On this Memorial Day.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion didn't start with President John F. Kennedy, but his views would be shaped by the aftermath of the invasion. The Bay of Pigs invasion was a failed landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles who wanted to defeat Castro plus his Cuban Revolution. The U.S. government covertly funded the operation during the height of the Cold War. Many of the Cuban exiles involved were Pepe San Roman, Felix Rodriquez, Erneido Oliva, etc. The U.S. Government supported the Brigade 2506 against the Cuban Revolutionary Armed forces and the National Revolutionary militia. To start, you have to investigate how it started. Cuba was inhabited by Native Americans originally. The Spanish colonial empire ruled Cuba by the 18th century. Cuban nationalists in the 19th century rebelled against the Spanish Empire especially by the Cuban War of Independence (1895-1898). America fought the Spanish empire and forced the Spanish Army out. Yet, the U.S. government forces made Cuba a pro-Western puppet state. Batista was the total U.S. puppet who allowed the Mafia, large corporations, and other entities to exploit Cuba's resources. Later, the Cuban Revolution and the Bays of Pigs invasion occurred. In August of 1960, the CIA contacted the Cosa Nostra in Chicago in trying to invade Cuba to assassinate Castro, Raul Castro, and Che Guevara (in exchange for a pro-U.S. government to exist in Cuba and allowing the Mafia to have their monopoly on gaming, prostitution, and drugs).

It is no secret that the CIA wanted to assassinate Fidel Castro. The man overseeing plans for the Bay of Pigs invasion was Richard m. Bissell Jr., the CIA's Deputy Director for Plans (DDP). He assembled agents like David Philips, Gerry Droller, and E. Howard Hunt (many of these people were involved in the 1954 Guatemalan coup). Eisenhower supported the plan. Thousands of people died in the situation. The invasion lasted from April 17-20 1961. General Fulgencio Batista led a coup against President Carlos Prio in 1952. Afterwards, Prio was in exile in Miami. Castro led his movement, and it became successful to overthrow the dictator Batista in December 1958. Castro nationalized American businesses from banks to sugar and coffee plantations. The U.S. severed all ties with Cuba. Then, President Dwight D. Eisenhower allows $13.1 million to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in March 1960 to use tactics against Castro. The CIA aided Cuban counter revolutionaries in their goal of overthrowing Castro. Cuban exiles formed Brigade 2506. There were over 1,400 paramilitaries. They were divided into five infantry battalions and one paratrooper battalion. They were assembled and launched from Guatemala and Nicaragua on boat on April 17, 1961. 2 days earlier, the CIA supplied 8 B-26 bombers. They attacked Cuban airfields and returned to America. Playa Grion was where the local revolutionary militia via Jose Roman Fernandez fought.  The invaders lost the battles fiercely. President John F. Kennedy withed air support after being told to do it from many factions. JFK supported Operation Zapata or the Bay of Pigs plan. Eisenhower planned the use of air and naval forces. Without air support, the Cuban exiles had great difficulty to defeat Castro's forces.  The invaders surrendered on April 20, 1961. Many of them were placed in Cuban prisons, many of them were killed, and it was a new era. The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces defeated the invading force in 3 days.  The failed invasion was a U.S. foreign policy failure. Castro remained in Cuba for decades. Cuba became closer to the Soviet Union. President John F. Kennedy accepted responsibility for the debacle. Allen Dulles, Charles Cabell, and Richard Bissell resigned by 1962. Still, the CIA would try to kill Castro long after 1961 via Operation Mongoose (which started on November 30, 1961. It was led by United States Air Force General Edward Lansdale). This would be a prelude to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.



1960 saw the growth of the sit-in movement. This movement existed in the 1950's, but the Greensboro, North Carolina sit-in movement represented a new era of the Civil Rights Movement. It involved 4 black students who started the 6 month Greensboro sit-ins. It was on February 1, 1960. By February 13, 1960, there was the Nashville sit-ins. It was started by Nashville students being trained by activist and nonviolent teacher James Lawson.  They are successful by May of 1960. Another leader of the Nashville movement was a black woman named Diane Nash. Dr. King had tax evasion charges on February 17. The Virginia Union students or the Richmond 34 staged sit ins at Richmond, Virginia. They stage sit ins at Woolworth's and at Thalier's department store. James Lawson was expelled from Vanderbilt University for his sit-in participation. Houston has its sit -in on March 4, 1960 via Texas Southern students. They stage it at Houston, Texas at Weingarten's lunch counter. Felton Turner of Houston was beaten, hanged upside down in a tree with the initials KKK carved on his chest on March 7. San Antonio was the first city of Texas to integrate lunch counters. Florida Governor Leroy Collins said Lunch counter segregation unfair and morally wrong. SNCC was created with the blessing of Ella Baker in Raleigh North Carolina. It started on April 15-17, 1960. It wanted to use grassroots organizing in causing justice. Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960. Dr. King was acquitted of tax evasion by an all white jury in Alabama. Dr. King met with Senator John F. Kennedy on June 24, 1960. Ruby Bridges integrated a New Orleans school by the end of 1960 too. On January 11, 1961, 2 African Americans (Hamilton E. Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault) came into the University of Georgia. They were once suspended and ordered reinstated. CORE members were arrested in Rock Hill South Carolina. They desire a sit-in. The Freedom Rides of 1961 was supported by CORE and SNCC. SNCC members Diane Nash and James Bevel take up the cause.

