In many ways this story begins in 1949, when the Soviet Union developed nuclear capabilities. Until that time, the United States had been the world’s sole nuclear power and, as such, had very little to fear from other nations across the globe. With the Soviets now in possession of their own nuclear devices, a new balance of power was established, each side warily eyeing the other. As time passes, the governments involved begin to understand that the stark power to destroy humanity lies in opposing hands, in a way that guarantees mutually assured destruction. This realization tends to have a dampening effect on nuclear threats, since each side understands that any attack on the other would ensure the destruction of all. While this is reassuring to military heads, it is not so comforting to the average citizen, of any country.
Whereas the United States has a well-defined change of leadership through regularly scheduled elections, the Soviet Union has nothing of the kind. When Soviet leader Josef Stalin dies in 1953, a power struggle takes place, won, ultimately, by Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev has risen from peasant stock and is a crude and wily man who understands that power is useless unless you can hold on to it.
In the United States, the election of 1960 has produced a leader of many contrasts to Khrushchev. John F. Kennedy rises from aristocratic stock and is a man his powerful father has deemed destined to be president, a claim that proves true. Kennedy is careful, understands the extraordinary power of his office, immediately begins to rely on experts in every field, to help guide the way. Some of these experts dwell in the Central Intelligence Agency, and convince Kennedy that the time has come to eliminate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Kennedy, and his brother Bobby, despise Castro, see him as a standard bearer for the greatest threats to our country, leading a blatantly Communist government right on Florida’s doorstep.
The Cuban government is backed and supported by Khrushchev and the Soviets, who see the Caribbean nation as a vital entryway into Latin America, where the Soviet Union’s influence might expand. Though photographs show Khrushchev and Castro have a smiling friendship, in fact, Khrushchev is wary of Castro’s tendency to talk too much. For his part, Castro embraces Soviet support as a way to expand his own power, no matter Moscow’s cautions. But Castro has an almost paranoid fear that the United States will attempt to forcibly remove him from power. He thus relies on the Soviet Union to provide him with undeniable strength of his own. The Soviets, ever aware that America and her NATO allies have nuclear missiles spread across Europe, now believe they have a successful counter to such a strategy. Thus far, Soviet missiles of all kinds have been based only inside the borders of the Soviet Union, and with very few Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, their armament is only a minor direct threat to the United States. Cuba offers Khrushchev a unique opportunity to move the needle, to balance Soviet missile strength with American. And Castro is only too willing to accept Soviet military aid.
Under Kennedy’s predecessor, Dwight Eisenhower, plans had been laid by the CIA to sweep Castro from power. The agency is delighted that the new president enthusiastically embraces their plan to eliminate Castro with a full-on invasion force, consisting of some fourteen hundred Cuban émigrés, led by officers carefully trained by the CIA. In addition, to begin the operation, the CIA arranges for the Air Force to systematically eliminate Castro’s air power in surgical air strikes, beginning days before the actual invasion. This will involve American planes and American pilots, causing concern in both the Pentagon and the White House, since it will be nearly impossible to disguise the obvious: that this is an American plan with American backing. To add to the concerns, the CIA’s plan calls for American naval vessels, specifically destroyers, to lurk offshore, providing artillery fire as the troops on the beaches require it. Though the CIA goes to great lengths to convince Kennedy that no American fingerprint will be visible, Kennedy is concerned that he could be seen as a bully, trampling illegally across the borders of a sovereign country. That fear continues to fester as the mission begins. Even those at the CIA who delude themselves into believing the mission can be carried out as planned, begin to accept that the claims that the invasion is a Cuban operation, driven and led by Cubans, will be viewed around the world as nonsense. There are concerns as well throughout the American military community, which is not directly involved in the planning for the invasion. The CIA has been territorial with their details, secretive to a fault, not confiding in those in the U.S. military who could have offered advice and materiel. Though Kennedy shares the understandable nervousness about the plan, his drive to eliminate Castro wins out.
After fits and starts, changes and amendments to the plan, the location for the invasion is finally designated as an inlet southeast of Havana, on Cuba’s southern coast. It is called the Bay of Pigs.