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Nuclear War: The Bay Of Pigs Invasion

900 Words4 Pages

The CIA would have never expected that a small, secret invasion would cause the United States to come close to nuclear war. The Bay of Pigs Invasion was this unexpected phenomenon, and it was a leading cause of the Cuban Missile Crisis. On April 17, 1961, 1,400 American-trained Cuban exiles began to invade an isolated spot on Cuba’s southern shore known as the Bay of Pigs. These Cuban exiles were battling the new revolutionary regime of Fidel Castro. Once the exiles landed on the beach, the invasion was already a disaster. The exiles were met with bullets and grenades from 20,000 of Castro’s troops, who were much better armed than the Cuban exiles. Many Cuban air force planes were patrolling the skies around the Bay of Pigs. These planes …show more content…

The CIA thought that if they could remove Castro from power, they would show the Soviet Union, China, and many skeptical Americans that the United States was winning the Cold War. President Eisenhower approved the CIA’s campaign to train a guerilla army of Cuban exiles, and President Kennedy inherited this plan. But, he had some lingering doubts. Kennedy was worried that the Soviets would see the invasion as an act of war, and they would retaliate, but the CIA reassured Kennedy that the Bay of Pigs Invasion would be a secret and the invasion would spark an anti-Castro uprising in Cuba. However, the Bay of Pigs Invasion was a massive failure, and the attack convinced Cuba to seek help from the Soviet …show more content…

Operation Mongoose aimed to spark a rebellion in Cuba that the United States could support. The CIA had many stations around Cuba, but the main station and headquarters for Operation Mongoose was in Miami. In Miami, the CIA would come up with ways to grow the rebellion to overthrow Castro. They would also come up with many plots to assassinate Fidel Castro and other high-ranking officials in Cuba. One of these assassination plots involved poison pills that the CIA gave to an undercover exile who was close to Castro. This assassination attempt failed because the exile got caught trying to slip the pill into one of Castro’s drinks. All of the CIA’s attempts to assassinate Castro failed.

After both the Bay of Pigs Invasion and Operation Mongoose had failed, the U.S. had no choice but to launch a trade embargo against Cuba. The CIA also planned to launch guerrilla operations to overthrow the Cuban Government beginning in August and

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