Quebec, the 14th state of the Union, and Cuba, one of America's closest friends- this is the future
that could have been, if US invasions of both territories hadn't ended in complete humiliation.
Today the United States is the premier military power,
bar none- but it wasn't always that way, and the nation that would go on to become
the only surviving Superpower in the world today got its start as a raggedy bunch of
upstart colonists going up against the real superpower of its day, the British Empire.
It was a true David vs Goliath story, 13 rebel colonies with a total population one third that
of the British Empire, seeking to overcome the greatest military force on the planet without
even so much as a standing army of their own. The British had an advantage in almost every
category- they had a much stronger economy with which to support a long-term war and
hire mercenaries for aid, they had command of the seas, a professional, well-disciplined army led
by experienced and well-educated generals, alliances with many of the natives, and a
staging ground in Canada from which to launch their military operations against the rebels.
But while the American forces had few advantages, they would prove to be considerable in the end-
they themselves had great amounts of experience fighting bush wars against native americans,
knew the terrain intimately, were fighting for their freedom and thus had superior motivation,
had the aid of the Spanish and the French,
and enjoyed the command of generals who had the brilliant inspiration to fight a guerilla war,
rather than a conventional, stand-up fight against the superior British forces.
As the war kicked off though, the colonists knew that they needed to neutralize Britain's
greatest advantage and compound its greatest weakness- with a strong staging ground from
which to fight the colonists in Canada, the British could help mitigate the effect of
having resupply lines that stretched for thousands of miles across the Atlantic.
If the young United States was to win its freedom, it needed to kick the British out of Canada,
at which point the incredibly long supply lines would be a weakness so crippling to
the British war effort that it's unlikely they would have sought to continue fighting.
Thus as the war of Independence kicked off, the colonies sent an expeditionary force up
north, with the hope that victory, and freedom, could be secured in months-
it would almost end up ensuring the United States remained a British colony forever.
Word had gotten to the Americans that the British Fort of Ticonderoga was both heavily armed and
yet lightly defended. Its seizure would be a tremendous boost to the under-equipped colonial
army, and immediately a force led by Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen was dispatched to capture
the fort in northern New York. The brief campaign would meet with stunning success, as colonial
troops captured Fort Ticonderoga, and Fort Crown Point, and raided Fort St. Johns for supplies.
Arnold and Allen both believed that the colonial army needed to cold Ticonderoga against the
British in order to stave off any thrust south from Canada into the colonies. However, mindful
of the inferior numbers of the continental army vs the vastly superior British army,
the Continental Congress decided it would be best to simply destroy and abandon the captured forts.
Arnold and Allen both however sensed an opportunity, and knew from local
intelligence sources and sympathetic Canadians in the north that Quebec was lightly defended
by a small British force. If they could take Quebec now, it would deny the British one of
their major bases of operations against the colonies, and force them to undertake a much
riskier and more expensive amphibious invasion amongst the colonies themselves.
After some persuasion, congress agreed to send an expeditionary force up north into Canada,
appointing General Philip Schuyler in command of the invasion. He was ordered to be cautious,
and use his own best judgment as to whether an invasion was prudent or not-
the last thing the continental army could afford was a disastrous defeat this early in the war.
Upon learning that the British governor of Quebec was fortifying his position and
attempting to negotiate the entry of the Iroquois into the war, Schuyler decided he had to act now,
and led his forces north. It would almost cost America its independence.
General Guy Carleton, the British governor in Quebec, had set about to fortify his position
against invasion from the south. Originally underestimating the threat from the colonials,
the fall of Ticanderoga convinced him to take the possibility of invasion seriously.
Thus he set about attempting to raise a local militia- though this met with little success
as most Canadians either wanted to be left out of the fighting altogether,
or had sympathies with the rebellious Americans. Preparations to build a small fleet of gunboats on
Lake Champlain and the recruitment of a hundred Mohawk warriors met with much greater success.
An invasion that would end in one of the worst military defeats of the United States
had at least begun with incredible successes.
After the fall of Ticonderoga, Benedict Arnold's forces seized the loyalist settlement
of Skenesborough, capturing along with the town the schooner Katherine. Arnold rechristened it
Liberty and it became the first official warship of the colonial navy. In a bold move that would
make Benedict Arnold a tragic naval legend, he assaulted the British forces at the northern end
of Lake Champlain, taking yet another British warship, which would be renamed the Enterprise.
American forces now had complete control of a waterway that cut straight into the
heart of Quebec, and were free to march north without fear of British naval interference.
