THE Bay of Pigs invasion it was one of the events of the Cuban Revolution that intensified hostilities between the US and the new Caribbean island government. The invasion of the Cuban island by troops commanded by the US government was an attempt to destabilize the regime recently installed by Fidel Castro, trying to guarantee the financial interests of the Americans in the Island.
In January 1959, Cuban revolutionaries put an end to the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, a government that was supported by the USA, initiating a regime of a nationalist and anti-imperialist character. This political and economic orientation resulted in US land grabs on the island and diplomatic animosity between the two countries. Fidel Castro's government had expropriated land and companies from US investors in order to guide the use of these means of production in a way that would benefit the interests of the new state and the Cuban population. In the political sphere, the Cuban rebels were trying to get closer to the USSR.
Faced with these situations, US President John F. Kennedy, adopted a regime destabilization plan created by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) under his predecessor Dwight David Eisenhower. The plan consisted of an invasion of the island by mercenary troops as well as Cuban dissidents who had emigrated to Miami after Batista's fall.
However, the attempt was unsuccessful. An initial attack attempt took place on April 15, 1961, with two planes camouflaged in the colors of the Cuban flag, bombing Fidel's air force. This attack was unsuccessful, as one plane was shot down and a second returned to Miami with several shots fired by the Cuban defense forces.
The second action took place on April 17, 1961, with the invasion of two beaches in the Baía dos Porcos, Playa Larga and Girón. Special troops formed by the US government, trained since the last months of the Eisenhower government and made up of more than a thousand fighters, they were contained by Cuban troops in less than 72 hours of combat. About 20,000 Cubans surrounded the invaders, after some losses, inflicting a major setback on President Kennedy, who had authorized the attack.
The event created the conditions for the definitive rapprochement between Cuba and the USSR, which would last for thirty years. Cubans began to adopt the Soviet model of socioeconomic organization, based on state ownership of the means of production and political domination by the Cuban Communist Party. The relationship between the US and Cuba would deteriorate further the following year, when the Soviets sent to the island some missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, in the event known as the Crisis of Missiles. In the midst of this situation, Cuba was expelled from the Organization of American States (OAS). US government initiated an economic embargo on the island, in force until the beginning of the second decade of the century XXI.
* Image Credit: Boris15 and Shutterstock.com
By Tales Pinto
Graduated in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/ofensiva-dos-eua-na-invasao-baia-dos-porcos.htm