Certificate 008

Chapter Eight: From Groupthink to Genuine Conviction

These are the sources the Kool-Aid Laboratory used to examine this chapter. Every one is public. Check them yourself.

Want the plain-English verdict and the full laboratory report for this chapter? Those are in Who's Drinking the Kool-Aid? — The Official Research Companion. Get the Companion →

#1 Primary record

U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian — "The Bay of Pigs Invasion and its Aftermath, April 1961–October 1962," Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations.

Components of Brigade 2506 landed at the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961 and were defeated within two days by Cuban forces.

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/bay-of-pigs

#2 Primary record

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum — "The Bay of Pigs."

Records that roughly 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles landed on April 17, 1961; nearly 1,200 surrendered and more than 100 were killed.

https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/the-bay-of-pigs

#3 Primary record

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Vol. X (Cuba), Document 321, Editorial Note

— records that 1,179 brigade members were captured after the failed invasion.

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d321

#4 Background

Irving L. Janis — Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign-Policy Decisions and Fiascoes (Houghton Mifflin, 1972).

The original formulation of the groupthink hypothesis, with the Bay of Pigs as a central case study. Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/victimsofgroupth0000jani

#5 Background

Irving L. Janis — Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes, 2nd ed. (Houghton Mifflin, 1982), ISBN 9780395317044.

The developed groupthink model, Bay of Pigs among its major cases. WorldCat record:

https://search.worldcat.org/title/8451212

#6 Scholarly / institutional

Roderick M. Kramer — "Revisiting the Bay of Pigs and Vietnam Decisions 25 Years Later: How Well Has the Groupthink Hypothesis Stood the Test of Time?" Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 73(2–3), 236–271 (1998), DOI 10.1006/obhd.1998.2762.

Concludes newer evidence suggests the groupthink hypothesis overstates small-group dynamics and understates political considerations — the chapter's "other side."

https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.1998.2762

#7 Scholarly / institutional

Bertram H. Raven — "Groupthink, Bay of Pigs, and Watergate Reconsidered," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 73(2–3), 352–361 (1998), DOI 10.1006/obhd.1998.2766.

Reexamines the Bay of Pigs as a principal example associated with Janis's theory.

https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.1998.2766

← Certificate 007 All Certificates Certificate 009 →