Bay Of Pigs Summary
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The Bay Of Pigs invasion refers to the CIA sponsored American attack of the Cuban government in order to overthrow Fidel Castro, the then Prime Minister of Cuba. It was a tricky plan to execute as US was not in war with Cuba then. Though the US planned to appear “not being involved” in this attack and declared about their non-intention to intervene in Cuban affairs, Cuba had already approached the UN with the facts about the US training mercenaries for this planned invasion.
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In April 1961, the invasion was executed under the administration of John F. Kennedy. However this mission failed and became a milestone in the history of America and marked the resistance of Cubans against American aggression.
The Cuban Revolution of 1959 increased antagonism of Fidel Castro towards the US. Though Kennedy and Eisenhower administrations tried their best to remove him, nothing worked. Meanwhile, due to communist rule of Castro, thousands of Cubans fled from the island and lost their investments and properties. These exiles settled down at Miami and detested Castro’s regime.
This gave an opportunity for the American government to convince these Cuban exiles to participate in this invasion against Castro’s communist governance. The exiles were then trained in Central America by the CIA. The 2506 Brigade were shifted to Nicaragua for final preparations and before setting on sail on April 13, they were visited by Luís Somoza, the dictator of Nicaragua who laughingly told them to bring some hairs from the beard of Fidel Castro.
The ships set sail on April 13th. The armed troupes chose “Bahía de los Cochinos” as the landing site and this was the main reason for defeat. This is because this part of the land was quite sparsely populated and did not support the installation of major military stations. The areas were swampy and it was a herculean task for the attackers to cross and they were bogged down quite early on. In addition, the people in Cuba were more than willing to protect their Prime Minister from American invasion.
On April 17th, the Cuban Expeditionary Force consisting of more than thousand armed soldiers landed upon the Cuban soil. Meanwhile, rebel groups in Cuba were notified about the assault, and small scale attacks arose between the armed forces. Ultimately, the Bay of Pigs invasion resulted in fallout of the diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba, and increased the cold war between the two nations.
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The name Bay of Pigs is a literal translation of the Spanish nameBahía de Cochinos which is an inlet ofGulf of Cazones at the southern coastal region of Cuba. During the year 1910, this inlet belonged to the Santa Clara Province and then in 1961, it was assigned to Las Villas Province. It was later reassigned to Matanzas Province in 1976 wherein the 6 provinces of Cuba that existed then were reorganized into 14 new provinces.