During the Cuban Revolution of 1952 to 1959 dictator and US ally Fulgencio Batista was replaced by the 26th July Movement led by Castro, severing the country's formerly strong links with the US and developing links with the Soviet Union, with whom the United States was engaged in the Cold War.
Eisenhower (Republican, 1953 - 1961) contributed to the end of McCarthyism by openly invoking the modern expanded version of executive privilege while leaving most political activity to his Vice President, Richard Nixon. In his 1961 farewell address to the nation, Eisenhower warned of the dangers of massive military spending, particularly deficit spending and government contracts to private military manufacturers, and coined the term ‘military–industrial complex’.
In March 1960, Eisenhower allocated $13.1 million to the CIA to plan Castro's overthrow. The CIA proceeded to organize the operation with the aid of various Cuban counter-revolutionary forces, training Brigade 2506 in Guatemala. Launching from Guatemala on April 17th, 1961 the group attempted an invasion of Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs), intending to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Under command of Prime Minister Castro, the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces defeated the invading force in three days. US President John F. Kennedy ordered a number of internal investigations across Latin America.
In 1962 the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) proposed Operation Northwoods, a ‘false-flag’ operation against the Cuban government which recommended hijackings and bombings followed by the introduction of phony evidence that would implicate the Cuban government. It stated:
‘The desired resultant from the execution of this plan would be to place the United States in the apparent position of suffering defensible grievances from a rash and irresponsible government of Cuba and to develop an international image of a Cuban threat to peace in the Western Hemisphere.’
The proposal was rejected by the Kennedy Administration. Countering these threats, Castro formed an alliance with the Soviets and allowed them to place nuclear weapons on the island, sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Following tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between Kennedy and Khrushchev: Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, in exchange for a U.S. public declaration and agreement never to invade Cuba without direct provocation.
Following Kennedy’s 1963 assassination, Lyndon B Johnson (Democrat) took office and designed the ‘Great Society’ legislation upholding civil rights, public broadcasting, Medicare, Medicaid, aid to education, the arts, urban and rural development, public services, and his ‘War on Poverty.’ Johnson’s VP Humphrey ran against Richord Nixon (Repuplican) and lost. Following the Wategate scandal, the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities began investigating illegal intelligence gathering by the CIA and the FBI after the Watergate incident, as well as CIA and FBI conduct relating to the JFK Assassination. In 1974 Nixon resigns and is succeeded and pardoned by Gerald Ford (Republican).
In September 1976, United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was created to investigate the assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr..
In 1979 HSCA determined the existence of additional gunshots based on analysis of an audio recording and therefore a high probability that two gunmen fired at the President. In addition, the HSCA found that the original federal investigations were ‘seriously flawed’ in respect of information-sharing and the possibility of conspiracy
Although the final report and supporting volumes of the HSCA was publicly released, the working papers and primary documents were sealed until 2029 under Congressional rules and only partially released as part of the 1992 JFK Act.
All remaining assassination-related records (approximately 5,000 pages) are scheduled to be released by October 2017, with the exception of documents certified for continued postponement by the President under the following conditions: (1) ‘continued postponement is made necessary by an identifiable harm to the military, defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations’ and (2) ‘the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.’