Answer:
The Bay of Pigs invasion began when the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) financed and trained a group of Cuban refugees to overthrow the communist government of Fidel Castro.
Explanation:
Fidel Castro had been a concern to U.S. officials as a new leader since he took power in Cuba with a revolution in January 1959. Castro’s attacks on U.S. companies and interests in Cuba, his fiery anti-American speeches, and Cuba’s movement toward a closer relationship with the Soviet Union led the U.S. leaders to presume that the Cuban leader was a threat to U.S. interests. In March 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the CIA to train and arm Cuban refugees for an attack on Cuba The new U.S President John F. Kennedy was given this program when he became president in 1961.
Even though military advisors felt that the attack on Cuba by a group of lightly armed exiles had little chance for success, Kennedy gave the approval. On April 17, 1961, around 1,200 exiles, armed with American weapons and using American ships, came to the shore at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The hope was that the exile force would serve as an inspiration for Cuban citizens to rise-up and overthrow Castro’s government.
The plan immediately fell apart. The landing force met with unexpected counterattacks from Castro’s military, the tiny Cuban air force sank most of the exiles’ supply ships, the United States held back from providing necessary air support, and the expected uprising never happened. Over 100 of the attackers were killed, and more than 1,100 were captured.
The failure at the Bay of Pigs cost the United States greatly. Castro used the attack to deepen his power in Cuba and he requested additional Soviet military aid. Eventually that aid included missiles, and the construction of missile bases in Cuba sparked the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Further, throughout much of Latin America, the United States was mocked for its use of armed force in trying to remove Castro, a man who was considered a hero to many for his stance against U.S. interference. Kennedy tried to redeem himself by publicly accepting blame for the attack and its subsequent failure, but the failed mission left the young president looking weak and indecisive.
