The CIA’s Shadow: JFK Files, Bay of Pigs, and Hidden Truths
John F. Kennedy, or JFK, was killed on November 22, 1963, and it’s still a big mystery. People wonder if it was just one guy with a gun or if something secret was going on. The CIA, a group that does spy stuff for America, is often part of these questions. New JFK files came out in 2025, telling us more about the CIA and things like the Bay of Pigs and a guy named Lee Harvey Oswald. This blog looks at these hidden stories to see what the CIA might have been up to back then. Let’s check it out!
>> VIDEO: The CIA’s Shadow: JFK Files, Bay of Pigs, and Hidden Truths
The Bay of Pigs Mess and Kennedy’s Worries
The Bay of Pigs happened in April 1961, and it was a big flop that made John F. Kennedy, or JFK, really mad at the CIA. The CIA is a group that does secret spy stuff for America, and they came up with a plan to get rid of Fidel Castro, the leader of Cuba. Castro was someone America didn’t like because he was friends with Russia, and that scared people during the Cold War. So, the CIA found some Cuban people who had left Cuba because they hated Castro. They trained these folks to sneak back into Cuba, land on a beach called the Bay of Pigs, and start a fight to kick Castro out. The idea was simple: land, get some help from Cubans still there, and win fast. They thought it’d be easy as pie!
But things went wrong — super wrong. When those Cuban fighters hit the beach on April 17, 1961, Castro’s army was waiting for them. He knew they were coming because the secret got out! The CIA had told JFK they’d send planes to help the fighters, dropping bombs to scare Castro’s guys away. But at the last minute, JFK said no to the planes. He was worried that if the world saw American planes, everyone would know the U.S. was behind it, and that could start a bigger fight with Russia. Without the planes, the Cuban fighters didn’t stand a chance. Castro’s army beat them in just a couple of days, and it was a total mess. A lot of the fighters got caught or hurt, and America looked silly.
The JFK files that came out in 2025 tell us how mad JFK was about all this. He felt like the CIA tricked him. They’d told him the plan was a sure thing, that the Cuban people would join in and Castro would be gone fast. But they didn’t tell him the truth — that it might not work, that it was risky, and that they didn’t have everything ready. When it failed, JFK was embarrassed and angry. The new files have papers where he wrote about how he couldn’t believe the CIA messed up so bad. He was so upset that he fired the big boss of the CIA, Allen Dulles, and two other important guys who helped make the plan. That’s a big deal — kicking out the top people shows how much he didn’t trust them anymore.
After the Bay of Pigs, JFK didn’t look at the CIA the same way. The files say he started watching them like a hawk, always checking what they were up to. He didn’t want them doing sneaky stuff without him knowing. Before, he thought they were smart experts who could help him, but now he saw them as troublemakers who might get him into more messes. The Bay of Pigs wasn’t just a one-time mistake — it changed everything. It started a big fight between JFK and the CIA that didn’t go away. Some people even think it made the CIA mad enough to cause bigger problems later, like what happened in Dallas when JFK died. The JFK files don’t prove that, but they show how the Bay of Pigs was the beginning of a lot of worry and distrust that stuck around until the end.
CIA Plans to Get Rid of Castro — Did They Go Wrong?
After the Bay of Pigs turned into a big mess in 1961, the CIA didn’t give up on trying to get rid of Fidel Castro, Cuba’s leader. Instead, they got even wilder with their ideas. The JFK files from 2025 spill the beans on some of these crazy plans they cooked up to take Castro out. It all started back in 1960, when Dwight Eisenhower was still president, before JFK took over. The CIA was super worried about Castro because he was buddies with Russia, and America didn’t like that one bit. So, they came up with sneaky ways to get him gone — like putting poison in his cigars so he’d smoke them and get sick, or hiding bombs in seashells he might pick up at the beach. They even thought about slipping something into his food or drink to make him go away quietly.
One of the wildest parts? The CIA teamed up with bad guys from the Mafia — yep, real-life gangsters! The Mafia didn’t like Castro either because he shut down their gambling spots in Cuba when he took over. The CIA figured these tough guys knew how to handle dirty jobs, so they asked them to help. They offered big money to mobsters like Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli to figure out a way to bump Castro off. When JFK became president in 1961, some of these plans kept going. The JFK files say he found out about them, and his brother, Bobby Kennedy, who was the Attorney General, got involved too. Bobby was part of a special group that met to talk about how to deal with Cuba, and getting rid of Castro was on the list.
But here’s where it gets creepy and weird. Some people think these sneaky plans didn’t just fail — they might have backfired and hurt JFK instead. The JFK files from 2025 mention some Cuban folks — like diplomats who worked for Castro — saying they heard the CIA’s tricks made someone so mad they decided to get even by going after JFK. The idea is that Castro, or someone who liked him, found out about the poison cigars and Mafia deals and thought, “If they’re coming for me, I’ll hit them back.” There’s no solid proof in the files that Castro told anyone to kill JFK, but the rumor won’t go away. It’s like a spooky story that keeps popping up, especially since JFK died just two years after all this Cuba stuff got hot.
A CIA guy named Howard Hunt adds to the mystery. Years later, he wrote books and said things that made people raise their eyebrows. He was mad at JFK for not helping enough during the Bay of Pigs, and some think he dropped hints about a bigger secret — like maybe the CIA or its friends turned on JFK. The JFK files don’t flat-out say, “Castro did it” or “The CIA messed up on purpose,” but they show how wild and out-of-control things got. All these secret games — poison, bombs, gangsters — stirred up a big pot of trouble. The CIA wanted Castro gone, but maybe they didn’t see how their tricks could bounce back in a bad way. It’s like they were playing with fire and didn’t expect it to burn them too!
