On Edwin Kaiser and Related Topics

[Tracy Riddle]

All of this misses the bigger problem - that an invasion of Cuba was doomed to fail because the revolutionary regime was popular with most Cubans, and had a large, combat-experienced army with ideal terrain to defend. It's the reason why JFK didn't want to invade Cuba during the Missile Crisis. As Marine Corps Commandant David Schoup pointed out by displaying a map of Cuba with a small red dot overlaying it. He said that the red dot represented the island of Tarawa, which took three days and 18,000 Marines to capture.

I couldn't agree more -- as a military operation Op Zapata was doomed all along.

However, as a bureaucratic operation designed to get rid of Allen Dulles it was a smashing success.

I'm not certain if the reason JFK didn't invade Cuba was because of Cuba's combat experience and ideal terrain to defend, or because Russia had just shown signs of defending Cuba, either way, JFK avoided WWIII saving lives.

Yes, Russia and its troops and missiles on the ground was an obvious factor too in the Missile Crisis, but because so many people were telling him how easy it would be to invade and occupy Cuba, Shoup's warning made him JFK's favorite general.