Bay of Pigs Invasion

Bay of Pigs Invasion
Part of the Cold War and the
Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution

Counterattack by Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces near Playa Girón on 19 April 1961
Date17–20 April 1961
Location
Bay of Pigs, southwestern coast of Cuba
22°03′42″N 81°01′55″W / 22.0616°N 81.0319°W / 22.0616; -81.0319
Result

Cuban victory

Belligerents
 United States
Cuban DRF
 Cuba
Commanders and leaders
John F. Kennedy
Robert McNamara
Robert F. Kennedy
Maxwell D. Taylor
Charles Cabell
Pepe San Román (POW)
Erneido Oliva (POW)
Félix Rodríguez
Fidel Castro
Che Guevara
Juan A. Bosque
Ramiro Valdés
Raúl Castro
Eloy Gutierrez
Carlos Franqui
Units involved

CIA

 U.S. Air Force
 U.S. Navy
Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces
National Revolutionary Police Force
National Revolutionary Militia
Strength
Casualties and losses

Brigade 2506:

  • 478 KIA and WIA
  • 1,202 captured (including wounded)[c]
  • Hundreds executed[4]
  • 5 B-26 bombers shot down

United States:

  • 4 KIA
  • 2 B-26 bombers shot down
  • 2 supply ships lost

Cuban Armed Forces:

  • 176 killed
  • 400–500 wounded[d][5]

National Militia:

  • 2,000 killed and wounded[vague][5]
  • 1 B-26 bomber shot down
  • 1 Hawker Sea Fury shot down
  • Unknown number of T-34 tanks and SU-100 guns destroyed
Bay of Pigs Invasion is located in Cuba
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Location within Cuba

The Bay of Pigs Invasion (Spanish: Invasión de Bahía de Cochinos, sometimes called Invasión de Playa Girón or Batalla de Playa Girón after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front (DRF), consisting of Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution, covertly financed and directed by the U.S. government. The operation took place at the height of the Cold War, and its failure influenced relations between Cuba, the United States, and the Soviet Union.

In 1952, the American-allied dictator General Fulgencio Batista led a coup against President Carlos Prío and forced Prío into exile in Miami, Florida. Prío's exile inspired Castro's 26th of July Movement against Batista. The movement succeeded in overthrowing Batista during the Cuban Revolution in January 1959. Castro nationalized American businesses, including banks, oil refineries, and sugar and coffee plantations. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began planning the overthrow of Castro, which U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved in March 1960, and the U.S. began its embargo of the island. This led Castro to reach out to its Cold War rival, the Soviet Union, after which the US severed diplomatic relations. Cuban exiles who had moved to the U.S. following Castro's takeover had formed the counter-revolutionary military unit, Brigade 2506, which was the armed wing of the DRF. The CIA funded the brigade, which also included approximately 60 members of the Alabama Air National Guard,[6] and trained the unit in Guatemala.

Over 1,400 paramilitaries, divided into five infantry battalions and one paratrooper battalion, assembled and launched from Guatemala and Nicaragua by boat on 17 April 1961. Two days earlier, eight CIA-supplied B-26 bombers had attacked Cuban airfields and then returned to the U.S. On the night of 17 April, the main invasion force landed on the beach at Playa Girón in the Bay of Pigs, where it overwhelmed a local revolutionary militia. Initially, José Ramón Fernández led the Cuban Revolutionary Army counter-offensive; later, Castro took personal control. As the invasion force lost the strategic initiative, the international community found out about the invasion, and U.S. President John F. Kennedy decided to withhold further air support.[7] The plan, devised during Eisenhower's presidency, had required the involvement of U.S. air and naval forces. Without further air support, the invasion was being conducted with fewer forces than the CIA had deemed necessary. The American force, Brigade 2506 invading force were defeated within three days by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (Spanish: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias – FAR) and surrendered on 20 April. Most of the surrendered counter-revolutionary troops were publicly interrogated and put into Cuban prisons.

The invasion was a U.S. foreign policy failure. The Cuban government's victory solidified Castro's role as a national hero and widened the political division between the two formerly allied countries, as well as embolden other Latin American groups to undermine US influence in the region. It also pushed Cuba closer to the Soviet Union, setting the stage for the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference fernandez was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference szulc1986 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b FRUS X, documents 19, 24, 35, 245, 271.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference triay was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Quesada 2009, p. 46.
  6. ^ "Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Alabama Air National Guard". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  7. ^ Voss, Michael (14 April 2011). "The 'perfect failure' of Cuba invasion". BBC News. Archived from the original on 13 February 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2016.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).


© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search