Bay of Pigs Invasion

In April 1961 about 1,400 Cuban exiles, recruited, trained and paid for by the American Central Intelligence Agency, landed on the south-west coast of Cuba in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. Known in Cuba as Playa Girón, after the beach where much of the fighting took place, the invasion collapsed within three days, ending on 20 April. It was a humiliating failure for the new American president, strengthened Castro at home and pushed Cuba closer to the Soviet Union.

Castro became prime minister in February 1959 after the Cuban Revolution, and relations with the United States soured quickly as his government moved in a socialist direction. By early 1960 President Dwight D. Eisenhower was looking for ways to remove him, and he approved a CIA plan drawn up by Richard Bissell that included training a force of exiles. Washington also began restricting trade with the island, Castro turned to the Soviet Union, and the United States broke off diplomatic relations. The exile force, Brigade 2506, trained in Guatemala.

John F. Kennedy inherited the plan when he took office in January 1961. After a proposed landing near Trinidad was rejected, he ordered a revised plan to go ahead despite doubts among his advisers. To keep American involvement deniable, the operation was meant to look like an uprising by Cuban patriots. On 15 April, eight B-26 bombers flown by exile pilots from Nicaragua, painted in the markings of the Cuban air force, attacked three Cuban airfields. They destroyed a number of aircraft, but several Cuban combat planes survived. At the United Nations, the American ambassador Adlai Stevenson insisted that defectors had carried out the raids and that US forces would not intervene in Cuba.

Shortly after midnight on 17 April, the brigade began landing at the Bay of Pigs. Unseen coral reefs damaged boats and slowed the unloading, and local militiamen raised the alarm by radio. At daybreak Cuban aircraft attacked the ships, forcing the transport Houston to be beached and sinking another vessel carrying much of the brigade's ammunition and supplies. Castro took personal command of the counter-attack, as regular army troops, militia and tanks converged on the beachhead.

As news of the invasion spread and American involvement became obvious, Kennedy declined to provide the further air support the plan had assumed. Over the next two days the brigade, short of ammunition, was pressed back towards Girón. A final air mission on 19 April included B-26s crewed by Americans, two of which were shot down, killing four American airmen. On 20 April the remaining invaders surrendered.

According to figures gathered from Cuban and American sources, more than 100 members of the brigade died, including those killed in action and some later executed. Cuba reported 176 of its armed forces killed, and estimates suggest about 2,000 militiamen were killed or wounded. About 1,200 invaders were captured. After lengthy negotiations, in December 1962 Castro agreed to release 1,113 prisoners in exchange for 53 million dollars' worth of food and medicine.

Kennedy publicly accepted responsibility, remarking that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan. In private he lost confidence in the CIA and his military chiefs, but his administration redoubled covert efforts to overthrow Castro, including Operation Mongoose. In Cuba the victory made Castro a national hero and tied the island ever more closely to Moscow, setting the stage for the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

Our 1960 map shows Cuba shortly after the revolution, on the eve of the invasion, in the opening phase of the Cold War in the Caribbean.