Answer: Kennedy called the failed Bay of Pigs invasion a “colossal mistake.”
Explanation:
Upon taking office, Kennedy learned that a secret CIA operation approved by President Eisenhower was training 1,500 anti-Castro Cubans in Guatemala for an invasion of their homeland at the same time that the CIA was working with Mafia crime bosses in the United States to arrange for the assassination of Castro. Based on their assumption that the president would authorize the use of U.S. military forces if the Cuban exiles ran into trouble, the Joint Chiefs of Staff assured the inexperienced Kennedy that the invasion plan (Operation Trinidad) was theoretically feasible; CIA analysts predicted that the invasion would inspire Cubans to rebel against Castro and his Communist regime.
In reality, the covert operation had little chance of succeeding and was an explicit violation of international law. Secretary of State Rusk urged the president to cancel the dubious operation, but Kennedy willfully ignored such advice and approved the ill-fated invasion. When the ragtag force, led by an American, landed at the Bay of Pigs on the southern shore of Cuba on April 17, 1961, it was brutally subdued in two days; more than 1,100 men were captured. Four U.S. pilots were killed. Kennedy refused desperate requests from the anti-Castro invaders for the U.S. military support they had been promised.
A New York Times columnist lamented that Americans “looked like fools to our friends, rascals to our enemies, and incompetents to the rest.” Kennedy called the bungled Bay of Pigs invasion a “colossal mistake.” It was, he confessed to Richard Nixon, “the worst experience of my life. How could I have been so stupid?” The planners had underestimated Castro’s popularity and his ability to react to the surprise attack. The invasion also suffered from poor communication, inaccurate maps, faulty equipment, and ineffective leadership.
