Bay of Pigs invasion – American foreign policy fiasco

THE attempted invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs is often listed as one of the failures of John F Kennedy’s presidency. However, the entire episode was fully arranged long before his election.

Cuba was a major issue during that presidential campaign with both Kennedy and Nixon taking a very hard line on how Castro should be dealt with.

Richard Nixon, as vice-president, was briefed on the plans but reports suggest that he insisted Kennedy should not be informed. Kennedy was fully briefed on the plan on January 28, 1961, eight days after his inauguration.

America had supported the cause of Cuban Independence and the first President of Cuba, Tomas Palma, was an American citizen. In 1952, General Fungencio Batista seized power and cancelled any elections. For a number of years, he was strongly supported by America but on December 31, 1958, he was ousted by Castro’s revolutionaries.

Castro fought off all his opponents who were backed by Cuban exiles in America and supposedly the CIA. He nationalised all American assets on the island and developed strong ties with the Soviet Union. Move and counter-move eventually led to America declaring a total embargo on trade with Cuba, a situation which persists to this day.

President Eisenhower was alarmed by what was happening and decided on moves to remedy the situation. In March 1960, he is said to have allocated a fund of $13 million to the CIA to be used to plan for the overthrow of Castro. They had strong backing from Cuban exiles and American interests, which had lost their businesses in Cuba. This last group might have included a strong Mafia presence.

The CIA began recruiting among Cuban exiles and they were trained in Guatemala, Panama and Mexico. The United States Government refused to allow training to take place on US soil. The training also included the use of tanks and they were provided with old American planes, with their origins disguised.

On April 13, the invasion force of about 1,500 sailed from Guatemala for Cuba. On April 15, eight bombers attacked Cuban airfields before returning to Florida.

America denied any knowledge of the bombing and said the planes were flown to Florida by Cuban pilots, who were defecting to the US. Cuba were well prepared and on April 13, Radio Moscow announced that an invasion, planned by the CIA, would take place within days.

British intelligence also warned the CIA that they would not get the widespread backing of the Cuban population, which they were banking on. In spite of that warning, they went ahead with what turned out to be the worst American foreign embarrassment for decades.

The landing area chosen was surrounded by swamp. The Cubans knew they were coming and the only way inland was along two heavily defended roads. The invaders were badly outnumbered and, with no local support, the fighting only lasted three days.

Most of the invasion force were captured, interrogated and sent back to the US. It greatly strengthened links between Cuba and Russia and was one of the factors leading to the missile crisis 18 months later.

That American foreign policy fiasco, the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, took place on the night of April 16, 1961 – 52 years ago this week.