The Bay of Pigs

On April 17, 1961, i,400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south declension of Republic of cuba.

In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The US government distrusted Castro and was wary of his human relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union.

Before his inauguration, John F. Kennedy was briefed on a program by the Cardinal Intelligence Agency (CIA) developed during the Eisenhower administration to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The programme predictable that the Cuban people and elements of the Cuban military would support the invasion. The ultimate goal was the overthrow of Castro and the establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the United states.

Grooming

President Eisenhower approved the plan in March 1960. The CIA set grooming camps in Guatemala, and by November the operation had trained a pocket-size army for an assail landing and guerilla warfare.

José Miró Cardona led the anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the United States. A erstwhile fellow member of Castro's regime, he was the head of the Cuban Revolutionary Council, an exile committee. Cardona was poised to take over the provisional presidency of Cuba if the invasion succeeded.

JFKWHP-ST-19-4-62. President and Mrs. Kennedy Greet Members of the 2506 Cuban Invasion Brigade at the Orange Bowl, 29 December 1962

Despite efforts of the government to continue the invasion plans covert, it became common knowledge among Cuban exiles in Miami. Through Cuban intelligence, Castro learned of the guerilla training camps in Guatemala as early as Oct 1960, and the printing reported widely on events as they unfolded.

Shortly after his inauguration, in February 1961, President Kennedy authorized the invasion plan. But he was determined to disguise U.Southward. support. The landing bespeak at the Bay of Pigs was part of the deception. The site was a remote swampy surface area on the southern declension of Republic of cuba, where a night landing might bring a force ashore against little resistance and help to hide whatsoever U.Southward. involvement. Unfortunately, the landing site also left the invading strength more than fourscore miles from refuge in Cuba's Escambray Mountains, if anything went wrong.

The Plan

The original invasion programme called for 2 air strikes against Cuban air bases. A 1,400-man invasion force would disembark under cover of darkness and launch a surprise attack. Paratroopers dropped in advance of the invasion would disrupt transportation and repel Cuban forces. Simultaneously, a smaller forcefulness would land on the e declension of Cuba to create defoliation.

The master force would accelerate across the isle to Matanzas and set upward a defensive position. The United Revolutionary Front would send leaders from South Florida and constitute a provisional authorities. The success of the plan depended on the Cuban population joining the invaders.

The Invasion

The showtime mishap occurred on April xv, 1961, when eight bombers left Nicaragua to flop Cuban airfields.

JFKWHP-ST-19-6-62. President Kennedy Addresses the 2506 Cuban Invasion Brigade, 29 December 1962

The CIA had used obsolete World War II B-26 bombers, and painted them to look like Cuban air force planes. The bombers missed many of their targets and left most of Castro's air force intact. Every bit news broke of the attack, photos of the repainted U.Southward. planes became public and revealed American support for the invasion. President Kennedy cancelled a second air strike.

On Apr 17, the Cuban-exile invasion forcefulness, known as Brigade 2506, landed at beaches along the Bay of Pigs and immediately came under heavy burn down. Cuban planes strafed the invaders, sank two escort ships, and destroyed half of the exile'south air support. Bad weather hampered the ground force, which had to piece of work with soggy equipment and insufficient armament.

The Counterattack

Over the next 24 hours, Castro ordered roughly twenty,000 troops to advance toward the beach, and the Cuban air strength continued to control the skies. Every bit the situation grew increasingly grim, President Kennedy authorized an "air-umbrella" at dawn on April nineteen—six unmarked American fighter planes took off to help defend the brigade's B-26 shipping flying. But the planes arrived an hour belatedly, most likely confused by the change in time zones between Nicaragua and Republic of cuba. They were shot down by the Cubans, and the invasion was crushed later on that day.

Some exiles escaped to the body of water, while the rest were killed or rounded up and imprisoned by Castro's forces. Almost 1,200 members of Brigade 2506 surrendered, and more than 100 were killed.

The Backwash

The brigade prisoners remained in captivity for 20 months, every bit the The states negotiated a deal with Fidel Castro. Chaser General Robert F. Kennedy fabricated personal pleas for contributions from pharmaceutical companies and baby food manufacturers, and Castro eventually settled on $53 one thousand thousand worth of baby nutrient and medicine in exchange for the prisoners.

On December 23, 1962, simply ii months after the end of the Cuban Missile Crunch, a aeroplane containing the first group of freed prisoners landed in the United States. A week subsequently, on Saturday, December 29, surviving brigade members gathered for a ceremony in Miami's Orange Basin, where the brigade's flag was handed over to President Kennedy. "I can assure you lot," the president promised, "that this flag will be returned to this brigade in a gratuitous Havana."

The disaster at the Bay of Pigs had a lasting impact on the Kennedy administration. Determined to make up for the failed invasion, the assistants initiated Operation Mongoose—a program to demolition and destabilize the Cuban regime and economy, which included the possibility of assassinating Castro.