The Bay of Pigs: Impact on US Foreign Policy

The Bay of Pigs, a top secret raid to overthrow Cuba by the United State. The Bay of Pigs was planned by the Eisenhower administration, the attack spanned throughout 2 days. Even though the attack failed and lasted 2 days, the Bay of Pigs had an advantageous effect on how the United States’ government would and will handle foreign affairs in the future. The Bay of Pigs took place during the cold war between the United States and Russia, the United States grew more and more suspicious of Cuba’s affairs due to the sudden rise of a new leader, Fidel Castro and his communist affiliation with Russia. After the election President Kennedy had the option to discontinue the Bay of Pigs attack or let it through. When the attack commenced nothing went

"After several tense days, the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw the missiles and dismantle the sites, and the United States pledged not to invade Cuba and to lift the blockade"(Executive Order No. 182). The United States successfully solved the Cuban missile Crisis without violence due to the fear of brinkmanship. Brinkmanship was Kennedy’s last resort if he could not use political superiority and negotiations to end the situation. Kennedy perfectly demonstrated this during the Cuban Missile Crisis after learning from his past mistakes mistakes (The Bay of Pigs). Both situations had a lot of tension but they were handled very differently. Under Eisenhower the United States did not know how to deal with the weight of the situation so their first response was violence. They did not want anyone to find out they were behind it so they train Cuban exiles to do their dirty work. Even though the Bay of Pigs mission was a failure the consequences were not all negative. Kennedy learned for the mistakes of rushed violence and feared the start of a nuclear war so he did everything he could to not start one. Although this lesson was learned Communism was still alive and rapidly spreading even though Cuba was cut off from the rest of the world. "This Administration has forever blackened our nation’s honor at the Bay of Pigs, bungling the invasion plan and leaving brave men on Cuban beaches to be shot down. Later the forsaken survivors were ransomed, and Communism was allowed to march deeper into Latin America"(United States Congress). Communism was still a massive problem in the eyes of a capitalist America. During the Missile Crisis was going on Communism quickly spread all over the globe. Since it would be too difficult to contain a country across the globe that could become communist the united States would protect everyone