John F. Kennedy's Decision-Making Style

During one of the most tumultuous times in United States history, our president John F. Kennedy exhibited his decision making style and leadership qualities such as vision, delegation, focus, and ambition. His term was short lived, lasting only two years and ten months, but in that time he made a great impact on the United States and even the world. He was so important because he was a great leader in a time when the United States was in dire need of one. John F. Kennedy’s leadership qualities and decision making style reflected in the ways he responded to such events as The Cuban Missile Crisis and The Bay of Pigs Invasion. John F. Kennedy was a strong president; he showed vision, decision making style, and delegation through his enactment
Kennedy was the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an invasion of the Bay of Pigs in Cuba by special CIA trained Cuban exiles in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. The decision was ultimately made by John F. Kennedy and it failed in just a couple of days. Many men had died and others were taken as prisoners of war. Kennedy would eventually have to negotiate for the release of well over 1,000 survivors. The invasion failed for a number of reasons. Kennedy’s Presidential advisory committee made six false assumptions regarding the Bay of Pigs Invasion: no one will know that the United States was responsible for the invasion of Cuba, the Cuban air force does not pose a threat, the Cuban exiles have high morale and are willing to carry out the mission without any support, Castro’s army is weak, the invasion will spark a revolution among people in Cuba, and if the brigade doesn’t succeed then they can retreat to the Escambray Mountains. Kennedy admitted later that he had his doubts about the mission but kept them to himself. “"How could I have been so stupid?" President John F. Kennedy asked that after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. He called it a "colossal mistake." It left him feeling depressed, guilty, bitter, and in tears. One historian later called the Bay of Pigs, "one of those rare events in history -- a perfect failure."” So why then, did Kennedy not voice his concerns? There was an underlying force that was apparent
It is excessive to the extent that the group members have come to value the group (and their being part of it) higher than anything else. This causes them to strive for a quick and painless unanimity on the issues that the group has to confront. To preserve the clubby atmosphere, group members suppress personal doubts, silence dissenters, and go along with the general consensus of the group.” This theory of groupthink has affected many groups in history negatively. Had groupthink not been present then the Bay of Pigs Invasion may not have even happened. All it would’ve taken was for the closed mouth president to speak up and voice his opinion about how it could go wrong. Mongar argues that it appeared as though “Kennedy experienced difficulty separating the administrative and political functions of the presidency, which would have been understandable in view of the fact that the Bay of Pigs was his first important political decision.” As far as the Bay of Pigs is concerned, Kennedy started out as a simple decision maker or foreign policy leader. He would since become a more complex decision maker, using carefulness and strategy to implement policies and decisions. Kennedy later revised his group decision-making process to encourage more dissent and debate. This change would later help to avert a potential nuclear