Joe Bidens Bay of Pigs moment

[Gerry Down]

Eisenhower laid the ground work for the Bay of Pigs which Kennedy then disastrously executed.  Trump laid the ground work for the Afghanistan withdrawal which Biden then disastrously executed.



Considering that Kennedy became more aggressive afterwards (initiating Operation Mongoose etc.) in an effort to unblot his copy book, are we likely now to see Biden become more aggressive in some area of his foreign policy to unblot his own copy book?

[Walt Cakebread]

Eisenhower laid the ground work for the Bay of Pigs which Kennedy then disastrously executed.  Trump laid the ground work for the Afghanistan withdrawal which Biden then disastrously executed.



Considering that Kennedy became more aggressive afterwards (initiating Operation Mongoose etc.) in an effort to unblot his copy book, are we likely now to see Biden become more aggressive in some area of his foreign policy to unblot his own copy book?

No Eisenhower DID NOT lay the ground work for the BOP..... His VP  Richard Nixion and his mob buddies did.... They wanted to get the casinos and whore house back from Castro....  Eisenhower was pres, But it was Nixion's scheme.....  Nixion and the mafia and the CIA....

JFK inherited the hare brained scheme and the fiasco eventually led to his death in Dealey...

[Walt Cakebread]

Kennedy changed the landing site to the reef-laden Bay of Pigs. Thought it would reduce civilian casualties.

Your right.....JFk changed the landing site...However if the CIA had did their job they would have known that the boats could not go ashore at red beach because of the coral reefs.........   The fact that the boats couldn't get over the reef wrecked the entire plan.....

[Gerry Down]

A 2006 poll of historians ranked Kennedy's decision to authorize the Bay of Pigs invasion as the eighth-worst mistake made by a sitting president.
SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_John_F._Kennedy

I wonder where Bidens fiasco will come in. Fleeing civilians falling off US military planes? I think he has unfortunately probably outdone Kennedy.

The full list of the top 10 worst mistakes of a US President are here:

1: President James Buchanan, for failing to avert the Civil War, according to a survey of presidential historians organized by the University of Louisville's McConnell Center. Scholars who participated said Buchanan didn't do enough to oppose efforts by Southern states to secede from the Union before the Civil War.
2:  Andrew Johnson's decision just after the Civil War to side with Southern whites and oppose improvements in justice for Southern blacks beyond abolishing slavery.
3: Lyndon Johnson earned the No. 3 spot by allowing the Vietnam War to intensify.
4: Woodrow Wilson's refusal to compromise on the Treaty of Versailles after World War I.
5: Richard Nixon's involvement in the Watergate cover-up.
6: James Madison's failure to keep the United States out of the War of 1812 with Britain.
7: Thomas Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807, a self-imposed prohibition on trade with Europe during the Napoleonic Wars.
8: John F. Kennedy allowing the Bay of Pigs Invasion that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
9: Ronald Reagan and the Iran-Contra Affair, the effort to sell arms to Iran and use the money to finance an armed anti-communist group in Nicaragua.
10: Bill Clinton's Monica Lewinsky scandal. Many scholars said it belonged at No. 10, saying that it probably affected Clinton's presidency more than it did American history and the public.

SOURCE: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-02-18-presidential-goofs_x.htm

[Richard Smith]

Rutherford Hayes deserves a spot.  He lost both the popular vote and electoral college but managed to get himself elected president by promising to end Reconstruction in the South.  Thus, sending the South effectively back to the pre-Civil War situation for another hundred years.  Grant had made enormous progress with promoting the advancement of the rights of black citizens that were all ended by the deal making Hayes president.   The current Afghanistan fiasco certainly ranks above several events on the list. Not the decision to withdraw which was long overdue, but the grossly incompetent and shameful way that it was conducted.  The disaster at the Southern border also ranks a place. 

[Gerry Down]

The current Afghanistan fiasco certainly ranks above several events on the list. Not the decision to withdraw which was long overdue, but the grossly incompetent and shameful way that it was conducted.  The disaster at the Southern border also ranks a place.

Bidens presidency is over. Fleeing civilians falling off planes - nightmarish pictures. In the same way the pictures of the Capitol riot will define Trumps presidency, those pictures will define Bidens presidency.

Plus Harris had been bragging of how she had been the last person in the room before Biden took the final decision to withdraw all US troops. She wanted it to be known it was her decision too. That was when she assumed the withdrawal would result in a stable Afghan government operating out of Kabul which she could brag about being part of. Now she's nowhere to be seen.

[Richard Smith]

Bidens presidency is over. Fleeing civilians falling off planes - nightmarish pictures. In the same way the pictures of the Capitol riot will define Trumps presidency, those pictures will define Bidens presidency.

Plus Harris had been bragging of how she had been the last person in the room before Biden took the final decision to withdraw all US troops. She wanted it to be known it was her decision too. That was when she assumed the withdrawal would result in a stable Afghan government operating out of Kabul which she could brag about being part of. Now she's nowhere to be seen.

I give Biden credit for not caving to the enormous political pressure to simply kick the can down the road on Afghanistan.  The establishment politicians and military have made out like bandits on the funding allocated for that hopeless endeavor.  All that money was wasted or went to corruption including being funneled back to the politicians who allocated it.  They often lied or were shamefully incompetent in reporting on the result of trillions of dollars being spent in Afghanistan.  Most Americans support the decision to withdraw but not the disgraceful way that it was conducted.  Ironically, Biden cited the successful effort to kill Osama bin Laden as the objective of the mission.  Of course, he himself opposed the raid that actually killed bin Laden. 

[Jon Banks]

Author, David Talbot, suggests that the Bay of Pigs was intended to fail.

The assumption was that the failure and embarrassment would forced JFK to escalate US military intervention in Cuba (Kennedy of course pissed off the CIA by refusing to get militarily involved in Cuba).

Similarly, it's plausible that the Pentagon intentionally screwed up the withdrawal logistics because most of the Pentagon brass oppose the Afghanistan withdrawal policy.

Either way, I'm glad that Biden isn't listening to the Generals who are corrupted by Defense Contractors and war profiteering.