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Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961)
The Bay of Pigs invasion was a military attack on Cuba organised by the United States by Cuban exiles. It was carried out from Guatemala on 17 April 1961 with covert support from the CIA by around 1300 volunteers who had fled Cuba since 1959, and aimed to overthrow the revolutionary government under Fidel Castro. The invasion marked a first culmination of US actions directed against the Castro government. After the US government had initially denied any involvement in the invasion before the United Nations General Assembly, President John F. Kennedy assumed full responsibility four days later. In preparation for the invasion, on 15 April 1961, US Air Force B-26 aircraft bombed three Cuban airfields. The bombers had been marked with Cuban national emblems and were intended to give the appearance of a counter-revolution. Five of the US bombers were shot down by Cuban aircraft. The air campaign immediately became a subject of discussion at the United Nations General Assembly, where US Ambassador Adlai Stevenson struggled to argue the US government's line. The failed invasion was not only a military but above all a political debacle for the United States. In addition to sharp criticism at home and abroad and lost confidence in the government under Kennedy, which was only 90 days old, it strengthened Castro, who now openly advocated the communist orientation of the Cuban revolution, which had already begun in 1959. Fears of a second invasion attempt accelerated Cuba's further rapprochement with the Soviet Union until the escalation in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. (wp)