The Freedom Riders, Dr. King, and Rev. Ralph Abernathy were besieged by racists at Rev. Abernathy's First Baptist Church in Montgomery. They were protected by federal marshals. The Albany, Georgia movement would form in 1961. 1962 saw the forming of COFO which included members of SNCC, CORE, and the NAACP. CORO stands for the Council of Federated Organizations that wanted voter registration. On March 20, 1962, the FBI installs wiretaps on NAACP activist Stanley Levison's office. Leroy Willis was the first black graduate of the University of Virginia College of Arts and Sciences on June 1962. Churches were burned and people suffered injustices back then. Yet, heroes fight onward. 1963 was one of the most explosive years of the black freedom struggle. January 18, 1963 was when George Wallace called for segregation forever as Governor of Alabama. From April 3 to May 10, 1963, there was the Birmingham Campaign. It was involved with the SCLC and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Kids, women, men, and others were hit with water from firefighters during the Montgomery movement. Homes were bombed. People died, and JFK sent troops to stop the rebellion after black Americans used self-defense against racist terrorists. Dr. King wrote his Letter from a Birmingham Jail on April 16, 1963. Fannie Lou Hamer was beaten, and the 1963 March on Washington existed. Medgar Evers was assassinated in 1963, and 4 little girls were murdered in Birmingham (the 16th Street Baptist Church). On that day, the Selma Voting Rights Movement was born by James Bevel, Diane Nash, and others via the Alabama Project. Malcolm X, on November 10, 1963 gave his "Message to the Grassroots" speech in fighting white racist power structure and criticizing the March on Washington as co-option of revolution. The poll tax was banned by the Supreme Court via the 24th Amendment on January 23, 1964. There was Freedom Summer in Mississippi to promote voting rights for black Americans in 1964. Sidney Poitier won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field. June 21, 1964 was when Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner were murdered. They were civil rights workers. The Organization of Afro-American Unity was created by Malcolm X on June 28, 1964. The Civil Rights Act was finally signed in July 2, 1964. It bans discriminated based on color, religion, race, sex, and national origin in employment practices and public accommodations. Congress passed the Economic Opportunity Act that helps Native Americans in civil and criminal lawsuits. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegates challenge the racist Mississippi representatives at the Democratic National Convention. Fannie Lou Hamer gave a speech in support of justice there at Atlantic City, New Jersey. Dr. King received the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1964. He was the youngest person to be honored at that time. By December 14, 1964, the Supreme Court upheld the Civil Rights Act of 1964.


President John F. Kennedy's domestic and foreign policies can be divided into the years of 1961, 1962, and 1973. In 1961, he was just starting and face new challenges. He struggled a bit. In 1962, President Kennedy evolved to see how the military industrial complex was aggressively trying to push his to invade Cuba, invade Laos, and do other aggressive actions that would possibly start WWIII. JFK refused to embrace the Pax Americana ethic. 1963 was when he had some of his greatest moments oratorically and policy wise from standing up for a Civil Rights Bill and endorsing a long term strategy of forming peace between America and the Soviet Union. To start, it is important to go into 1961. Robert Kennedy was the Attorney General soon in 1961. JFK told RFK that he wanted him to use lawsuits in the South to attack voting discrimination. On March 6, 1961, President Kennedy signed an executive order to end discrimination in government employee hiring and contracting. By March 20, 1961, the Kennedy administration interceded in the New Orleans School District on desegregation cased on behalf of the integrationist Judge J. Shkelly Wright. He later appointed Judge Wright to the D.C. Court of Appeals. President Kennedy promoted space exploration. On May 7, 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard was the first American to achieve space flight. Later on May 25, 1961, JFK gave a speech that advocated a big space exploration program. He wanted humans to go to the Moon before 1970. He would get his wish, because Americans came to the Moon by 1969. On May 14, 1961, the Freedom Riders came into Anniston and then Montgomery, Alabama. They wanted to enforce existing law that integrated interstate bus travel. The Freedom Riders were pulled of the buses and beaten with baseball bats, chains, etc. The FBI did nothing to stop this. The Governor doubled crossed the President. So, JFK sent in 500 U.S. Marshals to rescue the protesters. President John F. Kennedy wanted the courts and the law to promote equality, but the protesters wanted both the courts and active demonstrations in order to make equality real. I agree with the protesters, because you have to use demonstrations and the courts or the legal system in getting change. The Vienna summit between President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev failed. They debated on the future of Berlin. JFK wanted West Berlin to be free and open. Khrushchev was afraid that if Germany had too much power, then a Hitler like figure would reign and fight the Soviets again like during WWII. The Cold War was more heated. There was East Germany closing its border with West Berlin. American and Soviet military forces faced each other. Then, the Berlin Wall was built. The wall was unjust and cruel, but JFK said that a wall is better than a war. JFK set up the Alliance for Progress program and the Peace Corps to expand Americanism overseas under the guise of humanitarianism. There were sincere people in the Peace Corps, so I want to make that clear. On November 22, 1961, Kennedy sent 15,000 advisors to Vietnam via NSAM 111. Advisors is code name for military people aiding the South Vietnamese forces in the Vietnam civil war. On January 17, 1962, President Kennedy signed a law that granted federal employees to form unions and bargain collectively.

