“But after the Bay of Pigs, the widely held view that he [John F.Kennedy] had been outmatched by Khrushchev at the 1961 Vienna summit…”

pg. 224

The American ego, from a military stand point,  was at an all time high in wake of the second World War. Not only did the United States emerge victorious from the greatest conflict that the world had ever seen, it did so against an almost objectively and overtly evil enemy. The failure of the invasion at the Bay of Pigs was the bursting of that military prowess bubble for the American people. It was a complete and utter failure. It not only made the American people realize that their military was  not invincible, but also  created doubt and mistrust between the people and the government. The confidential and classified use of C.I.A operatives for this operation caste a dark shadow around the whole invasion. The Bay of Pigs was the sowing of the seed planted by the U.S government that would soon grow into the wide spread political dissent that was rampant in the 60’s.