The Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs(Bahía de Cochinos)A major event during the 1960’s was the Bay of Pigs Invasion, which possibly was the largest United States blunder in the Cold War. This was the unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles, which were armed and trained by the C.I.A. attempting to overthrow the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The operation, codenamed "Operation Zapata" involved the landing of 1,500 Cuban revolutionaries and politcal exiles displaced from Cuba by Castro's asccesion to power.
Originally the operation had landing near the city of Trinidad in the central part of Cuba, but unexpectedly the plans were changed so that the invasion was closer to the capital city of Havana, also where the greater part of Cubas defense force was located too. The invasion was now to take place in a bay that would go down in history as one the U.S.’s greatest blunders, Bahía de Cochinos, or Bay of Pigs in English.
The invasion was preceded by a partial bombing by C.I.A. and trained Cuban exile pilots from bases in Nicaragua and other Latin Ameriacan countries friendly to the U.S., which only succeeded in destroying a portion of Castro’s Air Force; the pilots would have finished the job had it not been for an unexplained order canceling all bombing missions over Cuba.
The partial bombing was then followed up by the landing of around 1,500 Cuban exiles in the bay.
The small army hoped to find support from the local population, intending to cross the island to Havana. The CIA assumed that the invasion would spark a popular uprising against Castro. However by the time the Invasion began, Castro had already executed some who were suspected of colluding with the American campaign, and imprisoned the others. The prisoners were under threat of death should the invasion succeed.
The landing was a success, but after the groups moved out into the nearby mountains they were ambushed by Castro’s army and remaining air force. Reports from both sides describe tank battles involving heavy Soviet made equipment .
Map ofthe planned invasion route
During this failed invasion about 120 Cuban exiles died and the rest were taken prisoner. On the Cuban side it is presumed about 3000 dead, a much higher toll. This invasion was a major public relations blunder and helped move Cuba to seek more Soviet protection from the capitalist countries and pushing Cuba farther down the road to communism.
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