Kennedy inherited a CIA plan to topple Fidel Castro with Cuban exiles and, in the Miller Center’s words, “altered dramatically” before approving it. On 17 April 1961 about 1,500 exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs; Castro’s forces quickly overwhelmed them, and the cover story that Washington was not involved collapsed at once. [1]
In November 1961 Allen Dulles, who had run the CIA since 1953, left the agency; John McCone was sworn in to replace him. [2] That same month Kennedy ordered a new covert program to overthrow Castro, Operation Mongoose, run by Air Force General Edward Lansdale with Robert Kennedy pushing hard. [3]
In March 1962 the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent the Secretary of Defense a set of proposals, now known as Operation Northwoods, for staged incidents that could be blamed on Cuba to justify an invasion. At a 16 March meeting Kennedy said he could not foresee circumstances that would justify American military force. Northwoods was not adopted. [4][5] Our Northwoods file covers it in full.
Mongoose ran sabotage and planning through 1962 and was wound down after the missile crisis, but CIA contacts with Cubans plotting against Castro continued into 1963. Those facts are why so many theories begin with Cuba. [1][3]
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