Bay of Pigs Invasion

The failed 1961 landing of CIA trained Cuban exiles

Overview

In April 1961 about 1,400 Cuban exiles of Brigade 2506, trained and equipped by the CIA, landed at the Bay of Pigs on the southern coast of Cuba, hoping to spark an uprising against Fidel Castro. Air strikes failed to destroy the Cuban air force, President Kennedy refused overt American air cover, and the brigade was defeated within three days, with more than a thousand men captured. The fiasco humiliated the new administration, led to the departure of CIA director Allen Dulles, and pushed Castro closer to Moscow, setting the stage for Operation Mongoose and the Cuban Missile Crisis.