Question

Does groupthink play during Bay of Pigs Invasion? what role does hindsight play in the situation?

Answer 1

The Bay of Pigs is a small sized alcove in the Cuban South coast. On April 17,1961 it was attacked by the Cubans who were banished from their land and had taken refuge in America. These rebels were systematized, guided and equipped with weapons by the American Central Intelligence Agency(CIA). These Cuban exiles wanted to abolish the Cuban head Fidel Castro.This attack was a mistake and did not succeed. Groupthink was instrumental in prompting the American government to take this incorrect decision.

Groupthink is an cognitive group experience in which people feel it necessary to comply or adhere to the decisions taken by the group, to show their solidarity and unanimity. But many a times, this leads to taking decisions which are flawed or illogical. The members deliberately to show their support to the group and also to avoid arguments or incurring the wrath of the group, ignore the other options available and also try to subdue the other disagreeing group members.

President John F. Kennedy was new in the office when he was informed about the impending Bay of Pigs Invasion. Officer Dulles informed the CIA officers about the details of the execution of this invasion. He told them that around one thousand Cuban people who were exiled from their land would attack the Bay of Pigs. The CIA provided paramilitary training to them and also along with some of its soldiers would launch an attack. Many of the people of the group voiced their apprehension on how a small army of thousand Cubans would manage to face the massive Cuban army 2,00,000 soldiers. But, Dulles managed to pacify them by saying that he believed that the 1000 Cubans will manage to create a mutiny among the Cuban public to revolt against the government. Thus, he managed to hush the discord. President Kennedy was present when the planning for this invasion was going on and did not disapprove the operation. The Bay of Pigs invasion did not succeed and was a humiliating experience in the history of America.

Groupthink definitely played a crucial role in the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The group members of this operation felt the need to back President Kennedy in this invasion and therefore, a lot of crucial information was not considered. Some of the members had tried to point out the folly of this invasion as the number of exiles was too less as compared to the Cuban army, but these group members opinions were not entertained and they were muted. President Kennedy also sided with this invasion as he had joined the office newly and did not want to displease his team. There was a pressure on everyone to agree to the plan of invasion and nobody wanted to go against the group. All the criteria of Groupthink were fulfilled and naturally, it led to an outcome which was incorrect and illogical.

Hindsight is the retrospection and feeling that the happenings become more easy to predict once they have taken place rather than before they took place. Initially, the Kennedy government and the CIA forces thought that the invasion would succeed as they were over-confident that the Cuban exiles would manage to incite the Cuban people to overthrow Fidel Castro. But this not succeed as the secret mission was exposed by the Fidel Castro military and they succeeded in defeating the invaders. After the fiasco of the invasion, President Kennedy faced a lot of criticism and ridicule from all over the world and also from the Press. They all believed that this mission was bound to fail and that they knew the fate of the invasion all along. But nobody revealed this before. The Bay of Pigs Invasion was supposed to be an undercover operation, which only the CIA and President Kennedy knew about. President Kennedy remarked that if the Press claimed that it knew about the Bay of Pigs Invasion plan from the beginning it should have published it, so that the disaster would have been fended off. Thus, we can say hindsight of the Press could not help to avoid the debacle.