Bay of Pigs
Cuba in 1960
On 4th March 1960 the French ship La Coubre, loaded with weapons from Belgium, exploded in Havana harbour as it was being unloaded. Castro blamed the CIA and used the occasion to generate anti-American sentiment in Cuba with the slogan ‘patria o muerte!’ (‘fatherland or death’).
Whether the CIA were involved or not, President Eisenhower sanctioned the development of covert operations to bring down the Castro government two weeks later. The US and Cuba were heading towards inevitable conflict. |
In May, Castro announced that there would be no elections as the Cuban people had already spoken. His popularity was such that he would have probably been re-elected at this point anyway.
In July, Eisenhower cancelled the importation of Cuban sugar (they had previously purchased 40 – 60% of their sugar from Cuba), in order to survive economically from this blow, Castro turned to the Soviet Union, who agreed to buy it. Cuba next nationalise all US businesses, cutting the US out.
The Eisenhower administration set aside $13 million to train 400 – 500 Cuban exiles in Guatemala in guerilla warfare. By November 1960, more than 1000 Cuban exiles were being trained in Guatemala. |
Rightly fearing the US were planning an intervention, Castro created the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (CDRs). These were essentially local groups that mobilised the population in sport of the government, but also reported anti-government activities. It strengthened its ties to communism, with the end of Cuban capitalism achieved by the end of 1960. The Cuban economy grew by 10% in the first two years, bringing money for new roads and housing, and optimism for the new Cuba. In the US, Kennedy had come to power in 1961 determined to prove that communism was still a target, focusing on Cuba.
The Invasion
On 14 April 1961 the Cuban exiles who had been training in Guatemala boarded ships in Nicaragua and sailed for Cuba. B-52 bombers from Nicaragua attacked key airfields in Cuba, the damage was not significant, but it prompted Castro to move against his opponents, rounding up all those he saw as opponents of the revolution, including all Bishops, many journalists, most of the urban underground resistance, 2,500 CIA agents and 20,000 suspected sympathisers and imprisoning them. The Cuban public was mobilised under the slogan ‘patria o muerte, venceremos!’ (‘fatherland or death, we will conquer’)
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Castro received news of the Bay of Pigs invasion, at 3:15 am April 17. The invasion point was poorly chosen, considering that this was an area that had developed a higher standard of living as a result of the revolution, and therefore was unlikely to join the invasion. Cuban forces reacted quickly, with two T-33 jet trainers and a B-52 bomber attacking the landing forces, sinking two ships and chasing away supply ships.
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Krushchev stepped in to threaten Kennedy: ‘The government of the United States can still prevent the flames of war from spreading into a conflagration which it will be impossible to cope … any so called ‘small war’ can produce a chain reaction in all parts of the world.’ Kennedy hesitated to order air strikes to support the invasion, leaving Castro to capture 1,180 of 1,297 of those who had landed.
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It was a great victory for Cuba, not only had Castro’s predicted invasion occurred, but the Cubans had been victorious. Castro’s resulting popularity allowed him to begin pushing more of his ideas, finally declaring the socialist nature of the revolution as a means of creating closer ties to the Soviet Union.