With the way clear, the colonial army split into two invasion groups. The first moved
north through Maine and into Quebec through the wilderness, while the second would travel
through the Champlain Valley, utilizing Lake Champlain to move men and supplies. Fort St.
Johns, which lay in the path of the army's thrust towards Quebec,
soon came under siege on September 17th, and despite a desperate attempt to lift the siege
by British forces, ended up surrendering nearly two months later on November 3rd.
The lengthy siege however had pushed the invasion timeframe
into the unforgiving northern winter months, a fact that would cost the American forces dearly.
General Carleton all but abandoned Montreal, deeming the city indefensible after much of
his militia forces deserted immediately after the fall of Fort St. Johns. Seeking escape
amongst a convoy of British ships, the small flotilla was warned that
colonial forces had set up a sizable contingent of cannons along the river, and would decimate the
fleet should it attempt to flee. Immediate surrender was the only acceptable answer,
and Carleton managed to sneak away dressed as a commoner as the British forces surrendered.
It was later discovered that the Americans had lied about the size and number of their cannons.
With Montreal in American control, the colonists attempted to draw Quebec into the fold of the 13
colonies by raising representatives to meet at the next continental congress. However,
the scope of support for the rebellious Americans amongst the Canadians was largely overestimated,
and as the British had found out, most simply wanted to be left out of the fighting altogether.
While Montreal was being taken, Benedict Arnold had been leading a force of 1100 men to reinforce
the attack on Quebec. The expeditionary force made good time sailing up the coast and to
the Kennebec River, but as soon as the men turned inwards disaster began to befall them.
First, the colonists had underestimated the difficult terrain they would have to cross to
reach Quebec- 400 miles of untracked wilderness. To make matters worse, they were inexperienced
navigating the rapid currents of the many rivers that lay between them and British forces,
causing the loss of many boats and supplies. With food supplies ruined by moisture,
cold weather pressing in, and an unforgiving, grueling march through swamps and bogs,
nearly half of Arnold's men were forced to turn back. By the time that Arnold reached Quebec he
had only 600 men left under his command, with zero cannons, winter clothing, and little food.
Quebec meanwhile was well fortified, and after rebuffing Arnold's messenger and his
demands of surrender, the British planned on sortying out of the city to destroy the
underequipped and outgunned Americans. Arnold however retreated to a stronger
defensive position and waited until the arrival of troops from Montreal with proper supplies.
By now though, the date was December 2nd and deadly cold had gripped the men and the land.
Despite having inferior numbers and equipment, the colonists launched an attack on December 31st,
1775, ending in predictable disaster. The commanding officer of the colonial forces
was killed, and Benedict Arnold himself was wounded, with the capture or killing
of many of the American forces. Incredibly though, General Carleton would go on to make a
blunder so massive it would help ensure Britain's inevitable defeat, as he refused suggestions to
rally forth and destroy the greatly weakened colonial forces. Instead, he chose to remain
safely behind the walls of the city and wait for reinforcements in the springtime.
While he would not directly attack the Americans though, he would work
to weaken them. Carleton approved the sending of smallpox-infested civilians and prostitutes
out of the city and into American lines, and soon smallpox had gripped the besieging army.
With the arrival of spring, Quebec was reinforced with 3,000 troops and fresh supplies,
and yet still General Carleton waited until almost the end of May to launch an offensive against the
retreating Americans. Whether by providence or General Carleton's timid nature, the continental
army, while defeated, was spared the crushing defeat that could have compromised its ability to
continue the war effort in the north. Many of the colonial forces retreated south and successfully
held the line in northern New York, preventing the British from splitting the colonies in half.
Having completely underestimated the terrain,
the size of their foe, and without the proper equipment for such an operation,
the invasion of Canada by the continental army is one of the United States’ most embarrassing
invasions- but pales in comparison with the utter humiliation brought about by this next invasion.
1961, the Cold War is in overdrive and the United States has a critical strategic
vulnerability- the Soviet Union has a strong ally just 100 miles off the coast of Miami.
Cuba is the perfect staging ground for nuclear missiles, or nuclear-armed bombers,
as well as for an invasion force driving deep into the American south. For the United States,
this is completely unacceptable, and the CIA has a plan to do something
about it- which will soon become one of the greatest military follies in US history.
