The Brilliant Disaster

Almost 50 years ago, on April 17, 1961, the U.S. government and anti-Castro exiles launched the Bay of Pigs invasion to remove the Communist regime in Cuba. Instead, as Rasenberger (America, 1908: The Dawn of Flight, the Race to the Pole, the Invention of the Model T, and the Making of a Modern Nation) vividly shows, this Mission Impossible became a Cold War fiasco that strengthened Castro's hold and tarnished the reputation of the United States throughout the world. CIA director Allen Dulles and master spy Richard Bissell are faulted here for their ill-conceived plans; however, Rasenberger concludes that JFK's decision to cancel air support strikes was the main reason for the failure. This gripping investigation relives the events as they unfolded on a day-to-day and hour-by-hour basis. Especially absorbing is the harrowing story of 1,113 prisoners of the Cuban government (others had already been executed) and the effort to win their release. The author's father worked for JFK to free the captives.