Bethany Cheney: http://bethanycheney.blogspot.com/
FitzGerald
Government 132
Week 3 Blog
10 October 2011
To begin, the Bay of Pigs Invasion was an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro (Cuban government head at the time) by the American government using Cuban exiles trained by the central intelligence agency (CIA). The invasion itself took place in April 1961, however it was originally suggested and planned by President Eisenhower in March of the previous year (JFK Library). The main problem with this operation was that it became widely known by Cuban exiles in Miami and eventually word spread all the way back to Cuba, i.e. Castro. The plan was executed on April 17, 1961 and 1,300 Cuban exiles landed on the southern coast of Cuba. Castro’s army stopped the invasion and two days later, 90 exiles had been killed and the remaining were taken prisoner (thinkquest).
Due to the fact that for the previous blog assignment, I utilized the “groupthink” and “prospect theory”, I decided to choose the “levels of analysis” option for this assignment. This method is used to look at an event or even the international system in a way that makes understanding a certain decision or situation easier. The three levels of analysis are: individual, state, and system. These are loosely defined as, “the reasons why people (such as leaders) do what they do (the individual level of analysis), by looking at what happens within individual states (the state level), or by looking at the interactions between actors (the system level)”(Nye 48). The contemporary international event I will be evaluating is the Bay of Pigs Invasion (also known as “La Batalla de Girón”). The levels of analysis I will be utilizing are individual and state analysis.
Using individual analysis, this event can be broken down and examined from the perspective of two people: President Kennedy and Fidel Castro. President Kennedy had been in office for about three months when he made the choice to go ahead with the invasion. The CIA had briefed him and there was already a plan in place. Kennedy was feeling pressured to make a good decision, the first which would define the atmosphere of the rest of his presidency. He also met little opposition from his advisors (symptom of groupthink):
“Presidential advisor Arthur Schlesinger, for instance, presented serious objections to the invasion in a memorandum to the president, but suppressed his doubts at the team meetings. Attorney General Robert Kennedy privately admonished Schlesinger to support the president's decision to invade… Many members assumed other members agreed with the invasion plan. “ (Irving, JFK)
Fidel Castro, on the other hand, already known as the commander-in-chief of Cuban armed forces, had advanced warning of the invasion. Castro had overthrown Fulgenico Batists, the former dictator only two years before and at the time of the invasion had a firm hold of Cuba (JFK Library). Castro had staff members, but as a dictator was the ultimate decision-maker. He most likely viewed Kennedy as a “green president”, especially since the invasion was so poorly kept under wraps. Castro had little to nothing to lose and easily deployed his army to the position of the exiles’ invasion.
Using the state level analysis, the players involved would be the United States and Cuba. At the time of the invasion, Cuba was undergoing a leadership change. There were also strained relations between the two countries. The United States was even at this time a world power. Cuba was less powerful, but still a serious threat due to Castro’s relationship with Krushchev, leader of the Soviet Union (JFK Library). Both countries had more than face to lose over this, but due to it’s power and political standing, America recovered from what is referred to as "one of those rare events in history -- a perfect failure. (Janis, Probe)”
Both the individual and state levels of analysis are crucial for looking at the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the reasoning behind the decisions made. Looking at only the state level or only the individual level does not offer a thorough picture of the situation. Kennedy’s circumstances (being only recently inducted into office) greatly affected his decision, as opposed to someone who was a seasoned leader on a national level. Castro, while not in the same circumstance, was also an important player. However, the situation between America and Cuba as a whole was one of the catalytic factors in this invasion taking place. Therefore, without looking at this situation on at least two levels, the decisions made cannot be fully understood.
Bibliography
"The Bay of Pigs” - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum." John F. Kennedy
Presidential Library & Museum. JFK Library and Museum. Web. 11 Oct. 2011.
<http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Bay-of-Pigs.aspx>.
"The Bay of Pigs Invasion." Oracle Thinkquest. Oracle. Web.
<http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/days/bay_of_pigs.html>.
JFK." Probe. Web. <http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.4221087/>.
Nye, Joseph S., David Welch, and Joseph S. Nye. Understanding Global Conflict and
Cooperation: an Introduction to Theory and History. Boston: Pearson Longman, 2011. Print.
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