alternatehistory.com

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy executed Operation Zapata, the brainchild of the Eisenhower Administration, which ultimately achieved the overthrow of Cuban President Fidel Castro and neutralized the Communist threat on the island. Despite fears by many during the initial days of the operation that the fight would easily escalate to a full blown war between the US and Soviet Union, no such thing happened. The rapid success of American sponsored anti-Communists, due largely to their complex and highly secretive intelligence network that operated both within the Cuban exile community, and remnants of anti-Communist groups on the island, gave little time for the Soviets to respond. Within days the Cuban rebels had rallied hundreds of their fellow countrymen to their side, and revolts against Castro's regime broke out across the island. Upon President Kennedy's declaration that any overt military intervention into what they considered to be an exclusively Cuban matter would be met with an American response, Soviet leadership was left with a simple choice; risk a conflict with the US, that could very easily escalate to a worldwide nuclear war, or accept the loss of Cuba and refocus efforts elsewhere. Which, isn't to say that the Soviets took this lying down, as we all know there was limited nuclear exchange between the US and USSR in future conflicts. But as far as Cuba is concerned, this was a clear US victory after the rebels ultimately overtook Castro's forces, driving them into the mountains where they would later be forced to surrender. Of course, this victory was not without its costs...President Kennedy's assassination by Lee Harvey Oswald, in 1965, shook the nation and caused widespread fear of Communist terrorism in the US. Miami, of course, was never the same after watching the President be slain in front of their very eyes.

But what if the operation had been a failure? What if President Kennedy hadn't eventually approved American airdrops of arms, food, and other essential resources to the Cuban rebels? And perhaps even worse, what would've happened if the Soviets intervened? Could it have devolved to the doomsday scenario many feared? And what impact would the failure of this operation have on future ones across Latin/South America, and Southeast Asia? And finally, would Lee Harvey Oswald have been moved to take the action he did without it?
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