Research Proposal on "Intelligence Cuba, Intelligence, and the Cold War"

Research Proposal 12 pages (3608 words) Sources: 4 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Intelligence

Cuba, Intelligence, and the Cold War

Intelligence is very important to the military and also to the safety of U.S. civilians. As such, it has been used for hundreds of years to try to protect people and find out what other countries and organizations were doing. Two of the most important topics for intelligence in the past involved Cuba, and they were the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The intelligence aspects of these events must be addressed in order to show how intelligence works and does not work when used to its fullest extent, and how it sometimes fails even if all precautions against that are taken.

Intelligence can play a critical role in the strategic interests of the U.S., but only if it is utilized correctly and consistently. Whether this was done in the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis will be discussed here. It would be easy to say that the Bay of Pigs invasion failed so the intelligence must not have been good, but that is not necessarily the case. There are other reasons why invasions can go awry and sometimes the intelligence that is given - and that is accurate - is also not acted upon in the way that it should be. These kinds of problems and others all affect the events that take place and that are related to intelligence.

Discussing both the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, however, should show that there were serious intelligence concerns regarding both of these events, which took place in the 1960s. Has intelligence in this country gotten better since then? It would certainly seem so, and many people would hope so, but there are still intelligence lapses that lead to disasters and problems. This would indicate that the intelligence that the U.S. receives is not as complete and accurate as would have been hoped. Events like September 11, 2001 and the misguided beliefs that started the Iraq War - that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction - have shown that intelligence can still be wrong and that it is not always thorough enough.

Mistakes can still be made and problems can still arise. Nothing is perfect. That does not mean that the use of intelligence by the U.S. is not important, though, or that it should not continue. Every effort must be made to make sure that good intelligence is received, that it is timely, and that it is as accurate as possible. Getting this kind of good intelligence on a consistent basis is something that is very difficult and that must be worked for. There are various channels through which intelligence is funneled to the people who need it, and that can sometimes be cause for concern.

There have been breaches of intelligence before, some of these resulting in loss of life. This is naturally something that should be avoided at all costs, but there are times where this avoidance is simply not possible. The common good overrules the fate of a few human beings when it comes to trying to protect the country, but what about invading other countries? What about calling their bluff or stepping in when there are disputes between others? These can both result in serious problems for the U.S., and the Cuban Missile Crisis came dangerously close to leading to a nuclear war.

Because the U.S. was involved in the Cold War at the time, this had a strong impact on the way intelligence was addressed, making the cold war important to discuss, as well. Having the proper intelligence - and thorough intelligence - can indicate to those who are involved with these things how serious the situation actually is and what needs to be done to diffuse potentially devastating events from escalating.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion

In 1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion was designed to overthrow the Cuban Government, led by Fidel Castro (Hagedorn, 2006). A force of American immigrants who had been exiled from Cub and trained by the U.S. were used in that attempt. The attempt was unsuccessful, and the immigrants were supposed to invade southwest Cuba (Hagedorn, 2006). They were given help by the U.S. Air Force. The invasion planning had begun in 1960, and the funding for it began at that time, as well. However, the actual invasion was not carried out until April of the next year (Hagedorn, 2006).

The way that the invasion was planned relied heavily on intelligence. A battalion of people cannot just go into a country and try to overthrow it without some planning. They have to have some idea of what they are doing and why they are doing it, and they also need to know what tactics should be employed, where the best place to strike can be found, and where to locate any other people who they might be looking for. These kinds of things are what intelligence is for and one of the main reasons behind it. However, getting that intelligence - and getting it correctly - can be a serious issue for a lot of country both during war time and when things are mostly peaceful.

One of the main reasons that the Cuban issues were so significant as they related to the Cold War was that the troops that managed to defeat the U.S. invaders were trained and equipped by the Soviet Union (Lynch, 2000). That meant that the Soviet Union was essentially working against the U.S. And when relations were already strained that was not something that many people were happy about or comfortable with (Lynch, 2000). All the public knew was that relations were strained, but they were blissfully unaware of just how much strain was on them or how close they were to snapping under that strain.

The defeat was particularly bad, because it took place in only a few days and was not something that the Americans were particularly proud of (Lynch, 2000). They did not expect to be defeated by the Cubans because they had a perception of the Cubans as easier targets than that. Apparently, their intelligence into what they would be up against was not as good as it should have been (Lynch, 2000). Had it been better they might have decided not to attack, to attack at a different time or place, or to involve more troops and more funding into the effort.

Regardless of what could have happened, however, what did happen was that the U.S.S.R.-trained Cuban troops were ready for anything that the Americans could throw at them and it was over very quickly (Faria, 2002). Fidel Castro stayed in power and the Cuban nation went on as it always had, until the next year when something else happened (Faria, 2002). That was the year that saw the Cuban Missile Crisis and brought the world literally to the brink of nuclear war (Faria, 2002).

The Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was much more serious than the invasion that took place at the Bay of Pigs (Faria, 2002). It is one of the most serious confrontations to come out of the Cold War and is regarded by many as bringing the world very close to an actual nuclear war. That was a very unfortunate and difficult time in history.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion was stopped very quickly because the U.S. was poorly organized when it came to moving forward from their starting point, but the Cuban Missile Crisis was much more severe (Faria, 2002). Once the Bay of Pigs fiasco had ended, Castro declared that Cuba was a satellite state of the U.S.S.R. And he believed that the U.S. would try to invade Cuba again to finish what it started (Faria, 2002).

Unlike the single event that marked the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis was a prolonged time that was made up of many different events and operations (Dobbs, 2008). Many operations were started by the U.S. In order to try to get Cuba to back off on their stance of siding with the U.S.S.R. It was a violation of the Monroe Doctrine and it was problematic in many more practical ways, as well, because the U.S. was very worried that Cuba might try to attack them, as well (Dobbs, 2008). The U.S.S.R. began to grow stronger and by extension Cuba was able to gain strength, making it more dangerous-based partially on its proximity to the U.S. (Faria, 2002; Dobbs, 2008).

Economic embargos were put into place as well as other sanctions, but they did not stop the U.S.S.R. And Cuba from working together (Dobbs, 2008). There were covert operations very often, but there were no overt operations addressed. They were considered, but doing something overt could have caused the U.S.S.R. To retaliate against the U.S. with potentially devastating consequences (Diez Acosta, 2002). There was eventually an agreement reached with the Soviets stating that they would dismantle the missiles in Cuba and the U.S. would not invade.… READ MORE

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