Bay of Pigs invasion
| date | April 17, 1961 to April 19, 1961 |
|---|---|
| place | Bay of Pigs , South Cuba |
| Exit | Victory of Cuba |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
|
|
| Troop strength | |
| approx. 25,000 soldiers approx. 200,000 militia members approx. 9,000 armed police officers |
1,300 Cubans in exile, 2 CIA agents |
| losses | |
|
176 dead |
118 dead |
The Bay of Pigs invasion was a United States- organized military attack by Cuban exiles on Cuba . It was carried out from Guatemala on April 17, 1961 with covert support from the CIA by around 1,300 volunteers who had fled Cuba since 1959 and aimed at the overthrow of the revolutionary government under Fidel Castro . The invasion marked the first climax of US actions against the Castro government. After the US government had denied any involvement in the invasion before the General Assembly of the United Nations , President John F. Kennedy took full responsibility four days later.
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 a loss of confidence in the only 90-day-old government under Kennedy, it strengthened Castro, who now openly represented the communist orientation of the Cuban revolution that had already been initiated in 1959 . Fears of a second attempt at invasion accelerated Cuba's further rapprochement with the Soviet Union until it escalated in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
background
The deterioration in US-Cuba relations
Cuba's politics and economy were heavily influenced by the United States until the Cuban Revolution . The mafia also had a profitable base in Havana. After the fall of Fulgencio Batista , the US government assumed that the revolutionary movement in Cuba was one of the numerous attempts in Latin America to use social demagogy to bring new ruling elites to power ( caudillismo ).
US economic intervention in Cuba
The first far-reaching measure was to block oil supplies to Cuba. Since all of Cuba's electricity generation was based on oil combustion, this could have led to the failure of the revolution. The Cuban revolutionary government eventually won the USSR as a new oil supplier . Now the United States has ordered the US oil refineries in Cuba not to process Soviet oil. These refineries owed their monopoly position to a contract that also obliged them to process crude oil regardless of its origin. The Cuban government was forced in view of the breach of the operating companies, the refineries under state receivership to ask.
The military option
In the atmosphere of the Cold War, however, a gunboat policy as it was before the First World War was no longer possible, as interference in the internal affairs of Cuba was inadmissible under the Rio Treaty of 1947 and the Charter of the Organization of American States and incalculable geopolitical reactions, especially in the Third world could have triggered.
The US government under Dwight D. Eisenhower had the CIA prepare a coup based on the models of Operation Ajax of 1953 in Iran and Operation PBSUCCESS of 1954 in Guatemala. In the event of a call for help from the Cuban government in exile flown in from Florida, Vice President Richard Nixon could have distinguished himself as a presidential candidate through a military strike. However, the preparations for the operation, apparently only carried out by Cubans in exile, could no longer be completed before the presidential election in 1960 , which Nixon, who was running as Eisenhower's successor, narrowly lost.
Kennedy was informed of the impending action after his inauguration on January 20, 1961. On February 17, he asked his advisors whether "the fall of Castro could be linked to arms deliveries": "Couldn't it be said that the real targets are modern jet bombers and missiles that threaten America's security?" However, the plan was unsuccessful for the situation in 1961 when Cuba had few Soviet weapons at the time. The Cuban air force initially consisted of some of the Batista period remaining bombers type Douglas B-26C Invader , fighter-bombers of the type Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 and beam restrainers type Lockheed T-33 A, which were later replaced by Soviet types.
