Operation Northwoods Essay

The Bay of Pigs was an invasion that the CIA had financed which involved training a group of Cuban refugees to land in Cuba. The primary goal of the invasion was to get rid of the communist government led by Fidel Castro. The Outcome of the invasion was unexpected, and the invasion failed miserably. The plan failed due to last minute cancellations of airstrikes, and the lack of knowledge that Castro had ordered 20,000 troops in advance to go to the attack site; this resulted in having the Cuban Air Force dominating the sky, which did not allow the U.S army to fight back. As the invasion went on, the chance of the U.S winning decreased within every hour. President Kennedy then ordered an “air-umbrella” at dawn. This plan demolished the U.S military. Because Kennedy was new in office, he wanted to do the “right thing” and make everyone proud that they voted for him. Unfortunately the CIA had created the plans before Kennedy was in office, and they did not share all of the information with him and manipulated him into approving it. The blame for this failure lies with both Kennedy and the CIA. The motivation behind the invasion was the United States’ tremendous fear of communism. “I mean, now we look back on that and it can seem sort of ridiculous that we ever had a time when we thought the Communists were going to take over the world. But that is indeed what most Americans thought at the time” (Rasenberg 1). The fear communism was more powerful than the desire to respect the sovereignty if other nations, especially one so close to America as

As America climbed the ranks to become an imperial powerhouse, conflicts with Spain arose. Many factors contributed to the inevitable war that broke out in 1898; five key causes are believed to have initiated the Spanish-American War, more so than others. America saw the Cuban people as harshly governed, and wished to aid them in their time of need. Journalism infamous for stirring controversy and creating conflict was convincing Americans that their enemy was irrefutably the Spanish. Cuba’s location in the Pacific was glowing with opportunities for not only business, but also strategic military. The final of the five was the unexpected eradication of the USS Maine, an American battleship, blamed on the Spanish. This medley of conflict erupted into war with the Spanish, speculated to have ended with five core results: the gain of Puerto Rico, Guam, and purchase of the Philippines; the evental annexation of the Philippines; the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands; the assembly of the Panama Canal; and the rise to a world-power status. This was undoubtedly, one of the most impactful wars America has fought.

The Cuban Missile Address is delivered October 22nd, 1962 in the Presidential office through a major radio and television address (Podell, Anzovin, and States United 705). Historically, it is worth mentioning that United States had attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro, who was at the time Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba, in at least two occasions known as the Bay of Pigs Operation and Operation Mongoose, because of his communist regime and close relationship with the Soviet Union (Pious). Then, after the Bay of Pigs incident, Fidel Castro urged Nikita Khrushchev, the Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to send support and weapons to Cuba, because of the fear of another attack to his person/regime, Nikita did by sending missiles capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction, hence, this major crisis that lasted 14 days ending October 28, 1962 (Deinema and Leydesdorff). In addition, the target audience for this speech is the American people as President starts his speech with the phrase, “Good evening, my fellow citizens” (Kennedy); however, the secondary audience would be the Cuban people, whom he describes as captive people, the Soviet Union leaders, whom he directly addresses and even quotes, and Fidel Castro of course (Kennedy). As noted above, the cultural, socio-political context is important to understand the seriousness of this crisis and

As apparent in Document C, in which the quintessential “nuclear family” sits in a bunker, concerns about nuclear war stood at the front of the American ethos. This fear of nuclear war was also reflected in Document E, in which the question is posed of whether or not the “U.S. [should] take the first blow?” This question of “whether a policy of accepting the first blow may be the best one” became intertwined within the minds of the America people, heightening American fears. President Eisenhower, while addressing the issue of the Soviet Union and its subsequent tensions through nearly doubling “defense spending…of government spending” (Document H). However, the Eisenhower administration failed to successfully mollify these fears, apparent in the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, who pledged not to “dare to tempt [challenging nations] with weakness” (Document I).

John F. Kennedy, a former president of the United States, delivered his “Cuban Missile Crisis” speech on October 22, 1962, to the United States citizens and captives in Cuba. Those people were terrified of a nuclear missile attack during the Cold War time period. Due to the primary use of logos in Kennedy’s “Cuban Missile Crisis” speech, he informs his audience about the type of missiles in Cuba and the steps to be taken to respond to the Soviet Union’s placement of missiles in Cuba. This would hopefully alleviate some of the fear of the citizens of the United States. He shows pathos by continuing to ease the citizens’ fear of a missile attack by showing compassion towards the people. Also, structure is demonstrated through the well organized and equal length paragraphs of three main topics.

Containment was used by the United States so they could prevent communism spreading and was used towards the Guatemalans, Greece, Turkey, and Cuba during the cold war. In which was successful in stopping communism from spreading but did require people being killed or be put in jail which is bad because they got punished for something they believed on. This happened around 1954 because at that time they were fighting the cold war so they had to come with a quick and effective way to stop communism from spreading and containment was the solution.

What were Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy's ways of dealing with the Cold War? Both Truman and Eisenhower used the policy of containment when dealing with the Cold War. Kennedy used flexible response in the war instead of containment. Containment is to keep things under control (Ayers 819). Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis is an example of military use (Kennedy 1). Military use is how we use our Military (Ayers 850). Armed Corps used to defend and protect the government. Primarily used to go to war with an opposing country (Eisenhower 2). Economic Aid is giving help to strengthen another country’s government and is usually done financially (Ayers 819). President Truman was the first president to deal with the Cold War.

