The Agency: Inside the CIA Page #4

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at the urging of Joseph Stalin,

and a ceasefire was only signed

following his death.

The entire conflict

had continued to escalate with

then-President Eisenhower

ordering the CIA to launch

an invasion of Cuba

with the aim of

overthrowing Fidel Castro.

Castro had aligned himself

with the Soviet Union,

and the US wasn't about to let

a communist country flourish

only 90 miles off the

coast of Florida.

The CIA's invasion of

Cuba would become known

as the Bay of Pigs.

People, uh, around the world

remember the Bay of Pigs,

uh, if they... they don't

remember anything else.

It was said to be

a CIA disaster.

It was another operation to

stymie and stop the expansion

of communism around the world.

The United States

had realized that the only

way to maintain its security

and to halt the

spread of communism,

was to use economic, diplomatic,

and military measures to halt

its spread. This

policy was named

"containment," and a small

bay in Western Cuba

would become its latest battle.

It was planned

der Eisenhower, and

approved under Eisenhower,

with the following stipulation.

The US military would back up

the CIA. Then

with the changing

of administrations, the

plans began to shift.

Kennedy came into office

for the implememtation

of the operation, and

he proceeded to change

the entire plan at

the White House.

They moved it from the

original location

to the Bay of Pigs.

The word came back

from the Kennedy Administration

that the military support

that had been promised

by Eisenhower

was no longer an option.

Even with this lack

Allen Dulles,

then-director of CIA,

and another agent, Dick Bissel,

went ahead with the plan.

Dick Bissel and Allen

Dulles at the CIA believed

they could force Kennedy

to change his mind,

and if the operation

began to fail,

he would really

go in to save it.

The CIA put together a large

bunch of Cuban exiles,

anti-Castro exiles,

and then trained 'em

in, uh, South America.

Word leaked out

as... as it always does,

there's no secrets

in Washington, ever,

anywhere, anytime.

KGB officererworking

Cuba and communist spies

within the Cuban community had

warned on multiple occasions

that the United States was

planning an invasion.

Back in the Soviet Union,

Radio Moscow broadcasted

a prediction of the invasion

four days before the landing

occurred. Despite the

lack of air cover,

the lack of surprise, and

an overwhelming Cuban army

presence, the

invasion took place.

Landing craft

carrying Cuban exiles

and CIA operations

officers landed in the bay

and initially met with

little resistance.

Militia near the bay warned

Castro that landing craft

were approaching

and 35000 trained

Cuban soldiers were dispatched

to engage the CIA paramilitary

force of less than 2000.

There was some air cover

to protect the

paramilitary force,

but it was not enough.

There were a couple

of CIA airplanes, you

know, covert airplanes

to support the landing, but

there was no US Navy jets.

Withoho overwhelming

air superiority,

the CIA planes were

shot down one by one.

As the situation on

the beach dissolved,

the United States

ambassador to the UN,

Adlai Stevenson,

issued a denial

of the entire invasion,

even as Cuban forces

were capturing American

weaponry from the beaches.

United States has committed

no aggression against Cuba

and no offensive has been

launched from Florida

or from any other part

of the United States.

The Cuban Air Force

pounded the beach

as the paramilitary forces

retreated in the face

of overwhelming opposition.

It was over in 72 hours.

The White House tried to play

intelligence officer. They

thought they knew better.

Kennedy's made the

first mistake,

the CIA made the second.

They chose to go ahead.

Fidel Castro rounded up

the remaining survivors and

they were driven to camps

across Cuba. Several

CIA officers

and Cuban exiles were executed

by Castro in the aftermath

of the largest CIA

failure in history.

In November 1961, CIA

inspector general

authored a report on the

invasion that remained

classified top-secret

until 1996.

In the report, he outlined

reasons for the failure

of the operations.

Among others, it also cited

CIA should never

have gone ahead.

If they wanted to

change Kennedy's mind,

they should have said,

"We won't do it.

"We can't do it

without... Navy support. "

That disaster, uh,

has... has plagued the CIA

and its history since

those early days.

That's the way it goes in,

uh, in the intelligence

business. You want

your successes

to be secret, and you

like your failures

to be that way, too, but in

this country, in the US,

media's watching, the

Congress is watching,

uh, uh, you'll be plagued,

uh, that's why you got to be

successful. But I

can assure you

there've been more

successes than failures,

and when they count,

they've succeeded.

But it was only a year later

when the agency would face

its greatest test yet.

Analysts were examining photos

of tiny cylinders laying

in fields in Cuba.

It was becoming clear

that they were

Sovietetuclear missiles. We

had no idea how dangerous

and how close we came

to a nuclear holocaust.

[music plays]

In the aftermath of the

Bay of Pigs invasion,

relations remained uneasy

with the Soviet Union

and the US, but the

Soviets were about

to make a move that would

bring the world closer

to nuclear conflict

than ever before.

There were indications

that the Russians were

up to something, but we d

dn't know what it was.

It turned out that

a... a French military

ououof shape,

in Havana, Cuba,

had heard from s seone, oh,

he overheard a conversation

that the Russians were sneaking

missiles, nuclear weapons

into Cuba. He came

to Washington

and he told the head of the

CIA, and the gov... US government

what he had heard.

Because of that,

the US began to

fly U-2 airplanes

around Cuba, but

not over Cuba,

to see if they could

spot anything unusual.

October 14th, 1962. A U-2

Photo Reconnaissance plane

captured disturbing images

from the island of Cuba.

The following day,

a CIA analyst

spent hours poring over pictures

of miles of Cuban terrain.

The photos were then compared

with information stolen

from Soviet military

intelligence.

The results were grim.

They are, in fact,

installing missiles,

nuclear weapons in Cuba.

They were confirmed as

SS-4 intermediate range

missiles with the

capability of hitting

the US continent as far

west as Dallas, Texas

and as far north

as Washington, DC.

But the second flight,

to get more information,

named, uh, Rudy Anderson. And

his plane was shot down.

Well, that got our attention.

In the morning

of October 18th, CIA

aerial photography expert

Arthur C. Lundahl met

with President Kennedy

in the Oval Office.

Lundahl told Kennedy

that the Soviet Union was

erecting missile bases in Cuba.

Kennedy then went public.

Within the past week,

unmistakable evidence has

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