Bay of Pigs Invasion
| Bay of Pigs Invasion | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Cold War | |||||||
 Map showing the location of the Bay of Pigs | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Cuba |  United States Cuban exiles | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Fidel Castro José Ramón Fernández Juan Almeida Bosque Che Guevara [1][2] Efigenio Ameijeiras | John F. Kennedy Grayston Lynch Pepe San Roman Erneido Oliva | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| c. 25,000 army[3] c. 200,000 militia[3][4] c9,000 armed police[3][4] | >1,500 Cuban exiles (c. 1,300 landed)[5] 2 CIA agents | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 176 killed[6] (Regular Army) 4,000-5,000 killed, missing, or wounded[6][7] (Militias and armed civilian fighters) | 118 killed 1,201 captured | ||||||
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (known as La Batalla de Girón, or Playa Girón in Cuba), was an unsuccessful attempt by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support from US government armed forces, to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
The plan was launched in April 1961, less than three months after John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States. The Cuban armed forces, trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations, defeated the exile combatants in three days.
The invasion is named after the Bay of Pigs, although that is just one possible translation of the Spanish Bahía de Cochinos. The main invasion landing specifically took place at a beach named Playa Girón, located at the mouth of the bay.
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[edit] Political background
On March 15, 1960, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to use their Special Activities Division to equip, train, and lead Cuban exiles in an amphibious invasion of Cuba, to overthrow the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.[8] Eisenhower stated it was the policy of the US government to aid anti-Castro guerrilla forces.[9] The CIA was initially confident it was capable of overthrowing the Cuban government, having experience in actions such as the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état. The plan (code-named Operation Pluto) was organized by CIA Deputy Director for Plans Richard Mervin Bissell, Jr., under CIA DirectorAllen Dulles. The stated first objective of the plan begins as follows:[10]
A PROGRAM OF COVERT ACTION AGAINST THE CASTRO REGIME
1. Objective: The purpose of the program outlined herein is to bring about the replacement of the Castro regime with one more devoted to the true interests of the Cuban people and more acceptable to the U.S. in such a manner to avoid any appearance of U.S. intervention.
The original CIA plan called for a ship-borne invasion at the old colonial city of Trinidad, Cuba, about 270 km (170 mi) south-east of Havana, at the foothills of the Escambray Mountains in Sancti Spiritus province. Trinidad had good port facilities, was closer to many existing counter-revolutionary activities, had an easily defensible beachhead, and provided the Escambray Mountains as an "escape hatch." When that plan was rejected by the State Department, the CIA later proposed alternative plans. On April 4, 1961, President Kennedy and his cabinet then approved the Bay of Pigs option (also known as Operation Zapata), because it had an airfield that would not need to be extended to handle bomber operations, was further away from large groups of civilians than the Trinidad plan, and was less militarily "noisy," that would make any future denial of direct US involvement more plausible. The invasion landing area was changed to beaches bordering the Bay of Pigs in Las Villas Province, 150 km south-east of Havana, and east of the Zapata peninsula. The landings were to take place at Playa Girón (code-named Blue Beach), Playa Larga (code-named Red Beach), and Caleta Buena Inlet (code-named Green Beach).[11][12]
In March 1961, the CIA helped Cuban exiles in Miami create the Cuban Revolutionary Council (CRC), chaired by José Miró Cardona, former Prime Minister of Cuba (Jan 1959). Cardona became the de facto leader-in-waiting of the intended post-invasion Cuban government.[13]
[edit] Preparation and training for invasion
In April 1960, the CIA began to recruit anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the Miami area. Until July 1960, assessment and training was carried out on Useppa Island and at various other facilities in South Florida, such as Homestead AFB. Specialist guerrilla training took place at Fort Gulick, Panama and at Fort Clayton, Panama.[5][14] For the increasing ranks of recruits, infantry training was carried out at a CIA-run base code-named JMTrax near Retalhuleu in the Sierra Madre on the Pacific coast of Guatemala.[8] The exiles group named themselves Brigade 2506 (Brigada Asalto 2506).[15] In summer 1960, an airfield (code-named JMMadd, aka Rayo Base) was constructed near Retalhuleu, Guatemala. Gunnery and flight training of Brigade 2506 air crews was carried out by personnel from Alabama ANGB-26 Invaders in the markings of FAG (Fuerza Aérea Guatemalteca), legitimate delivery of those to the FAG being delayed by about 6 months. An additional 26 B-26s were obtained from US military stocks, 'sanitized' at 'Field Three' to obscure their origins, and about 20 of them were converted for offensive operations by deletion of defensive armament, standardization of the "eight-gun nose", addition of underwing drop tanks and rocket racks.[16][17] Paratroop training was at a base nicknamed Garrapatenango, near Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Training for boat handling and amphibious landings took place at Vieques Island, Puerto Rico. Tank training took place at Fort Knox, Kentucky and Fort Benning, Georgia. Underwater demolition and infiltration training took place at Belle Chase near New Orleans.[12] (Air National Guard), using at least six Douglas
The CIA used Douglas C-54 transports to deliver people, supplies, and arms from Florida at night. Curtiss C-46sJMTide (aka Happy Valley), at Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua. On April 9, 1961, Brigade 2506 personnel, ships, and aircraft started transferring from Guatemala to Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua.[18] were also used for transport between Retalhuleu and the CIA base code-named
In early 1961, Cuba's army possessed Soviet-designed T-34 and IS-2 Stalin tanks, SU-100 self-propelled 'tank destroyers', 122 mm howitzers, other artillery and small arms, plus Italian 105 mm howitzers. The Cuban air force armed inventory included Douglas B-26 Invader light bombers, Hawker Sea Fury fighters, and Lockheed T-33 jets, all remaining from the Fuerza Aérea del Ejército de Cuba (FAEC), the Cuban air force of the Batista[15] government.
Anticipating an invasion, Che Guevara stressed the importance of an armed civilian populace, stating "all the Cuban people must become a guerrilla army, each and every Cuban must learn to handle and if necessary use firearms in defense of the nation."[19]
