Transcript The Bay of Pigs - IB-History-of-the-Americas

By: Ebony Montgomery
 On April 17, 1961, what is now known of the Bay of Pigs
occurred when Cuban exiles launched 1,400 missiles at
thee south coast of Cuba.
 The program was approved in 1960 by President Eisenhower.
 The Central Intelligence agency (CIA) set up training camps in
Guatemala and by November a small army had been trained in
Guerilla warfare and an assault landing.
 Jose Miro Cardona was the head of Cuban Revolutionary Council
which was an exile committee. He led the anti-Castro Cuban
exile in the United States and if the invasion succeeded he was
poised to take over the provisional Cuban presidency.
 The invasion plans became common knowledge amoung Cuban
exiles in Miami even despite the U.S. plans to keep it a secret.
 Castro knew about the guerilla training camps in Guatemalla as
early As October 1960.
 The invasion plan was authorized shortly after the
inauguration of President Kennedy in February of 1961.
He was determined to keep the United States support
in the affair a secret. Part of his deception was the
choice of the landing site which was in the southern
coast of Cuba, but unfortunately the landing site was
80 miles from refugee if it was needed.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zCc4XSDgpM
 The original plan for the invasion required two air strikes
against Cuban air bases. 1,400 men would disembark at
night launching a surprise attack. Before the invasion
Paratroopers would drop bombs to disrupt Cuban
transportation and repel their forces. At the same time a
smaller force would land on the east coast of Cuba to cause
confusion. Then, the main force would set up defenses
across the island at Matanzas. The United Revolutionary
would then send leaders from south Florida to organize a
provisional government, but the plan would only be
successful if there were enough of the Cuban population to
join in on the invasion.
 April, 15, 1961, eight bombers
left Nicaragua to bomb Cuban
airfields and this is when the
first mishap occurred.
 During the invasion the CIA
used obsolete World War II
B-26 bombers but painted
them to look like Cuban air
force planes. The bombers
missed most of their targets
and left Castro’s air force
intact. Later news
broadcasted about the U.S.
planes being painted, so
President Kennedy cancelled
the second air strike.
 On April 17, 1961, the Cuban exile invasion force also
known as the Brigade 2506 landed on the beaches of
the Bay of Pigs and the were immediately fired upon.
The Cuban planes sank two escort ships, strafed the
invaders, and destroyed half of the invaders air
support. The ground force was hampered by bad
weather and they had to work with soggy equipment
and insufficient ammunition.
24 hours following the invasion Castro
ordered about 20,000 troops to storm the
beaches, and the Cuban air forces still
controlled the skies.
 President Kennedy ordered an “airumbrella” at dawn on April 19. Six
unmarked U.S. fighter planes took off in
hopes to defend the B-26 aircraft flying,
but the B-26s arrived late because they
were most likely confused about the time
changes between Nicaragua and Cuba.
Since they were an hour late they were
shot down by the Cubans and later that
day the invasion was crushed.
 Only some exiles were able to escape to
the sea while others were killed or
imprisoned by Castro’s forces. More than
100 members of the Brigade 2056 were
killed and another almost 1,200 members
surrendered.
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 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-
BUm312bKM&feature=related
While the United States was trying to
negotiate with Fidel Castro, the brigade
prisoners remained in captivity for 20
moths.
 The attorney general Robert F. Kennedy
made personal pleas for contributions
from pharmaceutical companies and
baby food manufacturers, so Castro
eventually settled on $53 million worth of
baby food and medicine in exchange for
the prisoners.
 December 23, 1962, the first planed
landed in the U.S. containing the first
group of freed prisoners just two months
after the Cuba missile crisis. Saturday,
December 29, a week later, surviving
members of the brigade gathered in
Miami's orange bowl where the brigades
flag was handed to President Kennedy.
He said “I can assure you that this flag
will be returned to this brigade in a free
Havana.”
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 The Bay of Pigs disaster had a lasting impact on the
Kennedy administration. The administration initiated
Operation Mongoose to make up for the invasion.
Operation Mongoose was a plan to sabotage and
destabilize the Cuban government and economy. The
plan also included the possibility of assassinating
Castro and almost 50 years later the relationship
between Castro’s Cuba and the United States remains
strained.
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It was proposed by Richard m. Nixon.
It was planned by Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Robert F. Kennedy championed it.
John F. Kennedy approved the plan.
The Bay of Pigs was carried out by the
Central Intelligence agency.
1,189 invaders were captured and 200 of
them had been soldiers in Batista’s army
and 14 of those were wanted for murder.
A CIA soldier fired the first shot.
A volunteer teacher was the first Cuba
casualty.
4 American pilots and over 100 Cuban
invaders were killed in the battle.
One United States ambassador lied to
the United Nations.
The United States president was
embarrassed in front of the whole world.
 The main reason for the Bay of Pigs was to stop communism
from reaching the U.S. .
 Articles, posters, and even comic books were written to spread
cynicism toward Castro and his government. Another
propaganda movements was dropping over 1 million posters over
Cuba trying to convince people to rise up against Castro.
 One reason for the invasion command being given to the CIA
was to protect our supply of raw materials that were coming in.
The U.S. was afraid that Castro would block the materials and
keep them to himself.
 The United States wanted to protect the other Latin American
countries from being overtaken by the communist bloc. They
also wanted to subdue the idea that communism was better than
democracy.
 The bay of pigs invasion ultimately failed, but that was only
the beginning of the United States problems. Since the U.S.
was unable to stop the spread of communism with Cuba,
they continued to have relations with Russia. All of these
events led up to the Cuban missle crisis, which became one
of the scariest moments during the cold war and one of the
closest moments the world came to nuclear warfare.
Thankfully no one was hurt during this encounter and
Cuba became an isolated socialist island nation. American
has tried many times to eliminate Castro but has not
suceeded and the only option left is to wait for a new
regime and hope it shares the same democratice views.
 The Bay of Pigs has affected America in a way that it is
nearly impossible to imagine the country and
especially south Florida not worrying about Cuba. If
the problem is not the trade embargo then it could be
the problem with families being broken up because of
the defections of the United States. There could be
many important ideas and people coming from the
United States, but because of the Bay of Pigs the U.S. is
confined to waiting for change. This is why this battle
will forever be remembered around the world.