The Brilliant Disaster Audiobook By Jim Rasenberger cover art

The Brilliant Disaster

JFK, Castro, and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba

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The Brilliant Disaster

By: Jim Rasenberger
Narrated by: Bob Walter
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About this listen

A remarkably gripping account of America's Bay of Pigs crisis, drawing on long-hidden CIA documents and delivering, as never before, the vivid truth - and consequences - of five pivotal days in April 1961.

The U.S.-backed military invasion of Cuba in 1961 remains one of the most ill-fated blunders in American history, with echoes of the event reverberating even today. Despite the Kennedy administration’s initial public insistence that the United States had nothing to do with the invasion, it soon became clear that the complex operation had been planned and approved by the best and brightest minds at the highest reaches of Washington, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff and President John F. Kennedy himself.

The Cuban-born invaders were trained by CIA officers, supplied with American matériel, and shadowed by the U.S. Navy. Landing by sea with fighter-plane support, they hoped to establish a military beachhead and spark a counterrevolution against Fidel Castro’s regime. The gambit was a stupendous failure, resulting in the death or imprisonment of more than a thousand men.

Now, journalist Jim Rasenberger takes a closer look at this darkly fascinating incident in American history. At the heart of the crisis stood President Kennedy, and Rasenberger traces what Kennedy knew, thought, and said as events unfolded. He examines whether Kennedy was manipulated by the CIA into approving a plan that would ultimately involve the American military. He also draws compelling portraits of the other figures who played key roles in the drama, including Fidel Castro.

Written with elegant clarity and narrative verve, The Brilliant Disaster is the most complete account of this event to date, providing not only a fast-paced chronicle of the disaster but an analysis of how it occurred—a question as relevant today as then—and how it profoundly altered the course of modern American history.

©2011 Jim Rasenberger (P)2011 Simon & Schuster
20th Century Caribbean & West Indies History & Theory United States Wars & Conflicts Military Espionage Vietnam War American History Cuba War

Critic reviews

"A balanced, engrossing account of the U.S-backed invasion of Fidel Castro's Cuba.... succeeds admirably in offering a nuanced view of the entire botched operation." ( Kirkus)

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