Page 9 - Social Science.docx

Ultimately, the invasion failed as the troops were overwhelmed by the strength of Castro’s forces and President John F. Kennedy’s actions towards Cuba during the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion caused a shift in US-Cuban relations from wary, expectant opposition to direct and explicit hostility, further degrading Cuban-American relations by catalyzing strained economic interactions between the two nations with the introduction of a more harsh embargo and pushing Cuba closer to the USSR as evident in the Cuban Missile Crisis; Kennedy’s actions during the Bay of Pigs and their repercussions also set the standard for deteriorating relations–both social and economic–in the following decades.
In terms of economics, the Bay of Pigs invasion immediately caused strife between the United States and Cuba as the United States began increasingly restricting trade, damaging not only the relationship between the two now outright-hostile countries but also Cuba’s economic stability. Emboldened and pushed further away from the possibility for friendly relations by the aggressive invasion, Castro confirmed the fears of most Americans, affirming the status of Cuba as a socialist state. He would later boldly announce that he was a Marxist-Leninist and “[would] be one until the end of [his] life.”6 As a reaction, the United States enacted the Foreign Assistance Act, forbidding foreign aid from being provided to Cuba, declaring that “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this chapter shall be available for the United States proportionate share for programs for... Cuba.” The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 also empowered President John F. Kennedy to introduce a complete trade embargo against
Cold War
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History.com. A&E Television Networks; “The TIME Magazine Vault.” Time, December 8, 1961.
Larry Gilman, "Bay of Pigs," Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security, eds. K. Lee Lerner and
Brenda ; “Fidel Castro Declares Himself a Marxist-Leninist.”
Wilmoth Lerner, vol. 1 (Detroit, MI: Gale, 2004), pp. 96
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