Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot

President Kennedy returns to the White House following a stressful weekend at Glen Ora, a family retreat in Virginia. He has authorized a US-backed invasion of Fidel Castro’s Cuba, carried out by 1,400 Cuban exiles trained and supported by the CIA. The plan predates Kennedy’s administration. The president has misgivings about it, and he cannot get anyone, including Secretary of State Dean Rusk, to give him a straightforward assessment. Since Castro’s Revolution in 1959, Cuba has become a typical Communist police state. Under President Eisenhower, the CIA began training Cuban exiles in Guatemala. CIA director Allen Dulles is “obsessed with killing Fidel Castro” (49). In the midst of the Cold War, Kennedy cannot afford to appear weak on global Communism, but he also does not want the US directly involved in the invasion, and he does not like the CIA’s plan. In response to one of the president’s concerns, CIA planners change the location of the landing to an inlet called the Bay of Pigs. Still nervous about the entire operation, Kennedy tries to have it both ways: He approves the invasion but also withholds much-needed air support. As a result, the invasion fails.