The fiasco at Cuba's Bay of Pigs
This article is an adaptation of our weekly History newsletter that was originally sent out on April 19, 2021. Want this in your inbox? Sign up here.
By Debra Adams Simmons, HISTORY Executive Editor
Just off Florida’s west coast near Fort Myers lies Useppa Island, now an exclusive seaside retreat for the wealthy. Sixty years ago, it was a very different place. In 1961 a small contingent of Cuban exiles, under the direction of the CIA, began training on the island for the military debacle that would become known as the Bay of Pigs invasion.
“A wealthy Cuban businessman leased the whole island on behalf of the CIA,” Rona Stage, curator of a small museum on the island, told writer Bill Newcott, who visited Useppa while reporting a story marking the 60th anniversary of the invasion.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro had aligned himself with the Soviet Union, America’s Cold War nemesis. President Dwight D. Eisenhower worried that the Soviets would gain a foothold in the Americas, so in March 1960 he approved a top-secret plan to enlist Cuban exiles to invade the island and overthrow Castro’s regime. (Pictured above, militia members in Havana in a show of force against an expected U.S. invasion.)
Eight months later, John F. Kennedy (pictured below) won the presidency. JFK agreed that the invasion should go forward but insisted on disguising U.S. involvement as much as possible.
On April 17, 1961, nearly 1,500 men stormed ashore in southern Cuba hoping to reclaim their homeland from communist rule. The exiles called themselves Brigade 2506. At the last minute, bowing to political pressure, Kennedy canceled air strikes meant to wipe out Castro’s air force. That decision doomed the entire operation. The vastly outnumbered brigade held off Castro’s soldiers and tanks for two days.
Eduardo Zayas-Bazan was a frogman who’d come ashore ahead of the invasion. He recalls the moment he realized the battle was lost. “It was the second night. I was sitting on the beach with another frogman. He turned to me and he said, ‘Eddie, the Americans have abandoned us. We’re going to die here.’”
The brigade lost 118 men. They killed more than 2,000 of Castro’s defenders, their countrymen. Demoralized and defeated, brigade survivors were rounded up and trucked to prison, where most would remain for the next 20 months. Finally, on December 24, 1962, the exiles were put on planes to Miami in return for a ransom of $53 million in baby food and medicine.
At the Bay of Pigs Museum and Library in Miami’s Little Havana (pictured above), Newcott met with Johnny Lopez, president of the Brigade 2506 Veterans Association. “We wanted only one thing—to create a free Cuba,” Lopez said. “I think the young people today need to be proud of what these guys did in 1961—guys from 15 to nearly 60. We loved our country.”
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LAST GLIMPSE
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This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard and Monica Williams, and Jen Tse has selected the photos. Have an idea or a link? We'd love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. Thanks for reading, and happy trails.
