On this day in 1961, the CIA sponsored an invasion of Cuba at #BayOfPigs. The invasion kicked off the US’s 6 decade-long effort at regime change against Castro’s Socialist government. The botched invasion killed thousands of Cuban citizen militia members & civilians.
The CIA recruited right-wing Cubans in Miami for their operation & ran their training in Guatemala, where the US had conducted a coup 7 years prior. The CIA—which allotted $46 million for the operation—transported people, supplies, and arms from Florida.
The operation started with CIA trained pilots bombing airstrips in Cuba, then 2 days later the invasion began, but like many CIA operations, it was badly organized & poorly planned.
The Cuban army & civilian militias quickly began pushing the invasion back & they sank enemy ships, leaving them low on supplies. As the invasion failed, CIA forces resorted to bombing Cuban troops & civilians with napalm. They even bombed buses loaded w/ civilians.
On April 18, President Kennedy received a telegram from Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow, stating the Russians would not allow US forces to enter Cuba, and implied swift nuclear retribution to the United States heartland if their warnings were not heeded.
The invading forces were forced to surrender & 1,100 were taken prisoner. The failed invasion helped to strengthen Castro's leadership & made him a national hero. It also strengthened Cuba's relations with the Soviet Union.
In August 1961, Che Guevara thanked President Kennedy for the Bay of Pigs invasion saying it had been a great political victory for Cuba & transformed the country into an equal of the United States.
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