What was the Bay of Pigs?

Answer 1

Bay Of Pigs Invasion

The counterrevolutionary forces, known as Brigade 2506, were assembled at Retalhuleu, on the west coast of Guatemala, where U.S. engineers refurbished the airport especially for the mission. On April 14 six ships sailed from Nicaragua’s Puerto Cabezas, cheered on by Nicaraguan president and U.S.-friendly dictator Luis Somoza, who jokingly urged the soldiers to bring him some hairs from Castro’s beard.

The Cuban government knew an invasion was coming, but could not guess exactly when or where the attack would take place. When teams of U.S. B-26 bombers began attacking four Cuban airfields simultaneously on Saturday, April 15, the Cubans were prepared. The few planes belonging to the Cuban Air Force were dispersed and camouflaged, with some obsolete, unusable planes left out to fool the attackers and draw the bombs.

As part of the CIA cover story, the attacking B-26 planes were disguised to look as if they were Cuban planes flown by defecting Cuban pilots. An exile Cuban pilot named Mario Zúñiga was presented to the media as a defector, and was photographed next to his plane. The photo was published in most of the major papers, but the surprising omission of several serious details, and the overwhelming amount of information already gathered by reporters, helped bring out the truth much sooner than anyone expected.



Prior to the start of the operation, CIA operatives were sent to Cuba. Their job was to aid the invading forces by blowing up key bridges and performing other acts of terrorism that would make it appear that the people of Cuba were joining the invasion. José Basulto was one of those operatives. He flew straight into Havana airport posing as a student from Boston College coming home on vacation.

Shortly after the attack started, Ambassador Adlai Stevenson, at the United Nations, flatly rejected Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Raúl Roa’s report of the attack to the assembly, saying that the planes were from the Cuban Air Force and presenting a copy of the photograph published in the newspapers. In the photo, the plane shown has an opaque nose, whereas the model of the B-26 planes used by the Cubans had a Plexiglas nose. Stevenson was extremely embarrassed a few hours later when the truth was revealed and he learned that Kennedy had referred to him as “my official liar.”

The landing began shortly before midnight on Sunday, April 16, after a team of frogmen went ashore and set up landing lights to guide the operation. The invading force consisted of 1,500 men divided into six battalions, with Manuel Artime as the political chief.

Two battalions came ashore at Playa Girón and one at Playa Larga, but the operation didn’t go as smoothly as expected. The razor-sharp coral reefs, identified by U2 spy photos as seaweed, delayed the landing enough to expose it to air attacks the following morning. Two ships sank about 80 yards from shore, and some heavy equipment was lost.

Cuban militia commander José Ramón González Suco was one of five men stationed in Playa Larga when the invasion began. He was the first to report the invasion.

On Monday, April 17, as the invasion was well under way, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk gave a press conference. “The American people are entitled to know whether we are intervening in Cuba or intend to do so in the future,” he said. “The answer to that question is no. What happens in Cuba is for the Cuban people to decide.”

Basulto was never told when the invasion would take place. He was surprised to hear the attack had started and didn’t have time to get around to blowing up the bridge he’d been assigned. He drove out to Guantánamo and jumped the fence to the U.S. Naval Base.

By 3 a.m. Monday morning Castro knew about the landing, and the Cuban government responded almost immediately, taking a superior position in the air during the early morning hours. Cuban pilot Captain Enrique Carreras Rojas was able to quickly sink the command vessel “Maropa” and the supply ship “Houston.”

Once Ambassador Stevenson became aware of the true facts, he was so outraged at being duped that he publicly urged Washington to stop the attack and avoid further embarrassment. Soviet Ambassador Zorin said, “Cuba is not alone today. Among her most sincere friends the Soviet Union is to be found.”

At 12:15 Kennedy received a letter from Khrushchev, in which the Soviet leader stated: “It is a secret to no one that the armed bands invading this country were trained, equipped and armed in the United States of America. The planes which are bombing Cuban cities belong to the United States of America; the bombs they are dropping are being supplied by the American Government.

“…It is still not late to avoid the irreparable. The government of the USA still has the possibility of not allowing the flame of war ignited by interventions in Cuba to grow into an incomparable conflagration.

“As far as the Soviet Union is concerned, there should be no mistake about our position: We will render the Cuban people and their government all necessary help to repel an armed attack on Cuba.”

