Explaining the Bay of Pigs and Vietnam, 1965 Decisions

Abstract

The alternative conceptual frameworks for analyzing governmental behavior developed by Graham T. Allison in his book, Essence of Division, Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, are applied to the questions of why the Bay of Pigs operation of 1961 was approved by President John F. Kennedy, and why President Lyndon B. Johnson committed US combat forces to Vietnam in July 1965. The decisions are examined for two reasons. First, the paper attempts to determine if the frameworks or models produce different explanations of why the decisions were made and the value of the models in the governmental decisionmaking process. Secondly, the role of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff in those decisions is highlighted to provide examples of how national-level policy decisions are translated into military plans and operations. The study indicates the models are useful in the decisionmaking process; suggests that behavioral aspects have considerable impact on the process; and the models can assist in implementing decisions.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 05, 1984
Accession Number
ADA149030

Entities

People

  • F. P. Keough

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Combat Forces
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of State
  • Employment
  • Foreign Relations
  • Governments
  • International Organizations
  • Military Personnel
  • Military Science
  • National Governments
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • Vietnam War
  • War Colleges

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.