Happy Bay of Pigs Day

[Steve Thomas]

April 17, 1961.

Steve Thomas

[David Boylan]

And still the dislike of JFK.

 

As every year, on April 17 at five o'clock in the afternoon, the names of 104 heroes of the 2506th Assault Brigade who died trying to free Cuba from communism are read. You always answer "present" when you hear the name of each brigade member in front of the Assault Brigade Monument 2506 This monument has a torch with a perpetual flame and is located at SW 8th Street and 13th Avenue in Miami.

President John F. Kennedy gave the order to reduce the first attack on Cuba from 16 B-26 bombers to just eight and instead of all airports to just three airports where the planes of the communist regime of the murderous dictator Fidel Castro were located. The surprise attack on 15 April 1961 on San Antonio de los Baños, Columbia and Santiago de Cuba was successful, but seven aircraft remained undestroyed, including T-33 jets, Seafuries and B-26 bombers.

By order of President Kennedy, the other five air raids on the afternoon of April 15, the two on the 16th and the morning of the 17th were called off, and with those orders and others he gave such as changing the place of invading Trinidad next to the Escambray Mountains for the lousy place of the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy sentenced the 2506th Brigade to destruction and death. It was undoubtedly an act of high treason and criminal negligence. Without total control of the air, the Brigade could not defeat more than 200,000 enemy soldiers. During the early morning hours of April 17, the small cargo ships carrying the 1,500 soldiers of the 2506th Brigade arrived at the Bay of Pigs, where they were attacked again and again by Castro's seven planes.

[Gerry Down]

30 minutes ago, David Boylan said:

And still the dislike of JFK.

 

As every year, on April 17 at five o'clock in the afternoon, the names of 104 heroes of the 2506th Assault Brigade who died trying to free Cuba from communism are read. You always answer "present" when you hear the name of each brigade member in front of the Assault Brigade Monument 2506 This monument has a torch with a perpetual flame and is located at SW 8th Street and 13th Avenue in Miami.

President John F. Kennedy gave the order to reduce the first attack on Cuba from 16 B-26 bombers to just eight and instead of all airports to just three airports where the planes of the communist regime of the murderous dictator Fidel Castro were located. The surprise attack on 15 April 1961 on San Antonio de los Baños, Columbia and Santiago de Cuba was successful, but seven aircraft remained undestroyed, including T-33 jets, Seafuries and B-26 bombers.

By order of President Kennedy, the other five air raids on the afternoon of April 15, the two on the 16th and the morning of the 17th were called off, and with those orders and others he gave such as changing the place of invading Trinidad next to the Escambray Mountains for the lousy place of the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy sentenced the 2506th Brigade to destruction and death. It was undoubtedly an act of high treason and criminal negligence. Without total control of the air, the Brigade could not defeat more than 200,000 enemy soldiers. During the early morning hours of April 17, the small cargo ships carrying the 1,500 soldiers of the 2506th Brigade arrived at the Bay of Pigs, where they were attacked again and again by Castro's seven planes.

Where is this text from?

[David Von Pein]

.....

Edited April 19 by David Von Pein

[Cliff Varnell]

Happy Let's Get Rid of Allen Dulles Day.

Joe Kennedy soon after the BOP: . 

"I know that outfit, and I wouldn't pay them a hundred bucks a week. It's a lucky thing they were found out early."

 I don't think luck had anything to do with it. 

Intentional sabotage by Richard Bissell and McGeorge Bundy, more like it.

[Kevin Balch]

2 hours ago, Cliff Varnell said:

Happy Let's Get Rid of Allen Dulles Day.

Joe Kennedy soon after the BOP: . 

"I know that outfit, and I wouldn't pay them a hundred bucks a week. It's a lucky thing they were found out early."

 I don't think luck had anything to do with it. 

Intentional sabotage by Richard Bissell and McGeorge Bundy, more like it.

Joe Kennedy Sr. was on Eisenhower’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. That’s probably where he realized they were boobs.

[Steve Thomas]

9 hours ago, David Boylan said:

And still the dislike of JFK. 

 "...with those orders and others he gave such as changing the place of invading Trinidad next to the Escambray Mountains for the lousy place of the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy sentenced the 2506th Brigade to destruction and death."

David,

I too would like to know where this comes from.

Steve Thomas

[David Boylan]

41 minutes ago, Steve Thomas said:

David,

I too would like to know where this comes from.

Steve Thomas

Frank de Varona wrote this a few days ago.

Bay of Pigs 63 Years Later

By Frank de Varona

On April 15, as every year, tribute is paid to the brave Cuban pilots, navigators and mechanics

of the Air Force of the 2506th Assault Brigade and to the four American pilots and navigators

who gave their lives in an effort to free Cuba from the bloody and oppressive communist regime.

This event takes place in front of the Pilots Memorial at Tamiami Airport.

 

 

[Steve Thomas]

10 hours ago, David Boylan said:

Frank de Varona wrote this a few days ago.

Bay of Pigs 63 Years Later

By Frank de Varona

David,

Thank you.

