Bay of Pigs

by Peter Wyden

The 1962 CIA invasion of Cuba by anti-Castro exiles at the Bay of Pigs has endured as America's greatest overt covert flop. The planning & misexecution of the project has been covered until now mainly as a subtheme in memoirs & general books about the JFK years. Former Newsweek correspondent Wyden has gathered information from the Cuban exiles & from within Cuba itself--as well as from Washington sources--to uncover "the untold story"; but essentials remain unchanged. His access to Cuban sources has been squandered on eyewitness accounts of the battle, so that we learn more about the minute-by-minute proceedings than anyone could want to know, but little about the impact of the invasion on Cuba or Cuban attitudes toward the USA. He's dealt with CIA reports that accurately gauged the level of Castro's popular support in Cuba, but were bypassed by CIA planners in favor of less accurate ones foreseeing potential success. These, however, are ignored while he gets into the old squabble over the operation's chances had Kennedy not canceled a 2nd air strike aimed at destroying the Cuban air force. His obsession with trivial details--like each person's garb at any given moment--overwhelms any analytic potential. Because Wm Fulbright was the only one in the know who strenuously opposed the operation, he concludes that "groupthink" & "assumed consensus" prevented all these brilliant people--by his reckoning, almost anyone with a Yale background & a position of power qualifies--from realizing that the plan was a mess. Therefore, "it could happen again!" Of course, if all those bureaucrats, lawyers & academics weren't so brilliant, the answer may lie elsewhere; not in why the Bay of Pigs wasn't stopped, but in why it was started. On that, he's not much help.--Kirkus (edited)
Plot at the CIA
Escalation
Reappraisal & momentum
At the watershed
The attack begins
Invasion
Aftermath
Conclusion: It could happen again
Index

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, War, American

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Peter H. Wyden, born Peter Weidenreich, in Berlin to a Jewish family, was an American journalist and writer.

He left Nazi Germany and went to the United States in 1937. After studying at City University of New York, he served with the U.S. Army's Psychological Warfare Division in Europe during World War II. After the war, he began a career in journalism, during which he worked as a reporter for The Wichita Eagle, a feature writer for The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Washington correspondent for Newsweek magazine, a contributing editor for The Saturday Evening Post in Chicago and San Francisco, articles editor for McCall's, and executive editor for Ladies' Home Journal. He authored or coauthored nine books, and numerous articles that appeared in major magazines. In 1970, he became a book publisher in New York City and Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Source: wikipedia.com

Reviews

[David Classing · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book starts a little slow with the technical data and the planning, and the biographies of the individuals assigned under Eisenhower to hatch this invasion of Cuba. The first 20% of the book, quite frankly, is a bit dull and difficult to read, however "the action" soon heats up.

I'm not sure how much research went into this work, but it is very informative and easy to read, once the initial pages are finished. It almost reads like a spy novel, but we all know the seriousness of the Bay of Pigs invasion had on the credibility of the US and President Kennedy. It provides a somewhat behind the scenes look at the initial planning by Eisenhower and Nixon, and leaves a very good impression on the personal impact it had on President Kennedy and how he used its failure to make better policy decisions in the future.

I would recommend it to anyone who would like to know a bit more about the Bay of Pigs invasion and the decision making, albeit poor, that went into it.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was on the bookshelf in my grandparent's dining room for my whole childhood and from as early as I can remember I dreamt of reading it. I was very interested in pigs from a young age and their copy had a yellow cover which I prefer to the cover image shown above. When my grandma moved to a nursing home, this is one of the books I kept and finally I read it. It took my a long time because it was actually pretty dull and hard to read because it was talking about military men and maneuvers, but my love of Communism and dictators helped me get to the end.

[RYD · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was meticulously researched and offers a variety of perspectives: from interviews with Cuban leader Fidel Castro and CIA executives such as Richard Bissell through to Cubans who lived by the Bay of Pigs and fighters from both sides of the invasion. Here's to hoping that the CIA and military planners aren't nearly as incompetent today as they were in 1961 -- though considering the intelligence on Iraq, that may be wishful thinking.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Must Read about the failed invasion of Cuba to overthrow Castro.

[Andrew Scholes · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an unmitigated disaster. Total lack of communications. Lack of understanding what they were getting into.

[Kristi Thielen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who was to blame for this fiasco? Plenty of people. The idea of an invasion to oust Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, began in the Eisenhower administration. Ike was lukewarm about it, but still passed it off to the next administration – helmed by John F. Kennedy, a WWII vet who was loathe to countermand a plan that came from the great war hero.

JFK’s administration asked too few questions of how the invasion would unfold, because they were new to their positions and to their boss. Kennedy himself asked only about “pieces of the puzzle,” but never about the overall mission itself.

Many of the men chosen to oversee the invasion were lesser lights and few spoke Spanish. Advisors who knew the area where the landing was planned protested that there was a dangerous amount of coral in the sea there. And the hills men who landed were to “melt into” were too far away for them to do any such thing.

These advisors were ignored.

Intended as a secret operation, the invasion became common knowledge long before it was undertaken.

