Bay of Pigs...I was only a child at the time...but my Dad was there.
The Cuban Revolution of 1952 to 1959 had seen President Fulgencio Batista,
a right-wing ally of the U.S., ousted. He was replaced by a new
left-wing administration dominated by Castro, which had severed the
country's formerly strong links with the U.S. by expropriating their
economic assets and developing links with the Soviet Union, with whom the U.S. was then embroiled in the Cold War. The President of U.S. government Dwight D. Eisenhower
was concerned at the direction which Castro's government was taking,
and in March 1960, Eisenhower allocated $13.1 million to the CIA in
order to plan Castro's overthrow. The CIA proceeded to organize the
operation with the aid of various Cuban counter-revolutionary forces,
training Brigade 2506 in Mexico. Following his election in 1960,
president John F. Kennedy was informed of the invasion plan and gave his consent.
Over 1,400 paramilitaries, divided into five infantry battalions and
one paratrooper battalion, assembled in Guatemala before setting out for
Cuba by boat on 13 April. On 15 April, eight CIA-supplied B-26 bombers attacked Cuban air fields and returned to the U.S. On the night of 16 April, the main invasion landed at a beach named Playa Girón in the Bay of Pigs.
It initially overwhelmed a local revolutionary militia. The Cuban
Army's counter-offensive was led by Captain José Ramón Fernández, before
Castro decided to take personal control of the operation. On 20 April,
the invaders finally surrendered, with the majority of troops being
publicly interrogated and then sent back to the U.S.
The failed invasion strengthened the position of Castro's
administration, who proceeded to openly proclaim their intention to
adopt socialism and strengthen ties with the Soviet Union. This led eventually to the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis
of 1962. The invasion was a major embarrassment for U.S. foreign
policy. John Kennedy ordered a number of internal investigations across Latin America.
The aftermath?
US and Cuba
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Cost to US economy $1.2bn a year
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US presidents since 1960: 11
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Cuban presidents since 1960: 3
