April marked 50 years since CIA-armed exiles invaded Cuba to oust Fidel Castro. The Bay of Pigs invasion turned out to be a fiasco for the Americans. There are still many questions, especially about the role of the CIA. That secret service recently released its own internal investigation. At least partially. The important 'Part V' is still a secret.
It was one of the most embarrassing moments during the Cold War for the US government and the CIA secret service:the totally failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba. On paper, the plan seemed so nice. A group of Cuban dissidents, secretly trained and armed by the CIA, would invade Cuba. Within a short time, a domestic uprising would break out that would oust the US-hated socialist regime of Fidel Castro. Mission accomplished and US government would deny any involvement.
However, the invasion failed completely. On the day of the invasion, almost everything went wrong. Three days later, the entire army of dissidents was either killed or captured. And the whole world knew the Americans were behind it. It was a big downfall for President John F. Kennedy
Why the operation ended in such a fiasco, and why an invasion that according to many was doomed from the start, continued is still very unclear to this day. Historians are also still in the dark about what went on behind the scenes, in the circles around the troubled President Kennedy.
Recently, the CIA released its own internal investigation. The documents include US naval ships firing at their own planes, which were painted in Cuban colors to mask involvement. The CIA is willing to admit that a lot of blunders have been made. It is still unclear after fifty years why the invasion plan went ahead despite warnings. Four parts of the investigation have now been released. Part 5 is still a secret.
Eisenhower and the CIA
The Bay of Pigs Invasion has a long history that begins with Kennedy's predecessor, President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower had his reasons for wanting to get rid of Fidel Castro. After years of guerrilla warfare, Castro and his fighters had ousted right-wing Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Batista had ruled Cuba with an iron fist for years and danced to the tune of Washington in exemplary fashion. For years he opened up Cuba as a tax haven for American multinationals, while he severely impoverished his own population.
The Eisenhower administration did not like to see the Batista regime go. Still, it decided to recognize Fidel Castro's new Cuban government almost immediately. At the time, Castro still called himself "neither a socialist nor a capitalist." Eisenhower hoped to steer Castro in a pro-American direction.
But the CIA intelligence knew better. Notably, Jake Engler, CIA officer in Venezuela, had met many of Castro's guerrillas in the 1950s and knew that they harbored strong Communist sympathies. Shortly after the seizure of power in January 1959, some of these figures were given key posts in the Cuban government.
Soon, the CIA began working on a plan to secretly invade Cuba and oust the new left-wing government. The operation carried out by the secret service in Guatemala in 1954 served as a model for this. Then a small group of CIA-trained exiles managed to overthrow the democratically elected government of Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán within a week.
That should also be possible in Cuba, Engler thought. Eisenhower was quickly won over by the CIA's plan to oust Castro. On March 17, 1960, Eisenhouwer officially approved the plan and released a budget of $18 million for it. The CIA began recruiting individuals from among Cuban exiles in Miami to do the job. Some 1,400 men were selected and received secret training in Guatemala. They would invade Cuba, mobilize existing domestic resistance and make short work of the Castro regime. A new government – which the CIA had also put together – would then bring the country back into line.
However, Eisenhower's presidency did not last long enough for the plan to be implemented. In January 1961, John F. Kennedy took over the White House. Kennedy had an interest in making it clear as early in his presidency as possible that he did not like a communist island off the American coast. Moreover, he had accused Eisenhower of weakness towards Cuba several times during the election campaign.
Deny involvement
Kennedy thus continued with the plan approved by his predecessor. He did want some changes. Under the original plan, some 1,000 heavily armed Cuban fighters supported by American bombers would land near Trinidad, 270 kilometers south of the capital Havana. Kennedy thought that was too risky.
In order to deny any American involvement, Kennedy wanted to land a smaller and more lightly armed group of Cubans. In addition, the US military would not provide air support and the operation would take place at night. The troops would not land near Trinidad but in the remote Bay of Pigs, better known in Cuba as 'Playa Giron'.
The only air support would come from a pair of CIA bombers, painted in the colors of the Cuban Air Force. For example, it seemed as if refugee Cubans were going to war with their own planes.
However, on April 17, 1961, the day of the invasion, everything that could go wrong went wrong. Through their vast network of infiltrators within the Cuban community in Miami, Castro knew long in advance that an invasion was imminent. The army patrolled all along the coast. When seeing the first landing craft in the Bay of Pigs, Havana was immediately warned. The surprise effect was soon gone.
Castro's army gathered an enormous military force. Moreover, nothing came of the expected massive domestic popular uprising. In a desperate attempt to protect the dissidents and CIA bombers under heavy fire, Kennedy eventually dispatched six American fighter jets. They came much too late and could do little more, but the American involvement was immediately clear to the whole world.
Secret Archives
The CIA has always tried to clear its own lane. The agency would have always warned that the way Kennedy wanted to frame the invasion, the chances of success were minimal. According to the service, the president would have liked to continue in this form, in order to set a strong example early in his presidency.
However, the newly released documents show that the CIA never showed the risk assessments to the president. It also appears that the service never believed that the campaign could be a success without the massive deployment of the army.
Kennedy himself, his closest advisers, and years later his biographer, have always maintained that the President was pressured by the Secret Service to continue the invasion no matter what. After all, preparations had already been made and everyone had an interest in Fidel Castro disappearing as soon as possible.
The interesting question for historians, then, is who actually held power in Washington:the young, inexperienced President Kennedy or the shadowy, warped organization of the CIA. The definitive answer may be in part 5 of the internal CIA investigation. But the question is whether that will ever see the light of day again.