Documentary "A president betrayed"
 

Has anyone else seen this? It is about Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis. It almost paints a picture that Krushev was acting defensively when he placed the missiles in Cuba.

He wasn't?

I was always taught that Krushev was a maniac set out on the destruction of the US. In the documentary, it talks about how many of our upper level people believed we needed to perfom a first strike an wipe them out. If Krushev knew this(and I think he did) then his actions were totally defensive. He was trying to restore the balance of power.

We had already tried to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, tried to assassinate Castro on multiple occasions, and stationed ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey. For agreeing to remove his missiles from Cuba, we agreed never to invade Cuba and to remove our missiles from Turkey and Italy. Typical geopolitical tit-for-tat.

We did much the same when we stationed Pershing II and Ground Launch Cruise Missiles all over Europe in response to the USSR stationing the SS-20 in Eastern Europe. Our actions led to the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

There are always some top people who believe in "first strike". It is a natural percentage outcome of people who make a career out of government and or the military.

Kennedy had completely botched the Bay of Pigs, thinking that a small force of anti-Castro Cubans could invade an 800 mile long island and topple Castro. So Kruschev sort of thought him naive and could be easily pushed around. Kennedy rose to the occasion however and got the missile launchers taken out.

Kennedy inherited the Bay of Pigs Invasion from Ike. The plans were set before he was sworn in.

The plan could have succeeded if Kennedy was committed. The invading Cubans never forgive him for his denial of the promised air support.

The Kennedy administration had no desire to get entangled in a Cuban civil war when the battle was in the Far East. At the time, empire wise Cuba didn't matter (still doesn't) and Europe was stable.

In the documentary I listed above, it talks about hte bay of pigs. According to it, Kennedy never agreed to our military assistance in the invasion. The principles thought he would go along with the the invasion once he saw how it was going to fail. he surprised them and did not. At least this is how it is presented in the documentary.

And what was the mind of the majority of Cubans? Were they pro or anti revolution at the time? Did Castro have popular support?

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

He never agreed to "overt" military assistance (US markings on military equipment were removed). However once the invasion was in trouble Kennedy did not show any initiative.

If Castro's was a popular revolution, how would the BoP invasion have succeeded reversing it?

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

It was difficult to assess the real popularity of the revolution given the extremes of the Castro regime at the time. However let us assume it to be popular, I do not believe it could survive a determine US government which was open to total invasion and suppression.

Kennedy wanted to conceal the true nature of US policies and intentions. Other elements in US felt that once the invasion was undertaken, the US should have taken off its own mask and get creative.

Our track record on this sort of thing is to impose a commercially compliant tyranny in place of a regime we find otherwise, to the detriment of the people at large.
Was Castro in those early days less a tyrant then Batista, and therefore preferable to the common folk?

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

He was the one that ordered it however.

Most successful revolutionaries suck at governance after the fact, Castro is just another example. Still, was life after the revolution better or worse for the common man?
Just how much local support could we have expected?
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk