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For a tl i'm currently working on, I have a few questions for any military historians who can tell me what a US invasion of Cuba would look like, following an alternate assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The basic idea is this: On November 22nd, 1963, JFK is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas, as per OTL. The difference in this timeline? Rather than being identified as a lone, crazed gunman, Oswald is discovered to be a member of a Cuban-linked domestic terror cell. A hand-written manifesto is discovered in Oswald's sniper nest shortly after the shooting, which describes a group of radical Communist terrorists bent on the violent overthrow of the American government. Although the bulk of this organization is composed of American citizens, links are discovered to Cuban actors in the form of weapons, funding, and training. Fidel Castro completely denies the claims, calling it a fabrication by radical right-wing elements within the US government. The Soviet Union, not willing to escalate to nuclear war over this, throws him under the bus, leading the United States to invade.

My questions: With the knowledge that Cuba was at least partially responsible for the death of President Kennedy, how long would it be before the US declared war? What would the global response be, beyond the groans and complaints of the Soviet Union (again, assuming no overt support for Castro on their part)? How long would it take for the United States to successfully overthrow Fidel Castro's government? I was able to find this memo from 1962 that says, hypothetically, the US could achieve victory in Cuba within 10-15 days with a force of 261,000 units. Is this a realistic timetable, and is a force that size reasonable?

Bonus points: What ramifications would this have on other conflicts for the United States? In particular, how would this impact Vietnam? Would this rally together more Americans against the Communist threat, and potentially enable us to "win" (by some definition or another) in that conflict?
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