ineffectual imperillist, which is worst of all. the question began with the bay of pigs. this was the first step into the vietnam era. even before vietnam. actually what you may not realize, what i did not realize until i wrote the book is how much the vietnam war itself owes to the bay of pigs. if we have time, i'll delve into that more later on. right now, i want to go back a bit in time. back a few years before the pay of bigs and focus on the causes of the invasion. here's the really central question, one we don't have a good answer to even yet. how does something like this happen. my ambitious in this book beyond telling what i think is a fascinating story as well as i could, was to go back once more and look at the events as clearly as possible. with no access to grind, no finger pointing, not trying to blame anyone, not trying to exonerate anybody, just trying to find out as best as i could the truth. so with that goal in mind, i begin my narrative well before the invasion. because i think to understand it, you need to know