3 January 1961 United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba. DDE adminstration.
17-19 April 1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion. The IKE/Nixon plan and JFK operation to overthrow Fidel Castro.
30 November 1961 – Presidential memorandum
“we will use our available assets
to…help Cuba overthrow the Castro regime.”
20 February 1962 Operation Mongoose plan to overthrow Fidel Castro submitted.
16-28 October 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis.
1962 through ??? Cuban Project
14 August 2015 US embassy in Cuba formally reopens
So, what was it all about? How many tens of millions of dollars were squandered for NOTHING other than to make Cuba a long-term enemy of the US. (Also to bring this country and Cuba to the brink of a nuclear exchange.)
(Note: the US embassy in Havana wasn’t physically abandoned, but Americans don’t pay much attention to such details. The symbolism was all they required to hate-hate-hate Cuba and Fidel Castro. Also, the US Ambassador’s residence was neither abandoned nor appropriated by the Cuban government. it was just called something else and kept even more secret from Americans than the US Interests Section in Havana. Disclosure: in the early 1990s I was privy to some information about the “Ambassador’s” residence. Only enough to become aware of its existence and was told to keep the information confidential.)
If Americans weren’t so nuts and didn’t cling so tightly to anti-whatever propaganda for generations, Jimmy Carter might have been able to re-open the Embassy thirty odd years ago.
13 August 1961 = construction of Berlin Wall begins.
They certainly have been odd!!!
And the hits just keep on comin’!!!
AG
Best set of Kerry in Havana photos is at the Daily Mail. (okay to skip the text and comments).
IMHO, the JFK cane was in questionable good taste. But, what the hell, not so many Cubans have memories that go back that far.
Thanks to Joe Kennedy. Why was Kennedy obsessed with Castro?
○ Foreign Policy and the Crisis Mentality (1967) by George McGovern
An absolutely great essay by the late Senator George McGovern – Oui
IMHO they were all slightly (some totally) nuts. They were all jockeying to win somewhere that was (or could be painted as) communistic. Someplace not too big and not too powerful to strike and score Cold War Warrior bona fides.
Cuba was just too close and small enough that the temptation was too great to resist. Whether JFK would have gone for a third bite at that apple after the first two defeats is unknown. But the Cuba project wasn’t shut down — perhaps because that would have led to too many angry and crazy unemployed men.
Then there was that other temptation set up by IKE — Indochina.
Reagan was mostly thwarted in his efforts to take the fight to Nicaragua and El Salvador; so, he settled for “glorious battle win” in Grenada with a population that couldn’t fill the Rose Bowl. But rightwingers lapped it up as if it were VE day.
Don’t understand why he bailed on the Bay of Pigs, though. It doesn’t fit with everything else.
Only bailed when it was clear that the projections of those that advocated for the invasion were clearly a fantasy.
Also, to authorize US military action, he would have had to throw Adlai Stevenson and SOS Dean Rusk under the bus.
Pulling out the ships that were to pick up the survivors was a really crappy thing to do. However, that order came from the Chief of Naval Operations, maybe the White House didn’t know until later.
Doesn’t matter who gave that order. To do otherwise would have been far too dangerous. When it’s best to stop digging, stop digging.
I know one thing – the sailors didn’t like it. But they followed orders.
Sometimes the boss knows best. This was one of those times.
Well, the best would have been never sailing to Cuba in the first place.
BTW, I was told that the message went with flash priority, normally reserved for notice of imminent war. There is stuff we still don’t know about the Bay of Pigs and probably never will as the participants are starting to die in large numbers.
I once saw an “immediate” during the Iranian hostage crisis. “priority” was actually pretty routine. I sent lots of those myself.
I think it was because of old, prohibition-era Kennedy financial interests in Cuba. I know Castro appropriated Mafia property, he may have appropriated Kennedy property too.
Old Joe had cleaned up his formal business operations long before the Cuban Revolution.
Doubt that the Kennedy family ever had property in Cuba. Unlike FDR who had a very nice compound which he donated to the State Dept and has since been used as the Amb residence and was never appropriated.
I’m thinking illegal assets through a chain of dummies.
Far too off in the sticks for me to wonder about.
True