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A DAYTOREMEMBER
by Charles Phillips
April 17f 1961: Bay of Pigs Invasion
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Revolution, the official newspaper of the
his regime, but he returned to Cuba in
he United States' intervention in
Castro regime, showed heavy artillery
1952 and, in a nearly bloodless coup that
the Cuban struggle for independpieces firing oh U.S.-backed invaders who
ence from Spain, which brought
toppled Carlos Prio Sbcarras, once again
on the Spanish-American War of 1898,
had landed at the Bay of Pigs.
became president.
Batista's second regime was even more
was in large part motivated by a desire to
repressive and corrupt than his first, makprotect extensive American business interests on the island. Although the United States officially guaran- ing deals not only with legitimate American business interests
teed Cuban independence, business ties continued to make Cuba but also with American organized crime figures. By the end of
a de facto dependency. American companies often exploited the 1950s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower became so concheap Cuban labor, engaged in corrupt practices and encouraged cerned about Batista that he canceled arms sales to the regime.
corruption among Cuban government officials. Cuban leaders, In the meantime, Cuban opposition to Batista was mounting,
seeking to maintain their personally profitable relationship with and a young student named Fidel Castro emerged as a leader of
U.S. companies, were characteristically oppressive. Such was a growing movement. In 1959 Castro led a successful rebellion
President Gerardo Machado, who was elected in 1925 and against Batista to become the new premier of Cuba. Castro had
overthrown in a coup and replaced by Carlos Manuel de conducted the revolution in the name of anti-imperialism,
Cespedes in 1933.
nationalism and general reform—all palatable enough to official
Later that year Cespedes was ousted in a military coup led by Washington—so the United States recognized his government
Fulgencio Batista. In the manner of many Caribbean and immediately.
Under Castro the living conditions of the people dramatically .
Central American "strong men" (the euphemism that American
politicians and the American press used for tyrants), Batista was improved, and Cubans supported Castro's nationalization of
elevated to high military command—he served as army chief of foreign-owned properties and industries, most of them
staff—rather than elective office. From his military position, he American. Castro's rhetoric grew defiant and bellicose, attacking
governed through a series of civilian puppet presidents until the United States for the degradations it had historically visited
1940, when he was finally elected to the office himself. After on his country. As Castro seized American oil refineries, sugar
serving one term, Batista retired to Florida to enjoy the fruits of mills and electric utilities on the island, those who resisted his
APRIL 2007 AMERICAN HISTORY 17
new direction for Cuba were subject to arrest, imprisonment,
exile or execution. Many followed Batista's example and fled,
most often to Florida. On May 7, 1960, Castro announced the
resumption of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, which
had been broken off by Batista. Suddenly, an outpost of Sovietstyle communism was a mere 90 miles from the city of Miami.
Most important, in strategic terms, Castro menaced the U.S.
naval base at Guantanamo Bay, and on November 1, 1960,
President Eisenhower declared that the United States would
take all necessary measures to defend the base.
In 1959, after the revolution, the CIA began planning an invasion near Guantanamo Bay at a place called the Bay of Pigs.
Although started under Eisenhower, it was his successor, John F.
Kennedy, who authorized a covert invasion of Cuba by some
1,400 anti-Castro Cuban counterrevolutionaries, dubbed
Brigade 2506 and supported by the CIA. The invasion kicked
off on April 15, 1961, with the bombing of Cuba by what was
reported to be defecting Cuban air force pilots—they were, in
fact, in the hire of the CIA. Three Cuban military bases, two airfields and the Antonio Maceo Airport were attacked, killing 54
people. Two of the "defecting" B-26 bombers involved in the
attack flew to Miami.
The invasion proper began at 2 a.m. on April 17, at the Bay of
Pigs, about 100 miles southeast of Havana. Two battalions came
ashore, but soon found themselves bogged down in a swampy
marsh. Cuban forces were quick to react. Castro's air force was
small, but he ordered it into action against the slow-moving
brigade and its offshore command vessel Marsopa and supply
ship Houston. Both ships were sunk, and an entire battalion,
which had yet to disembark, was lost. With their coordination
and logistical support destroyed, the invaders were cut off.
By April 19, Castro's air force shot down nine of the invaders'
16 aircraft and, over the next couple of days, Cuban ground
forces pounded the invading brigade with howitzer and tank fire.
Surrounded, the U.S.-backed invaders began to surrender.
Their death toll was 114. Some were incarcerated for up to 20
years; 36 subsequently died in Cuban prisons. Many of the survivors were released between 1962 and 1965 after private donors
paid what amounted to a ransom of $53 million in food and
medicine for Cuba.
The Bay of Pigs invasion was a total failure—ill-conceived,
hastily staged and based on the CIA-spawned fiction that large
numbers of Cubans would rise up in support. But Cuban refugee
leaders, Bay of Pigs veterans and American security agencies
insisted that the mission failed largely because the invaders did
not receive the naval air support that had been promised by
President Kennedy. The fiasco allowed Castro to consolidate his
power and pushed him further into the arms of the Soviets. In
December 1961, he boldly declared an outright alliance with the
Soviet Union, at which point Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
warned that he would defend Cuba against American aggression, even to the point of thermonuclear war.
Castro allowed the Soviets to secretly build bomber and missile bases on the island. But American spy planes discovered the
construction before the missiles were deployed, precipitating the
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, during which the world's two nuclear
superpowers stood "eyeball to eyeball," as tough-talking Cold
Warriors said at the time, each waiting for the other to blink. Q
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