Bay of Pigs

• In 1959 the Communist leader, Fidel Castro, overthrew the Batista regime in Cuba. This confirmed to Americans the Marxist spread prophecy, the Domino Theory, and the view that Communism was a cancer that was taking over the earth. Cuba is only 90 miles from the U.S.

• Eisenhower was president in 59. His Vice President was Richard Nixon. Eisenhower's time in the White House was nearing an end, and Nixon was planning to run in 1960. Nixon, therefore, was charged with the Cuban issue. He began to put together a plan for an invasion of Cuba.

• Nixon did not win the Presidency in 1960. Instead John F. Kennedy came to the White House. Kennedy, then, inherited the Cuban problem. This would be Kennedy's first major Presidential crisis after becoming president in 1961.

• The plan, as it emerged, was to take Cubans in Florida who were opposed to Castro and train them, equip them, and coach them on an invasion of Cuba. Hence, it would not technically be a U.S. invasion but rather a Civil War.

DECISION: You are Kennedy. Do you go forward with the plan to invade Cuba that was initiated by Nixon? If you don't, what might be the political consequences? How big of a threat is Castro? What moral grounds do you have to instigate an attack?

Click here to find out what happened