited in Florida and Guatemala for their war to begin. Even if Kennedy did not want to overthrow Castro, stopping this operation would have been difficult. As Kennedy is reported telling some of his key advisers:

"If we decided to call the whole thing off, I don't know if we could go down there and take the guns away from them."

The media was unaware, except The New York Times, which received the lead in the story. But, Orvil Dryfoos, Times publisher, was persuaded by Kennedy to discontinue coverage. This operation was only known to a small circle among the executive branch.

Kennedy gave the go-ahead to the operation after being assured that such an invastion would spark a revolution to overthrow Castro. The president, however, feared that U.S. credibility could be dammaged if there was an overt American invasion in Cuba. He, hoping to assure plausible deniability, ordered that American assistance be minimal. His decision was based on faulty information; he was not told that without extensive air support the Cuban exiles had little chance of success. The president was not informed fully because CIA director, Allen Dulles, fered that he would stop the opeation.

"We felt that when the chips were down, when the crisis arose in reality, any action required for success would be authorized rather than permit the enterprise to fail."

This is was what Dules later wrote. He was wrong.

President Kennedy refused to use American air power to save the Cuban Exiles. He was not going to take action bacause he believed he had signed on to a covert operation by the CIA. The operation was a failure.