Bay of Pigs Invasion

The Bay of Pigs Invasion & The Cold War

The Cold War emerged immediately following the end of World War II. The US primarily focused its attention on the communist Soviet Union but remained vigilant of any uprising of communist movements. However, Cuba gave the US a reason to turn its attention to the Caribbean in 1959.

The Cuban Revolution

On New Year's Day 1959, Fidel Castro and his guerilla army descended from the mountains outside Havana and overthrew the Cuban government, forcing Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista to flee the country.

Castro was well-known among the Cuban people as a revolutionary leader after his first attempted coup on July 26, 1953, which became known as the Twenty-Sixth of July Movement. Most Cubans supported the Cuban Revolution and welcomed Castro and his nationalist views.

The US watched the Cuban Revolution nervously from the sidelines. While Batista was far from a democratic leader, his government was tentative allies with the US and allowed American corporations to farm their profitable sugar plantations there. At the time, the US had other business investments in Cuba that had ventured into cattle farming, mining, and sugarcane. Batista did not interfere with American corporations, and the US, in turn, purchased a large share of Cuba's sugarcane exports.

Once in power, Castro wasted no time reducing the influence the US had on the country. He installed a communist government and nationalized the sugar, farming, and mining industry, removing foreign countries from controlling any land, property, or business in Cuba.

In addition to the reforms that removed American corporations from power and reduced US influence in Latin America, the Castro government was communist, which was seen as an aggressive act toward the US.

Fig. 1 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro (third from left) arrives in Washington for a meeting with Vice President Nixon in 1959

Adding fuel to the fire, Fidel Castro also had a close relationship with Russian leader Nikita Khruschev. It grew even closer after the US imposed sanctions on the new communist government, which led Cuba to reach out to the Soviet Union, another communist regime, for economic help.

Bay of Pigs Invasion Summary

The Bay of Pigs began on April 15, 1961, and ended just days later on April 17. However, the operation had been in the works long before the first plane took off.

The plan was approved in March of 1960 during President Eisenhower's term. It was designed to be covert, as the US government did not want to come out directly attacking the Cuban communist government. That would risk being seen as a direct attack on the Soviet Union–a close ally of Cuba.

After President Kennedy officially took office in 1961, he approved the establishment of training camps in Guatemala run by the CIA. Cuban exiles living in Miami, Florida, were recruited to join an armed group called Brigade 2506 with the goal of overthrowing Castro. José Miró Cardona was chosen as the leader of the Brigade and the Cuban Revolutionary Council. If the Bay of Pigs were to succeed, Cardona would become President of Cuba. The plan largely depended on the assumption that the Cuban people would support an overthrow of Castro.

Bay of Pigs Invasion Plan

The landing area for the army was in a very remote area of Cuba with swampy and difficult terrain. The core part of the plan was to happen under cover of darkness to allow the Brigade the upper hand. While this area theoretically afforded the force a semblance of covertness, it was also very far away from a retreating point–designated to be the Escambray Mountains, about 80 miles away.

Fig. 2 - Location of Bay of Pigs in Cuba

The plan's first step was to bomb Cuban airfields to weaken Cuban air forces with old World War II planes that the CIA had painted to look like Cuban planes in an attempt to hide US involvement. However, Castro had learned about the attack through Cuban intelligence agents and moved much of the Cuban airforce out of harm's way. Further, the older planes had technical issues while dropping bombs, and many missed their mark.

After the failure of the first airstrike, word got out about American involvement. People looking at the photos could recognize the American planes, revealing that the American military was behind the attack. President Kennedy quickly canceled the second airstrike.

The other moving part of the invasion included paratroopers being dropped near the Bay of Pigs to intercept and disrupt any Cuban resistance. Another smaller group of soldiers would be landing on the east coast to "create confusion."

Castro had also learned of this plan and sent over 20,000 troops to defend the Bay of Pigs beach. The Cuban exiles of Brigade 2506 were ill-prepared for such a forceful defense. The Brigade was quickly and decisively defeated. Most of the men of Brigade 2506 were forced to surrender, and over one hundred were killed. Those captured remained in Cuba for almost two years.

Bay of Pigs Outcome

The Bay of Pigs was an evident loss for the US and a victory for Cuba and became widely known as a blunder by the US government. There were many moving parts of the plan. However, the most significant failures of the plan included the reasons below.

Main Reasons for Failure

1. The plan became known among Cuban exiles living in the Southern Florida city of Miami. This information eventually reached Castro, who was able to plan for the attack.

2. The US used outdated planes from World War II, causing them to miss their target. Castro also moved much of the Cuban airforce out of the line of attack.

3. Brigade 2506 was supposed to have a clear line of attack after the airstrikes. However, the airstrikes failed to weaken the Cuban forces, allowing them to overcome the Brigade quickly.

Bay of Pigs Significance

The Bay of Pigs was a low point for Kennedy's presidential term and was considered a massive public relations disaster. The failure of the Bay of Pigs operation haunted President Kennedy for the rest of his presidency. The damage to his reputation was irredeemable, and the administration continued to formulate plans to destabilize the Castro regime. One of the most well-known of these plans was Operation Mongoose.

Fig. 3 - In this Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph, President Kennedy walks alongside the previous President, Dwight Eisenhower, after the botched Bay of Pigs Operation

The failure had rippling effects. The US-backed attack on Castro's communist government led to the alliance between Cuba and the Soviet Union stronger, which eventually fed into the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Additionally, after seeing the attempt of the US government to interfere with Latin American affairs, the Cuban people stood even more firmly behind Castro in support.

The Bay of Pigs disaster was a prime example of the US fear of the spread of communism and the overall rising tensions of the Cold War.