CASTRO: THE LITTLE BUGGER WHO WOULDN'T GO AWAY

Communist dictator, Fidel Castro, truly must have nine lives. He made our government look like fools and he outlived the very Marxist regimes who gave him power in the first place. Those of us who grew up in the 60's remember Kennedy's comical attempts to remove Castro from power. Kennedy authorized Operation Mongoose, a CIA covert plan to oust Castro. This project, also known as The Cuban Project, represented a host of covert operations. Kennedy also authorized the infamous Bay Of Pigs fiasco. The plans for the Bay of Pigs operation actually began under Vice President Nixon in 1960. In order to avoid an all out war, the plan called for Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro. Intelligence officers believed the anti Castro element in Cuba would rise up with the exiles an dethrone Castro. The CIA, under the direction of Vice President Nixon, proposed that the exiles land near Trinidad which was southeast of Havana. They believed the rugged mountains of the area coupled with Trinidad's hatred for Castro would insure a guerilla warfare victory. The exiles even trained for this type of operation. Kennedy changed Nixon's original plans and basically sealed the insurgent's fate. Someone leaked the plans to Castro and he removed his aircraft before American supported Cuban bombers showed up to bomb the Bay Of Pigs' airfield. When the exiles undertook ground operations they did not receive expected help from native Cubans. Castro had a already taken care of a few of the natives and executed many of them for treason. He imprisoned others. Furthermore, to prevent the whole incident from looking like an overt U.S. military operation, Kennedy withdrew all air support for the exiles.

The Bay Of Pigs affair embarrassed Kennedy and may have led to the Cuban missile crises. Conspirator pundits believe Kennedy died at the hands of Castro for this comedy of errors. I personally doubt that. The CIA report concluded this about the failure of the whole affair:

The fundamental cause of the disaster was the agency's failure to give the project, notwithstanding,its importance and immense potentiality for damage to the United States, the top flight handling which it required--appropriate organization, staffing throughout by highly qualified personnel, and full time direction and control of the highest quality.

The report goes on to say:

Insufficiencies in these vital areas resulted in pressures and distortions which in turn, produced numerous serious operational mistakes and omissions, and in lack of awareness of developing dangers, in failure to take action to counter them, and in grave mistakes of judgement. There was failure at high levels to concentrate informed, unwavering security on the project, and to apply experienced, unbiased judgement to the menacing situations that developed.

Read the full document here.

Today, people think of Kennedy as a great president. Why, he embodied Camelot. We tend to glorify people who fall into the hands of tragedy. At the same time, presidents who get accused of misleading the U.S. about Iraq, yet, whose operations are much more successful than Kennedy's, get painted as the world's dunce. Its a curious thing, this double standard. I wonder if the original Bay of Pigs plan would have succeeded under Republican Eisenhower?

Michelle Malkin has a few things to say about Castro's plight.