Men rarely give up their illusions, even when those illusions are scraped away by the sharp edges of reality. For John F. Kennedy, that process has been going on painfully since Inauguration Day. Last week, when a U.S.-backed invasion of Cuba went catastrophically awry, the young President got a lesson about the peril of holding onto his illusions.
Despite the tone of somber realism in his campaign speeches and his inaugural address, President Kennedy came into office cherishing some naive notions about the possibilities of easing cold-war tensions through rational negotiation—and about the extent to which the shrewd tactics...
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