The Bay of Pigs invasion (or "Operation Pluto") was an attempt by American-backed Cuban exiles to overthrow the Communist government of Fidel Castro. The idea for the invasion had actually been Richard Nixon's (spring 1959), but President Eisenhower and the CIA took it from there, forming it into a plan, titled "A Program of Covert Action Against the Castro Regime". It took place before the official breakdown of Cuban/American relations. Signs of deterioration in the relations had been evident earlier as well. When John Kennedy succeeded Eisenhower as the president, he approved and made some changes to the plan.
The invasion was carried out by trained Cuban exiles (approximately 1300) with American weapons landed in the Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos). It was hoped that the exiles would find support of the local population as they went to Havana. It started on April 17, 1961, at 2:00 in the morning.
The area around the Bay of Pigs is swampy and marshy, so it was obvious that the troops would have difficulty. Castro's military forces were quick to react, and soon his T-33 trainer jets, two Sea Furies, and two B-26s were sent out to halt the invaders. After the first hours of fighting, it was clear that the American-backed exiles would not overthrow Castro.
Although Kennedy had the choice of involving the U.S. Air Force, he chose not.
The exiles were stopped by Castro's army, and by April 19, two days after the beginning of the operation, ninety had been killed.
President Kennedy was very embarrassed by the failure of the operation, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev took the failure as a sign of weakness in the new president. Castro, on the other hand, was wary, sure that the Americans would make another attack against his government.
The Kennedy administration and the CIA were blamed for the failure. The plan probably failed because of mismanagement, overconfidence, perhaps lack of security and poor execution. Kennedy was also subject to criticism because he did not bring in the air force for support.
The Bay of Pigs invasion was intended to resemble the CIA invasion of Guatemala in 1954, in which the result was an American-friendly government, but with little change to mass poverty in the country.
The consequences of the failure of "Operation Pluto", of course, lead into the Cuban Missile Crisis.
