On April 15, 1961, Cuba was bombed by what was initially thought to be deflecting Cuban air force pilots. The world was to think that Cubans were bombing their own country in rebellion, but many questions arose. One of the popular questions was how the U.S. council knew that the Cuban pilots were coming if these pilots had decided to leave Cuba after an unsuspecting betrayal by a Cuban pilot. In truth, the plan used 1,400 Cuban exiles, called the Cuban Brigade. The U.S. military in Guatemala trained these exiles.
There were three main problems that led to trouble with future relations between the US and Cuba. First, the CIA should not have been handling the situation. Second, the CIA was providing their own intelligence of the situation without consulting other intelligence organizations. Third, the operation had security problems. Information was incorrect and it leaked out.
On April 17, 1961, the mismanaged plan took
place at two o’clock a.m. The invading forces included 1500 men. Bay of
Pigs began as invading U.S. frogmen swam ashore a swampy area of Cuba that
was called the Bay of Pigs. The frogmen were assigned to set up lights
and clear the landing location for U.S. military airforces. The marshy
area significantly slowed down American troops. On the other hand, Cuban
troops were quick to react to the invasion with their T-33 trainer jets
B-26’s and ships. The attack lasted seventy-two hours and Castro
came out victorious. There were 114 U.S. causalities (36 of these died
in Cuban prison cells).
