CIA TRAINED INVASION FORCE STRIKES AT THE BAY OF PIGS
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On April 17, 1961, a force of 1400 anti-Castro Cubans, trained and supported by the Central Intelligence Agency under the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, landed at the Bay of Pigs on the southern coast of Cuba.
Two days earlier, eight B-26 bombers piloted by American trained Cuban exiles made strikes on Fidel Castro's air bases. The strikes, however, only took out 5 of 40 planes. In addition, two U.S. bombers attempting a napalm attack were shot down.
With Castro's air force virtually intact, the invasion ended in failure. 114 of the attacking force were killed and 1,189 were captured. It was the first "serious defeat" not only of JFK's presidency, but of his career.
President Kennedy said...
"In eleven weeks I went from senator to president, and in that short space of time I inherited Laos, Cuba, Berlin, the nuclear threat, and all the rest."
SOURCE
"John Kennedy Handbook: The Bay of Pigs invasion--defeat and revenge," by Gareth Jenkins, MQ Publications, Ltd., 2006.
