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Playa Girón - a microcosm of catastrophe and the blueprint of subsequent failure.
Evaluating the Bay of Pigs invasion
By Stephen Wilkinson
April 19th 2021 sees the 60th anniversary of the failed invasion of Cuba at Playa Girón (The Bay of Pigs). This CIA organised attempt to bring about the downfall of the Cuban revolution by force has long been viewed as primarily a catastrophe of military planning. However, declassified documents by the governments in both Washington and Havana provide evidence to support the argument that the failure was in fact due to political rather than military shortcomings.
This paper, originally written in 2001, analyses the evidence and argues that the US failure at Playa Girón can be read as a microcosm of US policy towards Cuba in the subsequent 60 years. It concludes that not only was the invasion a catastrophe in the short term, its effect in Cuba and the US was to guarantee that US aims would be frustrated for long afterwards.
(PDF) Will they ever learn? Playa Girón as a microcosm of catastrophe and the blueprint of subsequent failure.