Unfortunately, the landing site also left the invading force more than 80 miles from refuge in Cuba's Escambray Mountains, if anything went wrong. The site was a remote swampy area on the southern coast of Cuba, where a night landing might bring a force ashore against little resistance and help to hide any U.S. The landing point at the Bay of Pigs was part of the deception. Shortly after his inauguration, in February 1961, President Kennedy authorized the invasion plan. Through Cuban intelligence, Castro learned of the guerilla training camps in Guatemala as early as October 1960, and the press reported widely on events as they unfolded. Cardona was poised to take over the provisional presidency of Cuba if the invasion succeeded.ĭespite efforts of the government to keep the invasion plans covert, it became common knowledge among Cuban exiles in Miami. A former member of Castro's government, he was the head of the Cuban Revolutionary Council, an exile committee. José Miró Cardona led the anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the United States. The CIA set up training camps in Guatemala, and by November the operation had trained a small army for an assault landing and guerilla warfare. President Eisenhower approved the program in March 1960. The ultimate goal was the overthrow of Castro and the establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the United States. The plan anticipated that the Cuban people and elements of the Cuban military would support the invasion. Kennedy was briefed on a plan by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) developed during the Eisenhower administration to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The US government distrusted Castro and was wary of his relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union.īefore his inauguration, John F. In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. On April 17, 1961, 1,400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba.
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