The Bay of Pigs Invasion

The Road to the Cuban Missile Crisis

Remember the US has been involved in Cuban affairs since

the Spanish American War

Castro’s Takeover

• 1956 to 1959 – Castro led a guerrilla coup of Cuba Dictator Fulgencio Batista

• US suspicious, but Batista had been unpopular and corrupt

• Ultimately, Castro declared Communism, welcomed USSR aid

Castro vs. the US

• Castro nationalized 3 oil refineries owned by Americans and British firms

• Took commercial farms and made them communes (US companies controlled 75% of crop land)

• Castro relied more on USSR aid and political repression

Cuban Refugees

• Many Cubans felt betrayed – one dictator replaced by another

• 10% of Cuban population went into exile

• Most to the U.S., many settled in Miami – began a counter-revolutionary movement

CIA’s Secret Operation

• Eisenhower gave CIA permission to secretly train hundreds of Cuban exiles

• Plan to invade Cuba

• JFK found out about plan 9 days later

• Skeptical, but continued with plan

The Invasion

• April 17, 1961 – 1,400 Cubans invaded island’s s. cost at Bahia de Cochinos (or Bay of Pigs)

The Invasion

• Nothing went as planned

– Air strike 2 days prior failed to knock out Cuban air force (CIA reported it had)

– Small advanced group sent to distract Cuban forces never got there

– Other unit landed only to face 20,000 Cuban forces, backed by Soviet tanks and jets

Result• Troops surrounded, some killed others

taken as prisoners

Cuban counter-revolutionaries, members of Assault Brigade 2506, after their

capture at the Bay of Pigs, Cuba, in April 1961

Result

• Castro turned event into public relations triumph

• Kennedy looked embarrassed, took blame

• Negotiated for surviving commandos – paid $52 million in food and medical supplies

• Kennedy said no more communist expansion in W. Hemisphere

• Castro welcomed USSR aid.