The only politically internationally justifiable option was to unleash a popular uprising and have the Cuban opposition ask the United States for support from Cuban territory. This would have paved the way for the US military to land in Cuba.
preparation
In January 1960, the CIA set up its own department, the Western Hemisphere Branch 4 (WH / 4) under Jacob Donald Esterline . Despite its rapid growth - in April 1961 it already had 588 employees - it quickly encountered difficulties that were caused by disputes over competence, rivalries between different locations and, last but not least, the determination of the Eisenhower government. Wanting to reinstate the regime. Therefore, preference was given to recruiting Auténticos of the former President Carlos Prío as well as opponents of the Batista regime who were dissatisfied with Castro's revolutionary government . As a political grouping behind the landing company, the Frente Revolucionario Democrático (Revolutionary Democratic Front, FRD) was formed in October 1960 , a coalition of four, later five different groups of Cuban exiles , which was originally based in Mexico . Its military arm, the 2506 brigade, consisted of 1,143 men. Although they were mainly recruited in Miami to ensure secrecy, their training took place outside the United States, for example in Panama , Puerto Rico , Nicaragua and especially in Guatemala.
The fighters were first trained in sabotage techniques in Retalhuleu , Guatemala . 40 of them were secretly shipped to Cuba, where they were supposed to set up resistance cells. As early as 48 hours after the start of operation 40 , the agents no longer gave any signs of life.
Also due to the fragmentation of the opposition parties recognized the CIA that a revolution was virtually eliminated from the inside, and eventually trained hundreds of Cuban exiles who later as Brigade 2506 was known for a large-scale invasion with US support, code-named Operation Zapata wore .
The task of the Cuban counterrevolutionaries in exile, which included many agents of the former secret service of ex-dictator Batista and the sons of large landowners, was to start a guerrilla war and thus unleash an uprising in the inner-Cuban opposition; Initially, the landing operation was coordinated with other CIA plans to poison Castro with the help of the Mafia . This failed, as did the preparations for the uprising, as the Castro regime brutally crushed the opposition in the first months of 1961 and imprisoned thousands in camps. The newly elected American President Kennedy tried to make his administration's involvement as unobtrusive as possible, but the CIA's Deputy Director of Plans, Richard M. Bissell , convinced him with the argument that the training camp in Guatemala should be liquidated would wreak havoc on all anti-communist movements across Latin America. In March 1961, he agreed to the invasion provided that the commanders of the landing brigade were informed that US troops would not intervene: they would have to conquer significant territory on the island themselves before Washington could diplomatically recognize a new Cuban government . The commanders agreed. In order to broaden the basis of the hoped-for uprising, the FRD was reorganized a few weeks before the attack date and was now called Concilio Revolucionario Cubano (Cuban Revolutionary Council, CRC). However, they were not given real authority over the invasion troops and were often treated condescendingly by their American instructors. This and Kennedy's public statement of April 12, 1961 that "under no circumstances would US forces intervene in Cuba" and that the US government "will do everything [...] to ensure that no Americans are involved in any action within." of Cuba are involved ”, outraged the leadership of the CRC.
execution
planning
The Bay of Pigs seemed like an ideal place for this venture:
- It is located on the coast of the Ciénaga de Zapata marshland , which provided natural protection from military actions by the Cuban Revolutionary Army.
- It lies on the edge of the Escambray Mountains, from which counter-revolutionaries carried out military actions against the Cuban government until the mid-1960s.
- It was sparsely populated, so local resistance was not expected.
The plan worked out by the CIA was based on intelligence reports that came from interested parties, the opponents of the revolution in Cuba, who all directed their hopes towards US military intervention and therefore, against their better judgment, reported broad anti-revolutionary sentiment in Cuba. The fighting strength of the opponents of the revolution operating in Escambray was also exaggerated.
On April 14, Kennedy finally agreed to the implementation of the CIA plan, but as the commander in chief for the war effort, he reserved the decision on whether the ready naval units would be deployed.
procedure
In preparation for the invasion bombed on April 15, 1961 B-26 aircraft of the US Air Force three Cuban airfields. The bombers had been given Cuban emblems and were intended to give the appearance of a counter-revolution. Five of the US bombers were shot down by Cuban planes. The aerial combat immediately became the subject of discussion in the United Nations General Assembly , where US Ambassador Adlai Stevenson struggled to defend the US government's line. Foreign Minister Dean Rusk then stopped a second air strike, but Esterline considered it to be essential for the invasion to succeed. The CIA leadership tried unsuccessfully to contact President Kennedy, who had already gone to Glen Ora for the weekend, and decided to proceed with the invasion anyway.
