The Cuban Invasion

by Karl E. Meyer, Tad Szulc

A contemporary chronicle of the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 written by two reporters who covered the event. Tad Szulc, working for the New York Times, broke the story of the involvement of US military and intelligence personnel. Karl Meyers, a reporter for the Washington Post, covered Latin America prior to the invasion attempt and had interviewed Fidel Castro in the bush, in 1958 prior to the fall of Batista.

Genres: History

160 pages

First published January 1, 1962

Reviews

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the real thing because the book was written at the time of the events. As far as I can tell, Szulc and Meyer present a fair account of the revolution and the lame attempts of the exiles and the American govt to stage a revolt. The CIA ran counter to the policies of DDE and set up events that could only end in disaster. JFK had a chance to call off the whole thing but chose not to. When the invasion was underway, JFK did not help the floundering troops probably because he had vowed not to involve America in what he viewed as a Cuban vs Cuban thing. Boy, did the Americans fowl this one up!