Editor says, what if the last-minute cancellation of the Bay of Pigs Operation made matters far worse? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).

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Eric Lipps commented on 2010-05-14 00:55:05 ~ Cancellation of the Bay of Pigs scheme, which had been conceived and planned under Eisenhower (who put Vice-President Richard Nixon in charge, which is where he got to know all those Watergate Cubans) would have beena great idea--if it could have been done quietly. In the history explored in this post, of course, that doesn't happen. Kennedy is publicly humiliated by Khrushchev instead. I suspect that as a result, when late in 1961 the Soviets began construction of the Berlin Wall Kennedy would have felt forced to take more aggressive action than in our timeline, perhaps turning the Berlin confrontation into a European version of the Cuban missile crisis. And if Kennedy had to back down again, he could forget aboout campaigning for re-election: he'd have enough trouble avoiding impeachment.

Michael N. Ryan commented on 2010-05-14 01:02:33 ~ I who regard pretty much everything of that period a disaster by all means in which every decision made for the most part were the wrong decisions and the wrong choices in much of our economic, social, moral and politcal arenas except when it comes to the policy of containment of the Communist bloc. Standing down and not launching the disaster of the Bay of Pigs would certainly avoid a major embarrasment for the administration, Considering how things went down but eventually Kennedy would push himself and Kruschev to other confrontations in which the outcomes were better for us. Leave us face it our problem in Cuba as it was in Vietnam is that we were backing a pack of crooks with long rap sheets who had nothing good to offer their desperate peoples where the communists were a blank sheet with much of their crimes unknown. Our policy towards Cuba would be best of Blockade adn strangling the monster while undermining it where possible much like was done with southern democrats at this time. Let the regime's corruption be its cancer.

Michael N. Ryan commented on 2010-05-14 01:04:17 ~ The only real way to take down Castro and his regime would be for the United States to find an 'incident' with which to justify an invasion. Then we could remake it like we did the Phillipeans and Puarto Rico and show the people of Cuba how things are rally done.

Eric Oppen commented on 2010-05-14 05:55:21 ~ The people who were counting on the BoP would have been very disappointed. That said, a lot of people knew there was something in the wind---I used to have a letter to my Mom from a Cuban-American friend of hers hinting that the op was going in. There was no chance of it remaining secret.

Scott Palter commented on 2010-05-14 11:24:12 ~ Actually Kennedy had the excuse to cancel the operation as security had been blown so badly the NYT and other media were covering the supposedly secret invasion prep. His problem was political - he had been briefed on the plan during the Presidential campaign and had hit Nixon for doing nothing about Castro anyway. It was good politics as Nixon kept opsec at political cost but if Kennedy had canceled the op Langley would have leaked his duplicity out of spite. This lemon was the CIA's baby and they had fallen into institutional love. It would have taken a brighter more savvy player than JFK to see that he gets screwed less badly canceling that failing and everyone knew failure was highly probable except the CIA which had stopped listening to their own intel from the island. Mr. Ryan sees the Vietnam connection but IMO misses the keys. Diem was actually not a major crook. Indeed by Vietnamese nationalist standards he was actually fairly honest. However he was an inept Catholic mandarin who trusted no one outside his family circle and had by 1961 alienated his entire base of support beyond the Catholic refugees from the north. The Southern population had had bad experiences with Giap and the Red Terror in 1945 but the Viet Minh [the VC were always a front group and the locals saw through it] had sound nationalist credentials and were not tied to the landlord-moneylender system of rural misery [although their collectivization system was equally unpopular]. A large part of how Ike's limited bet on the Diem regime becomes an open ended US war in SV happens in OTL because Kennedy needed a big win after the Bay of Pigs and TAylor and Rostow sold him that he could have a cheap win by escalating. If the Cuban fiasco doesn't happen there is a fair chance Kennedy avoids the poison nettle.