On April 17, coming from their training camps in Guatemala, about 1,300 exiles of Brigade 2506 landed in the Bay of Pigs under the command of two CIA officers and with logistical support from the US Navy . Although the Cubans were taken by surprise by the attack, they managed to sink the attackers' two ammunition ships from the air, as their air superiority was kept intact by their Lockheed T-33 , Hawker Sea Fury and B-26. On April 18 and 19, the attackers received air support from B-26 aircraft. Napalm was also used. Two B-26s were shot down by Cuban aircraft. The crews of the downed machines were identified as U.S. citizens and Air National Guard pilots . After three days, the invading forces were wiped out by the vastly outnumbered Cuban army.
A letter to Khrushchev dated April 18, in which Kennedy assured: "I have previously stated, and I repeat now, that the United States intends no military intervention in Cuba."
responsible
CIA employee E. Howard Hunt led the Cubans in exile under the code name Eduardo during the invasion. Before this invasion, Hunt had proposed that Fidel Castro be killed. He later became known as a mastermind in the Watergate affair after his end of his work in the CIA .
fail
The invasion failed because the Cubans in exile were unable to hold the runway intended for the landing long enough for the “government in exile” to fly in from Miami and broadcast their “call for help” by radio. Thus the politically indispensable prerequisite for the intervention of the ready US naval units was not given for Kennedy. The operation was abandoned on Kennedy's orders against resistance from the CIA.
The main reasons for the military defeat of the Cubans in exile were:
- The plan of the invasion could not be kept secret, as many participants in the "intimate circles" of Miami venues boasted of their intended participation.
- Due to the constant acts of sabotage and aircraft from the USA penetrating the Cuban airspace, the Cuban revolutionary government was made aware of the existing danger of invasion.
- The population of the Ciénaga de Zapata consisted for the most part of the poorest population group in Cuba, the charcoal burners . They were among the first to benefit from the revolution through the building of schools, the provision of medical care and the connection to the country's infrastructure . So they were highly motivated to be the first to oppose the landed troops by force of arms. This gave the revolutionary forces the necessary reaction time to restructure their tactical and strategic reserves.
- The Cuban Revolutionary Army had just been through a three-year guerrilla war and consisted of highly motivated and well-trained fighters.
- The planned US air support was cut by President Kennedy with the result that only half the Cuban air force could be devastated. The operational Cuban aircraft were able to destroy five US bombers and two ammunition ships.
The United General Staff under General Lemnitzer foresaw the reasons for the military failure in a secret analysis: “In view of the rapid build-up of the Castro government's military and the clout of its militias, and in view of the lack of mass opposition in the foreseeable future, the possible success of the paramilitary plan very doubtful. ”Nevertheless, two days later, Lemnitzer presented Defense Secretary Robert McNamara with a positive analysis with a“ great chance ”. The non-fiction author James Bamford suspects that the foreseeable debacle was intended to politically damage the CIA, which is run by civilians and therefore suspect the leading military, as well as Kennedy, who is also unpopular with the military. In his notes, CIA Director Dulles regretted not having informed Kennedy of his own skepticism and had assumed US military intervention should the mercenaries fail.
consequences
Prisoners
Cuba reported over 1000 prisoners, around 90 attackers are said to have died. The prisoners were tried at a public hearing. At Christmas 1962, after long negotiations with the Cuban government, lawyer James B. Donovan, hired by relatives of the prisoners , managed to allow 1,113 prisoners to emigrate to the USA. Through several fundraising campaigns, including the Kennedy Administration's “Tractors for Peace” committee, Castro's ransom demand of around $ 53 million was met through the delivery of medicines and food.
14 participants in the invasion were separated from the other comrades and charged in separate proceedings for crimes committed before the invasion. Five of them were executed shortly afterwards and the remaining nine were sentenced to 30 years in prison. Two of them died in prison and the last two were released in 1986.
