The decision of the United States government to intervene in Cuba, in April 1961, was the result of a combination of historical and political factors. Among them, the history of US interference in the Caribbean context, both directly (between the beginning of the 20th century up to the first years of the 1930's), and, later on, indirectly; the successful interventions promoted by the CIA in Iran (1953) and Guatemala (1954); as well as the political "need", domestically, of recently elected president Kennedy to demonstrate how committed he was with containing communism. Thus, no single factor can solely explain the decision to go ahead with the plan, which turned out to be a huge political failure for the US government.
History of Cuba; History of Central America; US Foreign Policy; Cold War