In this brief, standard survey, University of Alabama historian Jones (Mutiny on the Amistad
) concludes that the 1961 “CIA-engineered” Bay of Pigs invasion marked “a new direction in [U.S.] foreign policy” by combining military force and assassination. When Castro’s seizure of power in 1959 led to mass executions and bellicose anti-American rhetoric, President Eisenhower authorized the CIA to draft a plan for Castro’s overthrow. The plan included Castro’s assassination and landing a brigade of Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs. Pressed by building Cold War anxiety in his ranks, President Kennedy approved the plan after taking office in 1961, but reduced air cover in order to conceal U.S. involvement, and an invasion “built on questionable premises and dubious assumptions” quickly foundered. While the abortive invasion “solidified” Castro’s rule, the author says, failure didn’t deter Kennedy, whose administration made the overthrow of Castro its “central focus.” Extensively researched and cogently reasoned, Jones’s update of this Cold War turning point for the Pivotal Moments in American History series is a cautionary account of a disastrous foray into regime change. 30 b&w illus; maps. (Aug.)
