Today is the 55th anniversary of the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, which consisted of a “secret” U.S.-sponsored military operation intended to overthrow the government of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The invasion failed miserably and was defeated in just three days. What it succeeded in doing was strengthening Cuba’s leadership and its ties with the Soviet Union, eventually leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis the next year.
The Bay of Pigs incident is perhaps the poster child of the dangers of American intervention abroad.
In the video below, George Mason Professor Christopher Coyne explains the recent Paris terrorist attacks and how foreign intervention was partially to blame for them as well.
While foreign intervention is often justified as necessary to keep us safe, the reality is that it often just puts us in more danger, as the Bay of Pigs fiasco illustrates.