Steve Thomas

[Stu Wexler]

Has anyone in any of these legacy groups ever grappled with the very clear and alarming evidence that the CIA misled JFK about the prospects for the invasion fully knowing it would likely fail? Or, with that in mind, the fact that overtly committing air power after would be a clear violation of international law and norms?  I keep waiting for them to shift the blame to where it belongs as we have known this for at least 20 years now (the latter point since 1961).

Stu

[Kevin Balch]

Interesting article regarding internecine struggles within the CIA over espionage vs. covert ops that came to a head in the wake of tge Bay of Pigs.

https://warontherocks.com/2016/12/spy-vs-spy-the-bay-of-pigs-and-the-battle-for-the-soul-of-the-cia/

[Ron Bulman]

On 4/17/2024 at 4:41 PM, Cliff Varnell said:

Happy Let's Get Rid of Allen Dulles Day.

Joe Kennedy soon after the BOP: . 

"I know that outfit, and I wouldn't pay them a hundred bucks a week. It's a lucky thing they were found out early."

 I don't think luck had anything to do with it. 

Intentional sabotage by Richard Bissell and McGeorge Bundy, more like it.

Hi Cliff.  I was re reading this thread and had a second thought.  When I first read it, I thought the last line referenced JFK.  I now wonder given the first line, you weren't saying Bissell and Bundy were sabotaging Dulles were you?

[Cliff Varnell]

On 4/18/2024 at 5:16 PM, Ron Bulman said:

Hi Cliff.  I was re reading this thread and had a second thought.  When I first read it, I thought the last line referenced JFK.  I now wonder given the first line, you weren't saying Bissell and Bundy were sabotaging Dulles were you?

That's what happened, didn't it?

During Eisenhower's second term, Joe Kennedy and Robert Lovett lobbied Ike to fire Dulles.

https://cryptome.org/0001/bruce-lovett.htm#schlesinger

<q>

[T]he increased mingling in the internal affairs of other nations of bright, highly graded young men who must be doing something all the time to justify their reason for being. ... Busy, moneyed and privileged, [the CIA] likes its "King Making." responsibility (the intrigue is fascinating -- considerable self-satisfaction, sometimes with applause, derives from "successes" -- no charge is made for "failures" -- and the whole business is very much simpler than collecting covert intelligence on the USSR through the usual CIA methods!)...

Should not someone, somewhere in an authoritative position in our government on a continuing basis, be . . . calculating . . . the long-range wisdom of activities which have entailed our virtual abandonment of the international "golden rule," and which, if successful to the degree claimed for them, are responsible in a great measure for stirring up the turmoil and raising the doubts about us that exist in many countries of the world today? . . . Where will we be tomorrow?”

</q>

Although the above denunciation of "bright, highly graded young men" was written in 1956, it certainly applied to Richard Bissell, who became CIA Deputy Director for Plans at the beginning of 1959.  Bissell pushed for the creation of the ZR/RIFLE assassination squad, and ordered hits on Patrice Lumumba, Rafael Trujillo, and Fidel Castro. 

Lovett and Bissell had worked on the Marshall Plan starting in 1948.  Both of them worked closely with Averell Harriman (Skull & Bones 1913)

After the 1960 election, Lovett and Joe Kennedy formed JFK's kitchen cabinet.  Lovett recommended Dean Rusk for State, C. Douglas Dillon for Treasury, Robert McNamara for Defense and McGeorge Bundy National Security Advisor.  Lovett and Bundy's father Harvey were Skull & Bones members who worked closely together at the Department of War during WW2.  McGeorge and his brother William were also Skull & Bones.  Bissell had been tapped to join S&B but he turned them down.

Did gaining power slacken Bob Lovett and Joe Kennedy's desire to get rid of Allen Dulles?  Did Lovett convince his fellow Yalies, Bissell and Bundy, to botch the BOP intentionally?

I can't say as a fact that the BOP failure was planned to provide a rationale for Dulles' dismissal, but in my book that scenario makes as much sense as the incompetence/inertia scenario described by ace BOP historian Larry Hancock (see In Denial: Secret Wars with Air Strikes and Tanks?)

 

Edited April 20 by Cliff Varnell

[Ron Bulman]

So, they sabotaged Dulles and JFK in one fell swoop?  I've not read In Denial (sorry Larry).

[Larry Hancock]

Ron, In Denial does make it clear that Barnes and Bissell, regardless of motive, lied to both JFK - and to Hawkins and Esterline at the same time.  Unfortunately Hawkins and Easterline believed him before hand and afterwards and repeated Barnes' lies to the field officers at JMWAVE...who repeated it to the Cubans.   It was only decades later when they were shown actual documents and transcripts that they Hawkins and Easterline realized the truth...way to late at that point.

In Denial makes it clear how far JFK actually went to resend certain of his rules during the three days of the on the beach and authorize more American involvement; it also makes clear which of his directives were never complied with at all - including his order that it operation had to happen entirely at night with all ships out in international waters by  daybreak and that the Brigade and Navy be fully prepared for an immediate evacuation if the landing was opposed.

The story  is actually much more tragic when you realize who should actually bear the blame for the disaster.