Bay of Pigs

We have indeed successfully figured out our invasion plan!!!!

The Cubans original invasion plan was to have two air strikes against the cuban bases, and have 1,400-man invasion forces embark in an under cover surprise attack. They would simultaneously have a smaller force land on the East Coast of Cuba to create confusion, while the main force traveled to Matanzas to set up a defensive position.

We have a plan!

The CIA formed a plan during the Eisenhower Administration. Their plan was to develop a training for Cuban exiles in order for an invasion of their homeland.

CIA agent

JFK

The program was approved in March 1960 by President Eisenhower. Training camps were set up in Guatemala, and by November a small army had been trained. Cardona was then poised to take over the provisional presidency of Cuba if the invasion succeeded. In February 1961, Kennedy authorized the invasion plan. He started to discover the Bay of Pigs was a swampy area, where a night landing might bring a force ashore, as it also left the invading force more than 80 miles from refuge in Cuba's Escambray Mountains.

Let's get training!

On April 15, 1961, eight bombers left Nicaragua to bomb cuban airfields. The CIA used world war ll B-26 bombers, and painted them to look like Cuban air force planes. Many of the bombers targets were missed and left most intact. As the photos became public, Kennedy cancelled the second air strike.



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Brigade 2506, landed at the Bay of Pigs and came under heavy fire. The planes strafed the invaders, sank two ships, and destroyed half of the exile's air support. 24 hours later, the B-26s arrived an hour late, were shot down by the cubans, and the invasion was crushed.

The rest of the exiles that did not escape to sea were killed or imprisoned. The brigade prisoners were in captivity for 20 months. Castro eventually settled on $53 million worth of baby food and medicine in exchange for his prisoners.