What happened during the Bay of Pigs invasion?

The Bay of Pigs invasion was an abortive 1961 military operation aimed at overthrowing the government of Fidel Castro. Following the deterioration of U.S.-Cuba relations after the 1959 revolution, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) trained and financed a force of approximately 1,500 Cuban exiles to invade the island.21

The operation began on April 15, 1961, with air strikes on Cuban bases, followed by a landing on the south-central coast at the Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos) on April 17. The invasion force was significantly weaker than Castro’s military, and by April 19, the mission had collapsed. More than 1,100 invaders were captured and later released following negotiations for $53 million in food and medicine.21

The failure of the invasion, which critics attributed to faulty intelligence and poor planning, was a pivotal event that influenced the Cuban missile crisis the following year.1