Fifty years ago today, President Kennedy waited for news of Operation Zapata - the attempted overthrow of Cuba's state capitalist dictator Castro. Below is a brief related comment from the Socialist Standard of June 1961.
Whatever happened to that nice, level-headed young man Mr. Kennedy?
When he was campaigning for the United States Presidency he seemed so calmn, so cool tempered. He sounded so peaceable. Lots of Republicans, in fact, thought that he might want to be too soft on the Russians.
The invasion of Cuba changed all that.
President Kennedy inherited the plans for the landing which the Eisenhower administration had laid. He chose to go ahead with them - and when the invasion failed, with typical acumen, he pointed out that his predecessor must take part of the blame.
This is the sort of ruthlessness and cynicism which we have come to expect from capitalism's leaders. And we have grown familiar with the assurances, as they are climbing to power, that they are anything but ruthless and cynical men.
Each time, the working class fall for it. Kennedy promised an era of sanity and calm judgment in foreign policy. In their millions, American workers voted for him.
Will they profit from the lessons of reality? Probably not. The signs are that Kennedy will be reviled not so much for agreeing to the Cuban expedition, as for the fact that the whole thing was a flop.
Ignorantly patriotic, the working class will forgive almost anything but that.
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