In January of 1959, became communist under Fidel Castro. The United States tried to stage a coup to get rid of Castro, but the attack failed. In May 1962, the Soviet Union began to secretly ship nuclear warheads to Cuba. In October, U.S. spy planes detected medium range nuclear missiles being installed on the island. In the graphic shown for document D, it is shown that medium range missiles had the potential to reach New Orleans, Miami, and Washington D.C. The United States decided to quarantine all of the incoming ships to Cuba. The United States and Soviet Union officials began diplomatic relations to deactivate the nuclear missiles. Just three days after the missile became functional; Soviets began to remove the missiles. A few months later, in an unpublicized agreement with the Soviet Union, the United States removed the nuclear warheads it had in Turkey. The Cuban Missile Crisis demonstrated the United States’ use of the policy of containment because the United States issued a quarantine of Cuba and also entered in diplomatic talks with the Soviet Union to try to halt the conflict. However the Cuban Missile Crisis also demonstrated how containment was not successful because despite how friendly the two leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States became Cuba still became a communist

According to the TF Mountain intelligence, only a few hundred enemy forces were in the area (Fleri, Howard, Hukill, & Searle, 2003). However, this was a sore underestimate due to a high volume of hiding places in caves located in the mountains. The Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance was very aggressive and did not take into account the surround areas or the possibility of enemy forces planning guerrilla

What does Zinn mean by referring to industrialists like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller as “robber barons”? What did they do to deserve that name? Why do Schweikart and Allen refer to them as “titans of industry”? What good do they think Rockefeller and Carnegie did?

The first force of action Kennedy decided to take on Cuba was the economic blockade. This was put in place because Cuba had just signed a trade agreement with the USSR, and Kennedy knew that the USSR having access to planting their missiles only 90 miles away from US territory could be very dangerous. “Since the 1960s, the United States has imposed an embargo against Cuba...the blockade, consists of economic sanctions against Cuba and restrictions on Cuban travel and commerce for all people and companies under US jurisdiction.” This quote is from this website. This was a very big decision that Kennedy made because Cuba and the U.S traded a lot of goods between the each other, and he knew that he would be cutting off that supply completely. A lot of people did not believe he was making the right decision, but Kennedy knew that if his judgement and thinking was corrupted by other people 's perspective than he wouldn’t be able to truly figure out what was the right

The United States had installed a nuclear arsenal in Turkey, which was not looked on so lightly from the Soviet Union’s view point. Once USSR realized what was being taken place, they placed nuclear bombs in Cuba. As an act of defense, U.S.A decided to allow force if necessary in Cuba to protect themselves from USSR weapons. When reading document four, it

The US government turned the weapons to Cuba immediately. “I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this secret and reckless threat to the world peace” (Doc.A). Even though, it missile site is outside of US, it is still a dangerous nuclear threat to US from SU. Because behind Cuba, its biggest support was Soviet Union. In addition, from Doc. AA, it shows that the missile site is really close to US, which could easily become a danger to US. And also, the US made the respon quickly to defuse this crisis. Base on Doc. F, this excerpt from North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed by the United States, Canada, and ten nations of Western Europe, says “each will immediately take whatever action it considers necessary to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area”. The United States and its allies were teamed up together to against the Soviet Union. Because a lot of counties realized the threat from the Soviet Union’s action. Therefore, the United States’ policy was strongly against the communist

In an attempt to overthrow Castro and prevent the spread of communism throughout Latin America, Kennedy was forced to implement “a watered down plan inherited from the Eisenhower administration” , which involved using CIA trained Cuban rebels to encourage an anti-Castro uprising which would then appear as an internal uprising. This resulted in what historian Theodore Draper described as a “perfect failure” On April 17th 1961, 1500 rebels landed on the Bahia de Cochinos however invaders were swiftly captured or killed and as Kennedy refused to send in USA troops and cancelled a planned air strike in order to feign lack of American involvement, the plan ended in “total humiliating defeat” . Kennedy was enraged that he had signed what he had seen as an “unworkable plan” and that he had “allowed himself to be swept along by sheer bureaucratic momentum” . Despite this he took full responsibility for the failed operation stating in a news conference on March 21st 1961, that while “victory has a hundred fathers, defeat is an orphan” . The Bay of Pigs ‘damaged US relations with foreign nations enormously” and “encouraged Khrushchev’s adventurism” resulting in increased Cold War tensions that demanded the President’s full

Thirteen Days is a film that describes in detail the thirteen extraordinary days in October of 1962, where the world stood on the brink of an unthinkable catastrophe and the decision making process of Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis. This film reflects on the challenges that the U.S. Government of the time faced during the period of this event as well as conveying the very nature of that situation-the pressure of a nuclear threat posed in the early years of the Cold War made the intensifyingly hard for Kennedy. Across the globe, there was an overwhelming anxiousness that surrounded the people while they waited the outcome of a narrowing political, diplomatic and military confrontation that threatened to end in an apocalyptic nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. Thirteen days captures the urgency, suspense and paralyzing chaos of the Cuban Missile Crisis.