The Bay of Pigs Invasion

Summary

On April 17, 1961 to April 20, 1961, the United States conducted what was called the Bay of Pigs invasion. The Bay of Pigs invasion was a failed invasion attempt by the United States government. The plan was to overthrow the Cuban government which was led by Fidel Castro at the time. The invasion was led by the CIA and a group of Cuban exiles attempting to invade the southwestern coast of Cuba with the goal of overthrowing and ending Fidel Castro’s communist reign at the time. The invasion quickly turned into a disaster that ended in the defeat of the invaders. The invasion’s outcome had solidified Castro’s power within Cuba and turned him instead of a socialist but a nationalist.

In the early stages of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the CIA created a plan that involved training Cuban exiles to invade the island and work to overthrow Castro. The U.S chose Cuban exiles because they didn’t want them to be seen as the masterminds behind the whole plan, but as an uprising of exiles wanting to overthrow Castro. This made sense because in document 1 of the files released it was said that the exiles wanted to fight for the cause and dethrone Castro, and it was also said that “in two days he can easily raise an extra hundred who would be willing to fight” (Volume 2, Part 1). The plan to train the exiles was just a part of a greater strategy in order to work and contain communism in its area. The document had suggested that the U.S officials saw Castro’s alignment with the Soviet Union as a direct threat to areas around it and in turn them too. The U.S wanted to create a plan to contain communism as much as they could,and that plan being the Bay of Pigs invasion.

However, the Bay of Pigs Invasion turned into a failure and caused the U.S and President Kennedy embarrassment. Robert A Lovett was a member of the General Advisory Committee and the Arms control and Disarmament Agency, when being interviewed at the time, claimed “there was an obvious failure on the part of the US Government, not CIA (Volume 4). The U.S government was given the blame for the failure not the CIA because they were only acting off of the information the U.S gave them. In our class slides particularly on slide 10 of the Cuban Revolution reaction deck it shows the exiles being arrested for their actions of the Bay of Pigs Invasion with Cuban soldiers standing around them with their. The invasion was poorly planned as the U.S did not plan correctly as they underestimated Fidel Castro’s power since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 as the U.S only sent in 1500 exiles to fight . On the bottom of slide 10 it shows that the invasion took place on the southwestern coast of Cuba. The spot chosen was a poor spot as it was a difficult swampy terrain to fight on, and was close to other military units. This played a key part into why the U.S failed too.

The failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion gave Fidel Castro a boost in popularity and power over the Cuban people as it made him viewed as the defender of Cuba. The failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion also created a greater strength in Cuba’s ties within the Soviet Union, setting the stage for the Cuban Missile Crisis later on in 1962. The Invasion marked a defining moment in Cuba’s Political development, solidifying the island's place as a major participant in Cold War events and moving it closer to a more strict, state-run socialist system.

Citations:
Pfeiffer, Jack B. OFFICIAL HISTORY ’OF THE BAY OF PIGS OPERATION VOLUME II PART 1, nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol2-part1.pdf.
Pfeiffer, Jack B. THE TAYLOR COMMITTEE INVESTIGATION OF THE BAY OF PIGS, nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/bop-vol4.pdf.