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The U.S.-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 is often characterized as both an intelligence and operational failure. Bolstered by the outcome of the CIA-orchestrated Operation PB Success, a covert operation in Guatemala in 1954, which led to the overthrow of Jacobo Árbenz, President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized a similar operation to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba. Too early to see the blowback that would occur later in Guatemala, the John F. Kennedy administration continued with the invasion plan, leading to the Bay of Pigs fiasco. The blowback from the failed counterrevolution in Cuba would be seen a year later when Castro, now fully aligned with the Soviet Union, allowed the deployment of nuclear weapons, leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

J.J. Valdés, a writer with over thirty years of experience in historical research for government agencies including the Department of Defense, provides a detailed account of the Bay of Pigs invasion. His knowledge of this military operation comes from extensive research of US government documents, as well as Cuban records of the Castro regime's response to the invasion. Valdés provides a detailed hour-by-hour account of the invasion, employing a diagnostic structured analytical technique (SAT) called chronologies and timelines, taught to intelligence agency analysts, and used in intelligence education programs in colleges. His accounting of the US-trained Cuban fighters in the counterrevolutionary operation, as well as the Cuban military units which responded is meticulous, capturing actual communications between units, to include those with Fidel Castro.

While much of intelligence studies about historical events, like the Bay of Pigs invasion, often focuses on the actions (or inactions) of political, intelligence and military leaders, such as the Dulles brothers, McNamara, or others in the Kennedy administration, Valdés focuses on the foot soldiers on both sides of the conflict, often caught in the fog of war created by those senior leaders. The forces of Assault Brigade 2506, many of whom were members of Batista's military when Castro took power in 1959, were ill-prepared for the mission of starting a counterrevolution to overthrow Castro, lacking in intelligence and situational awareness of Cuban military disposition, in and around, Playa Girón, the primary assault location. The failure of naval resupply missions and lack of close-air support by the US military ultimately doomed the invasion, along with bad intelligence on the degree of popular support the counterrevolutionary forces would receive. Valdés provides examples of the heroism and commitment of these men to liberate their homeland from Castro's regime, despite their abandonment by the United States.

The only criticism of Besieged Beachhead is that for those who read military history of battles, is the lack of maps which document unit locations and dispositions throughout the four days of combat. Also, a more detailed glossary of unit designations (order of battle) on both sides would have been helpful, since at times it was difficult following the transitions between unit accounts in the text.

Those who have served in military intelligence, particularly at the tactical level, will appreciate Valdés's accounting of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the lessons learned from such an operation. This is particularly relevant in Latin America, a region which the United States has historically viewed as its "sphere of influence," with a mixed legacy of the impact of its interventions.

Richard J. Kilroy, Jr. spent 23 years on active duty as an Army intelligence and Latin America foreign area officer, serving as an Armor Brigade and Battalion S2 in Germany and as a J5 political-military affairs analyst and special assistant to the Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Southern Command in Panama. He is a retired Professor of Political Science from Coastal Carolina University and a non-resident scholar at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, Center for the United States and Mexico (https://www.bakerinstitute.org/expert/richard-j-kilroy-ir.) He received his Ph.D. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. The author can be reached at rkilroy@coastal.edu.