The expected supporting air cover by the U.S. Air Force never came. In a political environment full of posturing, threats and confusion, Rusk advised Kennedy to back off, concluding that additional strikes would tilt international opinion too far against the U.S.

“At about 9:30 p.m. on April 16,” describes L. Fletcher Prouty in Bay of Pigs: The Pivotal Operation of the JFK Era, [URL below] “Mr. McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant to the President, telephoned the CIA’s General C.P. Cabell to inform him that the air strikes the following dawn should not be launched until they could be conducted from a strip within the beachhead.”

Answer 2

The Bay of Pigs involved a group of Cuban exiles who tried to invade Cuba with US support in the early 1960's.

Look at the Wikipedia article for the exact dates... I don't want to start the debate about answering with a website but I find that to be lacking, I mean add a little bit of what you think or we could all just search on Wikipedia, you know?

I think Kennedy was the President and we were the laughing stock of the world since the CIA botched the job so badly against a so called "3rd world," a "developing" country.

I heard recently that Cuban Americans are responsible for the Bush Administration still being anti Cuban in foreign policy - it gets the Republicans votes. I also read that the Cubans were so preeminent in Latin America in those years because the USSR invested so much money into the Country. When the money ran out, Cuba's position declined.

Answer 3

The Bay of Pigs was a military blunder the United States made during the Kennedy administration. Kennedy and the CIA trained operatives and Cuban people to invade Cuba through the Bay of Pigs. It failed miserably and served as one of the more embarrasing episodes in American history, and fueled the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Answer 4

The Bay of Pigs (Spanish: Bahía de (los) Cochinos) is a bay on the southern coast of Cuba. It was the site of a failed attempt during John F. Kennedy's presidency at a US-backed invasion by Cuban exiles intent on overthrowing Fidel Castro, at a beach near Havana called Playa Giron in 1961.

It was officially at the time not sanctioned by the US Government, but rather CIA operated.

Answer 5

There were never Russian missles on Cuba. There were launch pads built. Because of the US blockade Cuba had to trade with Russia as they needed oil among other things. So when the US backed the Cubans in the unsuccessful "Bay of Pigs". It brought it to a head. The missiles were enroute to Cuba but when JFK agreed that the US would not back another attempt, Krushev ordered the missiles back to Russia.

Answer 6

The bay pigs was a military invasion of Cuba after the Castro revolution. The plan to invade cuba using ex-patriots of that nation was created during Eisenhower's administration, but implemented during Kennedy's.

Answer 7

When the Cuban government was overthown in 1959, many of its leaders and their army were exiled, they ended up in the US.

The US didn't like the new Cuban government under Fidel Castro because of its communist economy and dealings with the USSR. They (Beginning with Eisenhower and going on to Kennedy) therefore funded and trained many of the exiles from Cuba and planned to have them attack and retake the island.

When the attack was finally launched beginning in the Cuban Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy changed his mind at the last minute and cut off US air support. The attack was a miserable failure and all the rebels were captured or killed.

Answer 8

At the time, Cuba's army possessed Soviet tanks, artillery and small arms, and its air force consisted of B-26 medium bombers, Hawker Sea Furies (a fast and effective, though obsolete, propeller driven fighter-bomber), and T-33 jets left over from the Batista Air Force [1].
Kennedy was concerned about the relations between Russia and Cuba being so friendly, he was also concerned about Nuclear missles reaching the Cuban shore and aimed at America. Our President had to protect America from the Cuban threat. Kennedy backed a coup d’État against Cuba. This attempt failed and with the strained relations after the Cuban Missle Crisis, America placed an embargo on Cuba beginning February 7, 1962.

Answer 9

It was Cubans that invaded Cuba against Castro back in the 60s
It was not successful...and was called the Bay of Pigs...

Answer 10

Short answer: The CIA organized Cuban expatriates in a planned invasion to attempt to overthrow Castro. JFK had promised clandestine US military support, then he backed out at the last minute, dooming the invasion force. This was a very public and damning embarrassment for Kennedy, so he used the space program to draw attention away. NOW GO CRACK A DAMN BOOK!

Answer 11

The Bay is in Cuba, it is the site of the above mentioned failed attack on a communist country by the U.S.

There remain 5 Communist countries in the world, Cuba, China, North Korea, Viet Nam, and Laos.

All of which have defeated the U.S. when being attacked (China was not attacked, but fought to protect Laos)