And when it was undertaken? No one had timely communication with those on the beaches to know what was going on. Cuban and U.S. pilots could not communicate because their radios operated on different frequencies. The Navy thought the Air Force had its back. The Air Force thought the Navy had its back. And Kennedy refused to authorize the full use of the expedition’s few planes.

But perhaps most significantly, the Kennedy administration underestimated Cuban support for Castro. They did this in part because they suffered from a racism that would haunt America during the Vietnam War: brown men could not possibly have the capabilities and determination of white men. And so, they therefore could not succeed, where white men failed.

The Bay of Pigs was a sad state of affairs that cost lives and futures and political capital. The author, writing in the late 1970s says “it could happen again.,” and I fear he is right.

[Alexander Berkman III · Rating 3 out of 5]

I waver between two and three stars. I went in not knowing much of anything about how the Bay of Pigs invasion fell apart so disastrously. After finishing this I feel like I have a pretty finely detailed understanding of everything that happened from start to finish. So the book is not lacking for detail. Nor is it wanting for breadth of sources. Peter Wyden went to Cuba and interviewed a bevy of important actors on the opposing side at a range of levels in command, including Castro himself.

But this book was written while the Cold War was still very much alive and consequently lacks a sort of contextual fullness that answers some questions that beg for a response. Specifically it seems very charitable to the CIA figures who got the ball rolling on this invasion and then blamed Kennedy for its failure. Some very weird questions arise when Wyden writes of the *intense* anger many CIA players felt toward Kennedy in the aftermath. Yet the book finishes without really fully exploring exactly how fully formed or real that anger was. That is certainly enough of a topic for a whole other book, but at the very least I would hope for a bit less credulity on the author’s part towards what these types of “intelligence warriors” were capable of if they felt vengeful.

[Jon Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased my copy of this secondhand book for 3 bucks at a "Friends of the LSU Library" book sale earlier this year. The book was written in the late 1970's and the author states it was, at the time of publication, one of the first books to tell the full, true story of the failed April 1961 invasion of Cuba by CIA-backed Cuban exiles with the intent of unseating Fidel Castro from power and installing a pro-Western government. The whole venture was an abject failure on every level, as detailed by author Wyden based on interviews with participants in the invasion, Cuban defenders, US military, CIA, and government officials, and even Castro himself. There is much fascinating detail provided about the background, planning and woeful execution of the invasion, and its aftermath. Four out of five stars.

[Joe Seliske · Rating 5 out of 5]

A child of the 1950s my recollection of things that happened in my extreme youth are few and far between. I always remember the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis as two events that had the world on edge. The race to the moon was one of my greatest interests promoted by President John F. Kennedy. Not light reading by any means, but an awesome description of virtually everything that happened. Wyden explains the whos, wheres, whens and whys with great detail. A well-written documentary.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Wyden brings his impressive reporting skills to the Bay of Pigs operation, an endeavor that turned out to be one of the worst fiascoes in American history. This is an in-depth account of the operation's origins, its preparations, and lastly its execution. Wyden presents multiple points of view, from the CIA, White House, military, and the Cuban operatives. A sad and tragic tale that every American should be familiar with, so we can avoid a similar tragedy in the future.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just plain OUCH😖

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

A tough read structurally, regardless of the overabundance of information

[Raymond Ozuna · Rating 5 out of 5]

¡Patria o muerte!

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early accounting from the 1970s of the Bay of Pigs invasion. The author interviewed Castro so interweaves that perspective into the narrative.

[Ryan Nary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meticulously researched; sometimes found the battle scenes boring

[Nick Thorp · Rating 4 out of 5]

HAHAHA MORE LIKE BAY OF PIGLETS

This book is a little dense, but is a good read. A hilarious US defeat by Chad Fidel Castro. Good effort yanks! Not!

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

May I say this is a very good book - and also say I was so blogged down with all the persons and details that I had to slog through it? Not a fan of military history, still I wanted to find out about this ghastly event in our relatively recent history (yes, I remember it a little!)and thus I admire the work for its research and completeness.

[Phey Hoyman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll be honest about this book, saying it starts out dry is an understatement. It is truly tedious to read, but once you get past page 70, it's becomes more enjoyable and easier to grasp the full idea of how the author is assembling the book.

I am sure that there are better books out there that are easier to read on the topic, but for someone who didn't know much about the Bay of Pigs, I can honestly say that I truly expanded my knowledge. There were many aspects that I didn't know before reading the book, and now I can have a conversation with someone about the topic.

I gave it 3 stars because I did learn a lot about the Bay of Pigs and I would recommend it to a friend. My advice is, don't expect the author to grab your attention at the start and to power through the beginning. I feel like it could be condensed and written in a way that was a little more enjoyable to read.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those who want a book about the US-sponsored attack on Cuba in 1962 which focuses narrowly on the details of the invasion, this is the one to get. Most ironic detail: The first navy frogmen on the beach at the Bay of Pigs encountered a new vacation resort built by the revolutionary government for its citizens, a resort inhabited by the crews working on it. The CIA had had no idea of this, thinking the area would be uninhabited.