March 15, 1962 was when Kennedy signed the Manpower Development and training Act to fight African American unemployment. That law saved lives and gave almost 350,000 people jobs. JFK rejected Operation Northwoods which called for the U.S. to use false flag operations in America in order to be a justification for an American invasion of Cuba. The Birmingham movement for civil rights grew from 1962 to 1963. By 1962, JFK's Medicare bill failed, and JFK took on Big Steel over economic issues. JFK supported the Laos neutralization plan as signed in Geneva. Kennedy sent in the Army and federal troops to stop white racists from rioting over the admittance of the African American James Meredith at Ole Miss. October 1962 was JFK's great movement to save humanity along with other people. The military generals and many in the intelligence community wanted JFK to attack Cuba after Soviet missiles were found in Cuba. JFK used a blockade to prevent military supplies to leave or go into Cuba. That brought time to help find a solution. The solution was an agreement of JFK to get ride of U.S. missiles in Italy and Turkey in exchange for the Soviet missiles to be removed from Cuba. Many in the military industrial complex hated JFK for this, but that agreement is better than millions of people dying in a nuclear holocaust. Vasil Arkhipov was a Soviet soldier who courageously stopped some Soviets of attacking American forces within a short span of time basically saving a large part of the human race. Operation Mongoose or the plan to assassinate Castro was disbanded by the end of 1962. After China invaded India, JFK send a military airlift to Nehru. China retreated a day later. On November 20, 1962, President Kennedy signed an executive order that prohibited discrimination in sales and rental for housing. Khrushchev's letter to Kennedy on December 11, 1962 was the beginning of detente. JFK also support the UN trying to stop the Belgian and British goal of separation of Katanga from Congo.  1963 saw many changes in the Kennedy Presidency. JFK by this time saw many changes. The Battle of Ap Bac in Vietnam caused a loss for South Vietnam forces. On January 26, 1963, James Donovan came into America from Cuba. Castro's physician Rene Vallejo told Donovan that Castro was interested in talking about re-establishing relations with Washington. On June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech at American University to promote world peace. He wanted a long term end to the Cold War with the Soviet Union. One June 11, 1963, he promoted a Civil Rights Bill and racial equality. It was a bill that was the strongest civil rights bill since the days of Reconstruction. By August 5, 1963, JFK, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain signed the Limited Atomic Test Ban Treaty. It banned above ground nuclear testing. This policy was very historic. The coup of Diem was on November 1, 1963. It caused the Vietnam to spiral out of control in some respects. By November 1963, it was the beginning of the end of the Kennedy Presidency.




It is the perfect time to celebrate the life of a late, great legend, who lived from November 9, 1922 to September 8, 1965. I always love her work and the causes that she advanced. She experienced so much joy and pain, yet her life is the testimony of the resiliency of the human spirit. She was a black woman who didn't live long enough to see the younger generation of black actresses showing their lights, but she was one architect of the modern day black woman superstar involving acting plus music. Her name was the great Sister Dorothy Dandridge. She was born in Cleveland , Ohio. Back in the day, you had to be multifaceted in talent to get into the door. Dorothy Dandridge danced, sang songs, and acted in many legendary movies. Her role in Carmen Jones back in the year of 1954 was ahead of its time. It was film about a woman during World War II who experienced controversies, love, and tragedy. She was in the film Bright Road too. In 1959, Dandridge was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Porgy and Bess. She is the subject of the 1999 HBO biographical film, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. From the Cotton Club to the Apollo Theater, she loved to perform. She loved her audience. She recorded musical records back in the 1940's and all the way to the 1960's. She worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Los Angeles to promote civil rights legislation. She passed away in 1965. Many actresses give credit to her as inspiring them like as Cicely Tyson, Jada Pinkett Smith, Halle Berry, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Kimberly Elise, Loretta Devine, Tasha Smith, and Angela Bassett. She was one of the many African Americans who helped to break down barriers for future black women actresses and entertainers in general. Her light was great and now we honor her legacy by promoting excellence and due diligence in achieving justice for people. Sweet Dreams Sister Dorothy Dandridge.


By Timothy