Political reactions
At the request of Cuba, the General Assembly of the United Nations dealt with the invasion and, in a declaration on April 21, 1961, reminded all states of their obligation to resolve interstate conflicts by peaceful means. According to Cuban allegations, the US ambassador denied any responsibility for the attack.
A wave of sympathy for Cuba, primarily from Latin American countries, followed. Around 15,000 people demonstrated in Mexico on April 21, and 8,000 in Montevideo . With the Bay of Pigs invasion, the US government's crackdown on unpleasant governments in Latin America was the first time that revolutionary movements were not deterred, as planned, but encouraged.
A discussion also arose on the role of intelligence agencies in US foreign policy . The responsibilities in the Cold War subsequently increasingly shifted to the Ministry of Defense . Its Inspector General Layman Kirkpatrick exercised extensive criticism of the CIA in 1961 in his internal investigation of, among other things, its self-image, its organizational structure and the concrete implementation of the company. As a result, the CIA director Allen Welsh Dulles , the deputy director Charles P. Cabell and the deputy planning director Bissell were fired.
President Kennedy distanced himself from all secret operations and organizations in a public address on April 27, 1961 before the American Newspaper Publishers Association . The freedom of the press is a great good and should not be restricted. At the same time, however, he reaffirmed his anti-communist attitude and described the international communism controlled by Moscow as a "monolithic and merciless conspiracy , which primarily increases its sphere of influence through covert actions". She was responsible for the Cold War and presented not only his government, but also the American press with new, major challenges.
Subsequent operations of the CIA
After the failure of the invasion, Operation Mongoose was launched on November 30, 1961 on the initiative of President Kennedy , which again aimed to overthrow the Cuban revolutionary government. In addition, the General Staff of the US Department of Defense developed the secret plan Operation Northwoods in 1962 , which provided a pretext for the invasion of Cuba through staged terrorist attacks against civil aviation and shipping within the USA, for which Castro was to be portrayed as the mastermind. On March 13, 1962, this plan was presented to Kennedy, who rejected it, which is why it was never implemented.
reception
In the US today there are essentially two views on who is responsible for the failure of the invasion:
- On the one hand are the CIA and the members of the exile brigade , who see Kennedy as the sole culprit, since Kennedy refused to use naval troops after the military failure of the invasion.
- On the other hand, there are CIA critics who accuse the secret service of having advised Kennedy wrongly. There are also those who claim that the CIA deliberately pressured Kennedy.
It is historically certain that Kennedy felt himself betrayed by the CIA by deliberately misrepresenting the mood in Cuba and that there were plans to deprive the CIA of its previously undisputed influence on US government policy by strengthening the NSA . The 1963 murder of Kennedy , which is still a mystery to this day , has repeatedly been associated with the disrupted relationship of trust between Kennedy and the CIA since the invasion, but there is no evidence of this.
The 2006 film The Good Shepherd (director: Robert De Niro ) deals with the invasion and ascribes its failure to the son of the CIA founder because he unconsciously betrayed his father's secret plans to the USSR.
literature
- Bernd Greiner : Cuba crisis. 13 days in October: analysis, documents, contemporary witnesses (= writings of the Hamburg Foundation for Social History of the 20th Century. Volume 7). Greno, Nördlingen 1988, ISBN 3-89190-956-X (evaluation of the tape recordings of the secret deliberations of the US President).
- Bernd Greiner: The Cuban Crisis. The world on the threshold of nuclear war (= Beck'sche Reihe , Volume 2486). Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-58786-3 .
- James G. Blight, Peter Kornbluh (Eds.): Politics of Illusion. The Bay of Pigs Invasion Reexamined. Lynne Rienner Publ., Boulder, CO 1998, ISBN 1-55587-783-4 .
- Howard Jones: The Bay of Pigs. Oxford University Press, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-517383-3 .
- Peter Kornbluh (Ed.): Bay of Pigs Declassified. The Secret CIA Report on the Invasion of Cuba. New Press, New York 1998, ISBN 1-56584-494-7 .