Two years earlier Fidel Castro had succeeded in overthrowing the regime of the autocratic
dictator Fulgencio Batista. President Batista may have been a cruel dictator,
and no friend of democracy, but he was staunchly anti-communist and didn't much care how American
companies exploited the island as long as he got his kickbacks. Thus by the time of Batista's fall,
US companies owned nearly half of Cuba's sugar plantations and almost all of its cattle ranches,
mines, and utilities. Americans were enriching themselves and tossing the Cubans scraps.
It was no surprise then that Castro's successful revolution was met with
great support from the local population. He immediately set about nationalizing Cuba's
industries and kicking US companies out, and encouraging other latin countries to
more directly oppose the United States. These moves were met with great support
from the Cuban population, but gradually some Cubans became disillusioned with the
revolutionary leader. He had promised to free the country of a dictatorship,
but instead of allowing open elections, he instead said that he would bring Cuba direct democracy by
encouraging Cuban citizens to meet together and express their desires to him personally.
For all his democratic talk and bluster, Castro had in effect
simply replaced one dictator with another. This led to many disillusioned Cubans to leave
the nation and throw their support behind a second revolutionary war-
a sentiment that the Central Intelligence Agency was all too happy to take advantage of.
Initially, the CIA had sought to support the growing revolution inside of Cuba by covertly
supplying rebel forces and infiltrating the island with small bands of guerilla fighters. However
these efforts were largely unsuccessful, and supply drops were regularly intercepted by
Castro's forces. Covert infiltration of guerilla cells were often gunned down at the beach.
The CIA thus decided that rather than try to wage a long-term guerilla war, what was needed was one
massive blow to Castro's forces. Thus they put together a plan to launch an invasion of
Cuba using Cuban exiles, and pitched the plan to newly elected President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy
approved the plan, but with the caveat that the US would move to support non-Batista aligned,
pro-democracy rebels, having no wish of replacing one dictator with the one who came before him.
In April of 1960, the CIA began to recruit Cuban exiles. New recruits
were sent for military training at a CIA base code named JMTrax,
on the Pacific coast of Guatemala. Flight crews were trained to fly B-26 Invaders,
which were made up to have Guatemalan Air Force markings, with a further 26 B-26s sanitized of
all features identifying their real country of origin. The growing force of rebels underwent
further training with M41 Walker Bulldog tanks, boat handling and amphibious landings,
underwater demolition and infiltration, and paradrop operations. To cover the origins of
the invasion force, the CIA bought five ships from a Cuban-owned shipping firm and turned it
over to the rebels, stocking it with enough food and supplies for a month of combat operations.
The invasion was well trained and equipped, but any element of surprise
was non-existent as Castro's forces were well aware of the existence of the CIA's
'secret' invasion force. Many of the would-be invaders had themselves spread
news of the coming invasion amongst Cuban communities in Florida, and straight into
the ears of Castro's spies. The KGB was also well aware of the planned invasion, and warned
Castro. Radio Moscow even predicted an invasion of Cuba would happen within the week, just four
days before the doomed operation to free Cuba from Castro met with a swift and disastrous end.
The first part of the invasion involved an airstrike using the American B-26
bombers made to look like stolen Cuban aircraft. The strike was meant to knock
Castro's air force out of comission, but with advance knowledge of the
coming attack, Castro had simply redeployed his military aircraft,
resulting in the invaders bombing a few cargo and transport planes and a lot of civilian aircraft.
By now Kennedy was growing suspicious that the invasion was no secret after all,
but with the gears already in motion, it was too late to put on the brakes now. Two days after the
failed air strike, Cuban forces landed in force at an isolated inlet known as the Bay of Pigs.
It was meant to be a largely unopposed landing which would allow the rebel force
to quickly establish itself and unload its heavy equipment for the march on Havana.
However, the CIA had failed to identify a local radio station near the beach,
which directly observed the invasion force and reported on its every movement.
Castro immediately dispatched his forces to meet the invaders on the beach,
but that was far from the revolutionarie's only problem as the poorly mapped out inlet
led to the loss of several landing craft on reefs. When things couldn't get any worse,
they did, and the paratroopers meant to reinforce the beachhead and strike at opposition forces
from behind were landed in the wrong area miles from where they were needed most.
After less than 24 hours, the invaders surrendered,
hopelessly pinned down on the beach and with no hope of breaking out. 114 men were killed,
and over 1,100 would end up prisoner. The Bay of Pigs invasion would go on to become
a black stain on the CIA's record, and one of the most humiliating invasions in US history.
Now go check out Why the CIA Bought A Secret Airline, or click this other video instead!