Info coming on Ike's role in Bay of Pigs

Papers May Clarify Eisenhower Viewpoints

Thu Feb 2, 9:48 PM ET
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Archivists released documents from Dwight Eisenhower's administration that historians say could help refine their understanding of the president's positions on national security and civil rights.

The Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kan., announced Thursday the release of 40,000 pages of previously classified documents on subjects including J. Edgar Hoover's domestic intelligence operation, construction of the Berlin Wall and Middle East policy.

Chester Pach, an Ohio University professor who authored "Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower," said historians have many unanswered questions about the president, including his role in planning the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

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The library also recently released 7,000 pages specifically related to the Eisenhower administration's civil rights policy.

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I am constantly amazed (and annoyed) when the Right claims that the US has been hijacked by the Left over the past few decades. This is utter nonsense - the actual evidence indicates that we've moved far, far to the Right.

Consider the case of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States (1953-1961), Supreme Allied Commnder in Europe during World War II, and a Republican. Funny thing is, by today's standards, Ike would be a flaming liberal, to the Left of all recent serious contenders for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

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which he planned to sign if the invasion failed which said "The fault for the failure of this invasion is mine and mine alone."

When did we go from that to "I didn't know they were beating and raping prisoners!" and "Gee, I wonder where that guy with the beard who hijacked our planes is!"?

... while privately, he used the CIA as previous presidents had used the Marines. It's no accident that the overthrow of Mossadegh in 1953 in Iran, of Arbenz in Guetemala in 1954, the disruption by the CIA of Vietnam prior to UN-supervised elections in 1956 and the planning for the Bay of Pigs operation all came under Eisenhower's watch and were signed off by him.

My own feeling about the latter is that Eisenhower was quite sure that Nixon would win the election and would carry through with the military if there were any problems. That's likely the reason why he accelerated the trash talk in the press about Castro and Cuba through the election campaign and cut off all diplomatic contact in the summer of 1960. Eisenhower was trying to stoke public ire about Castro and communism, because that issue would incline voters toward Nixon, the rabid anti-communist.

At any rate, it will be interesting to see what the library produces in the way of new information.