Oswald’s Strange Story: Was He CIA’s Helper?
Lee Harvey Oswald is the guy everyone says shot JFK, but his life is super weird and full of twists that make you wonder what’s really true. The JFK files from 2025 give us more clues about him, and they paint a picture that’s hard to figure out. Oswald wasn’t just an ordinary person — he did all kinds of strange things before November 22, 1963, when JFK was killed. He started out as a Marine, learning how to shoot guns and follow orders. Then, out of nowhere, he moved to Russia in 1959. That was a big deal because America and Russia didn’t get along back then — it was the Cold War, and people thought he might be a traitor. He lived there for a while, even got married, but then he came back to the U.S. in 1962. Why would someone do that?
Things get even weirder in 1963. The JFK files say that just a few weeks before JFK died, Oswald took a trip to Mexico City. He went to talk to people from Russia and Cuba at their big offices there. This was super odd because Cuba and Russia were America’s enemies, and Oswald was an American guy who’d already lived in Russia. The CIA knew he was there — they were watching him like hawks! The files show they had cameras and people following him, writing down what he did and who he met. Why were they so interested in this one guy? Did they think he was up to something big, or was he doing something for them? It’s a puzzle that doesn’t have all the pieces yet.
Some stuff in the JFK files makes you think hard. A man named Gary Underhill, who used to help the CIA with secret jobs, said something wild right after JFK was shot. He told friends he thought some CIA people were behind it — like a small group inside the agency who didn’t like JFK. Then, not long after, Underhill died in a strange way that looked like suicide, but some say it was fishy. That’s creepy! Other papers in the files talk about Oswald hanging out in New Orleans with groups that didn’t like Castro, Cuba’s leader. The CIA liked those groups too and sometimes gave them money or help. Was Oswald friends with them because the CIA told him to be?
The JFK files don’t flat-out say Oswald worked for the CIA, but they don’t say he didn’t either. It’s like they leave the door open just a crack. The FBI, another big group that catches bad guys, says Oswald wasn’t working for them, but the CIA stays quiet. They won’t say yes or no, and that makes people wonder. Could Oswald have been a helper for the CIA — like a secret agent doing jobs for them? Or was he just a mixed-up guy who got mad and shot JFK all by himself? It’s a big question mark that keeps the mystery alive. The files give us hints — like his weird trips and the CIA watching him — but they don’t tell the whole story. Was Oswald more than just a lone shooter? Maybe we’ll never know for sure, but it sure makes you think!
Hiding Stuff and Telling Stories
The CIA didn’t stop doing sneaky things after JFK died — they kept going, trying to keep everything quiet and under wraps. The 2025 JFK files show us how hard they worked to hide stuff so people wouldn’t figure out what really happened. Right after JFK was shot on November 22, 1963, a group called the Warren Commission was made to find out the truth. This group was supposed to talk to everyone and look at all the clues to say what went down. The CIA told them a simple story: Lee Harvey Oswald did it all by himself, no one else was involved, case closed. But the new files tell us they weren’t being honest — they kept big secrets from the Warren Commission, like a kid hiding candy they don’t want to share.
For example, the JFK files say the CIA didn’t tell the Commission about their crazy plans to get rid of Fidel Castro, Cuba’s leader. They had wild ideas like poison cigars and bombs in seashells, but they kept all that hush-hush. They also didn’t talk about Oswald’s trip to Mexico City, where he met with Russian and Cuban people just weeks before JFK died. The files show memos — little notes they wrote to each other — saying they didn’t want anyone to know too much. One CIA guy even called it a “nice cover-up,” meaning they hid stuff to make things look easier than they were. They were scared that if the truth came out, people might start asking big questions about what the CIA was really up to.
But hiding stuff wasn’t enough — they also told stories to trick people. The JFK files say the CIA worked with newspapers and radio folks to spread ideas that pointed fingers away from them. They pushed stories saying maybe Cuba or Russia made Oswald do it, so no one would look at the CIA too closely. They’d whisper to reporters or send out fake tips to make everyone believe their version of what happened. It was like a big game of pretend, trying to keep the spotlight off their own shadow. They wanted everyone to think, “Oh, it’s just those other countries being bad,” and not wonder if the CIA had a hand in it.
Even big people like Richard Nixon, who became president later, dropped hints that there was more to the story. In the files, he talks about “the whole Bay of Pigs thing,” and some think he wasn’t just talking about the Cuba mess from 1961 — he might’ve meant JFK’s death too. The CIA’s shadow was all about staying in charge of what people thought. They didn’t want anyone digging too deep. Even now, in 2025, when tons of JFK files — over 80,000 pages — came out because President Trump said so, some papers are still locked up tight. That makes us wonder: What’s still a secret? Are there more surprises hiding in those missing pages? The CIA kept things quiet back then, and even today, they’re not telling us everything. It’s like a mystery book where the last chapter’s ripped out, leaving us guessing what’s really true!
Conclusion
The CIA’s shadow is all over JFK’s story, from the Bay of Pigs to the new JFK files in 2025. We learned how the Bay of Pigs made JFK not trust the CIA, how plans against Castro got messy, how Oswald’s life is a puzzle, and how the CIA hid things. The files don’t change the big story — Oswald’s still the shooter — but they make us think twice. The truth might be close, but it’s still hiding a little.