On April 17, 1961, 1,400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south declension of Cuba.
In 1959, Fidel Castro came to ability 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 Matrimony.
Before his inauguration, John F. Kennedy was briefed on a plan by the Central Intelligence Bureau (CIA) developed during the Eisenhower assistants to railroad train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The program anticipated that the Cuban people and elements of the Cuban armed forces would back up the invasion. The ultimate goal was the overthrow of Castro and the institution of a non-communist government friendly to the U.s.a..
Training
President Eisenhower canonical the program in March 1960. The CIA prepare up training camps in Republic of guatemala, and by November the operation had trained a minor ground forces for an set on landing and guerilla warfare.
José Miró Cardona led the anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the United States. A old member of Castro's government, 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.
Despite efforts of the authorities to continue the invasion plans covert, information technology became common knowledge among Cuban exiles in Miami. Through Cuban intelligence, Castro learned of the guerilla training camps in Republic of guatemala as early equally October 1960, and the printing reported widely on events equally they unfolded.
Soon after his inauguration, in February 1961, President Kennedy authorized the invasion program. Merely he was determined to disguise U.South. support. The landing point at the Bay of Pigs was part of the deception. The site was a remote swampy area on the southern coast of Republic of cuba, where a dark landing might bring a force aground against little resistance and help to hide any U.South. involvement. Unfortunately, the landing site besides left the invading force more than 80 miles from refuge in Republic of cuba's Escambray Mountains, if anything went incorrect.
The Plan
The original invasion plan chosen for two 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 force would land on the east coast of Cuba to create confusion.
The main forcefulness would accelerate across the island to Matanzas and set a defensive position. The United Revolutionary Forepart would send leaders from Due south Florida and establish a provisional authorities. The success of the plan depended on the Cuban population joining the invaders.
The Invasion
The get-go mishap occurred on April 15, 1961, when viii bombers left Nicaragua to bomb Cuban airfields.
The CIA had used obsolete Earth State of 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'south air force intact. As news broke of the attack, photos of the repainted U.S. planes became public and revealed American back up for the invasion. President Kennedy cancelled a second air strike.
On April 17, the Cuban-exile invasion force, known equally Brigade 2506, landed at beaches along the Bay of Pigs and immediately came under heavy fire. Cuban planes strafed the invaders, sank two escort ships, and destroyed half of the exile's air support. Bad weather hampered the ground force, which had to work with soggy equipment and bereft ammunition.
The Counterattack
Over the next 24 hours, Castro ordered roughly twenty,000 troops to advance toward the beach, and the Cuban air force connected to control the skies. Every bit the situation grew increasingly grim, President Kennedy authorized an "air-umbrella" at dawn on April 19—six unmarked American fighter planes took off to help defend the brigade's B-26 aircraft flying. But the planes arrived an hour late, most likely dislocated past the change in time zones between Nicaragua and Cuba. They were shot down by the Cubans, and the invasion was crushed later that day.
Some exiles escaped to the sea, 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 Aftermath
The brigade prisoners remained in captivity for 20 months, equally the United States negotiated a deal with Fidel Castro. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy made personal pleas for contributions from pharmaceutical companies and baby food manufacturers, and Castro somewhen settled on $53 million worth of babe nutrient and medicine in substitution for the prisoners.
On December 23, 1962, just two months after the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a plane containing the first group of freed prisoners landed in the U.s.. A week after, on Saturday, Dec 29, surviving brigade members gathered for a ceremony in Miami's Orange Bowl, where the brigade's flag was handed over to President Kennedy. "I can assure you," the president promised, "that this flag will exist returned to this brigade in a gratis Havana."
The disaster at the Bay of Pigs had a lasting impact on the Kennedy administration. Determined to make upwardly for the failed invasion, the administration initiated Operation Mongoose—a program to sabotage and destabilize the Cuban government and economy, which included the possibility of assassinating Castro.
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