- Peter Wyden : Bay of Pigs. The Untold Story. Jonathan Cape, London 1979, ISBN 0-224-01754-3 .
- Alejandro de Quesada: The Bay of Pigs. Cuba 1961. Osprey Publ., Oxford 2009, ISBN 978-1-84603-323-0 .
- Hans Magnus Enzensberger : The interrogation of Habana. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1970, ISBN 978-3-518-02758-5 (authentic wording from tape recordings of 41 public interrogations of captured invasion participants).
- Jim Rasenberger: The brilliant disaster. JFK, Castro, and America's doomed invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs. Scribner, New York et al. 2011, ISBN 978-1-4165-9650-9 .
Web links
- The National Security Archive - Cuba Documentation Project
- Bay of Pigs Invasion (video, 13 min.), Apr. 20, 1970, President Kennedy's speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors
Individual evidence
- ^ Alan Posener : John F. Kennedy with self-testimonies and picture documents. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1997, pp. 86-89; Howard Jones: The Bay of Pigs. Oxford University Press, New York 2008, pp. 116-173; Larry J. Sabato: The Kennedy Half-Century. The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy. Bloomsbury, New York 2013, pp. 82-85.
- ↑ Quoted from Bernd Greiner: Kuba-Kris , 1988, p. 19.
- ^ House Select Committee on Assassinations: Appendix to Hearings. Volume 10. Washington 1979, p. 61 ( accessed online May 13, 2013); David Kaiser : The Road to Dallas. The Assassination of John. F. Kennedy. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 2008, p. 46 ff.
- ↑ David Kaiser: The Road to Dallas. The Assassination of John. F. Kennedy. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 2008, p. 64.
- ^ News Conference # 9, US State Department, April 12, 1961 ( September 6, 2006 memento on the Internet Archive ) at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library
- ↑ David Kaiser: The Road to Dallas. The Assassination of John. F. Kennedy. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 2008, pp. 74-80.
- ↑ David Kaiser: The Road to Dallas. The Assassination of John. F. Kennedy. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 2008, p. 81 f.
- ^ Letter From President Kennedy to Chairman Khrushchev in the archives of the US State Department.
- ↑ James Bamford: NSA. The anatomy of the most powerful intelligence agency in the world. 4th edition. Goldmann, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-442-15151-1 .
- ↑ Peter Grose: Allen Dulles. Spymaster. The Life and Times of the First Civilian Director of the CIA. 2006.
- ↑ The People of the CIA… Milan Miskovsky: Fighting for Justice at CIA.gov, accessed June 17, 2014.
- ↑ 1962: Bay of Pigs prisoners fly to freedom. In: BBC News , accessed June 24, 2011; Luisa Yanez: On Saturday, Bay of Pigs invasion veterans mark 50 years since their release. In: The Miami Herald , December 20, 2012, accessed September 4, 2016.
- ↑ Cuba releases last Bay of Pigs prisoner . In: The San Juan Star , October 19, 1986 (English); accessed on June 23, 2011. Pablo Pérez-Cisneros: Sobre el Castillo del Príncipe y los presos de la Brigada 2506. ( Memento of April 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Penúltimos Días , April 16, 2011 (Spanish); Retrieved June 23, 2014.
- ↑ Castro's "Fantastic Indictment ." Horst Schäfer on the indictment of Cuba before the UN General Assembly on April 21, 1961 (last accessed on March 21, 2020)
- ↑ Resolution 1616 (XV) of the UN General Assembly (PDF) of April 21, 1961, accessed on June 24, 2011.
- ^ "A monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covered means for expanding its sphere of influence", John F. Kennedy: Address "The President and the Press" Before the American Newspaper Publishers Association, New York City. Speech, April 27, 1961, American Presidency Project website. Submitted online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, accessed November 30, 2013; Stephen G. Rabe: The Most Dangerous Area in the World. John F. Kennedy Confronts Communist Revolution in Latin America. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 1999, p. 127.