The Bay of Pigs Invasion

The Bay of Pigs Invasion the topic I choose occurred in 1959 when a named Fidel Castro came to power in a battle that overthrew Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista.After that the US government did not trust Fidel Castro and was watchful of his relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union.Before Fidel Castro Ruz inauguration, John F. Kennedy was ready on an inspiration by the Central administrative unit (CIA) created throughout the Chief Executive administration to coach the Cuban exiles for associate invasion of their native land. The set up gave an impression that the Cuban folks and parts of their military would make the invasion easy..Their goal was simply to overthrow Fidel Castro and his institution of a non communist government that was friendly to the United States.

For the Training President Eisenhower approved the program in March 1960.The CIA made training camps in Guatemala and by November the operation trained a small army for an attack landing and guerilla warfare. José Miró Cardona was the leader of the anti Castro Cuban exiles in the United States and was also a former member of Fidel Castro’s government! Cardona was poised to take over the rough presidency of Cuba if the invasion succeeded.Even with efforts of the government to keep the invasion plans not public, a secret it became known among all the Cuban exiles in Miami.After all of this Castro got knowledge of the guerilla training camps in October 1960.Just once his inauguration in February 1961, President John F. Kennedy approved the invasion arrange as a go.But he was bound to disguise U.S. support.

The main landing purpose of the Bay of Pigs was a vicinity of the lie.The site was a remote swampy region on the southern bank of Cuba where a night arrival may bring a power shorewards against little protection and help to hide any U.S. contribution. Sadly the arrival site additionally left the attacking power more than 80 miles from asylum in Cuba Escambray Mountains on the off chance that anything turned out badly.The original invasion plan was for two airstrikes on the Cuban air bases.A 1,400 man invasion force that would arrive unknown and attack with surprise.And then paratroopers would come in and attack the transportation of the Cuban forces.Then the main forces would make up a defensive position would attack Matanzas which was across the island.For the Invasion the first unlucky accident on April 15, 1961 happened when eight bombers left Nicaragua to bomb the Cuban airfields.The CIA with their smart idea had painted their air force planes(World War II B-26 bombers) to look like the Cuban air force planes.The plane bombers missed a lot of targets and left majority of Castro’s air force intact.As the news revealed everything and pictures of the U.S. planes became public for the American support for the invasion President Kennedy shut down the second air strike.

On April 17, the Cuban exile invasion force was called the “Brigade 2506” landed at the beaches along the Bay of Pigs and got attacked very badly.Immediately after that the Cuban planes attacked and bombed the invaders and sand two of their escort ships and literally half of the exile air support.But sadly the bad weather delayed the ground force which had to work with the soggy equipment and very insufficient ammunition.For the Counterattack over the next 24 hours Castro sent 20,000 troops to move towards the beach and their Cuban air force continued to control the skies.As this problem grew and grew, President Kennedy ordered an “air umbrella” at night on April 19.The six unmarked American fighter planes took of to help and defend the brigade’s B 26 aircraft flying.But the B-26s came late an hour late! Just because they got confused by the change in time zones between both Nicaragua and Cuba.

Eventually they got shot down by the Cubans and the invasion was destroyed and stopped that same day.A few exiles escaped to the sea when the others got killed or got rounded up and imprisoned by Fidel Castro’s forces.Sadly almost 1.200 members of Brigade 2506 surrendered and more than 100 people were killed.In conclusion for the aftermath the brigade prisoners stayed in captivity for a long 20 months as the United States tried making a deal with Fidel Castro.Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy made a very personal request for many contributions from pharmaceutical companies and baby food and medicine in exchange for the poor prisoners.

On December 23, 1962 just after two months the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis a plane that had the first group of freed prisoners landed in the United States.In end the disaster at the Bay of Pigs had a lasting impact on the Kennedy administration.Resolved to compensate for the fizzled intrusion the organization started Operation Mongoose which was an arrangement to attack and destabilize the Cuban government and economy which also incorporated the likelihood of killing Fidel Castro.

Works Cited

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2. Fursenko, A., & Naftali, T. (1997). One hell of a gamble: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958-1964. WW Norton & Company.
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